The articles range from invaluable historical treasures such as the lap desk on which the Declaration of Independence was composed and Gilbert Stuart's portraits of Jefferson to the Mandan buffalo robe that was part of his collection of Native American artifacts and the silk damask-upholstered chairs he purchased in Paris. In all, it is a collection that mirrors both the mind of America's greatest statesman and the tastes and styles of a time in history when the American people secured their own independence and offered the world an example of a free people in a democratic state.