William Short was born in 1759 in Surry County, Virginia. He graduated in 1779 from the College of William and Mary, where he founded the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity. He was elected to the Virginia Executive Council of State at the age of 24.

Today considered America's first career diplomat, Short acted as Thomas Jefferson's private secretary when he accompanied Jefferson to France in 1784. His first important task was to exchange drafts of the U.S.-Prussian Treaty with the Prussian minister at The Hague. Short was made Charge d'affairs at Paris in 1789 and continued Jefferson's policy of seeking liberation of French domestic and colonial commerce in favor of the United States. Short's capabilities and social skills came to be widely appreciated in French diplomatic and social circles.

Short served as the fiscal agent of the United States from 1790 to 1792. He was Minister of The Hague in 1792 and then of Madrid in 1793. He returned to France in 1795 and lived there until 1810. He then returned to the United States and devoted himself to private affairs. Short was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1804 in recognition of his distinguished achievements as a scholar, diplomat and financier. He died in 1849.

George Green Shackelford was a professor of history at Virginia Tech. He also was a historical preservation expert and specialist in the age of Washington and Jefferson in Virginia history. In 1985, he received an award from the Virginia Chapter of the American Institute of Architecture in historic preservation.

Shackelford attended the Woodberry Forest School, Columbia University, and then the University of Virginia for his Ph.D. He also earned certificates from the Attingham Summer School and Institute of Historical and Archival Management. In 1942, Shackelford received his commission in the Naval Reserve and served in anti-submarine warfare in the Atlantic and Pacific. He was a Lieutenant by the end of his service.

Before Shackelford taught at Virginia Tech from 1954 to 1986, he taught at Birmingham Southern College from 1948 to 1949 and worked as a research fellow at the Virginia Historical Society. From 1963 to 1964, Shackelford spearheaded the restoration of Smithfield Plantation. In 1967, he worked as a historical consultant to the Westmoreland David Memorial Foundation for Morven Park in Leesburg, Virginia.

Shackelford was also a prolific author. He wrote five books, including Jefferson's Adoptive Son: The Life of William Short, 1759-1849 and Thomas Jefferson's Travels in Europe, 1784-1789. He also wrote many articles and was the co-editor of the Virginia Social Sciences Journal.