5 - What is Genius? “Openness, Brilliance, and Leadership”

Summary

A stunning array of mechanical and scientific devices invented or owned by Thomas Jefferson is presented in the catalogue entitled Monticello, a Gift Collection, distributed by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation. In this catalogue, and in several handsomely illustrated scholarly and popular studies, we gain an impression of Jefferson as scientist and inventor. Those who have visited Monticello never, or only once, can gain or supplement the experience by viewing the handsome pictures available online of such inventions as his writing-desk, his cipher lock, his “polygraph,” and his revolving bookstand, as well as other handsome objects he possessed, such as the orrery, the portable writing-desk, and a framed replica of the Declaration of Independence. The internet even provides us with the apocryphal information that Jefferson invented macaroni and cheese.