Anna Berkes
Monticello Staff
Research Librarian
Librarian
Charlottesville, Virginia
About Me
Research Librarian at the Jefferson Library. I manage the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia, write the Summary View blog, and answer all sorts of queries. I'm interested in Jefferson's family and genealogy, historical myths and the different ways people remember (or misremember) events of the past, and quotations, among many other things.
You are spot-on - Jefferson did in fact have a fountain pen! He wrote to Bernard Peyton in 1824, "I saw yesterday in the hands of Mr. Dyer, a fountain pen, one of the best I ever saw. He said it was made for him by Mr. Cowan, a watchmaker of Richmond and cost him 5 D. ...Pray get the favor of...more »
Thanks for the lead! I always like to know how these get started. I originally saw that someone had posted this quote on Facebook, and decided to take the step of compiling a "debunk" page because there seemed to be some folks who thought it was authentic.more »
Teri, it is a genuine Jefferson quote, from TJ to Edward Carrington, January 16, 1787. Here's the transcription from the Ford edition: http://...more »
Hi Elizabeth - I've just put up a page on this one. It is genuine, sort of......more »
Mea culpa - I've fixed that now, so we are back to 1817. In the course of locating the 1817 reference in the America's Historical Newspapers database, I saw a number of earlier usages that are much closer to Curran's statement, and a few even attribute it directly to him. I've been slightly...more »
Brian, this is actually a real Jefferson quotation - from TJ to John Taylor of Caroline, 26 November 1798. The Balanced Budget Wikipedia page cites the Lipscomb-Bergh edition of Jefferson's writings for the quotation, but I notice that they actually leave a phrase out. Here is the full passage...more »
Lisa, Jefferson's Farm book contains information on the ultimate fate of some of Jefferson's horses. His Memorandum Books also contain some information on them. I'll try to fill in some info here soon...more »
Thanks, Denise - I'm fond of the quotation too. I think a lot of us can relate to that one!more »
Thanks, Eric! Apparently we're just instinctively inclined to jump to conclusions, according to this book I've been reading lately called, appropriately enough, Being Wrong. This works pretty well in a lot of situations, but not so much when you're doing history! Oh, and Mary...more »
And thank you for your comment! The ultimate gratification in my job is to know that the information we've provided has made a difference. Sounds like those schoolchildren got a wonderful glimpse of history!more »
This one was slippery, but I think I figured it out. It's Noam Chomsky (or perhaps David Barsamian) + Jefferson. I've created a new spurious quotation page for this one, and you can see all the details there:...more »
That is curious. The only source I can find, anywhere, that uses that quotation is Adrian Krieg's book. It also looks like something of a hybrid - the first sentence has a more modern ring than the rest of it. If you spot this quotation anywhere else, let me know.more »
I don't find this exact quotation in Jefferson's writings. It sounds like a paraphrase of this passage in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by building and lyreplayers by playing the...more »
You are right Herb, that obviously can't be accurate. I've been looking into this since you posted your comment and I think that the author of this biographical sketch probably meant to say "unpublished papers" instead of "published" - that makes more sense, and there are indeed mentions of the...more »
We have fairly extensive records of Jefferson's letters, and the first step in figuring out whether you might have an authentic one is to find out if any copies of the letter in question are unlocated (there can potentially be three or more copies of a given letter). If you'd like to share the...more »
Christopher, you are quite right - that is not a Jefferson quotation as far as we know. The variations of this quote that you found with real Jefferson quotes attached to them are interesting - I've seen that phenomenon before with other quotes, but not this one (until now). I had...more »
No, we have no references to Jefferson playing billiards, in Paris or anywhere else. Somehow I neglected to link our main billiards article to this blog post - the article gives some more details that address your...more »
The Virginia House-wife is also available online in many different places, including Hathi Trust (1828 edition); the Internet Archive (1836 edition);...more »
Er...766.more »
Thanks so much, Jon. I personally think that Jefferson's remarks on the 1807 Weston, Connecticut meteorite fall are quite reasonable. If you haven't seen it already, you may be interested to know that this...more »
Thanks, Linnea! I did do a bit of searching to see if I could uncover any other reference to John Marshall's alleged severe billiard habit, but came up empty (not surprisingly!).more »
I just read a great line in Stacy Schiff's new biography of Cleopatra that I think applies pretty well here: "And in the absence of facts, myth rushes in, the kudzu of history."more »
Kevin, this quote is from Jefferson's prospectus for his translation of Destutt de Tracy's Treatise on Political Economy, communicated to Joseph Milligan in a letter of April 6, 1816. There's a reference to this quotation in our debunking of a different quotation, at...more »
