Eccentric Founding Fathers: Thomas Jefferson

 

The Founding Fathers are often portrayed as stoic, wig-wearing statesmen, but many were deeply unconventional characters whose quirks, obsessions, and larger-than-life personalities added color to the Revolutionary era.

Thomas Jefferson was a brilliant but peculiar inventor and tinkerer. At Monticello, he installed innovations like a wine dumbwaiter, automatic double doors, a calendar clock with weights dropping into the cellar, and a revolving serving door (lazy Susan). He bathed his feet in cold water daily, kept a pet mockingbird that perched on his shoulder and ate from his lips, and shocked contemporaries by eating tomatoes (then viewed with suspicion).

A shabby dresser who preferred riding horseback over carriages, Jefferson had a reported fear of public speaking and an obsessive love of cataloging and order. His multifaceted genius came with many eccentric edges.

Murder in Colonial Virginia

Virginia in the American Revolution