Image Gallery

Learn more about the images from Jefferson’s era that appear as illustrations on this site.

A map of the U.S. published in 1804, which depicts the states and territories at that time.

Abraham Bradley, Jr., Map of the United States, Exhibiting the Post-Roads, the situations, connexions & distances of the Post-Offices, Stage Roads, Counties, & Principal Rivers (1804). Published by Caldcleugh and Thomas, Philadelphia. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.

Thomas Jefferson, first page of “original Rough draught,” Declaration of Independence, June 1776. Library of Congress.

Thomas Jefferson's “original Rough draught” of the Declaration of Independence. Image is of Jefferson's handwritten text with deletions and insertions.
Fragment of a draft of the Declaration of Independence.
Thomas Jefferson, fragment of composition draft, Declaration of Independence, June 1776. Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.

Baroness Hyde de Neuville, Dey Street on the Hudson River, New York City (1810). Watercolor, graphite, black chalk, black and brown ink, and gouache on paper, 6 x 9 3/8 in. (15.2 x 23.8 cm). Thomas Jefferson Bryan Fund, New-York Historical Society, 1982.5.

An 1810 watercolor illustration of Dey Street on the Hudson River in New York City, depicting ships, businesses, and people walking on the street.
Anonymous print, circa 1802, captioned “Mad Tom in a Rage,” which shows Thomas Jefferson as a devil helping Thomas Paine attack the government.

Anonymous, Mad Tom in a Rage (1801). Etching, 11 1/8 x 7 7/8 in. (28.3 x 20 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art, Elisha Whittelsey Collection, Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1953.

Mercy Otis Warren to Thomas Jefferson, 5 January 1805. Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.
Image of Mercy Otis Warren's January 1805 letter to Thomas Jefferson, in which she writes the famous line "bold ambition."
A watercolor and graphite image of an Oyster Barrow from ca. 1811 to 1813, which depicts individuals standing around a wheelbarrow with oysters.

John Lewis Krimmel (attrib.), Nightlife in Philadelphia—an Oyster Barrow in Front of the Chestnut Street Theater (1811–ca. 1813). Watercolor and graphite on white laid paper, 9 3/16 x 6 13/16 in. (23.3 x 17.3 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1942.

Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Harrison Smith and Margaret Bayard Smith, 23 April 1803. Printed form with blanks filled by Jefferson. J. Henley Smith Papers, Library of Congress.
Image of an 1803 invitation from Thomas Jefferson to the Smith family.
Proposed designs for Pennsylvania Avenue, which depicts options for the placement of horse and carriage lanes, and landscaping.

Nicholas King, Proposed designs for Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. In King to Thomas Munroe, 12 March 1803, enclosed in Munroe to Thomas Jefferson, 14 March 1803. Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.

Nicholas King, View of Blodget’s Hotel in Washington, D.C. (1799–1801). Watercolor, 9 1/2 x 9 in. (24 x 23 cm). The Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif., mssHM52665.

A watercolor view of Washington, D.C., circa 1799 to 1801.