
Books found in dumpster belonged to Thomas Jefferson - flannery
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/good-news/he-found-15-books-in-a-sierra-dumpster-then-he-found-out-they-belonged-to-thomas-jefferson/ar-BBLd9cM
======
mncharity
Under similar circumstances, I ended up with the one-page 1740 Treasurer's
Account for the Town of Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay Colony.[1]

A neighbor died, and a relative came by and rapidly dumpstered their
apartment. Including a stack of family photo albums.

Now, I'd a childhood experience of family sorting things into two boxes: "toys
to donate to the school sale", and "childhood photos and keepsakes". Think
"all your eggs in one basket". The wrong box was then dropped off at the
school. A few hours later, it had been categorized as trash, thrown out, and
was unrecoverably lost.

So I salvaged some of the albums in the dumpster. And eventually got in touch
with the family to ask, "are your sure?". They were. But before I got around
to throwing them out again, I found the document inside a folded photo card
thing. And wondered if there had been more in the dumpster, among that which I
didn't salvage.

And if I died today, it would likely end up back in a dumpster. Need to find
it a better home.

[1] [http://www.vendian.org/1740/](http://www.vendian.org/1740/)

~~~
WalterBright
> Including a stack of family photo albums.

How sad. At least one can photograph the pages with a phone, as keeping those
would be costless.

~~~
mncharity
> How sad.

I recall them as saying it was mostly "other" families. A complexity that put
it way over effort budget for me.

> At least one can photograph the pages with a phone,

:) Year 2000. Thus the pieced-together flatbed scans.

------
gtycomb
Some of the great writings are not in a dumpster but right in front of our
eyes if only we knew it. A copy of J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations sitting in
front of everyone until 1974, in the hands of the director of the conservatory
of music in Strasbourgh and then in the hands of a professor of music, it had
in the inside cover fourteen canons in Bach's own handwriting, elucidating
Bach's architecture like never before. An Italian visitor chanced upon the
score and suggested these were Bach's own handwritten lines ...

------
HenryTheHorse
I know Jefferson is complicated, but I encourage everyone to visit Monticello
(his estate in Virginia) and see his library* .

The man was _obsessed_ with reading (and gardening).

* On a related note, I'd also strongly encourage people visiting NYC to visit the JP Morgan Library. It's spectacular.

~~~
minhaz23
How does one plan a visit to the jp morgan library?

~~~
craftyguy
Step 1: go to NYC

Step 2: go to jp morgan library[1]

1\. [https://www.themorgan.org/visit/hours-and-
admission](https://www.themorgan.org/visit/hours-and-admission)

------
ak39
I've always considered books just too precious to be binned or thrown away. My
dad was a teacher so books were all we had, devouring whatever came our way.
Sometimes rereading the same works again. We moved a lot so finding a library
in the new town would be akin to finding Aladdin's cave for us. It's now a
mild OCD condition in me when others don't look after my books (dog ears or
folded pages. Gets my f'cking goat!). I silently judge others for not looking
after their own books (jealously petting my own book with endearment). I've
still kept my obsolete tech books - safe asylum.

How do people find the nerve to throw a book away? How?!

~~~
sevensor
Interestingly this came up again just the other day:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12002419](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12002419)

Librarians have to weed their collections regularly, or see them overrun with
bad books. Due to changes in interest or deteriorating condition, some books
need to be purged so that the important ones can be maintained and new ones
can be brought in.

This was a liberating idea for me, as I'm a bibliophile from a family of
bibliophiles. Your collection is only as good as your curation.

~~~
zellyn
I can't believe that discussion (now un-commentable) didn't include a link to
[http://awfullibrarybooks.net/](http://awfullibrarybooks.net/). Good stuff.

~~~
sevensor
Wow, I'm really glad this site exists! It's been a while since I fell down an
internet rabbithole like it.

------
JoeAltmaier
Lesson: Give your famous books to a library collection before you die, and
your ignorant grandnephew (or whomever) throws them in the dumpster to be
destroyed by rain.

------
michaelcampbell
It's interesting to me how we, as humans, ascribe more value to things based
on previous ownership. Why is a watch worth $35000 if President <X> owned it,
but only $350 if not? Is it not the same watch?

