George Washington’s first career was as a surveyor and mapmaker. He participated in his first surveying expedition when he was 15 years old. Two years later, he was appointed surveyor for the newly created frontier county of Culpeper, Virginia. By the time of his death, he had surveyed more than 200 tracts of land and owned almost 70,000 acres. On display is his survey of a plot of land in Virginia for his brother Lawrence (1718–1752). Gift of André de Coppet, Class of 1915. André de Coppet Collection, Manuscripts Division.
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The diary kept by Philip Vickers Fithian (Class of 1772) while working as a tutor to the family of Robert Carter III (1728–1804) is a rich source of information about early Virginia plantation life. His diary is open to the conclusion of an entry dated December 21 describing the sounds of a harmonica being played after dinner, and to the beginning of an entry dated December 23 criticizing the treatment of slaves at Carter’s Nomini Hall and neighboring plantations. After the American Revolution, Carter came to believe that slavery was immoral and implemented a program of gradual manumission that freed his nearly 500 slaves. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Hitchcock. General Manuscripts Bound, no. 349, Manuscripts Division.
Thomas Jefferson popularized the idea of the independent farmer as the linchpin of American government, economy, and society. From 1774 until his death in 1826, he kept careful records of his own building, planting, and livestock, as well as a census of the slaves on his estates. Among the names listed on these leaves from his Farm Book are those of Sally Hemings and her children Madison and Eston. Gift of Roger W. Barrett, Class of 1937. Thomas Jefferson Collection, Manuscripts Division.
As military secretary to General Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885), Adam Badeau witnessed the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War. He describes the occasion in this letter to his friend, General James Harrison Wilson (1837–1925), commending both Grant and Lee for their dignity and magnanimity. Gift of Shirley W. Morgan. Civil War Letters of Adam Badeau, Manuscripts Division.
The soldier and adventurer Captain John Smith became president of the Jamestown Colony’s governing council in 1608. He led the colony through its first year by improving defenses, cultivating land, and maintaining relations with Native Americans, whose agricultural knowledge and food stores were vital to the colonists’ survival. Between 1623 and 1624, during a period of weakening trust in the Virginia Company, Smith rushed to publish this major work supporting the Jamestown settlement. This copy bears the arms of King James I of England (r. 1603–1625). Rare Book Division. 
Gift of Mrs. Charles Mayhoff. Museum Objects Collection, Graphic Arts Collection.
The first permanent English settlement in North America was Jamestown, Virginia, founded in 1607. William Strachey sailed to Jamestown in 1609 and became the Virginia Company’s secretary to the colony. This manuscript is a contemporary scribal copy of Strachey’s eyewitness account of the colony, with his handwritten corrections and signature. It was extra-illustrated with 27 hand-colored engravings made in 1590 by Theodor de Bry (1528–1598). Depicted here is the Algonquian village Secotan. The continent’s Native American population may have numbered in the tens of millions before European settlement. In 1612, Strachey presented the manuscript to Henry Percy (1564–1632), 9th earl of Northumberland, known as the “Wizard Earl” for his interest in science. Gift of Cyrus H. McCormick, Class of 1879. General Manuscripts Bound, no. 1416, Manuscripts Division.