Monticello Blog

Sometimes a good tree gets planted in what turns out to be a bad location. That’s exactly what an engineer recently discovered near Monticello’s South Wing.

Over the past two weeks, the archaeology field crew, led by Field Research Manager Crystal Ptacek, has made exciting discoveries in the South Pavilion and the adjacent South Wing that connects the Pavilion to the mansion.

Williams and Johnson recalled several stories during their recent interview for Getting Word, the oral history project documenting memories of descendants of Monticello’s enslaved community. Just a few weeks earlier, they had learned that they are descendants of Peter Hemings, Thomas Jefferson’s enslaved cook and brewer, and an older brother of Sally Hemings.

Thanks to support from David M. Rubenstein and the Manning Family Foundation, we are now able to reconstruct the North Dependency according to Jefferson’s original plans.

One of the emotional insights of the hit musical Hamilton is its portrayal of the passionate friendship between the protagonist and his brilliant, self-assured sister-in-law—Angelica Schuyler Church. What the show doesn't mention is that Church also pursued a long-term friendship with one of Alexander Hamilton's greatest political rivals—Thomas Jefferson.

The Chinese-inspired railings around Monticello’s terraces date to ca. 1940. After almost 80 years the elaborate wooden panels have weathered to the point where repairs are no longer feasible. While the existing railings will be missed, the project is an exciting opportunity to accurately reconstruct an important Jefferson-era feature.

No story illustrates Jefferson’s missionary zeal for plant experimentation or his devotion to American economic success better than his lifelong quest for upland rice.

Did you ever want to know more about what Martha Jefferson Randolph was like before she was the mother of eleven of Jefferson's grandchildren.

A wood chip by itself is very modest. Small in size, light-weight, it could easily be lost or thrown away. Happily, the wood chip Thomas Jefferson cut from William Shakespeare’s chair during his 1786 trip to Stratford-upon-Avon comes with an explanatory note.

In my family, we frequently speak about plants as if they are people. "What kind of clematis is that?" one us might ask. And my mom might replay, "Oh, that's dependable, old Nelly Moser."