More than 200 Jefferson-related artifacts from the 19th and 20th centuries were donated to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation last week. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1923 dedicated to the conservation of Monticello.
Douglas Kelley, a collector from Ann Arbor, Mich., made the donations.
Among the donated items were about 90 historic newspapers from Jefferson's day, including two 1774 issues of the London Chronicle, quoting and discussing a pamphlet that Jefferson issued in 1774 in which he was "very critical of King George III and the British government ... and placing himself in great danger," Kelley said.
The donation also included a rare French print of Jefferson, which Kelley said he was delighted to "[find] on the floor of a London bookshop under a stack of books and papers."
Kelley expressed his interest in Jefferson and his legacy.
"I have great respects for the legacy of Thomas Jefferson, and for the work of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in preserving and promoting that Jeffersonian legacy," Kelley said.
Kelly added that the artifacts he donated, however, "are only an additional drop in the bucket."
"Overall, we're thrilled by the donation," Lisa Stites, spokesperson for the foundation said in its summary response to the donation.
The donated newspapers, books and pamphlets will remain in the special collections section of the foundation's library, to be available for use for scholarly research, while many of the artifacts will become part of the foundation's curatorial collection.
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