Ī few precious sheets of the paper survive today. Using a black lead pencil the lines are very visible, and easily effaced with Indian rubber to be used for any other draught. He gave a few sheets to his good friend David Rittenhouse, the astronomer and inventor: I send for your acceptance some sheets of drawing-paper, which being laid off in squares representing feet, or what you please, saves the necessity of using the rule and dividers in all rectangular draughts and those whose angles have their sines and co-sines in the proportion of any integral numbers. He treasured the coordinate paper that he brought back to the United States with him and used it sparingly over the course of many years. In Paris, Jefferson began to use pencil for drawing, and adopted the use of coordinate, or graph, paper. Prior to 1784, when Jefferson arrived in France, most if not all of his drawings were made in ink. Scoring employed a small, blunt tool called a scorer or tracer, to make indentations in paper that later could be filled in with ink or graphite. These may have been used to lay out a new drawing or copy an existing one. Using a "pricker," a sharp pinlike object, Jefferson punctured sets of points in his drawings. Recent studies of Jefferson's drawings reveal two techniques that he employed: pricking and scoring. Jefferson likely used the scale and other instruments to make measured drawings, which were usually architectural. As late as 1806, Jefferson purchased drawing instruments from the same merchants with whom he first became acquainted in 1786, William & Samuel Jones. His first recorded purchases are from London firms in 1786. Īs with scientific instruments, Jefferson preferred English-made drawing instruments. ![]() ![]() Upon his father's death, Jefferson inherited his mathematical instruments, which certainly included the tools for drawing maps and plats. He may have learned the rudiments of drafting from his father, the surveyor and mapmaker Peter Jefferson. He drew plats, maps, city plans, garden designs, and furniture, as well as sections, elevations, and floor plans for numerous buildings. Historical Notes: Over the course of his life, Jefferson made hundreds of drawings, ranging from rather wobbly freehand sketches to measured drawings on coordinate paper. ![]() Rubenstein Visitor Center (" Making Monticello" exhibit)
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