Story of Slavery at Monticello — featured on CBS Sunday Morning
CBS Sunday Morning took an in-depth look at how Monticello is telling the story of slavery—from our landmark exhibition Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty to our Slavery at Monticello tours. The feature story includes an interview with Curator Elizabeth Chew and Tour Guide David Ronka.
The exhibition Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty will travel to the Atlanta History Center in Atlanta, Georgia, February 1—July 7, 2013, and then to the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis, late summer 2013—January 2014.
The Study and Interpretation of Slavery at Monticello
Monticello is considered one of the best documented, best preserved, and best studied plantations in North America. It is home to a staff of curators, researchers, scholars, historians and archaeologists. Monticello is dedicated to telling the story of the men and women who lived here.
Here’s what we are working on:
Telling the History of Slavery: Scholarship, Museum Interpretation, and the Public
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello will host a landmark conference Telling the History of Slavery: Scholarship, Museum Interpretation, and the Public, at the Robert H. Smith Center at Montalto, February 22-23, 2013.
Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello recently collaborated on an exhibition with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMMAHC) Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty, which explores slavery and enslaved people in America through the lens of Jefferson’s Monticello plantation. The exhibition was on view at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington D.C., from January to October 2012. monticello.org/paradox
Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello to become a traveling exhibition
The exhibition will travel to the Atlanta History Center in Atlanta, Georgia, February 1, through July 7, 2013. The exhibition will then move to the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis, Missouri, late summer 2013 through January 2014.
Landscape of Slavery: Mulberry Row at Monticello
In addition to the exhibition at the NMAAHC gallery in Washington, D.C., Monticello recently launched a new outdoor exhibition, Landscape of Slavery: Mulberry Row at Monticello, a multi-year, multi-faceted project that brings to life the stories of the scores of people—enslaved and free—who lived and worked on Jefferson’s 5,000 acre plantation. The outdoor exhibition features mini-exhibitions at key sites, computer animations a website and a mobile app.
Getting Word
This year Monticello launched its new ‘Getting Word’ website—a vast collection of oral histories, images, and documentation encompassing seven generations of families descended from Monticello’s African American community. The website is the result of decades of research, nearly twenty years of locating descendants and recording oral histories, and tens of thousands of miles traveled.
Getting Word debuted in connection with the landmark Monticello/Smithsonian exhibition ‘Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty’ on January 27, 2012. It is also available to the public at https://gettingword.monticello.org.
