Bed Chamber
Dimensions: 18' 7" × 13' 5"; ceiling 18' 8"
Order: Ionic
Source: Temple of Fortuna Virilis from Palladio; frieze from Desgodetz, Les édifices antiques de Rome[1]
Color: There is evidence that this room was once wallpapered; today it is painted blue-green, a shade popular when Jefferson lived in Paris in the 1780s.
Jefferson's Bedchamber with oval-shaped closet windows above the alcove bed
Architectural Features: An alcove bed, open on both sides, joins the Bedroom with Jefferson's Cabinet, or office – a hinged, double-door folding screen separates the two rooms when shut; a privy was located near one end of the bed, an early example of indoor bathroom facilities in America; the room features one of the house's thirteen skylights.
Bedroom portholes
In 1815, Thomas Jefferson wrote to his daughter Martha, "In the closet over my bed you will find a bag tied up, and labelled 'Wolf-skin pelisse,' and another labelled 'fur-boots,' wherein those articles will be found."[2] The "closet" refers to the small storage space above the bed, ventilated by the three oval-shaped, porthole-like openings. The storage space is reached through the doorway to the right of the head of the bed, which conceals a ladder-like set of stairs.
Furnishings of Note: Clothes "horse" in closet (reconstructed); obelisk clock at foot of bed enabled Jefferson to get out of bed "with the sun"; crimson silk counterpane with fringe (designed by Jefferson) covered the bed in winter, while a blue silk duvet saw service the year through; mirrors were used to maximize the natural light.
Objects on Display in this Room
Primary Source References
1807. (Sir Augustus John Foster). "... the President had his bed placed in a doorway."[3]
1814. (Francis Calley Gray). "Mr. Jefferson took us from his library into his bed chamber where, on a table before the fire, stood a polygraph with which he said he always wrote."[4]
1815 November 4. (Martha Jefferson Randolph to Jefferson). "In the closet over my bed you will find a bag tied up, and labelled 'Wolf-skin pelisse,' and another labelled 'fur-boots,' wherein those articles will be found. the pelisse had better be sowed up in a striped blanket to keep it clean and uninjured; the boots in any coarse wrapper."[5]
1823 January 18. (Margaret Bayard Smith). "The bed is built into the wall, in a sort of alcove, which in winter must be very comfortable, as it excludes every draught of air – but in the summer, must for the same reason be very uncomfortable. I observed the same arrangement in all the chambers I saw. On the wall, at the foot of the bed was hung his pistols and sword, which I imagine has not been removed for many a year: against the wall, at the head of his bed, was a lamp, which enabled him, when he wished to read, to do it with great safety and convenience."[6]
References
- ^ See Antoine Babuty Desgodets, Les édifices Antiques de Rome, nouvelle edition (Paris: Chez Claude-Antoine Jombert, fils aîné, 1779).
- ^ Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, November 4, 1815, in PTJ:RS, 9:147-48. Transcription available at Founders Online.
- ^ Augustus John Foster, Jeffersonian America: Notes on the United States of America Collected in the Years 1805-6-7 and 11-12 by Augustus John Foster, Bart., ed. Richard Beale Davis (San Marino, Cal.: Huntington Library, 1954), 144.
- ^ Francis Calley Gray, Thomas Jefferson in 1814: Being an Account of a Visit to Monticello, Virginia (Boston: The Club of Odd Volumes, 1924), 74.
- ^ PTJ:RS, 9:147-48. Transcription available at Founders Online.
- ^ Richmond Enquirer, January 18, 1823.