Ann Lucas Birle presents: "Thomas Jefferson's Granddaughter in Queen Victoria's England"

Join us as Ann Lucas Birle, Monticello Research Historian, discusses Thomas Jefferson's Granddaughter in Queen Victoria's England: The Travel Diary of Ellen Wayles Coolidge, 1838-1839, published this October, 2011. Book signing to follow.

Thomas Jefferson's granddaughter, Ellen Wayles Coolidge, kept a diary during her nine-month stay in London, which reveals the uncommon education of her youth when she lived and studied at Monticello with her grandfather. Coolidge records the details of London's public buildings, museums, parks and of her conversations with writers such as Thomas Carlyle, Anna Jameson and activists including Charles Sumner and Harriet Martineau. Coolidge gives firsthand accounts as she watches the young Queen Victoria open Parliament and battle the first scandal of her reign, chronicles art work held in both public and private collections, and acknowledges a new appreciation for the modern art of J. M. W. Turner. As she encounters her mother's school-girl friends and recalls the songs sung by her grandfather while working in his study, Coolidge's thoughts return to Monticello and the lessons she learned there. 

Talk by Ann Lucas Birle, Monticello Research Historian, begins at 4pm, book selling and signing at 5pm.

Free and open to the public, but since space is limited, advanced registration is necessary at lsandercock@monticello.org

Buy the book online:

• Thomas Jefferson's Granddaughter in Queen Victoria's England: The Travel Diary of Ellen Wayles Coolidge, 1838-1839, Ann Lucas Birle and Lisa A. Francavilla, editors, University of Virginia Press, October 2011.