Thomas Jefferson

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Thomas Jefferson Is Being Evicted From NY City Hall

Commission votes unanimously to remove statue of president who had 600 slaves

(Newser) - After more than 100 years, a statue of Thomas Jefferson is being evicted from the New York City Council chamber at City Hall. The New York City Public Design Commission voted unanimously Monday to remove the statue, but its final destination is unclear, ABC7 reports. Calls to remove the 7-foot...

No Washington, Lincoln, or Feinstein on City's Schools

Mayor would prefer the board work on a reopening plan

(Newser) - Gone are a slew of historical figures, including Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln—as well as the much more recent Dianne Feinstein. The San Francisco Board of Education has voted to take those names and others off 44 of its schools. The board has for years debated whether to rename buildings...

$20K of Acrylic Now Protects Jefferson's Headstone

University of Missouri's move comes in response to vandalism

(Newser) - A $20,000 acrylic case now protects Thomas Jefferson's original headstone on the University of Missouri campus, a response to vandalism to a Jefferson statue that is also on campus and graffiti written on the sidewalk during the summer making reference to Sally Hemings, a slave who gave birth...

Thomas Jefferson Goes Down in Latest Statue Removal

It happened in Portland, Ore., as a peaceful march took place nearby

(Newser) - Statues around the country of Confederate leaders and Christopher Columbus are meeting their demise, and now a stone tribute to the third president of the United States has found a similar fate in front of a high school in Portland, Ore. Per the Oregonian , the statue of Thomas Jefferson in...

Bilked Out of $400K, Koch Bro Spends $35M to Investigate

Meet Bill Koch, the brother more interested in fine wine and art than politics

(Newser) - Bill Koch might not be the biggest name among his brothers, but he's got a pretty interesting claim to fame: The collector of fine wine and art discovered he'd bought $400,000 worth of wine that had once belonged to Thomas Jefferson that had, well, never really belonged...

Under a Monticello Restroom, a Hidden Piece of History

Restoration to show bedroom of slave Sally Hemings

(Newser) - A $35 million restoration of Monticello is underway, but it's what's been buried under a restroom there for nearly 80 years that's been attracting the most attention of late: the bedroom of Sally Hemings, one of President Thomas Jefferson's slaves and the mother of six children...

UVa Staff, Students to President: Stop Quoting Jefferson

Teresa Sullivan was trying to unite community after election, but quote backfired

(Newser) - "Never put off to tomorrow what you can do today" was one of Thomas Jefferson's "canons of conduct," and so faculty and students at the college he founded, the University of Virginia, wasted little time in responding to an email from the school's president that...

This 1815 Jefferson Letter Could Be Yours

If you have $325K to spare

(Newser) - Hidden in the box of heirlooms were four sheets of paper, on which the writer threatened "eternal war" with England, compared the War of 1812 to the American Revolution, and lamented the downfall of Napoleon. Now, the 1815 letter written by Thomas Jefferson to then-US Ambassador to France, William...

Someone Just Bought 14 Strands of Thomas Jefferson's Hair

For $6,875

(Newser) - A lock of hair from Thomas Jefferson has sold at auction in Texas for $6,875, nearly 190 years after the former president died, the AP reports. Heritage Auctions in Dallas said Saturday's sale involved 14 strands that were snipped by Jefferson's personal physician at the time of...

Thomas Jefferson's Lost Chemistry Lab Found

The 200-year-old chemical hearth was preserved by accident

(Newser) - A worker renovating the Rotunda at the University of Virginia made an unexpected discovery when he crawled through a hole in the wall: part of a chemistry lab partly designed by Thomas Jefferson nearly 200 years ago, the Charlottesville Newsplex reports. The brick chemical hearth—one of the only remaining...

New Political Casualty: Jefferson-Jackson Dinners

Democrats scrapping the tradition over slave-owning legacy

(Newser) - Democrats in Iowa last weekend officially ditched the name of their annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, a move that's part of a larger trend taking place around the country, reports CNN . While the party has long celebrated Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson at such dinners, the pair's own slave-owning history...

