July 4, 1776, was a busy day in Philadelphia. The Continental Congress had just voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence, a document Thomas Jefferson had spent weeks drafting, defending, and watching his colleagues edit. You might expect the author to have spent the rest of the day reflecting on what he had set in motion.
Instead, according to Jefferson's personal account books, he went shopping. According to the Stanford Report, his ledger from that historic afternoon shows two purchases: a thermometer and seven pairs of women's gloves.
Historians have wondered for 250 years what was on Jefferson's mind. The thermometer fits a man known for his scientific curiosity. The gloves are harder to explain, though most likely a gift for his wife, Martha, who was unwell at home in Virginia.
It is a small, very human footnote to one of the most consequential days in American history.
