Man Finds Books Owned by Thomas Jefferson Inside a Dumpster

[left-of-center2012]

Max Brown doesn't usually dumpster dive, but on a day in 2014, he was scavenging through a Nevada garbage bin for a community service project when he spied old 1980s-era cassette tapes. He scooped them up, and saw underneath a pile of very old books. He gathered as many as he could, and scampered out of the receptacle as it began to rain.

Thus began a journey of many stops and starts that would ultimately connect him to people he'd never before met, and to one of the country's founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson. The ancient and well-worn books sat in his South Lake Tahoe home for some six months before he and a friend carefully turned the manuscript's fragile pages. They also found old notes and family photos.

Archived records showed the volumes were purchased by the American hero in 1814, Brown told InsideEdition.com. "That's when I began to get really excited," he said. Jefferson "had also written his initials on the bottom of some pages," Brown said. He assumed they were reference marks to passages Jefferson found meaningful. He informed historians at Monticello, Jefferson's historic Virginia estate, that the books had once been owned by the patriot.

The volumes were in a sorry state, polluted by black mold and damp. He ultimately sold them to an auction house for $8,000. He's never regretted it, he said, because the historical artifacts would only have further deteriorated if he had held onto them.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/good-news/inside-a-dumpster-california-man-finds-trove-of-ancient-books-owned-by-thomas-jefferson/ar-BBLkQ3a

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. The real story is how in the world did they end up in Nevada?

And how did they end up in a dumpster?

How could anyone along the way not have known what these books were?

[DFW]

2. Several possibilities

Many retirees from the East Coast move out to Nevada for the dry air, taking their libraries with them. No doubt plenty of the people charged with cleaning out houses of those who pass away without leaving heirs haven't the slightest idea of the content of old decrepit books they encounter in the houses of these people, and thus toss them away.

My friends in Dallas once got an old pamphlet sent down to them by an Iraq vet in Ohio. He had bought it at some yard sale for $8. After some encouragement to check it out since it looked "old," he sent it to the specialists in Dallas, who confirmed it to be an original copy of "The Federalist Papers." It fetched $80,000 at auction, and when they heard the guy didn't have a penny to his name, they waived their fee, and sent him $88,000. There isn't much reason an original copy of the Federalist Papers should end up at a garage sale in Ohio, but this kind of thing does happen. The stories are as varied as the paths.

[mopinko]

7. concur about when people die. i have found some amazing stuff

in such dumps. really good jewelry, even.

[kcr]

3. It makes you wonder how much has been lost

But best not to think about it and marvel at this incredible story.

[DFW]

5. More than anyone could possibly imagine

I marveled at the things we found just going through my parents' house when my mom passed away. An 1899 printing on India paper of Kipling's "Jungle Book," a book from 1876 autographed by Mark Twain, dozens of volumes from many decades past inscribed by the authors. Many of these had come from their parents, and who knows from whom before that?

[kcr]

8. This brings back memories. My grandfather had an eye for finding neat stuff like that.

His basement was his hangout, decorated with all the things he collected over the years. He died when I was young and I have no idea what happened to any of it.

[Loge23]

4. Let me guess..

..this was outside of the White House?

[rsdsharp]

6. I'm a little skeptical about this.

He says Jefferson purchased the books in 1814. But the Library of Congress purchased Jefferson's library in 1815, after the War of 1812 ended. Much of that collection was ultimately destroyed in a fire in 1851.

I'm sure Jefferson acquired more books after the sale, and these may be among those. Alternatively, they may have been books which the Library of Congress didn't want, or which were duplicates. Or not. Who wrote "From the Library of Thomas Jefferson" since it wasn't Jefferson according to the article?