Monticello researchers have compiled selected references to microscopes in Thomas Jefferson's letters and accounts. A chronological list is provided below.
1769 October 17. "Pd. Craig for mendg. microscope & perspect. glass 2/6."[1]
1786 March 21. "Pd. Dollond for ... solar microscope £5-16-6."[2]
1786 April 12. "Pd. Jones for a compound microscope £4-4."[3]
1786 April 15. "Pd. ... Jones for botanical microscope 10/ cloth do. 3/."[4]
1787 February 21. (Jefferson to Barradelle). "C’est vrai que j’avois trouvé votre Microscope superieure à toutes celles que j’avois vue. Mais avant de la voir, j’en avois acheté une à Londres, moins parfaite vraiment, mais qui suffit aux petites experiences d’une personne qui ne s’y est jamais beaucoup occupé, et qui actuellement, et pour des années à venir, ne pourra s’y occuper du tout. Ainsi, vous voyez Monsieur, que quoique votre instrument soit parfait dans son genre, ce ne pourroit m’etre actuellement d’aucune utilité: et l’acquisition entraineroit une sacrifice qui me seroit incommode dans ce moment."[5]
1788 October 2. (Jefferson to Thomas Payne, London bookseller). "When I name a particular edition of a book, send me that edition and no other. ... Adams’s essays on the microscope. 4to."[6]
1790 October 29. "Pd. Turner for mending microscope 6/."[7]
1800 September. (Jefferson's "Course of Reading" for Joseph C. Cabell). "Adams on the Microscope. 8vo."[8]
1805 May 21. (Jefferson to Benjamin Smith Barton). "Th: Jefferson presents his friendly salutations to Doctr. Barton: when sending him the dried specimens of plants from mr Dunbar he omitted to send some moss...in which he says are some of the animalculae, inhabitants of the moss. Th: J. having no microscope here has been unable to see them..."[9]
1808 June 4. (Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes). "In revising my philosophical apparatus I find I have some articles to spare which will be of use to Francis when he comes to that part of his education ... a Solar microscope in brass, with Wilson’s pocket apparatus by Dollond."[10]
[1809 ca. October 4]. (Jefferson’s List of Recommended Books). "Baker on the microscope. 8vo."[11]
1815 October 21. (Jefferson to Louis H. Girardin). "I thank you for your attention to the Microscope. it was well repaired and safely recieved."[12]
1824 April 26. (Jefferson’s Proposed List of Instruments for the Classes of Natural History & Mathematics at the University of Virginia). "Microscope, double, very powerful, not fitted as solar."[13]
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