Topic: Education
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Nassau Hall
This print shows Nassau Hall at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). Established in 1746, this college was the fourth founded in British colonial America: only Harvard, William...
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Old East
This drawing depicts Old East at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. North Carolina was one of several states that established publicly-funded colleges in the post-revolutionary era. Constructed...
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Phillis Wheatley
This portrait of Phillis Wheatley was included in Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, published in London in 1773. Considered America’s first black poet, Wheatley wrote poems as a...
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Philosophical Hall
Completed in 1789, Philosophical Hall in Philadelphia was the home of the American Philosophical Society. Founded in 1743, the APS sought–in Franklin’s words–“to cultivate the finer arts, and improve the...
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Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia
In this report, Jefferson and his fellow commissioners planned the new University of Virginia. Jefferson founded a public university, but in his time “public” meant that the state would help...
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Scholars at a Lecture
William Hogarth’s print “Scholars at a Lecture” depicts an all-male eighteenth-century college classroom. The facial expressions of confused and bored students make us doubt the usefulness of the professor’s lecture....
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Schoolhouse at Tuckahoe
This photograph shows the Tuckahoe plantation one-room schoolhouse where Jefferson began his formal education. His family lived at Tuckahoe between 1746 and 1751 because his father, Peter, was guardian to...
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Slate and Pencil Grouping
These items were found at Mulberry Row, site of the slave quarters at Monticello. Archaeologists discovered coins, pottery, needles, and other evidence of family and community life. Enslaved people worked...
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South Carolina College
This painting depicts South Carolina College in Columbia. Founded in 1801, this public college’s early presidents included Thomas Cooper, a friend of Jefferson’s and former professor at the University of...
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