Declaration of Independence Transcript May Hold Error

In the form of a period, says Danielle Allen

(Newser) - It's being hailed as "the battle of the period." Is a small spec of ink that appears on the Declaration of Independence a period or not? In a draft paper that one historian calls "a remarkably convincing piece of detective work," Danielle Allen argues that...

Jefferson Was 'Creepy'
 Jefferson Was 'Creepy' 
OPINION
Dec 1, 2012 7:32 AM CST

Jefferson Was 'Creepy'

Law professor says new biographies cut him too much slack on slavery

(Newser) - Two new high-profile biographies of Thomas Jefferson are out, and both go way too easy on him over slavery, writes Albany Law School professor Paul Finkelman in the New York Times . They're guilty of the sin committed by many Jefferson biographies—they either gloss over his slave-owning ways or...

10 Weird Thanksgiving Facts
 10 Weird Thanksgiving Facts 
Nov 22, 2012 4:48 PM CST

10 Weird Thanksgiving Facts

It was supposed to be a day for fasting...

(Newser) - Thanksgiving feasts and TV dinners may seem like polar opposites, but in fact, the holiday gave birth to the prepackaged meals. Swanson bought way too much turkey in 1953—an extra 260 tons of it—so a salesman suggested packing the leftovers into 5,000 aluminum trays, accompanied by sweet...

What's the White House Worth?
 What's the White House Worth?
Oct 21, 2012 2:16 PM CDT

What's the White House Worth?

Real estate experts look at value of presidential homes

(Newser) - Just for fun, the Wall Street Journal asked a housing expert to appraise three famous DC-area residences that have hosted at least one of our presidents. The history makes them priceless, but that aside, here's what they found:
  • George Washington's Mount Vernon: To move into this elegant estate,
...

Declaration of Independence Was Illegal

 Declaration of 
 Independence 
 Was Illegal 
BRITISH LAWYERS SAY
Oct 20, 2011 5:47 AM CDT

Declaration of Independence Was Illegal

At Philadelphia debate, British team makes the case against nationhood

(Newser) - Teams of British and American lawyers clashed in Philadelphia on Tuesday over the legitimacy of the United States of America. At the debate, sponsored by legal associations from both countries, lawyers for the former colonial power argued that America's Declaration of Independence in 1776 "was not only illegal,...

Misquoting Founders Is a Political Epidemic

You can't believe all you read online

(Newser) - Between the current interest in America’s founders and a “willingness to believe” the Internet, political misquotes are flying these days, writes David A. Fahrenthold in the Washington Post . A look over the past two years of C-SPAN and the Congressional Record shows that politicians—including congressmen, senators, and...

Sarah Kaufman: Thomas Jefferson Would Have Approved of Jefferson Memorial Dancing
Jefferson Would've Joined, not Busted, Dancers
SARAH KAUFMAN
Jun 1, 2011 5:00 AM CDT

Jefferson Would've Joined, not Busted, Dancers

'Father of American dance' hailed

(Newser) - Fiddle-playing, freedom-loving Founding Father Thomas Jefferson would not have been happy with the heavy-handed arrest of dancers at the Jefferson Memorial , writes Sarah Kaufman. It's absurd to ban dancing in Jefferson's name because not only was the third president fond of dancing himself, America owes its dance heritage...

Thomas Jefferson's Last Books Turn Up in Library

St. Louis' Washington University now holds third-largest collection

(Newser) - About 70 books in the library at Washington University in St. Louis were once pored over by a voracious reader in early America—a guy by the name of Thomas Jefferson, the New York Times reports. The school just learned that the books were part of the last library Jefferson...

Sorry, Tea Partiers, You Don't Get All the Founders

Washington, Hamilton would have hated you

(Newser) - The Tea Party loves to claim solidarity with the founding fathers, as though they’d all endorse the current Republican agenda. (Remember this craziness ?) Well, not so fast, says historian Ron Chernow. “The truth is that the disputatious founders—who were revolutionaries, not choir boys—seldom agreed about...

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