The four leather-bound scrapbooks, covering the years 1801 to 1808, were discovered in the University of Virginia's Alderman Library by West Point history professor Robert M.S. McDonald. Previously believed to be the work of Jefferson's granddaughters, they were ignored until McDonald unearthed them this summer. The scrapbooks show Jefferson's intense interest in his image even though he said he didn't care what people and newspapers said against him as well as his sentimental side. Jefferson's daughter Maria died young. Jefferson and his boyhood friend, Dabney Carr, had studied together under an oak tree and promised that one would bury the other under the tree.
Researchers hope to find the sources and dates of the clippings.