Eric Johnson
Jefferson/Monticello Enthusiast
Charlottesville, VA
Interests
About Me
I'm Head of Outreach & Consulting at the Scholars' Lab at the University of Virginia Library, and formerly in charge of social media at Monticello. History and library nerd.
What Chad said! I was wondering the same thing. This looks great. We're making noise about canning some (modern-day) ketchup this month ourselves. I'll have to share this with everybody.more »
Oh, nicely examined! I particularly love the point about not assuming we have the whole picture based on fragmentary evidence. Where, dare I ask, was the apostrophe in "Patsy?"more »
So glad that everybody had fun!more »
One that I keep seeing is "take a picture of your group all jumping in the air on the West Lawn," like this one. And of course it takes like three or five (or ten) tries to get it right.more »
This letter is absolutely hilarious--it's so cutting! Poor Monsieur Le Sage. His work is apparently not worth Jefferson's limited time. The letter also shows Jefferson's dry sense of humor. So many people can't envision TJ as humorous, but it's certainly there. I also appreciate his reference to...more »
They definitely make for some of the best stories, that's for sure! I hope that Jefferson's quote to Martha makes it onto the quote board in the Mountaintop Shop.more »
I have to agree with Anna on this score--this is a very useful page for anybody doing research into Jefferson quotes. Especially ones of the "did Jefferson really say that" variety. You wouldn't believe how many spurious quotes are floating around. Folks love their Jefferson...more »
This is an amazing project headed up by our senior research historian. I very much appreciate the way she has so intentionally and thoughtfully reached out to descendants of the enslaved families of Monticello--it's a true scholarly model of this sort of research-backed oral history. It...more »
Gardeners are among the biggest supporters of all things Jefferson; pictures from the gardens never fail to elicit a lot of input on our Facebook page. The In Bloom database is a wonderful resource for anybody who loves Jefferson's love of plants, or if they just want to come visit (or...more »
Probably no other room in the house immediately plunges the visitor so thoroughly into Jefferson's inner world as this one, with his reading and writing area, the revolving bookstand, his polygraph (copying machine) and his scientific instruments. It takes no effort to put Jefferson right...more »
"I cannot live without books." Nor can I. What I wouldn't give for a library like this at my house, with the greenhouse and Cabinet adjacent.more »
This is one of my two favorite rooms in the house (the other his Jefferson's Cabinet). The intentionality with which Jefferson put this room together--and with which the curatorial staff has reconstructed it--is incredible. It served as Jefferson's calling card for the nation--he...more »
ICJS fellowships are another way that we make sure scholarship continues to be a living, breathing thing at Monticello. It's a real treat when we learn about the research projects of our incoming fellows--they can range from the most focused, practical point of research to sweeping, big...more »
It's been a pleasure getting a chance to meet the field school students the past few years. I love the fact that we offer this kind of opportunity here, showing that Monticello isn't just a place resting on the laurels of past research but a place of ongoing active scholarship and...more »
This is a phenomenal resource for anybody interested in Thomas Jefferson and the world of plants through which he traveled during his lifetime. The issues of Twinleaf are filled with scholarly articles about all kinds of aspects of the plants Jefferson and his contemporaries knew, horticulture...more »
Lots of folks in the community don't realize that this park is owned and operated by Monticello--they assume it's a public park. It's the most popular park in central Virginia and for good reason: it's gorgeous! I wish I had more time to spend walking the boardwalk and...more »
Last year I had the honor of getting a behind-the-scenes tour at the Library of Congress from a colleague and friend of mine, and one of the absolute highlights was the chance to hold the original of this letter (very carefully!) in my hands. I love these instructions because they're so...more »
These are perhaps my all-time favorites of the records Jefferson kept. I'm fascinated by his interest in the weather--not only the methodical way he kept the records but his efforts to find the best instruments he could afford and his gut feeling that phenology (the connection between...more »
I personally believe that Virginia or the United States would do well to purchase this property and make it a state or national park. Not only was it owned by Jefferson, but it loomed large in the travel psyche of the nineteenth century, considered one of the major natural wonders of the known...more »
I am constantly consulting the volumes put out by the able scholars of "the Papers," as we affectionately call them. The Retirement Series will cover Jefferson's correspondence from his retirement in 1809 until his death in 1826--six volumes of this series have been published...more »
I have to agree with Chad on this clip. It may be irreverent--and its Monty Python roots are clear--but it also points out something I simply had not known before coming to work at Monticello, that Thomas Jefferson was an incredible record-keeper. I knew he was a prolific letter-writer, but I...more »
I would be deeply remiss not to remark on this page, since it's all about the work I do here. We're trying to build communities through as many tools as we can! Hope you find one you like.more »
One of my all-time favorite events at Monticello. It's wonderful to get the incredible backstories of the development of these apple varieties from the truly passionate experts they bring in. I had no idea going in that it would be as interesting as it ended up being. Nor did I realize...more »
One of the things that popularly gets said about TJ is that he was a big inventor. At Monticello, we typically will argue that he wasn't so much an inventor as an improver, though we will often say he did invent at least one thing: this "mouldboard of least resistance." I don...more »
This is a fantastic collection of resources--a one-stop shop, really--of Jefferson-related research material. In the course of helping to answer questions from visitors, I especially use the Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition and JSTOR. The former is great for getting TJ's exact...more »