Jefferson

This board holds the pictures gathered for Jefferson, one of the books in James Lantos's Pictorial America series of illustrated histories. Thomas Jefferson died before the camera was invented, so every image of him was made by hand, and every artist who drew him had to choose which Jefferson to show.

There were many to choose from. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776, when he was 33. He served as governor of Virginia, minister to France, secretary of state, vice president and third president of the United States. As president he made the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which doubled the size of the country, and sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore it. In his last years he founded the University of Virginia.

He was also an architect, and his own home was his longest project. Jefferson designed Monticello, on a hilltop near Charlottesville, and spent about 40 years building, tearing down and rebuilding it. It appears often in these pictures, along with the university buildings he designed.

Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the Declaration was adopted. John Adams, his old partner and rival, died the same day. Americans at the time took it as a sign. Jefferson's books have their own place in history too. After the British burned the Library of Congress in 1814, Congress bought his personal library to start it again.

The portraits in this collection were painted by some of the best artists of the early republic, including Gilbert Stuart and Rembrandt Peale, and copied by engravers for generations. Notice how his image changed as later Americans honored him. He appeared on the nickel from 1938, and the Jefferson Memorial in Washington was dedicated in 1943, on the 200th anniversary of his birth. The memorial photographs show it brand new, at the height of World War II.