Clay Jenkinson is a humanities scholar and director of the Dakota Institute as well as an author and social commentator who routinely addresses corporate leaders, Supreme Court justices, state and national legislators, school children and college audiences, and conferences of every type. Clay has presented to Presidents Bush and Clinton. He is one of the most entertaining public speakers in the United States. His performances are both humorous and enlightening, while maintaining a steady focus on ideas. Clay Jenkinson is widely regarded as one of the most articulate public speakers in the country. His presentations are always educational, thought provoking, and humorous. He brings a humanities perspective --partly learned as a Rhodes Scholar an Oxford University-- to everything he does.

Clay is also one of the nation’s leading interpreters of Thomas Jefferson. He has lectured about and portrayed Jefferson in forty-nine states over a period of fifteen years. Clay also portrays Meriwether Lewis, John Wesley Powell, J. Robert Oppenheimer and Theodore Roosevelt. He has performed before Supreme Court justices, presidents, eighteen state legislatures, and countless public audiences as well as appearing on The Today Show, Politically Incorrect, and CNN , and as a consultant and principal on-air "talking head," in Ken Bums' Thomas Jefferson Film: 1997

He has dedicated the better part of his life to researching the historical characters that he portrays and to bringing back and defining the “living theatre” of Chautauqua, which also emphasizes education with audience participation to enhance the learning and entertainment experience.

While Clay is currently traveling and bringing his unique style of living history to college campuses, and corporate venues across the United States over 100 times a year, he is also mentoring others in the Chautauqua style of performing by his position as artistic director of the Nevada Humanities annual Great Basin Chautauqua Festival .


He has appeared on the Today Show, Politically Incorrect, CNN, and a range of other national and regional broadcasts. He was the principal on-air commentator for Ken Burns' PBS documentary on Thomas Jefferson. He was also the chief consultant, historian, script writer, and on-camera field host for the Lewis and Clark documentary, Travel in, on. Mr. Jenkinson is currently a scholar in residence at Dickinson State University in Dickinson , North Dakota.

Although Clay Jenkinson is best known for his award-winning portrayal of President Thomas Jefferson, he is also a remarkable lecturer, humorist, essayist, and social commentator. Clay lectures throughout the United States on a wide range of topics from the paradoxes in Jeffersonian philosophy to the history of the American Wilderness, from the epic adventure of Lewis and Clark to the future of the Great Plains. He conducts writing institutes, seminars on leadership, and symposiums on the role of the humanities in public education.

Empire Catalog was created to bring Clay's work to everyone through his taped historical performances , books and recordings of The Thomas Jefferson Hour and other recorded projects.

In addition to Thomas Jefferson, Clay Jenkinson portrays Theodore Roosevelt, Meriwether Lewis, J. Robert Oppenheimer and John Wesley Powell.

He lives and writes in Bismarck, North Dakota.