Monticello Blog

That would be a great name for a band, wouldn't it? Or a car. Alas, no, it's my latest book acquisition, and although I do poke gentle fun at my Gilded Pig, it really is a great little find.

Several years ago, a visitor to Monticello emailed me and asked about something they'd seen in the Jefferson family graveyard, just a short walk down from Mulberry Row: Thomas Jefferson's gravestone seemed to be covered with coins. What's that about? (one might well ask).

There is almost always a tiny little wave of rhetorical consultations of TJ in reaction to each big news story.

I received a book which I feel certain will set many scholarly hearts aflutter here: Incidental Architect: William Thornton and the Cultural Life of Early Washington, D.C., 1794-1828, by Gordon S. Brown

I did want to highlight our new exhibit, which is singularly appropriate for Mothers' Day. It features Lucy Meriwether Lewis Marks, mother of Meriwether Lewis.

Reference question: For whom is Carolina Ramsay Randolph (Thomas Jefferson's great-granddaughter, daughter of his oldest grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph) named?

Some weeks ago a book was returned to us, and its back cover caught my eye. As it happens, the book itself, as well as its author, are well worth examination, even though they seem not to be as well known as they should be.

In the latest issue of Common-Place ("The Journal We Don't Pay For"), Alison L. LaCroix relates how she, another professor at the University of Chicago Law School, and some intrepid law students tried to get inside the legal minds of the Founding Fathers by reading the same fiction they read.

Last September, I received a question from someone looking for a Jefferson letter titled, "The Value of Constitutions." Jefferson didn't usually bother to give his letters titles, so this was a bit puzzling. I finally figured out that this letter had been published in a volume edited by Edward Dumbauld, chapter 4 of which was titled, "The Value of Constitutions." It seemed pretty obvious that somewhere along the way, someone had quoted from the letter and attached the chapter title in such a way that people assumed that it was the title of the letter. Whoopsies.

Well, it's the 144th birthday of Paul Leicester Ford.