Monticello Blog

This summer (2019), Monticello’s Restoration Department will be removing the East Portico’s mid-20th-century wooden beadboard ceiling and restoring its Jefferson-era finish.

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson took a serious fall in Paris, dislocating and possibly breaking his right wrist and pain in his joint troubled him as he aged.

During an annual inspection of Monticello, we noticed that the material that has been used to fill cracks on several of the wooden panels surrounding Monticello’s main floor doorways is failing in some areas.

Thomas Jefferson returns to the mountaintop.

Last week archaeologists began test excavations at an early-19th-century stone house at Tufton, one of the four quarter farms that comprised Monticello Plantation.

While historians have been quick to highlight the national reasons for Jefferson’s vocal support for the admission of Missouri, the situation at Monticello that shaped his thinking has been largely overlooked. In September 1819, Jefferson had agreed to be guarantor of two $10,000 loans for his friend Wilson Cary Nicholas, who promptly died the following year.

Two centuries ago, on February 13, 1819, James Tallmadge, a member of the Democratic-Republican Party formed by Thomas Jefferson, offered an amendment to a bill regarding the admission of the Territory of Missouri into the United States. The so-called Tallmadge Amendment proposed banning further imports of slaves into the future state, as well as the gradual emancipation of those already in the territory. What should have been a simple decision on the future of Missouri, however, soon became a debate on the future of

The Restoration Department recently brought in conservator Andy Compton to restore the composition ornament on the Hall fireplace mantel frieze.

Why the Virginia Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom is the key to political freedom and free thought.

Last week our Curatorial and Restoration teams joined forces for an important project: thoroughly cleaning Monticello from floor to ceiling. Affectionally (and accurately) dubbed the “Big Clean,” this annual event helps us preserve the house and prepare for a new year of visitors—but it’s also a lot of work.