"John Hemmings was a carpenter. He was a first-rate workman, a very extra workman. He could make anything that was wanted in woodwork."
- Monticello overseer Edmund Bacon.
Jefferson established a Joiner's Shop on Mulberry Row to produce the distinctive architectural woodwork for his house. Here joiners (highly skilled carpenters) made doors, windows, and decorative finish work, such as cornices, mantels, balustrades, and railings. Beginning in the 1770s, Jefferson engaged a series of white joiners, including James Dinsmore and John Neilson, who trained slave apprentices. John Hemmings (1776-1833) succeeded Dinsmore as head joiner in 1809, making fine furniture for Jefferson, including cabinets, chairs, and tables.
The Elliptical Arch in Monticello's Library
The Elliptical Arch in Monticello's Library was realized by two highly skilled joiners, James Dinsmore, a hired white worker, and John Hemmings, who was enslaved at Monticello.
Some of Hemmings’s woodworking signatures include: the way shelves are attached to the sides of a cupboard, the double-bead molding on shelves’ front edges, and the curved molding on door frames.
John Hemmings, who could read and write, often spelled his name with a double m, while other family members used a single m.
Jack plane (collection of Robert L. Self) - In the well-equipped Monticello joinery, John Hemmings used fine woodworking tools. He used a jack plane for the initial dressing of lumber after it was sawn with a pit saw or water-powered saw mill. A hand saw was for fine cutting.
Plow plane (collection of Robert L. Self) - A plow plane had a set of interchangeable cutters or ‘irons’ of different widths and was used to cut various sizes of grooves. The adjustable fence determined the location of the groove was from the edge of the stock.