Collections

The Jefferson Library collects material on all aspects of Monticello, the people who lived there, and the world they lived in, as well as the legacy of that world today. Our collections are broad and deep, encompassing everything from scholarly literature to popular fiction, in a variety of formats from newspapers to digital archives to sound and video recordings. The library holds over 35,000 items, 13,000 of which are found at no other library in the world. Showcased here are a few of these unique items, as well as some superlatives and other materials highlighting the breadth, depth, and diversity of our holdings.

Collections

Oldest Item in the Collection

At 384 years old, this book is the oldest item in our collections.

Chillingworth, William. The Religion of Protestants, a Safe Way to Salvation. Oxford: Printed by Leonard Lichfield, 1638.

Largest Item in the Collection

At 10 meters (32 feet, 9 ¾ inches) long, this is the largest item in the library’s collections, donated by the calligrapher, Zhang Yulin, and presented to the library by his son in 2015.

Left: Jack Robertson and Zhang Zimeng (son of calligrapher, Zhang Yulin); Center: Scroll extended to its full 33 feet in the Jefferson Library's Reading Room; Right: Excerpt: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Smallest Item in the Collection

At 66 millimeters (2 5/8 inches) tall, this is the smallest item in our collections, part of a limited print run by a specialty miniature book publisher.

Thomas Jefferson on Science and Freedom: The Letter to the Student William Greene Munford, June 18, 1799. Worcester, MA: Achille J. St. Onge, 1964.

Most Circulated Item in the Collection

Stanton, Lucia. “Those Who Labor for My Happiness”: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2012. This book, the capstone work of the venerated career of Monticello’s Shannon Senior Research Historian, is the most-circulated work in our collections.

Thomas Jefferson Foundation Archives

The Foundation Archives, which documents the history of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation since its inception in 1923, is a rich collection of correspondence, books, drawings, objects, and photographs like this one, showing two of Monticello’s earliest tour guides.

Up until the 1950s, Monticello employed local African American men as house guides. Many of them had long-standing family connections to Monticello, including ancestors who had once been enslaved here; one guide's family had run the gatehouse, greeting and guiding visitors, for much of the 19th century. Pictured here are Benjamin Carr (left) and Robert Sampson (right), the very first two of these guides, photographed around the late 1920s.

Architectural Image Collection

This engraving is part of the library’s Architectural Image Collection, an invaluable visual archive of depictions of Monticello from Jefferson’s time through to the 20^thcentury, collected by Monticello researchers.

Engraving of Monticello, published in A New and Popular Pictorial Description of the United States (1848).

Periodicals

The library has a significant collection of Jefferson and Monticello-themed periodical issues, including this trio of “Jefferson” issues of TIME Magazine from 1976, 2004, and 2016.

Historic Picture Postcards

The Jefferson Library has an extensive collection of historic picture postcards, with images of Monticello mansion and grounds ranging from the 1890s through the late 20^thcentury. The examples presented on the next 10 slides represent only a small selection.

“Monticello - East Portico and Enclosed North Porch,” Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1928.

Historic Picture Postcards, continued

“810. Monticello, Home of Thomas Jefferson, Charlottesville, Va.” J.P. Bell & Co., n.d.

Historic Picture Postcards, continued

[Panoramic photo], n.d. [Levy period, ca. 1879-1923].

Historic Picture Postcards, continued

“10510. ‘Monticello,’ the Home of Thomas Jefferson, Charlottesville, Va.,” Detroit Publishing Co., 1905.