Cabinet 2010
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2010 THE MONTICELLO CABINET ��TH ANNIVERSARY This ball of liberty, I believe most piously, is now so well in motion that it will roll round the globe. THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1795 Thomas Jefferson’s design for a spherical sundial was realized by the Restoration Department. The updated chrome yellow Dining Room, sponsored by Polo Ralph Lauren, demonstrates Jefferson’s appreciation for high style. THE THOMAS JEFFERSON FOUNDATION Thomas Jefferson championed the enduring ideals of personal liberty, religious freedom, and the illimitable freedom of the human mind. His greatest legacy, the Declaration of Independence, continues to inspire people all over the world. There is no better place to discover the genius of Jefferson than at Monticello, his three-dimensional autobiography. The only house in America recognized as a World Heritage site, Monticello is an international treasure visited by close to half a million people each year. Monticello is owned and operated by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, a private nonprofit organization that purchased the house and grounds in 1923. Today its facilities also include the Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith EducationC enter, the JeffersonL ibrary, the Robert H. Smith InternationalC enter for JeffersonS tudies, the Saunders-Monticello Trail, and the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants. The mission of the Foundation is straightforward: preservation and education, to save and to share. Open since April 2009, the Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center has transformed our visitors’ experience. They are staying longer and learning more as they watch the film, Thomas Jefferson’s World, tour interactive exhibitions, enjoy a meal and shopping, admire the Gold LEED-certified design, and simply relax in the courtyard. Students of all ages benefit from classrooms and galleries, including the youngest learners who take part in hands-on activities in the Griffin Discovery Room. Detail of Thomas Jefferson by Charles Willson Peale, 1791. Courtesy of Independence National Historic Park. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE e have much to anticipate as Wwe advance the Foundation’s commitment to preservation and education by steadily and creatively expanding the scope of our efforts on the mountaintop and beyond. We are committed to providing a historically accurate, comprehen- sive, and lively experience for everyone who comes to Monticello. We also seek to engage a global audience in a dialogue with Jefferson’s ideas. Our plans for the adaptive reuse of “Repose,” the historic 1908 house on Montalto, are well underway. Jefferson’s other mountain will soon be a world-class education and conference center bringing people together to explore the power and range of Jefferson’s ideas. THE MONTICELLO CABINET n 1990, the Thomas JeffersonF oundation chartered the Monticello Cabinet to AN INVITATION TO Iacknowledge and recognize those THE MONTICELLO CABINET whose enlightened philanthropy ensures and enhances the Foundation’s mission of preservation and education. Thomas Jefferson’s word for his private study inspired the name. HE TRUSTEES AND STAFF OF THE The Cabinet, the heart of his suggests the “Sage sanctum sanctorum, THOMAS JEFFERSON FOUNDATION of Monticello” at his writing table as visionary statesman, scientist, invite individuals, corporations, and foundations to philosopher, and architect. For twenty years The Monticello Tparticipate in the MonticelloC abinet with an annual gift of five Cabinet has served as the heart of philanthropic support for the Foundation. Participants in the Monticello Cabinet act as personal thousand dollars or more. The MonticelloC abinet recognizes advisors, advocates, and generous supporters of the Foundation. gifts of cash or property (including appreciated securities) With the trustees and staff of the Foundation, Cabinet participants for all Foundation priorities. Participants in the Monticello explore common interests and advance the Foundation’s mission. Cabinet will find their greatest reward in the knowledge that Opportunities for involvement, fellowship, and learning are offered year-round through seminars on Jefferson and Monticello, special they are assuring Jefferson’s legacy, advancing important tours of the house and grounds, and other special events on and educational initiatives, and ensuring the preservation of off Mr. Jefferson’s mountaintop. We extend our genuine thanks to Monticello, one of the world’s greatest treasures. all those who have provided Cabinet-level support to Monticello over the years. The refurnished South Pavilion features printed cotton and silk bed hangings. “...the haven of domestic life” NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LIFE AT MONTICELLO he best way to understand Thomas Jefferson is to explore Monticello, the world that he inhabited and created.A t this TCabinet Retreat we call attention to our latest achievements— the brilliant chrome yellow Dining Room, South Pavilion, Wine Cellar, Kitchen, and a new exhibition, Crossroads: Domestic Work at Monticello. To reveal Monticello more accurately, we have widened our lens on Jefferson’s world. Our interests extend upstairs, downstairs, and outside the