Cyrus Adler and the Jefferson Bible

As a young student of Semitic studies at Johns Hopkins University in 1886, Cyrus Adler discovered in a private library two cut-up copies of the New Testament. A curious attached note stated that these were the English volumes used to create Thomas Jefferson's The Life and Morals of Jesus. At the time Adler made an unsuccessful attempt to locate Jefferson's book. Years later, serving as the Smithsonian Institution's librarian and serving as a curator of world religions, Adler renewed his search. In 1895 he located the volume, still in the possession of Jefferson's great-granddaughter, Carolina Randolph, and purchased the book for $400.

Cyrus Adler