Monticello Blog

Today marks 100 days on the mountaintop for our new president, Dr. Jane Kamensky! Since Dr. Kamensky’s arrival in mid-January, she’s dived into her role, connected with colleagues across departments, and laid the groundwork for important initiatives ahead—including the generational opportunity that is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. Get a behind-the-scenes look in today’s blog.

We at Monticello are deeply saddened by the passing of Dan Jordan, former President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Described by current president Jane Kamensky as “the most consequential president on the mountaintop since Jefferson himself,” Monticello rose to international prominence during his quarter-century of leadership, first as director and then president, from 1985 to 2008.

Recently, the Jefferson Library at Monticello received a gift from the Fontaine-Maury Society of a historic family bible belonging to James Maury (1746-1840), a childhood friend of Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson and winter were not friends. Read a selection of quotations from Jefferson's letters and learn how this Frozen Founder felt about the winter months.

Thomas Jefferson sold his extensive collection of books to the nation in 1815 to replace the congressional library destroyed when the British burned the United States Capitol the previous year. Famously declaring that “I cannot live without books,” he quickly began ordering replacements of titles that were particularly important to him. Despite repeated attempts, however, one title escaped him: a work by John Baxter published in London ca. 1796–1801 and entitled A new and impartial History of England, From the most Early Period of Genuine Historical Evidence to the Present Important and Alarming Crisis.

It may seem surprising that one of our most well-known founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, had a Loyalist son.

In Thomas Jefferson’s lifetime, the holidays at Monticello were a time for family gatherings, visiting friends, settling accounts and planning for the new year. For Monticello’s enslaved community, the holiday season was a time for reunion and a possible respite from labor on the plantation.

Adding a dome to one’s house was unheard-of in America during Jefferson’s time. Domes are complicated to engineer and construct, and when Jefferson brought the idea back from his stint in Europe in the 1780s, it may have seemed an impossible folly.

Jefferson’s more scientific side is on full display at Monticello in a treasure-trove of timekeeping devices ranging from sundials to gongs, to various types of clocks.

Imagine a world where life moved at four miles an hour, and the most one could readily travel in a day was just thirty miles. Such was the slow world Thomas Jefferson was born into in 1742.