The Restoration Department recently brought in conservator Andy Compton to restore the composition ornament on the Hall fireplace mantel frieze. Composition ornament (or “compo”) is a putty-like material made from chalk, linseed oil, hide glue and pine rosin. When warm, it can be pressed into molds...
Last week our Curatorial and Restoration teams joined forces for an important project: thoroughly cleaning Monticello from floor to ceiling. Affectionally (and accurately) dubbed the “Big Clean,” this annual event helps us preserve the house and prepare for a new year of visitors—but it’s also a...
Had it not been for the Levy family, Monticello might not exist today. Indeed, without the generosity and foresight of our supporters, so much of our work might not be possible.
Begun in 1768, the South Pavilion is the first brick building built on Monticello’s mountaintop, and the first home of Thomas Jefferson and his wife Martha after they were married in 1772. It has one particular identifying feature that separates it from other buildings: the roof. Originally covered...
While Jefferson often gets the credit, it was enslaved chefs like James Hemings, who created Monticello's famed "half Virginian, half French" cuisine. Food Historian Leni Sorensen explains how Hemings's training in France and the installation of stew stoves changed cooking here.
Monticello's former Robert H. Smith Director of Restoration, Bob Self, demonstrates the making a mortise and tenon joint, one of the classic techniques that would have been used by joiners James Dinsmore and John Hemmings at Monticello.
With "a greater eye to convenience," Jefferson employed a number of mechanical gadgets at Monticello, including several different types of dumbwaiters.
On July 3, 1789, just before the storming of the Bastille and two months before he returned to America, Jefferson purchased a number of busts from Houdon. Among these was a terra-cotta patinated plaster of Jefferson's trusted friend, the marquis de Lafayette.
One of Monticello's most memorable features is the Great Clock, designed by Jefferson, built by Peter Spruck in 1792, and fully functional today. The clock, with both an interior and exterior face, dictated the schedule of the entire plantation, inside the building and out.
