A Guide to the Thomas Jefferson letter to John Churchman 1787 August 8 Jefferson, Thomas letter to John Churchman, 1787 August 8 11318

A Guide to the Thomas Jefferson letter to John Churchman 1787 August 8

A Collection in
The Special Collections Department
Accession Number 11318

Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

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Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Processed by: Special Collections Department

Repository

Special Collections, University of Virginia Library

Accession number

11318

Title

Thomas Jefferson letter to John Churchman 1787 August 8

Physical Characteristics

1 item.

Language

English

Abstract

This August 8, 1787, letter from Thomas Jefferson, Paris, to John Churchman, a surveyor and geometrician of Philadelphia, with the address leaf and seal, discussing theneed for Churchman to address the questions the French Academy of Science has about his work on navigation and meridians.

Administrative Information

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See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Thomas Jefferson letter to John Churchman, 1787 August 8, Accession #11318, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This letter was purchased on July 24, 1997, by the University of Virginia Library with the aid of an anonymous donor.

Scope and Content Information

This letter comments on the memorial Churchmen sent to Jefferson regarding "a table of variations of the needle for all different meridians whatever," to be applied during a voyage between America and Europe; expressing difficulties that would occur; by the French Academy of Science; and ending with "I shall be happy that our country may have the honour of furnishing the old world what it has so long sought in vain."

Jefferson may be referring for the work Churchman eventually published in Philadelphia in 1790: An explanation of the Magnetic Atlas, or Variation Chart, Herto Annexed, Projected on a Plan Entirely New, By Which the Magnetic Variation on any Part of the Globe May Be Precisely Determined...