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Astronomical Case Clock
Even visitors who have been on tour through the house ten times often comment that they still see and hear something new. However, none of them have seen the inside of Jefferson's astronomical case clock.
Like the telescope and other instruments in his Cabinet (or study), the clock reflects Jeffferson's strong interest in the sciences. A letter from Jefferson, cited in The Worlds of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello1, demonstrates this interest and Jefferson's desire for a precise timekeeping instrument: "I extremely regret ... not being provided with a time-piece equal to the observations of the approaching eclipse of the sun. Can you tell me what would be the cost in Philadelphia of a clock, the time-keeping part of which should be perfect?"
For the very few who have examined this clock in detail, it also reveals Jefferson's interest in tracking the day of the week. Like the more famous Great Clock in Monticello's Entrance Hall, Jefferson labeled the inside of the clock with the days of the week so that the progress of the descending weight would mark the day. Though somewhat worn, the seven "day" tags -- aligned in a column to the left and behind the pendulum (see left image) -- are easily read on close scrutiny (see detail below right).
Almost every room features a clock owned (or probably owned) by Jefferson, reflecting his intense interest in managing time. According to a variety of sources, Jefferson was almost always productively occupied. He clearly wanted to instill this habit in Martha, his daughter. When Jefferson was traveling in the south of France in 1787, he wrote to her: "It is your future 
happiness which interests me, and nothing can contribute more to it . . . than . . . a habit of industry and activity. Of all the cankers of human happiness, none corrodes it with so silent, yet so baneful a tooth, as indolence. . . . Exercise and application produce order in our affairs, health of body, chearfulness [sic] of mind, and these make us precious to our friends. It is while we are young that the habit of industry is formed."2 Jefferson wrote to Martha again about this topic just five weeks later: " Determine never to be idle. . . . It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing."3
The astronomical case clock was sold at the dispersal sale held to reduce the $107,000 debt Jefferson held upon his death. A family member bought it in order to present it to Dr. Robley Dunglison, who had attended Jefferson during his final illness. With the help of a private donor, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation recently purchased the clock from the Pennsylvania Historical Society, which had received the object as a gift from the Dunglison family in 1894.
John Rudder
Associate Curator for Interpretation
2002
Image credits: Edward Owen
1 Stein, Susan R., The Worlds of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, (Abrams, 1993) Page 380.
2 Boyd, Julian and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (Princeton University Press, 1950-2001), vol. 11, p. 250.
3 Boyd, Julian, vol. 11, p. 349.