Thomas Jefferson was a Scrapbooker

by Mary Gunn

Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd President, author of the Declaration of Independence, among other incredible things such as being one of my most favorite Founding Fathers, may have been a scrapbooker - at least of sorts.

Here are some of my reasons...
- He organized his writings and books, isn't that what we do? Yes, we organize our writings and scrapbooks!
- He was a prolific writer with 20,000 letters in his lifetime. Just imagine what he would have done with emailing and texting!
- He doubled the size of the United States! Isn't that what we do? We start with just a small box of craft products and then double and double and double!?!
- He wrote down every little detail, "I'm making the world a better place by doing this."
- He kept detailed records of his trips such as to France and Italy and shared with others in Philadelphia when he returned.
- He enjoyed the arts.
- He was a designer. OK, so he designed larger items than scrapbooks such as the Virginia Capitol, the University of Virginia, and his home Monticello (which is worth learning about on its own)
- He even invented a lap desk. Wow, we are still trying to invent the perfect lap scrapbook desk! He invented the coolest bookshelf that swiveled, so he could turn to the book he wanted to - I assume he would turn it toward the light source. See a photo in the link below.
- Every generation since has relied on his wisdom and every American has enjoyed his "journaling" (and I mean not to trivialize) of the Declaration of Independence.

Some habits I want to adopt that were Thomas Jefferson's include:
Working in long stretches of time without interruption.
Mix my day with mental exercise, physical exercise, recreation, family and social activities.
I want to live to improve myself and so that my life will help others, as well.
I want my scrapbooks to be more than records of events (even though that is fine), I want my scrapbooks to be records of discoveries all done up in a pretty package.

So I'm pretty sure Thomas Jefferson was a scrapbooker in his own wonderful way.

http://jpetrie.myweb.uga.edu/TJ.html
http://www.monticello.org/gallery/innovations/revolvingbookstand.html
http://www.monticello.org/
http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/declaration.html

Have a safe and meaningful Independence Day - Happy 4th!!!

God Bless America! Pamela