Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Thomas Jefferson Memorandum Book, Accession #186-b, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This item was placed on loan in the Library on December 20, 1984, by Randolph Kean of Springfield, Virginia, and was then made a gift on January 2, 1985.

Scope and Content

This Thomas Jefferson memorandum book, 1767-1770, consists of three of four pocket notebooks and an almanac, formerly sewn together, containing both notes on legal cases and accounts of fees received, kept by Thomas Jefferson while practicing law. This volume was lent to the Library of Congress in 1917, and remained there on loan for sixty-seven years. Probably about the time of World War II, the original binding threads were removed, each page was inlaid in a quarto sheet, and silk was applied to either side of the large pages. The pages were then bound in a green leather binding. The volume contains 337 pages bearing either manuscript or print; some of the printed pages were annotated by Jefferson.

The material in the memorandum book includes: cash memoranda, memoranda of facts, various actions which Jefferson is to take or has taken, fees received or paid, purchases, subscriptions Jefferson received as agent for the Virginia Gazette and the Gentlemen's Magazine , Greek and Latin phrases, a plan for a reading desk, detailed specifications for a house (probably "Monticello"), contents of Jefferson's wine cellar, specifications for a clavichord, measurements for a new canal, cash accounts, lists of balances due, and The Virginia Almanack for 1770 , in which Jefferson has marked the days during which various courts and the assembly met.