"His house is filled with paintings and Indian relics, and a view of his rooms affords as much gratification as of a museum."
- Salma Hale, May 16, 1818
Thomas Jefferson designed this grand, two-story entryway as a museum, greeting his many visitors with busts, paintings, fossils, maps, and Native American artifacts.
Audio Overview:
Listen as Monticello guide Ashley Hollinshead provides an introduction to the Entrance Hall.
- The ceilings in this room are approximately 18 ½ feet high.
- The elk antlers above the map of Virginia are an original specimen sent to Jefferson by Lewis and Clark from the Mandan Nation, in modern-day North Dakota.
- American artist Gilbert Stuart suggested that Jefferson have the floor painted “grass green” in his Entrance Hall.
- Jefferson thought grand staircases were a waste of space. He designed two narrow and steep staircases instead that were placed in the passageways on either side of the house.
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American Indian Art and Artifacts
Jefferson displayed Native American art and artifacts in this room, similar to the pieces hanging on the walls today. During Jefferson’s presidency, he purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, and sent the Corps of Discovery, led by Meriweather Lewis and William Clark, west on a scientific and diplomatic expedition. They traveled from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean and back, assisted along the way by a young Shoshone woman named Sacagawea, who helped translate their meetings with over 40 Native Nations. Their cultural exchanges resulted in Jefferson’s collection of Native American art and artifacts, though the Corps of Discovery’s journey also foreshadowed centuries of westward expansion and Native American displacement.
The pieces on display are recreations made for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation by artisans of Native Nations like the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Lakota, at United Tribes Technical College in North Dakota.
