Seymour Diamond, MD
Executive Chairman and Founder
National Headache Foundation
Director Emeritus and Founder
Diamond Headache Clinic
Chicago, IL
Mary A. Franklin
Director of Operations
National Headache Foundation
Chicago, IL
***This article is based on a previously published article of the same name which appeared in Headache Quarterly 2002: 13: 123-124
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), the third president of the
United States, was an astute scholar of science, poetry,
and politics, as well as a prolific writer. You will also note
Jefferson’s name on the lists of famous migraine sufferers.
This knowledge results from Jefferson being a prolific
diarist, maintaining a daily journal which provided
historians with tremendous insight into his activities,
beliefs, and personal life. On his own tombstone, he
wrote the dedication–“Here was buried Thomas Jefferson.
Author of the Declaration of American Independence,
of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and
Father of the University of Virginia.” Jefferson had
requested–“not another word more.” The original
tombstone was moved from Monticello, Jefferson’s
Virginia home, because of souvenir hunters vandalizing
the obelisk. It now sits in the Francis Quadrangle
at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO.
Jefferson’s accomplishments are legion–he served in
the Continental Congress where he was assigned the task
of writing the draft of the Declaration of Independence,
served as the wartime governor of Virginia, and during
the early years of American independence, he was
chairman of the commi