Thomas Jefferson ~ April 13, 1743 - July 4, 1826

3rd President, 1801-1809 

Thomas Jefferson sites visited:
Jefferson was born on the Shadwell Plantation (Virginia), which no longer exists but there is a marker.
Some of his early childhood was spent at the Tuckahoe Plantation in Richmond, Virginia.
Rapids City, South Dakota, City of Presidents statue:
Jefferson is included on the Washington monument in Richmond, the capital of Virginia (lower right), and also has a statue and a bust in the Capitol Building.
In 1776, Jefferson rented the second story rooms on this site in Philadelphia where he drafted the Declaration of Independence.
Independence Hall in Philadelphia contains the room where the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
The home most associated with Jefferson is Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. We first visited in 2021 but could not get tour tickets. So we strolled the grounds.
In 2022, we purchased tickets in advance and got to tour the house.
There is an African-American cemetery near the house.
Thomas Jefferson rests a short walk away in a family cemetery.
Notice the obelisk says Jefferson was born on April 2, 1743 O.S. which stands for the Old Style calendar (Julian) which was in use at the time of Jefferson's birth. Eleven days were added when the Gregorian calendar was adopted. Hence, Jefferson's birthday is celebrated on April 13. 
This gravesite obelisk is a replica; the original currently resides on the Campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, and we were lucky enough to be passing nearby in 2025. The original obelisk had become damaged and needed to be replaced. When the new one was built, Jefferson's heirs received many requests for the original, and the University of Missouri was the lucky recipient. It was placed in various locations on campus, including storage, and survived a fire. But it now stands in the Jefferson Memorial Garden in the Francis Quadrangle along with a statue.
Jefferson has been keeping Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln company on Mount Rushmore since 1941.
This is a Vice Presidential portrait from a 2023 exhibit at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The Thomas Jefferson Memorial in D.C. was completed in 1943. FDR laid the cornerstone in 1939.
Here's a panoramic photo that includes MLK, the Washington Monument, and the Jefferson Memorial

Thomas Jefferson was a remarkable and complex man and it's very telling that his gravestone does not mention his presidency, as per his wishes. These were the things of which he was most proud:
"Here was buried Thomas Jefferson,
Author of the Declaration of American Independence,
Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and
the Father of the University of Virginia."
"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government."

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