Monticello Blog

Workshops located on Jefferson’s Mulberry Row included a nailery, which became operational in 1794. Jefferson hoped the nailery would become a source of cash income where “a parcel of boys who would otherwise be idle” could turn “tons of nail rod into thousands of nails.”

Against a backdrop of COVID19, research on Jefferson may not seem that important. Nonetheless I have, when not attending Zoom meetings with colleagues, or grading essays and exams, or having online supervision sessions with graduate students, attempted to carry on research and writing.

Last week archaeologists began test excavations at an early-19th-century stone house at Tufton, one of the four quarter farms that comprised Monticello Plantation.

Almost 400 years after the first enslaved Africans took their first steps in an English colony, a group of Virginians took their own steps to remember the captives and what they endured

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 lot of work.

On December 28, 1993, Monticello Getting Word historians Lucia "Cinder" Stanton, Dianne Swann-Wright, and Beverly Gray traveled to Chillicothe, Ohio to interview five members of the Pettiford family—three of whom were descendants of Madison Hemings.

The Restoration Department at Monticello undertook a project to repaint the Tea Room for the first time in decades. In order to showcase the nuanced quality of traditional linseed oil based paints like those that would have been applied in Jefferson’s era, we chose to use a custom, traditional linseed-oil paint using hand-ground pigments on all the woodwork in the Tea Room.

“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.

Going for a fresh, lighter look in your living room this season?