Jefferson Inventory
George Wythe bequeathed all his books to his former student and friend, Thomas Jefferson: "I give my books and small philosophical apparatus to Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States of America: a legacie considered abstractlie, perhaps not deserving a place in his musaeum, but, estimated by my good will to him, the most valuable to him of any thing which I have the power to bestow."
Wythe's executor, William DuVal created an inventory before turning the collection over to George Jefferson, the president's cousin and agent, who received the items and sent the inventory to Washington, D.C.[1] That inventory has not been found, but in 2008, Endrina Tay, from Monticello's Jefferson Library, and Jeremy Dibbell, a librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society, discovered a different inventory—one Thomas Jefferson composed as he decided what to do with individual titles from Wythe's Library.[2] Jefferson divided the list into nine sections, all but one headed by the name(s) of recipients.
Recipients
- Dabney Carr – 45 titles
- James Dinsmore – 7 titles
- John Wayles Eppes – 9 titles
- Thomas Jefferson – 149 titles
- James Ogilvie – 2 titles
- Anne and Ellen Randolph – 9 titles
- Martha Jefferson Randolph – 1 title
- Thomas Jefferson Randolph – 72 titles
- Thomas Mann Randolph – 38 titles
References
- ↑ Jeremy Dibbell, "Mr. Wythe's books &c are packed up...," Object of the Month (blog), Massachusetts Historical Society, June 2009, http://www.masshist.org/object-of-the-month/objects/mr-wythes-books-are-packed-up-2009-06-01.
- ↑ Endrina Tay & Jeremy Dibbell, "Reconstructing a Lost Library: George Wythe's 'Legacie' to President Thomas Jefferson, Tales from the Vault, Common-Place, Jan. 2009, http://www.common-place.org/vol-10/no-02/tales.
