The Great Deliverer He: Francis Bacon as a Role Model for Thomas Jefferson

A look into the Transatlantic British roots of American Philosophy, centered on the figure of Francis Bacon

The following article is a prospectus I wrote previously for a class. Hence the paper refers to a future more complex paper that will not be published. However, I believe my piece has a clear enough argument to give a good introduction to some of the roots of American philosophy. I also hope to add a novel piece of writing to

discussions around the American history of ideas. This piece should be put in conversation with my earlier article on Emerson as they both go into some shared themes in early American philosophy. I would argue that Jefferson’s connection to a transatlantic British philosophical discourse lays the foundation for American thought, a mix of many different ideas from popular discourse that are filtered through an Anglo-American lens. Beyond the world of ideas, both Emerson and Jefferson use their philosophy as a way to define a distinct American culture and a distinctly American or Republican way of defining power. I will write further on some shared themes and interests in American philosophy later in an essay format, but please enjoy this piece in a more scholarly form.

Introduction

Some believed by the eighteenth century that philosophy had been held captive by idols. Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Rationalism had clouded the minds of Europe, halting progress in philosophy and science. Francis Bacon had taken a hammer to those idols. The elite men in what would become the United States lavished him with titles such as The Great Deliverer to credit Bacon for having started a move away from religious dogma and into Enlightenment and reason-based philosophy.[1] The Viscount of Alban revolutionized philosophy in the English-speaking world by defining truth as being found only in the senses.[2] Empiricism, as it would later be called, created a formula for truth where sense experience was the start of a series of verifiable experiments to arrive at grounded conclusions. Bacon would start this scientific revolution by asking his peers to reject the idols of the mind.[3], any biases that would taint conclusions. Only the senses or induction would be used. Reason based on hard, secular facts would be the way to redefine English thought.[4]

Many elite Americans across periods have read and been inspired by Bacon.[5] One such man was Thomas Jefferson. In Jefferson's home at Monticello, the Virginian statesman proudly displayed a portrait of his intellectual heroes, one of them being Bacon.[6] Jefferson followed Bacon in his work as an amateur scientist.[7], in the way he styled his personal library[8], and was the starting point for Jefferson’s ideas about separating religion from secular affairs.[9]

Jefferson also seemed to model himself after Lord Alban’s status and legacy, or certain elements of it. For Jefferson, Bacon served as a template for the modern enlightened man. He used Bacon's scientific method and holds his philosophy in high regard as he tries to make reason, instead of religious faith the foundation of American political thought. Bacon was a model man, a great philosopher whose ideas started a revolution in thought without compromising his elite status, identity, and legacy Jefferson imitated and tried to construct for himself.

Jefferson placed Bacon as one of three intellectuals who were a Trinity of men who shaped the modern world.[10] Like the Christian Trinity, the influence of these men would define and explain the modern world. Bacon’s philosophy was the basis for Jefferson’s worldview, but more importantly, set the standard of how an enlightened and elite gentleman would think, and what topics he should be concerned with. Bacon set the benchmark of elite scholarly behavior that Jefferson sought to imitate in many areas: in conduct, philosophical investigations, natural sciences, the study of classics, and political theory. Bacon acts as a tether to British and European displays of elite power and education. Referring to Bacon was a sign that an elite man in the early republic was deserving of his elite status. Followers of Bacon styled themselves as elite men who used their wealth to advance society in a similar vein to Bacon’s creation of the early scientific method. Other scholars cite Bacon as one of many influences, but Bacon was a substantial model for Jefferson in philosophical pursuits and as a moral example. Bacon’s work affected Jefferson from a personal and political level; which suggests that Bacon acted as the starting point for aristocratic philosophical and scientific discourses in the early republic, and also acted as a masculine ideal for Enlightened elites in a British transatlantic world.

