An Interesting Question…

Here’s an interesting question: “If a piece of the presidential record remains stowed in a drawer, is it history or history waiting to happen?”

The discovery of a previously unknown personal letter by Thomas Jefferson this past December, written sometime in 1808 towards the end of his presidency, was the impetuous for such a question.

The “faded, stained piece of paper” apparently covered in Jefferson’s own scribbling has received more attention recently with calls for its authenticity to be confirmed.

From the article:

Its real value, rather, is bolstered by the existence of a “free frank” — a clear version of Jefferson’s signature that once doubled as postage — on the document, Eyler said. “So to a postal history collector that is worth as much as the letter is.”

According to the Legion’s January newsletter, the uncovering of the manuscript is part of a broader effort to put the post’s historically significant items on display “for everyone to enjoy” — a history that could be quite substantial.

After the Washington Post published a story on the letter last month, Eyler received a call from a person who worked with the Legion in the ’60s and ’70s. The caller, whose name Eyler didn’t record, said at that time “other Jefferson letters and materials were found on the second floor” and donated to historical outlets around the state.

And while the recently discovered document could very easily have been tossed aside at some point in the last 200 years, records exist that show it was indeed sent from Jefferson’s own desk but lost in the shuffle of time.

“It’s just the fate of the recipient keeping the manuscript,” Eyler said, noting that it was habit at the time to hold on to and keep track of correspondence. The end result is an intimate relationship between generations.

“To me, manuscripts are like the window to someone’s thinking,” Eyler said. “It’s primary-source [material] — you have a letter written by Thomas Jefferson and you know just what he was doing at that moment in time.”