Janneken
Jefferson/Monticello Enthusiast
Philadelphia, PA
Interests
About Me
I never really was a Jefferson enthusiast before I started working on monticello.org, and now I am borderline obsessed. My own research centers on material culture, consumer culture, and globalization; my dissertation is about Amish quilts and the people who made, bought, sold, preserved, and neglected them.
Was Jefferson a vegetarian? Good question. It seems among TJ's many idiosyncrasies was a fondness for fruits and veggies. He fed his slaves more meat than he consumed himself. more »
TJ was so ambivalent and conflicted about slavery that he attempted to design his world to make slaves invisible. These dumbwaiters enabled Jefferson and his guests the illusion of functioning without the assistance of slaves. Food and wine magically appeared. Empty dishes disappeared via the...more »
Well, I do love ice cream, especially homemade ice cream. These are the same ingredients my parents continue to use when they make it, although I don't think they own a Sabottiere, which evidently is a French term for a vessel which held ice. I can only imagine how special ice cream would have...more »
This cowrie shell demonstrates a lot about why I love studying material culture. A shell from a snail-like creature native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans ends up in the storage cellar of a slave quarter on the estate of the nation's first Secretary of State. Quite a form of international...more »
My colleague Dan Claro at the University of Delaware used this packing list as the launching point for his dissertation on mobility and the human body in Early America. I love the way it suggests how Lewis and Clark confronted the unknown. They did not know what they might encounter on their...more »