Secondary Literature

There is no shortage of scholarship on Jefferson, and scholars regularly note his engagement with and use of Bacon. However, directly comparing the two statesmen is rarer. In secondary literature, Bacon’s influence is swallowed up by a myriad of other sources from which Jefferson gleaned his ideas. Despite a gap in direct comparison, scholars have noted Bacon’s influence in various strengths. The secondary literature demonstrates Bacon’s influence on Jefferson’s views of philosophy, science, and learning. Primary sources expand on Bacon’s role as a model of virtue and character for Jefferson.

Bernard Cohen’s Science and the Founding Fathers: Science in the Political Thought of Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, and Madison investigates Jefferson’s foundational beliefs. Cohen argues that many political elites of the time, including Jefferson, grounded their philosophy in natural sciences.[11] Newton and Locke were instrumental in this shift from rational to practical philosophy, but the movement they popularized was started by Bacon. Cohen argues that Locke and Newton are the main sources for the obsession with natural science found in the American elite in the early republic, which risks undervaluing Bacon’s contributions to the scientific revolution. More attention to Bacon is warranted as many elite Americans discussed him as the start of a movement toward modern and enlightened philosophy.[12] This source is useful as it provides details on the foundational beliefs of Jefferson, and that these ideas were given to him by Bacon, Locke, and Newton. Jefferson’s scientific approach to philosophy and politics shows that he was a student of Bacon’s empiricism.

One of the most famous Jefferson scholars, Dumas Malone, devotes a chapter discussing Jefferson’s reading habits in his book The Sage of Monticello. This chapter reviews what Jefferson read and what he hoped to gain from his collection of books. Malone uses numerous letters from Jefferson who describes what books and poems he views as valuable. Jefferson used Bacon’s instructions on how to organize his library, and he applied a Baconion approach to studying classical texts.[13] Malone argues that books and literature were central to Jefferson’s life and shaped his outlook on various world cultures and discourses. His reading habits reflected both his British roots and his shifting interests as events such as the French Revolution impacted the globe.[14]

Both Jefferson and Bacon looked for sound and empirically driven philosophy and scorned the classical world for “high-minded” philosophy such as Plato and Aristotle. This source demonstrates how Bacon provided a template for Jefferson for how to approach learning and how to act as a finely tuned gentleman philosopher, to read classics and poetry while taking away the good and leaving the superstition, abstraction, and the outdated behind.

Malone draws from other scholars who discuss how Jefferson constructed his worldview from many different and often contradictory influences. Malone continues to use a similar method to other scholars studying Jefferson, to start with Jefferson’s writings to construct his portrait of Jefferson’s home life. Given that much of the chapter is about classical texts, Malone also references these in his footnotes. In addition, Malone peppers his work with photos from Monticello and scholarship on Jefferson’s philosophical beliefs. Francis Bacon is mentioned briefly in the chapter, but this project situates Bacon more centrally, as providing the empiricist lens through which Jefferson approached philosophical or political texts.

Jefferson reads each text with the practical value that it provides. He may be informed by the methods Bacon uses in his Essays. Bacon advises his readers to use reading to learn practical wisdom and to be alert for doctrines in books that cloud the mind.[15] This source demonstrates how the theories of Bacon percolate in Jefferson not only when writing philosophy-minded texts, but also in the organization of his home and his domestic thought. Bacon shapes the process of how Jefferson cataloged and studied knowledge through books.

Another valuable source, Lawernce S. Kaplan's “Jefferson as Anglophile: Sagacity or Senility in the Era of Good Feelings?” gauges Jefferson’s view of the British government and culture throughout his life. Kaplan seeks to explain why Jefferson advised President Monroe to ally with the British even when Jefferson highly disliked the United Kingdom. He despises their culture and their government, which he views as a testament to a corrupt society.[16] Kaplan argues that Jefferson’s opinion warmed only due to viewing Britain as the only viable ally compared to other foreign powers. This source, along with others, uses many of Jefferson’s letters which provide insight into his decision, to support the argument. Compared to a lifelong adoration for the English Bacon, Jefferson’s opinion of the British is incredibly low. Bacon transcended his nationality; Jefferson could separate the man from his nationality in a way he was unwilling to do for other prominent English intellectuals.

