In 1786, Thomas Jefferson took a serious fall in Paris, dislocating and possibly breaking his right wrist. The injury healed slowly, and though he regained use, stiffness and pain in his joint troubled him as he aged. Years later, retired to Monticello and searching for comfort, Jefferson got a...
Veteran historical actor-interpreter Bill Barker is widely recognized as the nation’s foremost interpreter of Thomas Jefferson. Now, after portraying Thomas Jefferson at Colonial Williamsburg for the last 26 years, Barker will join the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello starting with a...
Two centuries ago, on February 13, 1819, James Tallmadge, a member of the Democratic-Republican Party formed by Thomas Jefferson, offered an amendment to a bill regarding the admission of the Territory of Missouri into the United States. The so-called Tallmadge Amendment proposed banning further...
Why the Virginia Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom is the key to political freedom and free thought. ‘divided we stand, united we fall’ —Thomas Jefferson to Jacob de La Motta, 1 September 1820 Thomas Jefferson asked that three things, and only three things , be remembered on any grave...
We at Monticello are saddened by yesterday’s passing of President George H. W. Bush. We had the pleasure of hosting a State Dinner at Monticello for President Bush, his cabinet, and the nation’s governors during the 1989 Education Summit, held at the University of Virginia. Like Thomas Jefferson,...
“Rebellion to tyrants is Obedience to God” – We have come to think of this impassioned phrase as distinctly Jefferson, but there’s more to this story. In December 1775 the Pennsylvania Evening Post included a brief transcription of what was said to be the epitaph of the famed regicide John Bradshaw...
In 1804, after journeying thousands of miles through Central America and northern South America, Alexander von Humboldt -- who would later gain international renown for exploits and writings -- made a special stop in Washington, DC, to see one of his intellectual heroes, Thomas Jefferson.
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.
In January 2000 the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation (the predecessor of today’s Thomas Jefferson Foundation) issued a report concerning the allegation that Thomas Jefferson was the father of some or all of the children of Sally Hemings , an enslaved woman at Monticello. A special research...
