Monticello Blog

This winter, as part of the exciting multi-year effort to restore Monticello to its appearance in Jefferson’s time, we are recreating a log dwelling that likely once housed members of the enslaved Hemings family.

Monticello visitors are experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime event as the Thomas Jefferson Foundation undertakes a major landscape restoration project on Mulberry Row.

Thomas Jefferson, just thirty-two at the time, was in Philadelphia serving on the Continental Congress when he sat down to write this letter to his brother-in-law Francis Eppes. On 26 June 1775 – after hearing the first reports of what would later become known as the Battle of Bunker Hill.

While Jefferson could not have foreseen the technological advances that have resulted in many environmental issues today, he does express his thoughts on intergenerational obligations and the earth in his famous Rights of Usufruct and Future Generations.

Of all of the 2nd and 3rd floor spaces currently undergoing study, restoration, and re-interpretation at Monticello, the Nursery is the most complex as it requires extensive architectural restoration.

This year, the Restoration Department concluded their research into the design of Monticello’s original exterior “Venetian” blinds. The search ultimately led them from Monticello to the U.S. Capitol.

On May 22, 1957, 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.

Winter at Monticello brings with it a solitary, clear beauty, with vistas that stretch for miles. When the shutters weren’t closed to contain the warmth, family, guests, and enslaved servants might have admired the snowy views out of the numerous large windows, but this pleasure was certainly tempered by the cold they endured.

The Wall Street Journal highlights the work of Monticello Research Librarian Anna Berkes and misquoting Jefferson.

CBS Sunday Morning took an in-depth look at how Monticello is telling the story of slavery—from our landmark exhibition Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty to our Slavery at Monticello tours.