Delay is preferable to error

ST. LOUIS — Dozens of Thomas Jefferson's books, some including handwritten notes from America's third president, have been found in the rare books collection at Washington University in St. Louis. 

Now, historians are going through the 69 newly discovered books and five others the school already knew about, and librarians are searching the collection for more volumes that may have belonged to the founding father.

Even if no other Jefferson-owned books are found, the school's collection of 74 books is the third largest after the Library of Congress and the University of Virginia.

"It is so out of the blue and pretty amazing," said Washington University's rare books curator Erin Davis of the discovery that was announced on the U.S. holiday of President's Day.
The books were among about 3,000 that were donated to the school in 1880 after the death of Jefferson's granddaughter, Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, and her husband, Joseph Coolidge.