From Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 21 February 1801
To Charles Willson Peale
Washington Feb. 21. 1801.
Dear Sir
I have to thank you for a copy of your introductory lecture recieved some time since, & not before acknoleged for want of time. I have read it with great pleasure, and lament that while I have been so near to your valuable collection, occupations much less pleasing to me have always put it out of my power to avail myself of it. may I ask the favor of you to present my request to your son that he would be so good as to1 make a copy of the portrait he took of me, and of the same size? it is intended for a friend who has expressed a wish for it; and when ready I will give directions to whom it shall be delivered if he will be so good as to drop me a line mentioning it & the price. I am with great and affectionate esteem Dear Sir
Your friend & servt.
Th: Jefferson
P.S. only the inner frame will be necessary.
RC (TxU); at foot of text: “C. W. Peale.” PrC (DLC); endorsed by TJ in ink on verso.
Introductory lecture: Peale’s Discourse Introductory to a Course of Lectures on the Science of Nature; with Original Music, Composed For, and Sung On, the Occasion (Philadelphia, 1800), presented at the University of Pennsylvania on 8 Nov. 1800; No. 38203. For Rembrandt Peale’s Portrait of TJ, probably painted in the winter or spring of 1800, see Vol. 31:xli, 368 (illus.).
1. Preceding 14 words interlined.