Jefferson, Thomas (1743–1826)

President of the United States from 1801 to 1808 and author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson was also a passionate intellectual, accomplished scholar, philosopher, scientist, agronomist, musician, polymath, man of letters, and geographer. In addition to his accomplishments as president, ambassador to France, and founder of the University of Virginia, Jefferson maintained an active interest in the geography of North America, particularly as it pertained to its exploration and potential settlement. Along with Jedediah Morse, he is sometimes called one of the founders of American geography.

Jefferson's interests were both intellectual and pragmatic. He was fascinated by many things geographical, including maps and the accurate measurement of Earth's surface, mountains and geomorphology, climate and weather, and agricultural land use. As president, he directed his corps of engineers to record the nature of plants, birds, snowfalls, and forest clearance. Jefferson's volume Notes on the State of Virginia, a study of the climatology of his native state and its relations to humans, published in 1787, was one of 6,000 books in his possession (including 300 on geography), all of which were donated to the newly formed Library of Congress in 1815.

Jefferson and Hugh Williamson wrote the Land Ordinance of 1784, which established a rectilinear survey format in part designed to allocate land to Revolutionary War veterans. Later, the Ordinance became the U.S. Public Lands Survey System, the mechanism for the imposition of the Township and Range method of land surveys widely used west of the Appalachian mountains. Enormously influential as a cadastral scheme used in demarcating private property as well as state and county boundaries, the Township and Range system exemplified the values of the European Enlightenment, the imposition of an orderly, systematic frame of meaning that rationalized the largely unknown wilderness to the west.

Jefferson met Alexander von Humboldt several times in 1804, exchanged maps with him, and corresponded with him (in French) over several years, resulting in the two becoming close friends. He negotiated the Louisiana Purchase in 1804, doubling the size of the United States, and sponsored the Lewis and Clark Expedition through the American West during 1804 to 1806.

Finally, as one who viewed education as essential to a democracy, Jefferson was also an avid supporter of geography in schools. When he was governor of Virginia, he proposed that the discipline be taught in all school academies. In 1817, long retired, he drafted a curriculum for public education that included geography in all primary and secondary schools. Jefferson also insisted that it be included in the courses taught at the University of Virginia, which he founded.