Topic: Books & Reading
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Bannaker’s Almanac
This 1795 almanac was the fourth in a six-year series published by Benjamin Banneker, a free African American scientist, surveyor, and mathematician from Baltimore. Banneker helped survey the land for...
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Jefferson to Destutt de Tracy
Jefferson’s university, as this letter shows, would spread Enlightenment ideas and values. The Treatise on Political Economy written by his correspondent—translated by Jefferson in 1817—and Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws...
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Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences
This 1792 painting by Samuel Jennings was the first by an American artist to address the issue of slavery. Broken chains lay at the feet of Liberty, represented here by...
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The Compleat Auctioner
In this 1750 print, the “Compleat Auctioneer” sells books to women and men seeking “Learning” and “Wit.” The plainly dressed man on the right is not a gentleman. In the...
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The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth
Jefferson selected verses from the New Testament to create this book, which is often called the “Jefferson Bible.” His goal was to separate the words of Jesus and his moral...
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Thomas Jefferson’s Books
Jefferson had thousands of books on various topics in his library at Monticello. These volumes contain the writings of ancient Greek authors, including the historian Thucydides. Jefferson believed that knowledge...
Lesson Plan
Using Epistolary Forms as Historical/Social Context in Understanding Seminal Texts: Thomas Jefferson’s Letters from Paris, France as a Preclude to Charles Dicken’s, Tale of Two Cities.
This is a Lesson that is part of a six part Unit that serves as the precursor to reading Charles Dickens’ seminal text on social commentary, A Tale of Two...
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Virgil’s Aeneid
This Latin edition of Virgil bears the signatures of both Thomas Jefferson and his close friend Dabney Carr. The two men met as students at a Latin school in Albemarle...
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