Thomas Jefferson Papers
Documents filtered by: Correspondent="Lasteyrie-Dusaillant, Charles Philibert, comte de" AND Correspondent="Jefferson, Thomas"
sorted by: relevance
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-03-02-0355

Charles P. De Lasteyrie to Thomas Jefferson, 18 March 1811

From Charles P. De Lasteyrie

Paris ce 18 Mars 1811.

Monsieur Le Président,

Veuillés bien être mon organe au près de la Société Philosophique que vous présidés, pour l’assurer de mon entier devouement, et pour lui offrir l’ouvrage Sur le pastel et l’indigotier que je viens de publier. je désire que ce foible produit de mon travail puisse lui être agréable, et qu’il puisse être utile à votre patrie. Comme l’Amérique septentrionale Se livre aujourd’hui à tous les genres d’Agriculture et d’industrie, il est possible que la culture et la préparation du Pastel devienne une branche intéressante de Culture, Surtout lorsque le gouvernement francois aura publié les experiences qui ont été faites, et celles aux quelles on travaille, pour extraire la fécule colorante du Pastel, ou indigo, qui est beaucoup plus abondante, et d’aussi bonne qualité que celle qu’on retire de l’indigotier.

je Suis charmé Monsieur le Président de trouver cette occasion pour témoigner à la Société Philosophique tout le prix que j’attache à l’honneur qu’elle a bien voulu me faire en m’associant à ses travaux utiles et tout le désir que j’ai d’y concourir d’une maniere avantageuse à la prospéritè de l’Amérique.

Recevés l’expréssion des Sentimens d’Estime avec les quels j’ai l’honneur d’Etre.

C. P. De Lasteyrie

Editors’ Translation

Paris 18 March 1811.

Mister President,

On my behalf please convey to the philosophical society over which you preside my entire devotion and offer it the work on pastel and wild indigo that I have just published. I hope that this modest product of my labors might be agreeable to the society and useful to your country. As all kinds of agriculture and industry are practiced in northern America nowadays, the culture and preparation of woad may become an interesting branch of agriculture, particularly after the French government publishes the experiments that have been and are currently being made to extract the coloring starch from the woad, or indigo, which is much more abundant and of equal quality to what is extracted from wild indigo.

I am delighted, Mister President, to take this opportunity to inform the philosophical society how much I value the honor it has bestowed on me by associating me with its useful work, and to express my great desire to participate in its work in a manner advantageous to the prosperity of America.

Please accept the sentiments of esteem with which I have the honor to be.

C. P. De Lasteyrie

RC (PPAmP: APS description begins American Philosophical Society description ends Archives, Manuscript Communications); dateline at foot of text; addressed: “A Monsieur Monsieur le Président de la Sociéte Philosophique d’Amérique à Philadelphie”; stamped; endorsed at American Philosophical Society in part as “read 20 Sep Donation Work on Blue Dyes,” an action confirmed in APS description begins American Philosophical Society description ends , Minutes, 20 Sept. 1811 (MS in PPAmP). Probably never received by TJ. Translation by Dr. Genevieve Moene. Enclosure: Lasteyrie, Du Pastel, de l’indigotier, et des autres végétaux dont on peut extraire une couleur bleue (Paris, 1811).

TJ did not own the French edition of Lasteyrie’s work, but he later acquired an English translation, A Treatise on the Culture, Preparation, History and Analysis of Pastel, or Woad, trans. Henry A. S. Dearborn (Boston, 1816; Poor, Jefferson’s Library description begins Nathaniel P. Poor, Catalogue. President Jefferson’s Library [1829] description ends , 6 [no. 261]). Lasteyrie showed that indigo, the only known blue dye, could be extracted from pastel (woad; Isatis tinctoria) more cheaply than indigotier (wild indigo; Indigofera tinctoria), the latter also referring to a person who manufactured indigo (Treatise, ix–xi).

Index Entries

  • American Philosophical Society; C. P. De Lasteyrie sends work to search
  • American Philosophical Society; members of, foreign search
  • A Treatise on the Culture, Preparation, History and Analysis of Pastel, or Woad (C. P. De Lasteyrie; trans. Dearborn) search
  • Dearborn, Henry Alexander Scammell; translator of A Treatise on the Culture, Preparation, History and Analysis of Pastel, or Woad (C. P. De Lasteyrie) search
  • Du Pastel, de l’indigotier (C. P. De Lasteyrie) search
  • dyeing search
  • French language; letters in, from; C. P. De Lasteyrie search
  • indigo; wild search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; works sent to search
  • Lasteyrie Dusaillant, Charles Philibert, comte De; A Treatise on the Culture, Preparation, History and Analysis of Pastel, or Woad (trans. Dearborn) search
  • Lasteyrie Dusaillant, Charles Philibert, comte De; Du Pastel, de l’indigotier search
  • Lasteyrie Dusaillant, Charles Philibert, comte De; letters from search
  • Lasteyrie Dusaillant, Charles Philibert, comte De; sends books on arts and sciences search
  • woad, blue search