Celebrating the Fourth

Your support makes programs like Independence Day at Monticello possible. Help us continue our important work.

Donate Now

Thomas Jefferson's watch key was both an essential tool and a marker of loss. Jefferson used it to wind his pocket watch and it was a memento that contained a delicately woven lock of hair from his late wife Martha Wayles Jefferson, who died in 1782 after 10 years of marriage. The hair is held in place beneath a piece of quartz crystal and the gold plate on the reverse is inscribed: “Martha W. Jefferson / Born 19 Oct. 1748 / Died 6 Sept. 1782.”

While this object is small, the story it tells is large. Learn more in this video from Monticello’s Associate Curator of Decorative Arts Diane Ehrenpreis.