Thomas Jefferson Papers

Memorandum of Tasks for John Hemings, 24 September 1804

Memorandum of Tasks for
John Hemings

[24 Sep. 1804]

reserved for J. Hemings.


All the Chinese railing.

Venetian blinds for the Porticos.

the 3. remaing. Angular Portals.

the Aviary.

facings &c of windows of covered ways

folds of window shutters.

closet of my bed chamber

store rooms in the loft.

MS (MHi); undated; entirely in TJ’s hand; on other side of sheet containing “Work to be done by mr Dinsmore,” dated 24 Sep. (see Memorandum of Tasks for James Dinsmore, 24 Sep.); Nichols, Architectural Drawings description begins Frederick Doveton Nichols, Thomas Jefferson’s Architectural Drawings, Compiled and with Commentary and a Check List, Charlottesville, 1978 description ends , No. 147l. MS (same); undated; in TJ’s hand; at head of text: “John Hem.”; written alongside a version of the list of tasks for Dinsmore (Nichols, Architectural Drawings description begins Frederick Doveton Nichols, Thomas Jefferson’s Architectural Drawings, Compiled and with Commentary and a Check List, Charlottesville, 1978 description ends , No. 147m); consisting of five entries: “Venetian porches,” “Chinese railing,” “Cellar sashes,” “Inner leaves of window shutters,” and “Venetian blinds of Porticos.”

Among several undated plans and sketches in TJ’s hand related to Venetian blinds was a drawing labeled “manner of fixing Venetian blinds in the Porticos.” It showed a blind folded all the way to the ceiling and also folded “half up held together by hooks at the sides” (MS in MHi; Nichols, Architectural Drawings description begins Frederick Doveton Nichols, Thomas Jefferson’s Architectural Drawings, Compiled and with Commentary and a Check List, Charlottesville, 1978 description ends , No. 147s).

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