Letters, 1785-1826, written by Thomas Jefferson while serving as a diplomat to France, Secretary of State, Vice-President and President of the United States to William Short. The letters are written from France (Paris, Lyons, Aix en Provence, Nice, Marseilles, Toulouse and Nantes), Amsterdam, Germany (Frankfort on the Main), New York City, Philadelpia, Washington and "Monticello," Albemarle County, Va. One of the subjects covered by the letters is the University of Virginia. Among the items in the collection is "Syllabus of an estimate of the doctrines of Jesus compared with those of others."

The collection consists of 160 original manuscripts, mostly letters, 1785-1826, written by Thomas Jefferson to William Short but including some other papers in Jefferson's hand and some other papers of William Short; and 107 items relating to Jefferson including 55 photostatic copies of letters in the Library of Congress written to Jefferson as well as printed material concerning him.

The Jefferson Project was funded by the Papers of Thomas Jefferson and the Delmas Foundation to enable Swem Library to scan its approximately 700 Jefferson items (documents by and to Jefferson). There is a record for each item with a link to the scan of it in the library’s online catalog at  http://www.swem.wm.edu

One can browse by picking “advanced” search and putting Thomas Jefferson in “everything” with a location of manuscripts. This will get a few hits that aren’t relevant, but most of the relevant ones will be there. For instance, the letters to and from William Short may be found by adding Short in as a search and they include many fascinating ones concerning Jefferson’s time in Europe. Swem Library hopes, eventually, to have a website that will feature the project and provide more direct access to the images.