Martha Jefferson's
Personal Effects

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826),
Martha Jefferson (d. 1782), and
Anne Cary Randolph
Holograph manuscript notebook,
Page 2
1772-1782
Manuscript Division
State Department transfer, 1904 (196.1)

Martha Jefferson's thread case
Manuscript Division
State Department transfer, 1904 (196.4)

This household account and recipe book is one of the few surviving documents written by Thomas Jefferson's wife, Martha. Kept during the years of her marriage, 1772-1782, the book contains household instructions such as how to extract rennet from the stomachs of young ruminants like calves and sheep to coagulate milk for use in the production of cheese.

This thread case, used by Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, is one of the few personal items Thomas Jefferson kept that had belonged to his wife. Some of the original pins and needles can be seen in the case, which Jefferson preserved in his papers. Martha's thread case, along with her household account and recipe book (kept during the years of her marriage, 1772-1782), containing her household instructions, recipes, and inventory of household goods provide tangible artifacts of the economic and social role of the southern plantation mistress