Musical Entertainment by Lucia C. Stanton, (April 1991), E332.2 .A5 1991A

In six accounts, denoted by different locations, dates, and musical arrangements played and by whom, various instruments played or related to those played by members of the Jefferson family are discussed. A 1786 Kirckman was purchased by Jefferson and played by Martha Jefferson in Paris in 1789, and yet another given to Maria Jefferson in 1798. Jefferson encouraged musicianship in his daughters and subsequent generations (Martha, Maria, Ellen Randolph and her aunt Virginia Cary were all skilled performers) and sought out the newest innovations in instruments from the American composer and harpsichord-maker Francis Hopkinson, John Joseph Merlin, musical authority Dr. Charles Burney, Adam Walker (creator of the Celestina stop), and the famed British harpsichord-maker from Alsace, Jacob Kirckman. Though he always took the side of the harpsichord over the new and popular piano-forte, Virginia Jefferson Trist finally purchased one for Monticello in 1825; in 1991, Patricia Kluge donated a 1762 Kirckman harpsichord to Monticello.