Thomas Jefferson celebrates the big 2-7-0 this week - here are 10 interesting facts about the multi-faceted Founding Father ...
He was born on April 13, 1743 in Virginia and died on July 4, 1826 on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson is best known for his role in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, his foreign service, two terms as president, his omnipresent presence on the modern nickel and as a Renaissance man, intellectually curious about many things.
Here are 10 interesting facts about Jefferson’s pursuit of knowledge:
1. Thomas Jefferson loved books. The third president, after his retirement, sold his library of 6,500 volumes to the Library of Congress after it was ransacked by the British. Jefferson needed the cash to pay off debts and later resumed buying books. “I cannot live without books,” he told John Adams.
2. Jefferson the economist. Jefferson was deeply engaged in economic theory he learned to love during his sojourn in France. He was a friend and translator to leading European theorists; believed in free market policies; and opposed bank notes as currency.
3. Jefferson the architect. He designed the rotunda at the University of Virginia, his home at Monticello and the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond. Monticello holds valuable resources in what he called the “hobby of my old age,” - although architecture is usually a lifetime pursuit. Monticello and the University of Virginia are on the World Heritage List of historic sites.
4. Jefferson the food lover. On his return from France, Jefferson brought his love of that nation’s cuisine with him. James Hemings went to France as his slave and the pair agreed that if Hemings learned to prepare French cuisine, he would be freed on his return to America.More Presidential Birthday Facts
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5. Jefferson the wine snob. Jefferson also brought his love of French wine back to America. He had two vineyards at Monticello which he apparently used for experimentation. Acknowledged as a wine expert of early America, he promoted wine as an alternative to whiskey and cider.
6. Jefferson the agriculturalist. He believed the United States was an agrarian society, in part, because it would make the nation independent from other nations. Jefferson practiced what he taught as one of the first American farmers to employ crop rotation and redesigned the plow to increase efficiency.
7. Jefferson the paleontologist. Obsessed with fossils, he was involved in a great debate on the mammoth that became a political cause. Jefferson raised the profile of paleontology as President and had a mammoth named for him.
8. Jefferson the astronomer. Jefferson loved stargazing as much as he loved books. He ensured astronomy was taught at the University of Virginia and designed what may have been the first observatory in the United States.
9. Jefferson the writer. A prolific writer, he authored the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom included in his epitaph and not his two terms as president. The Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress includes apprx. 27,000 documents, including his extensive correspondence with key historical figures.
10. Jefferson the musician. He took violin lessons as a child and played the violin while courting his future wife, Martha Skelton. Jefferson spent considerable time studying the violin as an instrument, but by 1778 had complained that music played in the New World was in a “state of deplorable barbarism.”
Jefferson is also remembered for an enduring love affair with Sally Hemmings, mother of several of his offspriing.
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