1From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 5 April 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Your 8vo. Polygraph arrived at Washington just in time for me to bring it on here, where I have used it and still use it constantly. altho’ the machinery will require your rectification to make it quite a good one, yet it is sufficient to shew that the reduction of size is not only practicable, but useful in proportion to it’s reduction, for those who travel. I have therefore bestowed some...
2From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 9 October 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
Capt Cormac’s departure is deferred, and Capt Elwood not yet arrived. of course I cannot yet announce to you the departure of any of the objects destined for you. by the former will go the Marmotte & a bag of skins: by the latter a large box of skins, skeletons & horns for you, a small box of minerals for the P. Society, a cage with a magpie & a box with the Polygraph. when I wrote you on the...
3From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 21 February 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to thank you for a copy of your introductory lecture recieved some time since, & not before acknoleged for want of time. I have read it with great pleasure, and lament that while I have been so near to your valuable collection, occupations much less pleasing to me have always put it out of my power to avail myself of it. may I ask the favor of you to present my request to your son that...
4From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 1 December 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
M r Heiskill delivered my Polygraph safe and in good condition, and when I consider how much time and labor it has saved me since his return I look back with regret to that which I have lost by the want of it a year or two. the gold pens write charmingly as free pens, and I use them for my common writing in preference to the quill. but when applied to the polygraph I find that they make the...
5From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 1 March 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night your favor of the 26th. and thank you for the pen accompanying it, which seems to perform well. I had written to you on the 27th. Ult. on the subject of the Polygraph. the reduction of the size which you propose for a future trial would certainly be a great improvement; it’s present bulk being disagreeable. I observe too that after one has adjusted the pens by the gage,...
6From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 9 June 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
The 8vo. Polygraph arrived in good condition, and gives me entire satisfaction. your son’s improvement of throwing the pen to the left gives me the command of the 4to. page, as you see by this letter written with the 8vo. machine; and when I have written down the page as far as it commands, by taking a reef in the top, that is, by giving the letter the first fold it is to have when folded up,...
7From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 13 February 1807 (Jefferson Papers)
Nothing would be wanting to fill up the measure of dissatisfaction with my present situation, but to see my friends adopt a stile of formality & distance towards me. be assured that your communications are always welcome, & the more so when the most frank. I shall make a proper use of that in your letter recieved last night. I will thank you to procure for me a pair of the inkholders of ¾...
8From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 September 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter containing the Spiral spring was recieved in due time. a mode of constructing your polygraph which might render it more portable occurred to me and as it took me less time to give verbal directions to my workmen for a model, than to make a drawing for you, I have had a model made which I send you by this post. it is of half size in all it’s dimensions, whence you will see that in...
9From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 29 July 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknolege the reciept of your favors of June 29. & July 25. to congratulate you on the prospect you have of obtaining a compleat skeleton of the great incognitum, and the world on there being a person at the critical moment of the discovery who has zeal enough to devote himself to the recovery of these great animal monuments. Mr. Smith the Secretary of the Navy will give orders...
10From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 September 1825 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday, and with great pleasure, your favor of the 10 th informing me of your good health, which I hope may long continue. for 7. years past mine has been sensibly declining, and latterly is quite broken down. I have now been confined to the house, and chiefly to my couch, for 4 months, by a derangement of the urinary system, which as yet exhibits no prospect of a definite...
11From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 7 November 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his friendly salutations to mr Peale and sends him a recruit for the fund of his grandson of fifty dollars in an order of the US. bank here on that at Philadelphia. he will take care to do the same monthly, and if at any time it shall be necessary to enlarge it, he will do it on the first intimation recieved from mr Peale. DLC : Papers of Thomas Jefferson.
12Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 28 December 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
‘ Nothing is troublesome which we do willingly ’ is an excellent apophthegm, and which can be applied to no mind more truly than yours. on this ground I am sure you will be so good as to exchange the pair of inkglasses you sent me, & which the furnisher will doubtless exchange. they are a little too large to enter the sockits of my the polygraph I keep in Bedford , as I found on a late visit...
13From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 15 January 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
I take up my pen to inform you that the box with the vase & bridle bit arrived safely last night, & to save the trouble of the search you propose to make in your’s of the 10th. you therein say that ‘when my Polygraph is done you shall leave it to my choice to take either one or the other.’ this, my dear Sir, will be putting my delicacy to severe trial. I find the one I am now writing with, in...
14From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 19 June 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I am persuaded I shall be pleased with mr Hawkins’s portable Polygraph, because of it’s small size, & it’s simplification by omitting one of the horizontal parallelograms, the stays or suspenders, & probably the vertical parallelograms & gallows, for I see no use for the two last if the suspender be omitted. the pencases I shall be able to have arranged to my mind by an excellent workman here....
15Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 7 August 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Passing considerable portions of my time at this place, I keep for use here the portable Polygraph which mr Hawkins was so kind as to send me. but I have had the misfortune to break one of it’s ink glasses , which suspends it’s use, as no such thing can be got here. and to whom can I apply to replace it but to a friend in small things as well as great. without apology therefore I inclose you...