Another source that looks at the Baconian methods of Jefferson is Dustin Gish and Daniel Klinghards’ Thomas Jefferson and the Science of Republican Government. The pair argues that Jefferson’s largest work Notes on Virginia was a product of two main influences, the Bible and Enlightenment scientific philosophy.[17] Once again Jefferson’s collection of written correspondences and a close analysis of his Notes build the skeleton of the author's argument. Concerning scholars such as Theodore Bozeman and Jerry Weinberger, argue that Bacon was the definitive source for Jefferson’s views on science, but also his views on the Bible.[18]

Gish and Klinghard are in conversation with Cohen, both scholars agree that Bacon’s method was useful to Americans as it allowed them to reject past authority and obtain practical results.[19] Bacon’s science influenced both English and French Enlightenment philosophy, which would tie Jefferson to popular philosophy in both nations. Jefferson can tether himself to elite continental discourses by dialoguing with Bacon and his successors.[20] Jefferson goes as far as to follow Bacon’s suggestions for scientific methodology literally at times, even when Bacon’s method was over 150 years old. Jefferson chose to follow Bacon even when the Englishman’s method of inquiry was outdated. This source will be instrumental in linking Jefferson’s wide array of interests back to Bacon while staying committed to his idol even when other elites have opted to update Bacon’s system.

Finally, Wilson Moses’ Thomas Jefferson: A Modern Prometheus argues, akin to Gish and Klinghard, that Bacon’s method of science shaped Jefferson’s structure and inspiration of his Notes on Virginia.[21] Wilson comments that Bacon’s method was foundational for Jefferson, but Jefferson does not follow Bacon’s method in his Notes. Wilson relies on past scholars such as Edward Martin and Martin Clagett to expand on Jefferson’s complex scientific influences. Jefferson’s extensive letters and his Notes themselves serve as the backbone for Wilson’s argument that Bacon is the first source for Jefferson even when he does not strictly follow Bacon’s method. This source reinforces that Bacon’s philosophy is important to Jefferson, but Jefferson mixes Bacon’s philosophy with other Enlightenment and even Medieval figures.[22] As expressed by Gish and Klinghard, Jefferson drew directly from Bacon. In this source, Jefferson contradicts Bacon’s philosophy by taking points from competing philosophies.

These two contradictions seem to muddy the impact of Bacon’s thought and empiricism on Jefferson, but as seen in past sources Jefferson revered Bacon as a role model of an elite Enlightenment-era man as much as a scientist. Bacon is used to link American scholars like Jefferson to their English roots. Wilson later comments that due to Bacon’s use of Latin and focus on classics, Jefferson demanded those subjects be taught at the University of Virginia.[23] Jefferson wanted students to learn from the subjects that had produced a mind like Francis Bacon, as these subjects had made Bacon not only a scholar but a gentleman. Bacon’s influence expands outside the philosophical and into the personal. The Englishmen served as the starting point for Jefferson’s thought. Jefferson sticks to an outdated model of education and science because it linked him to the status achieved by Bacon, both a boundary-pushing philosopher and a high-class gentleman.

Primary Source

Mirroring the secondary literature discussed, this project will use Jefferson’s vast series of letters and other written documents to frame the paper’s central points. These letters allow an unfiltered view into Jefferson’s thoughts and see more of his leanings.

For example, in an 1813 letter, Jefferson uses Bacon as a benchmark of comparison when discussing the virtue and intellect of George Washington.[24] Another letter from 1811 sees Jefferson recounting a story of an argument between John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and himself. Hamilton was unable to recognize Bacon from a portrait that Jefferson had hung in the room and had to ask Jefferson who the subject was. Jefferson replied it was one of the greatest men in the world to which Hamilton replied that the greatest man was Caesar.[25] This account given by Jefferson, a decade after the death of Hamilton may be a subtle jab at an old political rival, but it provides keen insight into how Jefferson defines his elite manhood via Bacon compared to Hamilton. Hamilton may have bluffed about his unfamiliarity with Bacon, the Viscount of Alban was both highly read and well documented in portraiture, but Jefferson took Hamilton’s perceived ignorance very seriously.

