Monticello Podcasts

Late in life, on either side of his 80th birthday, Thomas Jefferson had two bad falls. Both were serious, and one was life-threatening. And both provide glimpses into Jefferson’s character and into the many roles his family, his friends, and his enslaved domestic servants played in his life. In this episode of our In the Course of Human Events podcast, Jeff Looney, the Daniel P. Jordan Editor of t...

Though most people are probably more likely to recognize the name of her daughter, Sally Hemings, Elizabeth Hemings was a powerful leader of an extensive family that was ingrained in all parts of life at Thomas Jefferson's plantation home. Monticello Guide Olivia Brown looks at her life and legacy.

Monticello Guide Danna Kelley focuses on the memorable story of Uriah Phillips Levy and his connection to Monticello. She discusses his career in the United States Navy, where he became the first Jewish-American to rise to the rank of commodore as well as the anti-Semitism he faced throughout his time in military service. She also explores his decision to purchase Monticello from James Barclay and...

Jefferson collected some ten thousand books throughout his life, but they were historically divided into three collections at Monticello. These books reflect Jefferson's firm belief that knowledge and education were the keys to human progress. They were also a source of pleasure for Jefferson and, as his granddaughter later explained, his "chosen companions."

At the very outset of his presidency, Thomas Jefferson faced a long-standing problem that was only getting worse. For nearly two decades, privateers supported by the Barbary States of the North African coast had preyed on American ships, seizing merchant vessels and cargo, holding crews for ransom and demanding tribute in exchange for ending their attacks. Following Jefferson's inauguration, the l...

In 1824, an aging Marquis de Lafayette made a triumphant return to the young nation he fought for as a teenager, touring the growing United States from New England to New Orleans. Lafayette's travels included an emotional reunion at Monticello with fellow revolutionary Thomas Jefferson. His twelve-day visit, which was marked by dinners and celebrations, struck many as memorable at the time, includ...

Music was an important part of daily and family life for the Jefferson and Randolph families at Monticello. In this episode, Monticello Guide Kyle Chattleton discusses the different instruments you could find throughout the house then, the many musical manuscripts owned by Thomas Jefferson, and what kinds of music the family enjoyed performing for themselves and one another.

Beer featued in most meals at Monticello, possibly served in small silver vessels known today as "Jefferson Cups." But where did the beer come from? What was it like? And who made it? In this episode of In the Course of Human Events, Andrew Davenport, Monticello Public Historian and Manager of the Getting Word African American Oral History Project, shares how an English brewer's fraught sea voyage...

At Monticello, food culture and dining were significant parts of daily life. Though Jefferson's desire for French style food and his interest in gastronomical cultures influenced how food was prepared at Monticello, it was enslaved African Americans who were chiefly responsible for the "rich" and "elegant" cuisine, literally from farm to table.

Monticello Guide Sam Saunders looks at the life of enslaved personal servant Israel Gillette Jefferson and relates the momentous events in his life, such as the passing of Thomas Jefferson, his subsequent sale and separation from his first wife and children, and his move as free man to Ohio where he became a deacon and treasurer of Eden Baptist Church in Pike County.

Monticello Guide Olivia Brown looks at the life of Peter Jefferson, a Virginia planter, surveyor, county justice, member of the colonial legislature, loyal citizen of the British Empire, and father of the primary author of the Declaration of Independence.

Monticello Guide Laura-Michal Balderson discusses Cornelia Jefferson Randolph's relationship with her grandfather, Thomas Jefferson, and highlights her mechanical drawings of the University of Virginia and Monticello's first floor.(Rebroadcast from November 2020.)

Monticello Guide Olivia Brown looks at Jefferson's travels to several famed English pleasure gardens and their influence on the gardens he designed at Monticello.

Enslaved people did not simply accept the confines of their bondage, and resistance took many forms. An example is found in the story of York, a young man enslaved at Monticello who attempted to escape in 1798. It was only after York fled that Thomas Jefferson learned from his son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph, that the teenager successfully accessed Jefferson’s bedchamber and took several personal...

Monticello Guide Andrew Miles discusses the mechanisms of the clock, as well as its memorable imperfections,and Gardiner Hallock, Monticello's Vice President for Architecture, Collections, and Facilities, tells us about the recent restoration efforts aimed at preserving the clock.

Connected to the Dining Room, with its bright yellow walls and dumbwaiter systems, is another smaller room called the Tea Room. It served as a sitting room where family and guests came to read or socialize, despite it being one of the coldest rooms in the house, albeit glorious on a sunny day. At times it offered overflow seating at meals when the house was full. In the home of an architect like T...

In this segment, we discuss the well-preserved state of Monticello's architecture, and specifically the role of the Levy family in preserving this American icon. Monticello Guide Holly Haliniewski tells the story of Uriah Phillips Levy, his admiration for Thomas Jefferson, and the preservation efforts of Levy and his nephew, Jefferson Monroe Levy. We also acknowledge the Levy family's Jewish herit...

In 1783, Philadelphian Elizabeth House Trist left for Pittsburgh, beginning a journey that would take her down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers hoping -- after seven years of separation during the Revolutionary War -- to reunite with her husband in Natchez. Trist's travel diary, created at the request of Thomas Jefferson, is the earliest known record of a Mississippi River expedition by woman. A fu...

What does a portrait of Salome presenting the head of John the Baptist hanging in Monticello's Parlor have to do with religious freedom? Monticello Guide Alice Wagner retells this New Testament story and connects the painting -- and other religious paintings at Monticello -- to Thomas Jefferson's commitment to religious freedom in the United States, specifically his Virginia Statute for Religious...

When it comes to history, there are a few ways that historians can research the past and bring it forward into the present. Old records and documents as well as oral history are potential avenues. Archaeology is another form of historical research. Monticello guides Kyle Chattleton and Olivia Brown look at "Site 6," where archaeologists have uncovered thousands of artifacts that are providing new...

On a cold day in mid-January 1827, members of the Charlottesville community made their way to Monticello to attend the estate sale of Thomas Jefferson. Announced in newspaper advertisements in late 1826, the sale consisted of furniture, kitchen wares, farm equipment, livestock, “curious and useful” articles, and, most tragically, “130 valuable negroes.” This sale, along with others held over the n...

Today, we bring you an episode focusing on Thomas Jefferson, the driver. As Emilie Johnson, Associate Curator at Monticello, notes, Jefferson might have been a dangerous driver at that.

For this edition of Mountaintop History, we’ll hear different members of the Monticello guide staff share some of their favorite quotes from history and why they’re favorites. Plus, we introduce a new host for Mountaintop History, Olivia Brown!

Monticello's Kyle Chattleton discusses one of the few moments in Monticello’s history where an enslaved individual was freed by Jefferson. We can only imagine Robert Hemings’s feelings after being released from Jefferson on Christmas Eve 1794, but historical documents show that Jefferson was not too happy about the manumission.

On October 3, 1825, in what he later described as a "most painful event," Thomas Jefferson appeared before a gathering of students, professors, and trustees at the University of Virginia inside its now-famed Rotunda. Recent unruly student behavior had culminated in an attack on two professors with bricks and canes and threats by faculty to resign. Open less than a year, the university Jefferson ha...