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Thomas Jefferson at Monticello
Architecture, Landscape, Collections, Books, Food, Wine
A New Publication
Available Now
This visually stunning volume explores Monticello, both house and plantation, with texts that present a current assessment of Jefferson’s cultural contributions to his noteworthy home and the fledgling country. Purchase yours today!
Get Yours Today
A Look Inside
9 essays accompanied by 74 color photos
on 208 beautifully-presented pages
Preface: On a Little Mountain in Charlottesville
By Leslie Greene Bowman. Monticello is much more than a house – it is the canvas from which Jefferson cultivated the spectrum of his connoisseurship.
As a founding visionary, Jefferson consciously “planted the arts” in our young and fragile country. This book explores Jefferson’s laboratory for living through the lens of his modern-day cultural peers and world-renowned art photographer, Miguel Flores-Vianna who shows us the art of seeing and composing, delighting, just as did Jefferson, in the soul-inspiring power of the arts.
Introduction: Statement for a New Nation
By Annette Gordon-Reed. Jefferson was not one to think in terms of limits when it came to realizing his visions for himself and for the country he helped
found. His home, Monticello, became a statement for a new nation,
an example of what could be achieved in the new country;
beauty would be mixed with the utility of science and conveniences
achieved with new designs, keeping in mind the cost of realizing
that dream, in both human and financial capital.
Library - "The Choicest Collection of Books"
By Carla Hayden. Jefferson’s private collection of books, built around his notion of universal knowledge, nursed the Declaration of Independence,
guided early American diplomacy, fueled innovations in American
technology, and assisted a Virginia planter before becoming
the “nucleus of the Library of Congress” where it was to serve as
the source of inspiration and ideas for the new republic.
Architecture - “The Perfect and the Personal”
By Gil Schafer III. Jefferson created “an architecture that personified our great national experiment – indeed, our character: an architecture, like the
nation, unafraid to break with the past and one that privileged
freedom of expression, both individual and collective.”
Collections – A Mirror of the World
By Xavier F. Salomon. Jefferson’s taste was at once eclectic, practical, and sophisticated. The amalgamation of disparate objects mirrors the relentless
curiosity of their owner and is the fundamental characteristic of
Jefferson’s collecting, which went hand in hand with his desire to
educate and advance the citizens of his country.
Wine – An Appreciation of the Grape
By Jay McInerney. Centuries ahead of his time, Jefferson’s taste and opinions on wine are remarkably consistent with those of connoisseurs today.
Cuisine – In Good Taste and Abundance
By Alice Waters. Profoundly and intimately connected to the land that surrounded him and the food that came from it, Monticello’s cuisine reflects
Jefferson’s curious nature and democratic values, incorporating
new foods and methods of cooking to feed and entertain both
residents of and guest to Monticello.
Landscape – As Far as the Eye Could See
By Thomas Woltz. Monticello’s composition of farm, forest, gardens, and grounds stands as extraordinary example of comprehensive landscape design, perhaps the first of its scale and complexity in American
history.
Conclusion – Architect of American Progress
By Jon Meacham. Jefferson’s devotion to the arts manifested itself in all aspects of his life and career, through his penchant for curiosity, innovation,
and progress.
Original Photography
74 color pictures captured by international photographer Miguel Flores-Vianna illustrate this edition.
The Authors
Leslie Greene Bowman is President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello. Formerly Executive Director of the Winterthur Museum, she is the author of American Arts & Crafts: Virtue in Design, and American Rococo, 1750-1775: Elegance in Ornament. She has served by presidential appointment on the Committee for the Preservation of the White House since 1993.
Miguel Flores-Vianna is a photographer based in London and NY. He is the author of Haute Bohemians and Wandering Eye - Travels with my Phone. For Rizzoli he has photographed Chateau de Haroué as well as decorating books for India Hicks and one on Christian Dior’s Provençal manor house. Flores-Vianna regularly shoots for Architectural Digest, Cabana and other various international magazines.
Carla Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016. Hayden is the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library. Hayden was formerly CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore and is a past president of the American Library Association.
Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard. Gordon-Reed has won sixteen book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2009 and the National Book Award in 2008, for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.
Jay McInerney is the author of twelve books, most recently Bright, Precious Days (2016). He writes a monthly wine column for Town & Country and was previously the wine columnist for The Wall Street Journal and House and Garden. In 2006 McInerney won the James Beard MFK Fisher Award for Distinguished Writing.
Jon Meacham is a presidential historian, contributing writer to the New York Times Book Review, contributing editor at TIME, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Society of American Historians, Meacham holds the Rogers Chair in the American Presidency and is a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University.
Charlotte Moss is an interior designer, author, and philanthropist. She has designed private residences in the United States and abroad, in addition to collections of carpets, furniture, fabrics, china, and enameled jewelry. She has authored eleven books, including her most recent title Rizzoli’s Charlotte Moss Flowers (2021). Moss lectures internationally on the art of fine living and is consistently featured in the top lifestyle and design publications.
Gil Schafer III is an award-winning architect, consistently recognized as a leading practitioner of contemporary classical architecture. A member of Architectural Digest’s AD100, and winner of Veranda’s “Art of Design Award,” and the 2019 Arthur Ross Award in Architecture, he is the author of The Great American House and A Place to Call Home.
Xavier F. Salomon is the Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator at The Frick Collection, New York. A noted scholar of Paolo Veronese, he curated the monographic exhibition on the artist at the National Gallery, London (2014). In 2018, Italy named Salomon Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia. In his 2018 book, Canova’s George Washington, Salomon illuminated Thomas Jefferson’s influence on Canova’s only American commission.
Alice Waters is a chef, author, food activist, and owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California (est. 1971). She has been a champion of local sustainable agriculture for over four decades. In 1995 she founded the Edible Schoolyard Project, which advocates for a free regenerative school lunch for all children and a sustainable food curriculum in every public school.
Thomas Woltz is the owner of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. In 2011, Woltz was invested into the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows, among the highest honors in the profession. In 2013, he was named the Design Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal Magazine. His design work infuses places where people live, work, and play with narratives of the land that inspire stewardship.