In both letters, Bacon is used to compare the virtue of contemporary figures. Washington is a great man, but he is not as great as Bacon. Hamilton, not knowing who Bacon was, is a source of scorn for Jefferson. Hamilton, by not knowing Bacon is behind the times in terms of philosophical discussion. The Enlightened and more modern Bacon who Jefferson idolizes is contrasted by the tyrannical and war-like Julius Caesar who Hamilton admires. Jefferson uses his relation to the school of thought started by Bacon to prove his gentlemanly status compared to the out-of-date opinions of his rival Hamilton. Both letters signal that Bacon is a man of moral exemplary to Jefferson. Bacon forms a different and modern masculine ideal of Jefferson compared to the old-world man found in Caesar for Hamilton. Elite men in the British Transatlantic community were ideally modeled to be genteel and respectable, men tied by communal obligations and the common good.[26] Bacon’s manhood was found in his intelligence as a philosopher and landowner, marking him as the true model for modern men rather than Caesar and Hamilton’s power-hungry model of a military masculine ideal.

The painting of Bacon commissioned by Jefferson is another insight into Jefferson’s opinion of Bacon. The portrait is a copy that was displayed in the parlor of Jefferson’s home at Monticello. One alteration is made to the copy. Purple is added to the robes of the Lord Chancellor.[27] Purple is the color of monarchs; Jefferson’s portrait gives Bacon the iconography of a ruler. Once again, Bacon is elevated to high status within the home of Jefferson. The Viscount of Alban in purple is positioned like a king whose philosophical and gentlemanly decree Jefferson is tasked with carrying out. Even without an official title or inherited lineage, Jefferson seemed poised to be named the heir of an elite kingdom that would be passed to him from Bacon. This enlightened aristocratic kingdom would be passed down by merit as Jefferson sought to obtain the status of a titled elite by way of philosophy and science instead of a royal decree.

One foil in a British conception of a philosopher gentleman that Bacon provides for Jefferson is the Virginian’s love for France. Jefferson’s library and cultural signifiers were collected largely from France, French culture was Jefferson’s guiding cultural model.[28] Materially, Jefferson collected a wide range of French goods for Monticello, but the few English goods that were collected were largely scientific equipment.[29] Even if Jefferson used French goods to signify his elite status in his domestic life, a collection of British scientific devices may signal how Bacon’s influence on British science led Jefferson to view Britain as the standard for natural sciences.

Finally, the works of Bacon himself will be used to directly trace ideas from his original texts to writings from Jefferson. Four works would serve as a basis for comparison. These are: Advancement of Learning, Essays, The New Organon, and The Masculine Birth of Time by Francis Bacon. These works will also be compared with secondary literature, as they are frequently cited as sources of Jefferson’s ideas. Together, these primary sources will fill any gaps and provide critical insight into the ideas and implications that Jefferson gained from Francis Bacon.

Bibliography

Primary Sources:

Adams, John. “To Jonathan Sewall, February 1760.” In The Papers of John Adams, Vol. 1, edited by Robert J. Taylor, Mary-Jo Kline, Gregg L. Lint, Celeste Walker, and Sara Georgini, 52-53. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1977.

“Albemarle Library Society Catalogue of Books, 5 April 1823.” In The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Vol. 19, edited by J. Jefferson Looney, 505-509. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.

Artist Unknown. “Portrait of Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban.” 1618. Copy of original by an unknown artist, ca. 1789. Displayed at Monticello.

Bacon, Francis, and Michael Kiernan. The Advancement of Learning. Edited by Michael Kiernan, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2000.

