On his recent visit to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Clay visited the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers on campus. Dedicated in 2021, the memorial commemorates the estimated 4,000 enslaved people who worked on the University between 1817 and 1865.
Thomas Jefferson conceived and designed the University of Virginia as a unique “Academic Village” where students and professors would live and learn together.
As a kickoff for his 2025 Lewis and Clark trek, Clay visited and toured Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s primary home and plantation in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Clay checks out The Peaks of Otter in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which Thomas Jefferson speculated were the country’s tallest mountains.
Clay stopped by Natural Bridge State Park in the Shenandoah Valley. The site so captivated Thomas Jefferson that he purchased it from King of England in 1774.
Clay at Poplar Forest
Kicking off his 2025 transcontinental Lewis and Clark trek, Clay spends the day at Poplar Forest, the beloved personal retreat of Thomas Jefferson, the mastermind behind the famous Corps of Discovery.
LTA truck and Airstream at Poplar Forest
Clay begins his 2025 Lewis and Clark transcontinental journey in the land of Thomas Jefferson, the patron saint of the famous 1804-1806 expedition.
Oxford English Dictionary

A Word About Dictionaries

A short dissertation on my infatuation with dictionaries.
Thomas Jefferson's majestic second home, Poplar Forrest, in Lynchburg, Va. Clay Jenkinson will lecture there at 2:00 pm, May 6, 2025. (Photo Poplar Forest)
Clay will lecture at 2:00 p.m., May 6, 2025 on Thomas Jefferson’s vision for Lewis and Clark’s “Corps of Discovery.”
Thomas Jefferson long harbored a desire to make Cuba part of the newly forming United States. In 1809, he wrote to James Madison outlining his dream to erect a column on the Southernmost limit of Cuba inscribed:
The United States has a long, tortured relationship with Cuba, including Thomas Jefferson’s imperial designs on the island. As Clay travels to Cuba this week to lead a cultural tour, he reflects on a bit of forgotten history between the U.S. and the island nation 90 miles from Key West, Florida.