“Enlighten the People”
Explore by Topic:
In the Beginning - Fueling Discoveries - Expanding Our Focus - Spreading the Word
In 2024, we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies (ICJS). Rigorous scholarship has always underpinned the work of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. In 1994, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation consolidated its scholarly initiatives under one roof with the creation of the ICJS.
Since then, ICJS and its member departments have supported every aspect of the Foundation’s work. ICJS has enabled Monticello to meet the challenges of telling a more complete story of this place, the people who lived here, and the world in which they lived. At the same time, many ICJS programs have served as models and training grounds for institutions and individuals beyond Monticello.
We celebrate this milestone with our many generous friends, and partners – the University of Virginia, donors, advisory committee and former leadership, who have supported us over the past three decades, and who continue to champion our mission as we enter our fourth decade.
Explore this online exhibit for a closer look at how we strive to, as Thomas Jefferson once said, "enlighten the people generally."
In the Beginning
The origins of ICJS
Fueling Discoveries
Learning about the past is an enterprise that never ends, and the departments of ICJS have and continue to fuel new discoveries that support the ongoing work of the Foundation. Monticello strives to present an accurate, honest, and complete history, and ICJS staff play an integral part in helping Monticello to meet that challenge.
Expanding Our Focus
In earlier decades, much of the Foundation’s time and effort was spent on Jefferson himself and the Monticello house and furnishings. Today, the ICJS has helped to expand our interpretive focus. Our research encompasses the entire mountaintop and beyond; residents of Monticello, enslaved and free, and their descendants. ICJS’s conferences and fellowships give support to the study of the broader British Atlantic world and its legacies.
Spreading the Word
ICJS’s programs have not only supported the work of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. They have influenced and supported the work of staff at other historic sites, members of the scholarly community, and members of the general public.
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation thanks the following ICJS supporters and our many generous friends
for their groundbreaking and ongoing support:
Marguerite Allen
The Batten Foundation
The Berkeley Family Foundation
Mary Scott and John Birdsall
J.F. and Peggy Bryan
The Cabell Foundation
The Coca‐Cola Company
John and Diane Cooke
The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation
Harlan and Katherine Crow
Charles Cullen
Terry and Courtnay Daniels
Martin and Luella Davis
Bob and Kitty DeMento
Grady and Lori Durham
First Union Corporation of Virginia
Linda Ford
Ford Foundation
Richard Gilder and Lois Chiles
The Gilder Foundation
John and Amy Griffin Foundation
John and Renee Grisham
The Richard Gwathmey and Caroline T. Gwathmey Memorial Trust
Brent and Lindsay Halsey
Alice Handy and Peter Stoudt
Robert and Jennifer Hatcher
The Philadelphia Fund
Mrs. Walter H. Helmerich III
Roger and Susan Hertog
Institute of Museum and Library Services
George and Betty Johnson
Don and Janemarie King
Ronald and Sandra Kossar
Fritz and Claudine Kundrun
Charles and Joan Longley
Luck Companies Foundation
John C. R. Taylor III and Peter Flagg Maxson
Richard and Sara Page Mayo
Mellon Foundation
Edward and Janet Miller
Westwind Foundation
Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation
The Estate of Jane Tarleton Smith Moore
Marietta McNeill Morgan and Samuel Tate Morgan, Jr. Foundation
Gerald and Mary Morgan
The Estate of Renee A. Muller
National Endowment for the Humanities
John L. Nau, III
Jonathan and Sonja Hoel Perkins
The Pew Charitable Trusts
The Reed Foundation
The Richard S. Reynolds Foundation
The Estate of Mary Clark Rockefeller
David Salem
Tom and Jordan Saunders
Family and Friends of Edgar F. Shannon, Jr.
Robert and Clarice Smith
The Robert H. Smith Family Foundation
Carl and Hunter Smith
The Honorable and Mrs. John Charles Thomas
Original exhibit curated by Anna Berkes, Manager for Public Services and Collections Development.
Online exhibit design by Megan Brett, Manager for Collections Processing and Digital Initiatives.