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Family and friends gathered in this parlor for games, music, and conversation, and it was the site of weddings, dances, and other important social events. It held part of Jefferson's art collection, including portraits of many people whom he admired or considered noteworthy.
Audio Overview
Listen as Monticello Guide Justin Bates, provides an overview of the Parlor and activities that took place here.
We know where most paintings hung in Jefferson’s time because he made a list of the works of art in Monticello’s public rooms.
The large pier mirrors on either side of the entrance to this room have been here since Thomas Jefferson’s time and have never left the house.
The device near the window with a glass bulb and a crank is called an “air pump” and was used to demonstrate the physics of a vacuum chamber. It was both curious and educational.
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Salome Bearing the Head of St. John the Baptist
Do you see a painting with a head on a platter? This work depicts Salome bearing the head of St. John the Baptist, and Jefferson bought this painting, a copy of an early 17th century Guido Reni painting, in France. Biblical paintings like these were fashionable at the time.
Jefferson remained private about his personal religious beliefs, and political opponents often speculated about his faith, or lack thereof. He said he was “a sect unto himself.” He wrote that he believed in God and thought Jesus was the world’s greatest moral teacher, but he also recorded that he was skeptical of miracles, the Trinity, and of the divinity of Christ.
Jefferson, like many early American political thinkers, argued for the separation of church and state, religious freedom, and religious tolerance. He championed the idea of religious freedom and took great pride in authoring the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, the first state law to give all religions freedom to worship. Jefferson’s support of religious freedom later influenced Uriah Levy, the first Jewish Commodore of the United States Navy, to purchase Monticello in 1834 and preserve Thomas Jefferson’s home.
Bacon, Newton, and Locke
Jefferson called these three men his “trinity of the three greatest men the world has ever produced.” Sir Francis Bacon on the left was a philosopher, a statesman, and is often called the father of the scientific method. In the center is Sir Isaac Newton, father of modern physics and one of the inventors of calculus. The painting of John Locke on the right is original to Monticello. Locke was a statesman and philosopher who believed that people were born with natural rights to life, liberty, and property.
"...a large and rather elegant room, twenty or thirty feet high...The floor of this room is tessellated. It is formed of alternate diamonds of cherry and beech, and kept polished as highly as if it were of fine mahogany. Here are the best pictures of the collection. ...the earliest navigators to America, – Columbus, Americus Vespuccious, Magellan, etc., – copied, Mr. Jefferson said, from originals in the Florence Gallery. Farther round...Lafayette in his Revolutionary uniform, and Franklin in the dress in which we always see him."
- George Ticknor, 7 February 1815
Architectural Decoration
Look at the moldings around the ceiling and over the doors and mantle. You will see oxen skulls, jugs, knives, bowls, and axes -- Roman symbols of sacrifice. They are copied from the friezes on the Temple of Vespasian and Titus in the Roman Forum. A craftsman named George Andrews created the decorative friezes from a putty-like material called “composite ornament” made of hide glue, chalk, linseed oil, and pine rosin. All the friezes in the house are derived either from Roman temples or the writings of Italian architect Andrea Palladio.
Harpsichord and Violin
Jefferson described music as “the favorite passion of my soul,” and loved music all his life. As a young man, he was an accomplished violinist and shared his love of music with his wife, Martha. Martha Jefferson played a harpsichord similar to the one on display in the Parlor. Their daughters, Martha and Maria, also learned to play keyboard instruments.
Jefferson’s personal violins were lost. The violin on display was made by Mathew Hardie in Edinburgh in 1798.
Music was an important part of life for many people at Monticello, both free and enslaved, and sometimes people used music to transcend the strict boundaries enforced by slavery. Jefferson’s sons with Sally Hemings played the violin like their father. In freedom, Eston Hemings supported himself as a musician and band leader, playing songs he had learned at Monticello.
