Clay S. Jenkinson is one of the most sought-after humanities scholars in the United States.
A cultural commentator who has devoted most of his professional career to public humanities programs.
Clay Jenkinson has been honored by two presidents for his work.  In 1989, he received one of the first
Charles Frankel Prizes, the National Endowment for the Humanities highest award now called the National Humanities Medal, from President George Bush Sr.  April 11, 1994, he performed at a gathering hosted by President Clinton.  As the nations top Jefferson scholar he was asked to be the major Jefferson commentator
for Ken Burn's Thomas Jefferson documentary. Over the last twenty years Clay has made thousands of presentations throughout the United States, from Supreme Court Justices, to prison inmates, legislators to elementary school children. He has received many honorary awards through his career in numerous states.
He has performed in every state except Alaska.

                                       

Best known for his award-winning historical impersonations of Thomas Jefferson, Clay Jenkinson also impersonates other characters, including Theodore Roosevelt, John Wesley Powell, Meriwether Lewis,
Robert Oppenheimer, Francis Bacon, and more.

Clay is the creator of the Thomas Jefferson Hour. with host David Swenson at Makoche Studios in North Dakota.   The program is a product of the New Enlightenment Radio Network - a nonprofit organization dedicated to the furtherance of Thomas Jefferson's dream for America.  Find an affiliate near you or listen to the program at Clay's website at http://www.th-jefferson.org. If you would like to watch a few of Clay's live performances, you can view them here with WGN Radio host John Williams in Illinois:  http://www.35words.com/media_StCharles.htm .

Clay is the author of several books including, Becoming Jefferson's People: Re-Inventing the American Republic in the Twenty-first Century, Message on the Wind, A Spiritual Odyssey on the Northern Plains, his first book, a memoir to his early years in North Dakota, The Character of Meriwether Lewis, Completely Metamorphosed in the American West, A Vast and Open Plain, The Writings of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in North Dakota, 1804-1806,  He and John Williams from WGN Radio in Chicago are currently engaged in creating a book, Letters To Thomas Jefferson, which encapsulates the stage show in printed word. Look for it to arrive in 2008.  

Clay Jenkinson resides at his home in  Bismarck, North Dakota.  When he is not traveling on business he spends time with the center of his universe- his daughter Catherine Missouri. Otherwise. if you can catch up with Clay, you will find him hosting a dinner party, hiking a North Dakota butte, reading a classic novel or a new bound book, writing a column for his local community newspaper, working in his "Situation Room", roto-tilling his garden,  or, or,,, ,,,,  leading one of our Odyssey cultural tours.