This work comes with its share of frustrations. Research angles go nowhere. Lovingly and meticulously crafted annotation is rendered superfluous by new information. Most relevant to this post, some of our correspondents stubbornly remain ciphers. Recently, I worked...
One of Jefferson’s most prolific correspondents was a little-known Franco-German named Philippe Reibelt, at different times a spy, archivist, failed land speculator, bookseller, and would-be government official. It should come as no surprise that the largest...
In 1806, Jefferson received an atypical request for pardon. The case draws interest for a recently passed law that the defendants had unknowingly violated: they had employed Black mail carriers on the postal route they managed, which connected New York and Philadelphia.
We encounter a lot of different characters in our work with the Jefferson Papers. A few, however, stick in the mind, inviting a deeper examination than time and our mission generally allow.