Bacon, Francis. The Essays. Edited by John Pitcher, London: Penguin Books, 1985.

Bacon, Francis, Lisa Jardinea, and Michael Silverthorne. The New Organon, Edited by Lisa Jardinea and Michael Silverthorne. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Farrington, Benjamin, and Francis Bacon. “The Masculine Birth of Time.” In The Philosophy of Francis Bacon: An Essay on Its Development from 1603 to 1609, with New Translation of Fundamental Texts. Edited by Benjamin Farrington, 59-72. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966.

Franklin, Benjamin. “Poor Richard Improved, 1749.” In Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 7, Edited by Leonard Woods Labaree and Whitfield J. Bell, 331-339. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1959.

Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to John Trumbull, February 15, 1789. Library of Congress.

Jefferson, Thomas. “George Ticknor’s Account of a Visit to Monticello, 4 February 1815.” In The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Vol. 8, edited by J. Jefferson Looney, 238-40. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.

Jefferson, Thomas. “Notes on the State of Virginia: Query 14.” From Teaching American History. Accessed November 11, 2024. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/notes-on-the-state-of-viriginia-query-xiv-justice/.

Jefferson, Thomas. “Report on Desalination of Sea Water, 21 November 1791.” In The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 22, edited by Julian P. Boyd and Mina R. Bryan, 318-319. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1950.

Jefferson, Thomas. “Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 16 January 1811.” In The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Vol. 7, edited by J. Jefferson Looney, 304-305. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.

Jefferson, Thomas. “Thomas Jefferson to Walter Jones, 2 January 1814.” In The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Vol. 3, edited by J. Jefferson Looney, 100-101. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.

Padover, Saul Kussiel, and James Madison. “On Types of Government, 20 February 1792.” In The World of the Founding Fathers, Their Basic Ideas on Freedom and Self-Government, 349-350. New York, NY: T. Yoseloff, 1960.

Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Charlottesville, Va: Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2002.

Secondary Sources:

Anderson, Fulton H. “Bacon’s Influence.” In The Philosophy of Francis Bacon, 292-303. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1948.

Cohen, Bernard. “Science and American History.” in Science and the Founding Fathers: Science in the Political Thought of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and James Madison, 56-59. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995.

Gish, Dustin A., and Daniel Klinghard. “The Formal Structure of Jefferson’s Notes: Enlightenment Method and Biblical Narratives.” In Thomas Jefferson and the Science of Republican Government: A Political Biography of Notes on the State of Virginia, 73-105. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Grasso, Christopher. “The Religious and the Secular in the Early American Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 36, no. 2 (2016): 359–88. doi:10.1353/jer.2016.0038.

Kaplan, Lawrence S. “Jefferson as Anglophile: Sagacity or Senility in the Era of Good Feelings?” Diplomatic History 16, no. 3 (1992): 487–94. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.1992.tb00518.x.

Malone, Dumas. “The Way of a Humanist.” In Jefferson and His Time: The Sage of Monticello, 185-199. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2006.

Moses, Wilson Jeremiah. “Baconism and Natural Science.” In Thomas Jefferson: A Modern Prometheus, 236-69. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Rotundo, E. Anthony. “Community to Individual.” In American Manhood: Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern Era, E. Anthony Rotundo, 10-30. New York: BasicBooks, 1993.

Wilson, Douglas L. “Thomas Jefferson’s Library and the French Connection.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 26, no. 4 (1993): 669–685. https://doi.org/10.2307/2739489.

Zagorin, Perez. “Introduction: Bacon's Two Lives.” In Franic Bacon, 3-24. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1999.

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[1] Referring to the title used for Bacon by Franklin in Benjamin Franklin, “Poor Richard Improved, 1749”, in Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 7, Edited by Leonard Woods Labaree, and Whitfield J. Bell, (New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1959), 339.

[2] Francis Bacon, Lisa Jardine, and Michael Silverthorne, The New Organon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 9-11.

