Monticello Blog
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Monticello has lost a magnificent friend, longtime Trustee (1994-2008), Honorary Trustee (2009-2020), and Summit member, Richard Gilder.
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Against a backdrop of COVID19, research on Jefferson may not seem that important. Nonetheless I have, when not attending Zoom meetings with colleagues, or grading essays and exams, or having online supervision sessions with graduate students, attempted to carry on research and writing.
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Exciting news! Monticello recently received a grant from the Americana Foundation to preserve Jefferson’s Great Clock.
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Just as the intoxicatingly fragrant hyacinth blossoms begin to fade, another colorful charmer pulls back the curtain and takes the stage: the tulip.
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Jefferson’s “Belles of the Day” Begin
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Today we at Monticello mourn the loss of one of our own: Joshua Scott, our Vice President for Development.
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For many people enslaved in the United States, Christmas was the only holiday they ever knew.
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Thomas Jefferson, being a meticulous record keeper, noted a consistent and nearly continuous record of weather observations at Monticello, his personal home. In 1807, Jefferson installed the compass rose to the ceiling of Monticello’s East Portico. The rose connected to a wind vane mounted on the roof and its rotation allowed Jefferson to record which direction the wind was blowing at any given time.
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Archaeology is an historical discipline whose goals are to advance our understanding of what happened in the past and why. But unlike the documents on which historians rely -- think Jefferson's letters -- archaeological deposits do not come with dates. In archaeology, we have to do work for the dates that are essential for turning artifacts into history.
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On February 5, 1769, Thomas Jefferson replied to his cousin’s request that his son study law under him. Writing from Shadwell, his boyhood home, Jefferson said he must decline: "I do not expect to be here more than two months in the whole between this and November next, at which time I propose to remove to another habitation which I am about to erect."