Exhibits under the Main House

Step into the hidden heart of Monticello, where enslaved workers and Jefferson family members once crossed paths in a bustling space of labor, motion, and daily life.

Location
All-Weather Passage and Main House Basement
Ages
All ages
Access
This exhibit is fully accessible
Cost
Included with admission
Tickets
A man and his daughter look at cutout life-sized depictions of a man and a woman in early 19th-century dress while another man looks at a cutout image of an enslaved boy carrying firewood and a bucket.

Crossroads Exhibit

A man and his daughter look at cutout life-sized depictions of a man and a woman in early 19th-century dress while another man looks at a cutout image of an enslaved boy carrying firewood and a bucket.

The cellar level of the Monticello house was a horizontal and vertical crossroads constantly in motion. Here, enslaved domestic workers, Jefferson family members, slaves accompanying Monticello visitors, waggoners delivering supplies, and anyone else using Monticello's work spaces crossed paths.

Domestic work in the Monticello house is the focus of "Crossroads," the exhibition installed in the house's central cellar, adjacent to the Wine Cellar and directly beneath the entrance Hall. Visitors get a sense of the constant interaction and activity required to keep Monticello running.

Life-sized figures in the space "present" enslaved butler Burwell Colbert; Jefferson's daughter and plantation mistress Martha Jefferson Randolph; Priscilla Hemmings, chief nurse to Jefferson's grandchildren; Israel Gillette, a teen-age house servant; Betty Brown, a seamstress and lady's maid who spent more time working in slavery at Monticello than any other person; and Harriet Hemings, an enslaved girl who learned needlework and other skills from her female relatives. Each figure is accompanied by a museum case of archaeologically recovered objects representing items they may have worn, carried in their pockets, or used in their jobs, including shoe buckles, a pocket knife, beads and earrings, thimbles, scissors, pins, and an iron.

Wine Cellar

Shelves of wine bottles in the restored wine cellar at Monticello.

Jefferson has been described as America’s “first distinguished viticulturist” for his support for the establishment of an American wine industry and his efforts to grow European grape varieties, Vitis vinifera, at Monticello and regularly purchased wine from Europe. Located just below Monticello’s Dining Room, the Wine Cellar brings to life the story of Thomas Jefferson and wine with interpretive signs, reproductions of period wine bottles, and a restored original wine dumbwaiter.

Beer Cellar

At Monticello, beer was a "table liquor" served during dinner, and Jefferson's earliest designs for his plantation included spaces for brewing and the storage of beer. The Beer Cellar tells the story not only of beer and brewing at Monticello but also of its various brewers like Joseph Miller, English sailor, and Peter Hemings, Monticello slave.