1. He was a multi-talented thinker:
Jefferson was an inventor, lawyer and educator. He graduated from the University of William and Mary at the age of 18, two years after he enrolled in 1762. He was the designer of Monticello, the Virginia State Capital and The Rotunda at the University of Virginia among other notable buildings. His influential style has become known as “Jeffersonian Architecture”. Monticello and The Rotunda are both World Heritage Sites.
2. He loved to play:
As a boy, the freckle-faced Jefferson played with his friends on the land where he would eventually build Monticello. He would explore the woods, creeks and streams.
3. He was an early archaeologist:
He had the bones of a mastodon, an animal from 40 million years ago that looked a bit like an elephant, sent to him at the White House. He laid the bones out in what is now known as the East Room in an attempt to build a skeleton.
4: He loved vanilla ice cream:
<span>He probably first tasted ice cream while traveling in France. He brought home a recipe for it, which is now in the Library of Congress.</span>
5: What he was most proud of:
Now that you know how much Jefferson loved to read and to write and how much he valued knowledge, here is what is inscribed at his grave: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom and Father of the University of Virginia.”
