Hamilton Historical Facts(Including Pictures, Comics, Drawings, etc.)

Jefferson's Animals

Source 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_the_Mockingbird

1.) Dick the Mockingbird was the name of one of  's pet birds. Although there had been previous , Jefferson is thought to be "the first president to have a pet [that lived] in the ..." Prior to his term in the , Jefferson bought his first  in November 1772 from a  of his father-in-law  for five shillings. Birds were Jefferson's favorite animal and Dick was the favorite from among at least four mockingbirds the president had while in office. During his time in the White House, Jefferson wrote observations on the types of birds that he spotted in the area. In May 1793, in response to a letter from his son-in-law , Jefferson wrote: "I sincerely congratulate you on the arrival of the mockingbird. Teach all the children to venerate it as a superior being which will haunt them if any harm is done to itself or its eggs."

Source 2: https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/grizzly-bears

2.) Thomas Jefferson received a pair of grizzly bears as a gift from  in 1807. The bears arrived at about the same time as Pike's letter (October 1807) explaining that he had acquired the male and female cubs in the southern region of the great Continental Divide. An expedition led by Pike had explored along the Arkansas River and then, either knowingly or by error, had crossed into Spanish territory.

Source 3: https://americacomesalive.com/2015/07/15/thomas-jeffersons-dogs/

While serving as minister to France from 1784-1789, Thomas Jefferson became aware of the writings of Georges-Louis Leclerc, the Comte de Buffon (1707-1788), whom he described as having been the "best informed Naturalist who has ever written." The French naturalist, mathematician, and author wrote that the finest dog he knew was the chien bergere de Brie (Briard sheepdog) because of its intelligence and fine character. According to de Buffon, the dog was "instinctively prone to industry."

Source 4: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/05/18/thomas-jefferson-had-a-pet-sheep-which-killed-a-small-boy/

[he bought 40 sheep when he moved into the White House] Among the 40 sheep, was a beautiful Shetland ram and Jefferson was proud to be the owner of such an animal. The ram was, however, also notoriously aggressive and attacked several people before a most shocking incident occurred, in which the ram killed a young boy.

Source 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalonyx

In 1796, Colonel  sent , then , some fossil bones: a fragment, , , and foot bones including three large claws. The discoveries were made in a cave in , Virginia (present-day ). Jefferson then presented a paper on "Certain Bones" to the  in  on March 10, 1797. In the paper, he theorized that the bones represented the remains of a , which he named Megalonyx ("giant claw"). Jefferson's paper took as a premise the idea that the creature was still . Contrary to the scientific consensus emerging at the time that  had played an important role in natural history, Jefferson believed in a "completeness of nature" whose inherent balance did not allow species to go extinct naturally. He asked , as they planned their famous expedition in 1804–1806, to keep an eye out for living specimens of Megalonyx, as this would support his case. His idea made no headway and was later shown to be incorrect.