Conserving Monticello's Great Clock
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the restoration and conservation of Monticello's iconic Great Clock. (Updated March 24, 2020)
Monticello's Parlor Gets New Coat of Paint (in an Old Color)
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While the circumstances are unfortunate (to say the very, very least) our temporary closure has allowed these colleagues to begin a project that would otherwise be impossible: acting on expert paint analysis to return the Parlor to what we now know is its historically accurate color: gray. (Updated March 26, 2020)
Other Projects
- Repairing a minor crack in the parlor ceiling and repainting
- Installing new lights (six small fixtures) in the North Piazza (“tea porch”) ceiling
- Repainting the interior trim in the North Pavilion
- Re-graining the book boxes in the Library Annex
- Preparing the recently uncovered picture rail in the South Passage for painting. We recently discovered the rail was originally painted a brilliant, glossy green color with gilded hooks embedded in it. We are now working with makers of historic linseed oil paints to replicate the color and with blacksmiths to reproduce the missing hooks, based on the one surviving hook.
- Cleaning the marble hearths and chimney surrounds, which, like Ariadne, had become covered with layers of dirt and wax that turned the white marble yellow
- Removing abandoned wires in the South Cellar and Attic