How do we know what Monticello looked like during Jefferson’s time? Monticello has been called one of the best-documented plantations, and the same goes for the house interior; we are lucky to have a wealth of correspondence, visitor accounts, and even diagrams from Jefferson’s time. Today, we take...
Some time ago, while rooting around in the archives (looking for something else, as usual), I came across a newspaper clipping from the Charlottesville Daily Progress from 1966. It seems that NBC had just released its new pronunciation manual , which directed newscasters to pronounce Monticello "...
On May 22, 56 years ago, Marilyn Monroe and her husband of less than a year, Arthur Miller, walked into Monticello, hoping to take a tour without anyone recognizing them. Unfortunately for them, their hopes were dashed almost immediately. The word got out, and the local newspaper sent a reporter up...
It seems that the glory days of spurious Jefferson quotations have gone. Rarely do we get these types of questions any more. Now that we are experiencing a breather on that front, I've had the chance to ponder the phenomenon a bit. One thing I've been thinking about is what gives spurious quotes...
A while ago I spent a little time (by which I mean maybe 26 hours or so) doing research in response to a patron's question about Mary Jefferson Bolling, Thomas Jefferson's older sister. Sometimes I get a little bit Captain Ahab when I'm doing research. The good news is that we now have an article...
I’ve spent the last several months going through the library’s files, neatening things up, eliminating duplicates and inconsistencies, and generally satisfying my compulsion to organize things and make sure everything is spelled correctly. I found something the other day which has turned out to be...
There are a lot of stories about Monticello that crept into the lore over the years - mostly after Jefferson died, after all the family had left Monticello, and no one who had lived there during its heyday was around anymore to refute them. These stories found their way into popular literature and...
In his Autobiography , Jefferson wrote: The tradition in my father’s family was that their ancestor came to this country from Wales, and from near the mountain of Snowdon, the highest in Gr. Br. I noted once a case from Wales in the law reports where a person of our name was either pl. or def. and...
The latest Shuffelton item to cross my desk is quite the Victorian jewel. No, really. You should see the cover. In fact, here it is: Yes, it's Ladies of the White House; or, In the Home of the Presidents: Being a Complete History of the Social and Domestic Lives of the Presidents from Washington to...
