In mid-September 1817, Thomas Jefferson was preparing to leave Poplar Forest and return home to Monticello, but he had a few errands to run first. He set off for Lynchburg, roughly a dozen miles to the northeast, where he visited the shop of James Newhall. The thirty-five-year-old Newhall was a...
Some brought photographs, others brought books and at least two people brought quilts. But most of those bearing their family treasures at a recent Jefferson School African American Heritage Center event had questions. “Memories Matter,” a Black History Month program sponsored jointly by Monticello...
On Saturday, September 17, Monticello, along with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Virginia, hosted a public race summit for thousands on the West Lawn of Jefferson’s famous home. Memory, Mourning, Mobilization: Legacies of Slavery and Freedom in America featured...
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed and leading Jefferson scholar Peter Onuf discuss their new book, “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs”: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of Imagination during the national launch of their book at Monticello. From April 19, 2016.
Happy Birthday, Garden Book! On March 30, 1766, Jefferson wrote, "Purple hyacinths begin to bloom" at Shadwell, initiating a 50-year journal of his gardening hopes, observations, successes and failures. Monticello's Curator of Plants, Peggy Cornett, and Monticello guide Bill Bergen introduce this...
How do you locate evidence for missing curtain hardware two hundred years after it was removed? Science! The Restoration Department recently used four different techniques to locate evidence for curtain hardware. First, a flash light was racked over the window trim to reveal any depressions or any...
Behind the scenes at Monticello, our curators are intrigued by a ceramic inkstand and sandbox that are thought to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson. According to a Jefferson descendent, the set was acquired while he was Minister to France (1785-1789). It was then purportedly used at Monticello...
Thomas Jefferson loved to play chess, sometimes engaging in “four hour games” with his close friend James Madison. Unfortunately, not all of Jefferson’s gaming was so enjoyable. According to his granddaughter Ellen W. Randolph Coolidge, while Jefferson was serving as minister plenipotentiary in...
Jefferson Library, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello May 1 – October 31, 2015 Two hundred years ago this week, ten wagons carrying Thomas Jefferson’s personal library set off from his home at Monticello in the Virginia Piedmont on their 125-mile journey to Washington, D.C. Jefferson had sold his...
People today often forget how flexible rooms were in the past. The North Passage on the 2 nd floor of Monticello is a prime example of multi-functionality. Of course it was a corridor, but it also acted as a storage area, work room, and as sleeping quarters for visitors and enslaved workers. This...
