Thomas Jefferson once wrote:

“if a nation expects to be ignorant & free… it expects what never was & never will be.”

He argued that in a free society education must be available to all citizens. For Jefferson in rural Virginia, books connected him to the world. The library, part of his private office, was filled with books and cluttered with newspapers, maps, sketches, letters, and other documents. The keystone arches above you, built by Irish immigrant James Dinsmore and enslaved craftsman John Hemings, segment the office into work zones while keeping the spaces connected. Through the set of glass doors ahead you will see a small conservatory, or greenhouse, with a work table.