The
Thomas Jefferson Memorial is a
presidential memorial in
Washington, D.C., dedicated to
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), one of the most important of the
American Founding Fathers as the main drafter and writer of the
Declaration of Independence, member of the
Continental Congress,
Governor of the newly independent Commonwealth of Virginia, American minister to
King Louis XVI and the
Kingdom of France, first
U.S. Secretary of State under the first President
George Washington, the second
Vice President of the United States under second President
John Adams, and also the third
President of the United States, (1801–1809), as well as being the founder of the
University of Virginia at
Charlottesville, Virginia.