house. Curators, historians, and archaeologists have taken on roles as detectives, scientists, and set designers to create animated tableaux of life within the house and across the plantation. Scholarly examination of the documentary and physical record, the important ongoing restoration of the house and grounds, and the acquisition of original objects enable us to share insight into life at Monticello. Our restoration projects serve as stages for Jefferson and the many others who lived, worked, and visited Monticello. The fashionable chrome yellow Dining Room with its reinstalled art collection is a vivid backdrop for learning about the “half Virginian, half French” cuisine described by Daniel Webster in 1824, Monticello’s informal dining customs, the notably “excellent order “of Jefferson’s grandchildren, the purposeful display of art in the room, and Jefferson’s predilection for vegetables. In the Wine Cellar, visitors learn not only about how Objects associated with Martha Jefferson Randolph and her daughters include a cloth housewife (for sewing equipment), two silver thimbles, watches, an ivory needlebook, and An Introduction to Linear Drawing. bottles traveled in trolleys from cellar to a lady’s maid and seamstress; and Priscilla Hemings, a nursemaid Dining Room in the restored dumbwaiter who, according to an overseer, “took charge of all the children that (with its original weights) but also about were not in school. If there was any switching, she always did it.” Jefferson’s wine connoisseurship and his “immense and costly variety” of wines. The As we begin a Behind the Scenes tour, some visitors will have the refurnished South Pavilion is outfitted to treat of seeing the second and third floors. In addition to describ- show furnishings of the 1770’s—a Virginia- ing the upcoming restoration and furnishing process, the new tour made secretary bookcase, large bed with allows visitors to grasp how life was lived beyond Monticello’s stylish printed cotton bed hangings, first floor. Just mounting all 37 steep, narrow steps from cellar to an easy chair, and a crib. Here attic will suggest the hardship of carrying mops, buckets, brooms, guests can picture Jefferson wood, and linens. Upon entering the Dome Room with its view and his bride in Monticello’s of Montalto, visitors will discover that private space was so scarce earliest brick building, the “one that two of Jefferson’s granddaughters, Cornelia and Virginia room which, like the coblers,” Randolph, 24 and 22, created their own hideaway in the pediment Jefferson wrote, “serves me for of the West Portico. Virginia described it as a “nice little cuddy… parlour, for kitchen and hall.” with two small tables, one for my writing desk, the other for my books; and breathing through a broken pane of glass and some wide Less known by visitors are the cracks in the floor, I have taken possession with the accounts of dozens of others who dirt daubers, wasps & bumble beas…” lived and worked at Monticello. The Wine Cellar, Kitchen, and the With so many stories to tell, new “Crossroads” exhibition help us reveal the stories of people whose we look to a dynamic future— presenting Monticello, including Mulberry Row, as voices would not otherwise be heard. the hive of activity it was in Jefferson’s time. Here, Crossroads: Domestic Work at Monticello we make it possible to learn about Monticello discusses the shared efforts of Martha as the “haven of domestic life,” as Margaret Jefferson Randolph, her daughters, Bayard Smith described it in 1809, as well as and many enslaved people to clean, Jefferson’s aspirations for the “liberty of the serve, and care for Jefferson’s family. whole earth.” In addition to Martha Randolph, key figures in the exhibition are Burwell —SUSAN R. STEIN Colbert, butler and Jefferson’s RICHARD GILDER SENIOR CuRATOR AND Key, possibly to personal servant; BettyB rown, VICE PRESIDENT FOR MUSEum PROGRAMS the Wine Cellar Martha Jefferson Randolph by GB Mcintosh, 2010. THE CABINET Ms. Jean B. Baum Mr. and Mrs. Stephen M. Burns CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA BB&T Charitable Foundation CO-CHAIRS The Honorable and Mr. and Mrs. Kelly S. King Mrs. Mortimer M. Caplin Ms. Barbara Beaman Sieg WINSTON SALEM, NORTH WASHINGTON, CAROLINA DISTRICT OF COLumBIA CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA Mr. and Mrs. David A. Beach Mr. Alfonso L. Carney, Jr. and Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Bryan, IV CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA Dr. Cassandra Henderson JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA NEW YORK, NEW YORK The J & E Berkley Foundation IVY, VIRGINIA Mr. and Mrs. David C. Carroll CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA Anonymous Donors Mrs. E. William Aylward Mr. and Mrs. John H. Birdsall III NEENAH, WISCONSIN CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA Dr. and Mrs. B. Noland Carter II Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Ader RICHMOND, VIRGINIA KESWICK, VIRGINIA Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas C. Babson Ms. Leslie Greene Bowman and CHICAGO, ILLINOIS Dr. Cortland Neuhoff Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Carver Mr. and Mrs. Michael Aide CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA Mr. and Mrs. Bernard C. Baldwin III Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Bradley Mr.