Monticello Blog

Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of Jefferson’s plantsmanship was his use of microclimate – something that took nearly 170 years to fully appreciate.

Monticello’s iconic west front has been undergoing a major change in the past few months. The columns on the West Portico (aka Southwest Portico) are being restored to their original Jefferson-era appearance.

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, but this pleasure was certainly tempered by the cold they endured.

A classic viniagrette seems a likely staple at Monticello's table. From Dining at Monticello, edited by Damon Lee Fowler.

Historian Jon Meacham, of History's new miniseries "Thomas Jefferson," explains why visiting Monticello is key to understanding the author of the Declaration of Independence and American history.

The promise of increased rainfall during the autumn months, in addition to major weather events like the recent Hurricane Sandy, serve as reminders of the need to manage excess water in responsible, effective ways.

Over the past several weeks, our ongoing archaeological excavations to advance the Kitchen Road Restoration Project have yielded several important discoveries. One of them is a greenstone cobble paving, which we suspect is the base of the Kitchen Path that connected the South Covered Passage to Mulberry Row and the terraced vegetable garden to the south.

Here at the Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, we spend most of our days reading Jefferson’s two-hundred-year-old mail. Jefferson wrote approximately 19,000 letters during his lifetime, so you can imagine how many more letters he also received! And that means we have a lot of different handwriting to navigate.

Time for the December installment of our monthly series in which we post a recipe from The Virginia House-wife, a recipe book published in 1824 by Mary Randolph, kinswoman to Thomas Jefferson.