Forgotten History

Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and third President of the United States, also founded the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. While mired in controversy over slavery by revisionists, Jefferson was a man who embraced enlightenment. He was a man whose talents encompassed the arts, science, politics, architecture, religion and philosophy.

Official Presidential Portrait of Thomas Jefferson
by Rembrandt Peale

His intense desire for learning and passing on that knowledge was evident from his establishment of the University of Virginia, an institution of "higher learning free of church influences." At the age of 76, with the assistance of Edward Bacon, Jefferson chose the site for the new university and was the principal designer for most of the buildings. It was noted at the time that the university was centered around a grand library rather than a chapel.

As part of this design, Jefferson also included an advanced chemistry lab  This lab was state of the art for the time, and wholly designed by the former President with him leaning on previous British designs to aid his work. The lab fell into disuse two decades later and was bricked up to lie virtually forgotten behind brick walls.

A fire in 1895 as well as a gutting to "restore" the interior of the building in 1976 to Jeffersonian design was thought to have destroyed any traces of the chemistry lab. In February 2013, an architectural firm working on renovations discovered the long forgotten lab. There, another piece of history, forged from the mind of Thomas Jefferson, was uncovered and drawn into the light.

This articles explain in a bit more detail of what exactly was discovered and more of the background. I love it when history is preserved (even accidentally) rather than destroyed in programs designed to "modernize" our lives (see Urban Renewal). Considering the provenance of its creation, this discovery is a significant piece of history from one of our Founding Fathers.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/10/18/449729576/historic-chemistry-lab-with-links-to-thomas-jefferson-discovered-behind-wall

http://news.yahoo.com/what-we-can-learn-about-the-discovery-of-thomas-jefferson-s-chemistry-lab-at-university-of-virginia-194302159.html