Shakespeare Authorship: Jefferson and Adams Visit to Stratford-upon-Avon

'After the war, Adams was appointed the first US minister to England. In the spring of 1786, he and Thomas Jefferson took a six-day tour of the English countryside that included a disappointing stop at Shakespeare’s birthplace at Stratford-upon-Avon. The house was “as small and mean as you can conceive,” wrote Adams in his diary. “There is nothing preserved of this great genius . . which might inform us what education, what company, what accident turned his mind to letters and drama.”'

Shakespeare in American Life: John Adams

'Our presidents have always loved Shakespeare. In April 1786, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson visited Shakespeare's birthplace at Stratford-upon-Avon.  "They shew us an old Wooden Chair in the Chimney corner, where He sat," Adams wrote in his diary. "We cutt off a Chip according to Custom." Adams lamented that "[t]here is nothing preserved of this great Genius," with no apparent recognition that more might have been preserved if tourists had not taken away chips of the fixtures."'

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