New Acquisition--Univ. of Virginia

["Edward F. Gaynor" <efg2f@poe.acc.virginia.edu>]

Posted to Exlibris and Archives
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APRIL 26, 1996

    Personal Letters from Thomas Jefferson to Famous Beauty are Part of
            New Collection at the University of Virginia Library

The University of Virginia has acquired an important, 18th century
collection of personal letters, which includes correspondence from Thomas
Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.

Angelica Schuyler Church, Hamilton's sister-in-law, corresponded with many
of the young country's most prominent figures, among them, George
Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, General Van Renssalaer and the Baron
von Steuben. The collection of 77 letters and documents, which has been in
private hands until now, includes 13 letters from Jefferson and 11 from
Hamilton.

"This remarkable archive offers a rare glimpse of Mr. Jefferson's most
personal and candid thoughts," said John T. Casteen III, U.Va. president.
"At the same time, it enriches Alderman Library's exceptional collection of
rare, printed materials and manuscripts related to the nation's founders."

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     The morning you left us, all was wrong. even the sun shine was
     provoking with which I never quarrelled before. I took in into my
     head he shone only to throw light on our loss: to present a
     chearfulness not at all in unison with my mind. I mounted my horse
     earlier than common. I took by instinct the road you had taken.

     I think I have discovered a method of preventing this defection of
     mind on any future parting. it is this. when you come again, I
     will employ myself solely in finding or fancying that you have
     some faults. & I will draw a veil over all your good qualities, if
     I can find one large enough.

Jefferson to Church on Feb. 17, 1788, from Paris

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Church's family kept the papers together throughout the years, but last
February contacted an antiquarian book dealer in Hadley, Mass., about
selling them. The dealer offered them first to the University of Virginia
Library, one of the few institutions actively collecting original Jefferson
documents, said Michael Plunkett, Director of Special Collections for the
University Library system.

The University of Virginia was able to purchase the collection through the
generosity of an anonymous donor who paid the lion's share of the papers'
$275, 000 cost. Had the family decided to sell the letters one by one, the
collection would have brought the family "considerably more," said Karin
Wittenborg, University Librarian. "It is a rare opportunity for a research
library to acquire such an important collection of letters, kept intact by a
family for nearly two centuries," said Wittenborg. "We are delighted that we
will be able to make these letters widely accessible to scholars."

Wittenborg said the Church letters strengthen an "already very strong
Jefferson collection" at the University. With more than 3,650 items, most of
them original documents, the University of Virginia houses one of the
primary research collections on Jefferson in the United States, third in
importance behind the Library of Congress and the Massachusetts Historical
Society, according to John Catanzariti, editor of The Papers of Thomas
Jefferson at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J.

Finding Jefferson letters for sale is rare, said Plunkett, who says he
generally sees only one to three a year. "There's not that many around
anymore," he said, "so adding 13 in one fell swoop is quite an
accomplishment for us."

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     I learn through the newspapers [of] your arrival at New York and
     hasten to welcome you to the bosom of your friends & native
     country. I feel one anxiety the less for the fate of the rotten
     bark form which you have escaped, & sincerely congratulate you on
     that escape. I wish I could have welcomed you to a state of
     perfect calm; but you will find that the agitations of Europe have
     reached even us, and that here, as there, they are permitted to
     disturb social life: that we have not yet learnt to give every
     thing to it's proper place; discord to our senates, love and
     friendship to society.

     Tho' you have taken so great a step, there is still a wide space
     between us: I shall entertain the hope that we may meet at this
     place, as on a middle ground. Perhaps you may find it not
     unpleasant in winter to get this much nearer the sun. But whether
     we meet or not, I shall for ever claim an esteem which continues
     to be very precious to me, and hope to be at times, indulged with
     the mutual expression of it.

Jefferson to Church on May 24, 1979, from Philadelphia

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The letters invite the reader into some of the most celebrated parlors of
early America. Church was the daughter of Philip John Schuyler, a member of
the Continental Congress and later, one of the first two U.S. Senators from
New York. Her sister, Elizabeth, married Hamilton. Her husband, John Church,
was a British- born adventurer who fled England after a duel and later,
using the name John Carter, eloped with Angelica Schuyler, much to her
parents dismay. Later, Church became a successful entrepreneur and he and
his wife, a famous beauty, socialized with many of the young country's
leaders.

Plunkett said the University hopes to receive the letters within a few
weeks. They will be housed with the library's Special Collections Department
in the Alderman Library. Wittenborg said Alderman Library plans to mount a
public exhibit of the letters this fall.

For more information, contact the Special Collections Department at (804)
924-3025 or by email at mssbks@virginia.edu

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