[Thomas Jefferson, bust portrait, facing slightly left]

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Thomas Jefferson appears here in a bust-length view, turned slightly to the left, rendered in line engraving, a technique that builds tone from fine incised lines cut into a metal plate. The caption card gives no date, so the exact year of the plate is unknown, but engraved likenesses of Jefferson circulated widely from the late eighteenth century onward, when his role as author of the Declaration of Independence and as the third president made his face valuable to publishers. Line engravings of this kind were typically reproduced as book frontispieces, broadsides, and decorative prints, so the image likely served as a tribute to his reputation as much as a record of his appearance.

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