Have you heard of Commodore Uriah Levy? A pioneer in several ways, Levy was the U.S.’s first Jewish naval flag officer (he would have been an admiral in today’s Navy). He was instrumental in ending flogging in the U.S. Navy, which way officially abolished in 1850. And, in 1834, when it was already falling into a state of heavy disrepair, he bought and repaired Monticello in what was one of the earlier acts of historic preservation in this country.
Susan Stein, our Richard Gilder Senior Curator for Special Projects, tells the story of Monticello’s preservation, from the Levy family’s nearly 90-year stewardship through the creation of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which has owned and operated Jefferson’s mountaintop home for almost a century.