[3] Francis Bacon, Lisa Jardine, and Michael Silverthorne, The New Organon, 40-42.

[4] Fulton Henry Anderson, “Bacon’s Influence” in The Philosophy of Francis Bacon (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948), 292-303.

[5] Bernard Cohen, “Science and American History,” in Science and the Founding Fathers: Science in the Political Thought of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and James Madison, 1st ed. (New York: W.W. Norton, 1995), 56-59.

[6] Artist Unknown, “Portrait of Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban,” 1618, copy of original by an unknown artist, ca. 1789, displayed at Monticello.

[7] Thomas Jefferson, “Report on Desalination of Sea Water, 1791,” in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 22, Edited by Julian P. Boyd, and Mina R. Bryan, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950), 318-19.

[8]Thomas Jefferson, “George Ticknor’s Account of a Visit to Monticello, 1815,” in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, vol. 8, Edited by J. Jefferson Looney (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), 238-40.

[9] Christopher Grasso, “The Religious and the Secular in the Early American Republic,” Journal of the Early Republic 36, no. 2 (2016): 370.

[10]Thomas Jefferson to John Trumbull, February 15, 1789.

[11] Cohen, Science and the Founding Fathers, 56-59.

[12] Bacon seen as the foundation for modern philosophy, John Adams, “To Jonathan Sewall, February 1760,” In The Papers of John Adams, Vol. 1, edited by Robert J. Taylor, Mary-Jo Kline, Gregg L. Lint, Celeste Walker, and Sara Georgini. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1977), 52-53; as a start of modern science, Saul Kussiel Padover, and James Madison, “On Types of Government, 20 February 1792.” In The World of the Founding Fathers, Their Basic Ideas on Freedom and Self-Government, (New York, NY: T. Yoseloff, 1960), 349-350.

[13] Dumas Malone, “The Way of a Humanist.” In Jefferson and His Time: The Sage of Monticello, (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2006), 196-199.

[14] Malone, The Sage of Monticello, 186-192.

[15] Francis Bacon, “Of Studies,” in The Essays, edited by John Pitcher, (London, UK: Penguin Books, 1985), 209-210.

[16] Lawrence S. Kaplan, “Jefferson as Anglophile: Sagacity or Senility in the Era of Good Feelings?” Diplomatic History 16, no. 3 (1992): 491–94, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7709.1992.tb00518.x.

[17] Dustin A. Gish and Daniel Klinghard, “The Formal Structure of Jefferson’s Notes: Enlightenment Method and Biblical Narratives,” in Thomas Jefferson and the Science of Republican Government: A Political Biography of Notes on the State of Virginia, (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 73.

[18] For views on science, Gish and Klingahrd, Republican Government, 76. For views on the Bible, Gish and Klingahrd, Republican Government, 99.

[19] Gish and Klingahrd, Republican Government, 90.

[20] Gish and Klingahrd, Republican Government, 82.

[21] Wilson Jeremiah Moses, “Baconism and Natural Science,” in Thomas Jefferson: A Modern Prometheus, (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 237.

[22] Moses, Thomas Jefferson, 241.

[23] Moses, Thomas Jefferson, 266.

[24]Thomas Jefferson, “Thomas Jefferson to Walter Jones, 2 January 1814,” in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, vol. 3, Edited by J. Jefferson Looney (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), 100-101.

[25] Thomas Jefferson, “Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 16 January 1811,” in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, vol. 7, Edited by J. Jefferson Looney (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), 304-305.

[26] Anthony E. Rotundo, “Community to Individual: The Transformation of Manhood at the Turn of the 19th Century,” in American Manhood: Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern Era, (New York, Basic Books, 1993), 13-17.

[27] “Parlor,” Monticello, accessed November 11, 2024, https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/parlor/.

[28] Douglas Wilson, “Thomas Jefferson's Library and the French Connection”, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 26, No. 4, (Summer 1993), 669-672.

[29] Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Charlottesville, Va: Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2002, 78-91.