16From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 20 June 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose you two essays of mr Burwell at my profile . I also inclose you the receipt of Capt Ellwood for your Polygraph . he sails this day. besides that the small round inkpot of 1¾ I. diam. or square one of 1½ I. and only 1. I. deep, necessary for perfecting your machine, you will find it necessary to throw away the common stopper which rises ½ I. above the top of the pot, and to substitute...
17From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 24 August 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
It was the wish of mr Randolph & myself the last summer to send his son T. Jefferson Randolph to Philadelphia to attend lectures in those branches of science which cannot be so advantageously taught any where else in America: these are Natural history with the advantage of your Museum, Botany aided by mr Hamilton’s garden, and Anatomy with the benefit of actual dissections. we did not propose...
18From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 4 December 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
I inclose a draught for 60. D. to meet the current expences of my grandson, including two or three little debts of 2. & 4. D. of mine which I write to him to pay. I make these remittances for him merely by guess, and ready to enlarge them the moment you inform me that they are deficient. My Polygraph has been packed some time, & waits to find some passenger in the stage who will attend to...
19From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 23 January 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I take the first moment in my power of replying to your favor of the 12th. for writing with our 4to. letter paper of 8.I. by 10 I. I should think a length of 18 I. & breadth of 11 I. the most perfect for the polygraph; all size beyond that occupying space on your table uselessly & consequently inconveniently. but I believe the Moors write on a small folio paper: at least all the letters I have...
20From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 16 January 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night your favor of the 12th. instant. no person on earth can entertain a higher idea than I do of the value of your collection nor give you more credit for the unwearied perseverance & skill with which you have prosecuted it. and I very much wish it could be made public property. but as to the question whether I think that the US. would encourage or provide for the...
21From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 22 November 1806 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved your letter of July 2. in due time, & soon after that the apparatus for making the inkpots in mr Hawkins’s polygraph moveable, so as to render the dip easy. but in the mean time I had thought of a contrivance which I had executed at Monticello, and which a three months use has proved to be as perfect as it is simple. each inkpot is set in a square saucer of very thin brass, ¼ I....
22From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 13 October 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved your favor of the 8th. which excites a great curiosity in me to see mr Hawkins’s polygraph: and as you say you are sending one to the Secretary of state, which I know to be for his office, for it was on my recommendation, I will ask the favor of you to address it to me, that I may have an opportunity of seeing & trying it. it shall then be delivered to it’s address, and in...
23From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 23 January 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for mr Rembrandt Peale’s pamphlet on the Mammoth, and feeling a strong interest in his succesful exhibition of the Skeleton, shall be very happy to hear he has the great run of visitants which I expect he will have. I was struck with the notice in the papers of mr Hawkins’s physiognotrace, of the work of which you send me some specimens, which I percieve must have been taken from...
24Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 13 June 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
In your favor of May 2. you ask my advice on the best mode of selling your Museum, on which however I really am not qualified to advise. this depends entirely on the genius and habits of those among whom you live, with which you are so much better acquainted. I wish first it may be disposed of the most to your advantage, and 2 dly that it may not be separated. if profit be regarded, the...
25Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 18 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Jan. 15. is recieved, and I am indebted to you for others; but the torpitude of increasing years, added to a stiffening wrist making writing a slow & painful operation, makes me also a slow correspondent. I promised you a plough so long ago that I dare say you have forgot it: but I have this day sent it to Richmond to be forwarded to you. I claim nothing in it but the mould board...
26From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 28 November 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
Passing as I do the active hours of my life in my study, I have found it essential to bring all the implements I use there within the narrowest compas possible; & in no case to lose a single inch of space which can be made to hold any thing. hence every thing is placed within my reach without getting out of my chair. on this principle I approve of the two drawers to the Polygraph proposed in...
27Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 21 March 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I have been long your debtor in our epistolary account. a farmer being privileged to write only on rainy Sundays, his pen-work is apt to accumulate and get into arrears. in so hard a winter too as we have had, one was could not but yield to the pleasure of hovering over a fire with a book, rather than go to the writing table. we have indeed had a hard winter. our average of snow in a common...
28From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 21 October 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
The day before yesterday I sent to Alexandria 1. a large box containing skins, skeletons & horns 1. small box containing the Polygraph 1. do. with minerals for the Phil. society to be presented in capt Lewis’s name. a cage with a living magpie. These were delivered to Capt Elwood as you will see by the inclosed reciept & the freight paid. he promised he would sail yesterday & I hope you will...
29From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 9 April 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
My letter of the 5th. had been written but not sent off when I recieved yours of Mar. 30. with the new penbar. this finds me so near my departure for Washington that all is now hurry. I have not time therefore to change the penbars for trying the Diagonal writing; & I should not be without fear of deranging the machine, & losing the use of it while I yet stay & while I have much to write. I...
30From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 12 July 1805 (Jefferson Papers)
The Polygraphs for mr Volney, Commodore Preble and the President’s Secretary have been all recieved in good order and are found good. the portable one for myself is also recieved, and is approved in every respect except perhaps in one part, on which I have not had trial enough to decide. it seems to copy the first 4. or 5. lines of the page with defects of nearly half the lines: sometimes...