~~~
dmreedy
There's a lot of emotional weight in the article, "The". _A_ watch is an
interesting thing from a functional perspective, technical perspective, an
artistic perspective, and a broader historical perspective. But it's an
implicit consignment to a relative definition. _A_ watch is interesting
amongst watches, perhaps. Comparable between watches. Valued according to the
value of other watches.

However, when you can promote that _A_ to a _The_ , now the thing stands as an
absolute in the course of history. _The_ watch that Buzz Aldrin wore on the
moon. _The_ pen that signed the surrender of Japan. _The_ Cullinan I Diamond
that was cut with nine sibilings from the greatest raw stone ever discovered,
and set in to St. Edward's Crown. The nature of the item itself becomes second
to the story and the lineage associated with it, and its value ceases to be a
function of what the thing does _does_ , and becomes one of what it _has
done_. Omega watches are interesting and technically impressive. But if a
Seiko had gone to the moon on Buzz Aldrin's wrist, it would be worth just as
much.

~~~
LyndsySimon
> The pen that signed the surrender of Japan

On the off chance you're interested in that particular pen, there were
actually several of them. I collect fountain pens as a hobby, and ones used to
sign historical documents are of particular interest to me.

This thread has lots of information on what they were and where they ended up,
including a photo of one of them:
[http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/177886-japanes...](http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/177886-japanese-
surrender/)

------
Yhippa
If any of you managed to get near DC I recommend checking out his library at
the LoC: [https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/thomas-jeffersons-
library/](https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/thomas-jeffersons-library/). Despite
it's age it's very fascinating. You can learn a lot about a man by his books.

~~~
cestith
Also interesting in that part of the country for lovers of the printed word is
Book Thing of Baltimore. It may be helpful for those trying to find a place
other than the trash for their own old books, too.

[http://bookthing.org/](http://bookthing.org/)

------
nashashmi
$8k for books found in a dumpster? Jackpot!

The rest of the wealth can be said was rightly divided between everybody else.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pearl_(novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pearl_\(novel\))

------
11thEarlOfMar
Makes me wonder how many treasures we lose because they _aren 't_ discovered.

~~~
SpecialistEMT
Most of them for sure.

~~~
a_bonobo
Then again, if you're Borges, you might say that all thoughts that have been
thought will be thought again, therefore all books that have been written,
will be written again.

~~~
adrianN
The universe will most likely reach the end of its lifetime before then.

------
pandasun
I wonder what they auctioned for. Does anyone know?

~~~
nooch
In the article it says $8000 but that was before he confirmed they were
Jefferson's

~~~
pandasun
Hmm, I could have sworn the URL linked to a shorter article when I read it. Or
maybe I just missed that part. Thanks!

~~~
rtkwe
That wouldn't be too surprising. HN mods often change links to point to more
original sources (sometimes to the detriment I think. eg when moving from a
well done summary with commentary to the dense original report)

------
nimbius
It may be controversial to say this as an American, but I believe Thomas
Jefferson is easily the greatest candidate for founding father that deserves
to be forgotten.

\- Jefferson sired six children with Sally Hemmings, a slave on his Monticello
estate.

\- Jeffersions children were put to work in the fields, and never freed for
decades.

\- Jefferson himself whipped his own children.

\- Jefferson intentionally avoided a strong opinion on emancipation and
maintained a negative opinion on it frequently. He was accustomed to the
opulence of Monticello and without slaves to run it, Jefferson knew his status
in the merchant class would be diminished.

\- Jefferson died in roughly two million dollars of modern debt. Most
attributable to his lavish livestyle.

[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-
thom...](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-
jefferson-35976004/)

~~~
vonzeppelin
\- Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence

\- He drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom

\- He served as the third President of the United States

\- United States Military Academy was established during his presidency

\- Jefferson doubled the size of the United States during his presidency

\- He made sure US presence was established in the Louisiana territory

\- President Jefferson abolished the slave trade

\- He made an important contribution to the Library of Congress

\- Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia

\- He wrote a book titled Notes on the State of Virginia

[https://learnodo-newtonic.com/thomas-jefferson-
accomplishmen...](https://learnodo-newtonic.com/thomas-jefferson-
accomplishments)

~~~
MisterBastahrd
None of that rebuts how he lived his personal life. He decided that
emancipation was not as important as keeping humans as slaves for labor and
pleasure.

~~~
michaelcampbell
True, and how is it relevant? He did good, he did non good. As does everyone.