Thanks, Steve, and please do pass it along! It actually does do some good – our reference questions on quotations have dropped dramatically in the last few years since the TJ Encyclopedia went up. There are still the problematic quotation-collection sites (Brainyquote, Quoteworld, Thinkexist)...more »
I love the Parkway, and so do lots of other people! The parkway is great for walking meditation (i.e. zoning out while you are exercising), because it's so well-graded that you are very unlikely to trip on anything. It's also very approachable - you don't have to be a super...more »
Every time I come through Monticello on a tour, I sidle over to the doorway of the piazza, stick my head in, and imagine relaxing in there with a nice fruity drink. Ahhh! One of the most beautiful spaces at Monticello, for sure.more »
Jefferson had almost 7,000 books when his library was at its peak in 1815. So many, in fact, that it's virtually impossible for them to have all fit in the Book Room - it seems likely they were actually spread all over the house. Imagine that the next time you visit Monticello!more »
I planted two packets-full of these little guys this spring - they were slightly difficult to germinate, but once they got going I was shocked to see them producing flowers and fruit within just a few months. I ate the first one this morning!more »
I refer to this page all the time when I can't quite remember when, say, Jefferson started his term as secretary of state (it happens to everybody, right?). I especially like the fact that you can see the public and private events side by side, which helps to put his whole life in...more »
This page is always a work in progress (there are always new books coming along, after all), but it's a great place to start for the curious. All these titles have been suggested by Monticello staff - these are the books we use the most often and find the most useful for our work.more »
This is a very difficult topic, and one that many have struggled to understand for a very long time now. This page offers an excellent point to start examining this subject. The text is freshly written by Cinder Stanton, our Shannon Senior Research Historian, and you'll find a link on the...more »
I don't know if anyone ever uses this page, but it lays out exactly how *I* would search for a quote (if I were you), so go ahead and take advantage of our years and years of expertise in hunting quotations. Really, you *can* try this at home!more »
This is my pet collection of Thomas Jefferson quotations that aren't, and we've worked long and hard to compile them. All the famous (or infamous) non-Jefferson quotations are listed here, but new ones are cropping up every day, so watch this space...more »
Sally Hemings & Thomas Jefferson is a complicated and sometimes confusing topic to dive into, but this page makes it easy to get started. It's my go-to place for patrons who are curious about this topic and want to explore it themselves. There's even a comprehensive bibliography...more »
Maybe you don't have your very own set of the Retirement Papers, but thanks to all the hard work the editors put into these cumulative indexes, at least you can find out what's in them! This is a great research tool and incredibly useful for getting intellectual access to those...more »
Who knew Jefferson was funny? Actually, most of these anecdotes aren't exactly knee-slappers, but it's fun to get a glimpse of the lighter side of Jefferson. My favorite is the one about the convent...more »
This story is just adorable.more »
I created this article in response to an inquiry from some folks in Monticello Brianza, Italy. Alberti seems a somewhat mysterious figure, but I extracted every single possible snippet of information from our files and compiled it all here, so this is the best source of information on Mr....more »
This is a great example of a social phenomenon which I personally find fascinating, and which is probably common in some form or another with all public figures - the "I met Jefferson and didn't know it" story. There are at least four or five stories that I know of that tell of...more »
Not only was TJ dealing with massive debt and deteriorating health during his retirement; but every crank, drunk, huckster, and salesperson within a thousand miles was writing to him. Which makes for highly amusing reading, for us!more »
Thanks, Frances! To me, that is high praise indeed. And yes, you make yet another good point – human emotions are very complicated. The more I think about this, the more I realize what a vast wilderness this aspect of Jefferson is (and, well, all people, for that matter)! And we have no guides...more »
Thanks, Nnox – I’m glad you found the post interesting (and perhaps thought-provoking!). I didn’t directly address the issue of TJ’s relationship with his mother in the blog post, and maybe I should have. But it’s fomented a great discussion anyway. I can see how people have deduced everything...more »
Hello everyone, and thank you so much for all the comments! I think we may be getting somewhere. Mark, I think that seeing the original treaty language does clear this up in one regard – if the specific language of the document the Herschel (and other ships) carried was dictated by the treaty...more »
Thanks, Mary Claire! Obviously my eye was caught by the picture of Reverend Barbie, but I really enjoyed the rest of your post, too – you are so funny!more »