Join us Wednesday, November 30, from 4-5 p.m. ET for a virtual Fellow’s Forum with Americana Foundation Curatorial Fellow Molly Martien.
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About the Talk
Over the past year through her fellowship with The Americana Foundation Molly Martien has catalogued over 400 of the most important objects in the Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s collection. Her cataloguing project consisted of a hands-on study and analysis of silver, ceramics, personal items, and particularly furniture. As an outcome of this project, Martien pursued a research study of a revolving table attributed to enslaved carpenter and cabinetmaker John Hemmings who spent much of his life in Monticello’s joiner’s shop. The joiner’s shop, part of a series of workshops, was located on Mulberry Row directly below Monticello. Created in the shop, the table is an important piece of material culture because it is the best documented object by an enslaved cabinetmaker in the Foundation’s collection. Using the revolving table as a case study with supporting evidence such as important letters, drawings, the built environment, and material culture, this presentation creates a more complete picture of both the object and the physical environment where it was created at Monticello and later used at Poplar Forest, Jefferson’s retreat home in Bedford County, Virginia. This paper will explore how Jefferson commissioned furniture from Hemmings, the construction process completed by Hemmings and a team of enslaved workmen, the life of the enslaved community at Monticello, and the table’s place in the history of design.
About Molly Martien
Molly Martien is The Americana Foundation Curatorial Fellow at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. She completed her bachelor’s degree in American Studies from The College of William and Mary with coursework at the National Institute of American History and Democracy (NIAHD). She received a Master’s degree in the History of Design and Curatorial Studies from Parsons School of Design and most recently received a Master’s degree in Art History from Yale University, with a specific focus on American material culture. She has held internship positions in the Yale University Art Gallery’s American Decorative Arts Department, Yale’s Hume Furniture Study Center, and The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. She is anticipating pursuing further graduate work in the field of American material and visual culture.
About the Americana Foundation
The Americana Foundation envisions the conservation and preservation of Americana as a bridge to understanding place and identity; the preservation and celebration of America’s special cultural places; and the celebration of the craftsmanship and creativity of early American artisans. In honor of founders Adolph H. and Ginger Meyer, the Foundation supports organizations and institutions that preserve, protect, and promote expressions of America’s heritage, particularly American furniture and decorative arts; ensure present and future generations maintain a sense of continuity with the past; and promote the common values of freedom for the individual and creative pioneer spirit that fostered the innovation and industriousness that built the nation.
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