The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : He Was an American Sphinx

The American Sphinx is Thomas Jefferson, who most famously wrote that "all men are created equal" while keeping slaves on his Virginia estate. Joseph J. Ellis, author of "American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson" (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), has contributed a fascinating essay as part of the American Memory collection "The Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress." The essay is based on his research for the book. Much of this research was performed at the Library of Congress, which holds the most important collection of Jefferson manuscripts in the world.

'Th. Jefferson,' photomechanical print, created/published between 1890 and 1940(?)

Thomas Jefferson, Draft of Epitaph for his Tombstone, ca. 1820 or later, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Manuscript Division

The Library has just completed this digitization project, and now the entire collection of 27,000 documents is online. The bulk of the papers covers the period 1775-1826 -- one of the most exciting times in U.S. history, from the founding of the nation to the westward expansion.

The Westward expansion is the primary focus of a recent Library exhibition, "Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America," which presents a century of exploration that features the expedition of the Corps of Discovery as the culminating moment in the quest to connect North America by means of a waterway passage. Thomas Jefferson sent Merriweather Lewis and William Clark into the West, and he patterned their mission on the scientific methods of the Enlightenment: to observe, collect, document and classify.

The extraordinary legacy of Jefferson is also explored in the eponymous exhibition, which documents his roles as founding father, farmer, architect, inventor, slaveholder, book collector, scholar, diplomat and third president of the United States.

A. "Th. Jefferson," photomechanical print, created/published between 1890 and 1940(?).This print is a reproduction of the 1805 Rembrandt Peale painting of Thomas Jefferson held by the New-York Historical Society. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction information: Reproduction Number: LC-USZC4-2474, color film copy transparency; Call No.: Item in PRES FILE - Jefferson, Thomas - Paintings.

B. Thomas Jefferson, Draft of Epitaph for his Tombstone, ca. 1820 or later, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Manuscript Division. Reproduction information: Contact Manuscript Division at (202) 707-5387.