Monticello Blog

Over the past two months, Monticello’s archaeologists have discovered two previously unknown archaeological sites that were once the homes of enslaved people who lived at Tufton, about a mile and a quarter east of Jefferson’s mountaintop mansion.

Learn more about this pioneering work by historian Cinder Stanton.

Monticello's joint exhibition with the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

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.

What gives spurious quotes away as "fakes." When we used to receive questions about these, we would often know right away that it wasn't a genuine excerpt from Jefferson's writings. How did we know?

“What is the coolest thing you’ve ever found?” This is a question I get often yet it is one of the most difficult to answer.

Leni Sorensen makes a recipe for goose-sauce from "The Virginia House-wife," a recipe book published in 1824 by Mary Randolph.

I love watching guests on tours at Monticello when a clock strikes. Why? The look of surprise, then inevitably, a whisper, “wow, the clock still works,” and even better, “it’s nearly on time.” It makes me wonder: how many people know what goes on inside a museum like Monticello before the doors open to visitors?

After my freshman year at Georgetown University I returned to my hometown for a summer internship in the Education and Visitor Programs Department at Monticello.