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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826) to Nathaniel Bowditch

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03415 Author/Creator: Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826) Place Written: Monticello, Virginia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 27 April 1825 Pagination: 1 p. 12 x 21 cm Order a Copy

Thanks Bowditch for the extract of his review from the North American and asks him to lecture at the University of Virginia. Bowditch, an astronomer and mathematician, turned down a position at the University in 1818, but kept in contact with Jefferson over the years.

Notes: Not in Bergh or Ford. Jefferson had approached Bowditch to teach at the University of Virginia in 1824 and been politely refused. Malone, Sage of Monticello, p. 397. Bowditch, an astronomer and mathematician, revised numerous New England sea charts before beginning a translation of Pierre Laplace's Mécanique céleste, which he completed before 1818 but did not publish until 1829-39. DAB describes him as "not a genius or discoverer, but rather a singularly sagacious critic."

Monticello Apr. 27. 25.
I thank you, Dear Sir, for the Extract of your Review from the North American. It is instructive to those who, like myself, have not been able to keep pace with the science of the day. You know how much more I should have been gratified to have heard those things delivered by yourself in a lecture to the Students of our University. Believing however that you are the best judge of what most promotes your own happiness, and really wishing that, I have acquiesced, and assure you of my constant esteem and respect.
Th: Jefferson

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826

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