Nov

Jefferson’s Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth

Thomas Jefferson’s The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, a remarkable document from the early 19th century is now on display at the American History Museum. Living at Monticello in retirement following his two terms as President, Jefferson assembled a private text in 1820, often referred to as “The Jefferson Bible.” Cutting excerpts from four translations—English, French, Latin and Greek—of the Four Gospels, Jefferson sought to tell a chronological and distilled version of Jesus’ life and moral teachings. The exhibition “Jefferson’s Bible” will run through May 28, 2012.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is performing a specialized conservation treatment to ensure the long-term preservation of Thomas Jefferson’s bible, a small handmade book that provides an intimate view of Jefferson’s private religious and moral philosophy and acquired by the Smithsonian in 1895. (Photo by Hugh Talman)

The American History Museum performed a specialized conservation treatment to ensure the long-term preservation of Thomas Jefferson’s bible. (Photo by Hugh Talman)

The display presents Jefferson’s handmade and meticulously conserved volume, together with two English editions of the New Testament that Jefferson used to excerpt passages, and a copy of the 1904 U.S. Government Printing Office edition of the book. Visitors will be able to explore each page of the bible at a special Web kiosk and view short videos about the book’s history and conservation treatment. “The volume provides an exclusive insight to the religious and moral beliefs of the writer of the Declaration of Independence, the nation’s third President, as well as his position as an important thinker in the Age of Enlightenment,” said curator Harry Rubenstein. “The recent specialized treatment [of the book] ensures that generations to come will be able to study and view this tangible witness to history.”

Professionally bound in rich Morocco leather with gold tooling, this volume—8.25 inches by 5 inches—was not printed but rather constructed more like a scrapbook. Jefferson cut selected passages from printed New Testaments in four languages and glued them onto the front and back of blank folios in four columns to allow easy comparisons between the translations.

This source Bible shows how precisely Jefferson cut passages to paste in his compendium. (Photo by Hugh Talman)

Jefferson’s goal in creating this volume was to distill Jesus’ ethical teachings, which he believed provided “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.” Jefferson fashioned this volume for his own reading and reflection. The resulting work represented a meeting of Enlightenment thinking, Christian tradition and American Revolutionary thought, as imagined by one of the great thinkers of the era.

Jefferson never published his book, rather intending it to be private reading material and not for a larger audience. He considered his and others’ religious beliefs a private matter that should not be subjected to public scrutiny or government regulation.

The book stayed in Jefferson’s family until the Smithsonian’s librarian purchased it from Carolina Randolph, Jefferson’s great-granddaughter, in 1895. By an act of Congress in 1904, lithographic reproductions of the volume were created for distribution to members of Congress. Once these copies were distributed, no other facsimiles were made.

Jefferson carefully cut and pasted the passages he chose in chronological or subject order.

After nearly 200 years, the book has become fragile. Because of its age and the glue used to adhere the cuttings to the blank paper, the pages were extremely stiff and inflexible, and its tight binding led to cracking and some tearing of the pages, making the book too fragile to display. Conservation treatment was required to reestablish use and to ensure its long-term preservation. The treatment was to clean and stabilize the book, mend damaged pages and rebind the folios into Jefferson’s original cover. This allows the museum to once again safely display the book and provides access for scholarly research to this historic treasure. In addition, the team has constructed a custom protective enclosure to house the bible for long-term storage.

Smithsonian Books has released a full-color, reproduction facsimile, which features introductory essays by museum historians Rubenstein and Barbara Clark Smith, as well as an overview of the conservation treatment by the museum’s book and paper conservator Janice Stagnitto Ellis.

Smithsonian Channel has produced an hour-long documentary that will tell the extraordinary story of Jefferson’s bible and chronicle the intricate conservation work. Jefferson’s Secret Bible premieres February 2012.

“Jefferson’s Bible” is included in a comprehensive Smithsonian website at www.gosmithsonian.com/jefferson that features Smithsonian collections and research about Jefferson.

Janice Stagnitto Ellis, paper conservator at the American History Museum, carefully analyzes the Jefferson bible in the Smithsonian Channel documentary. (Photo by Rob Lyall)