Featured Posts
It’s important to look for ways to stay cool in the end-of-summer heat, and at Monticello, the first place that we look is to the past. While Thomas Jefferson’s era did not have the modern amenities we cherish in these warm months, he is credited with the first known ice cream recipe recorded by an American and likely was responsible for the popularization o […]
Andrea Wulf, the acclaimed author of Founding Gardeners, reveals the forgotten life of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world-and in the process created modern environmentalism. Von Humboldt (1769-1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. In North America, hi […]
Heirloom flowers are cultivating a devoted following. This spring planting season, choose tried-and-true historic plants over mass-market plants like Jefferson's beloved Caracalla Bean Vine (aka Snail Flower) just featured in The Wall Street Journal article "A Guide to Planting Heirloom Flowers-With Links to Thomas Jefferson and More." Read th […]
“Our breakfast table was as large as our Dinner table; … we had tea, coffee, excellent muffins, hot wheat and corn bread, cold ham and butter,” recalled visitor Margaret Bayard Smith. Jefferson’s notes allude to raising corn for bread and Martha Jefferson Randolph referred to the family being “fond” of Indian, or corn, meal. This is Mary Randolph’s recipe, a […]
"I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk, & restorative cordial." -Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, Aug. 17, 1811 We have reams of material on the food and cookery of Thomas Jefferson's day in Virginia--much of it recorded by Jefferson himself. In addition to all of […]
The house was in an unfinished state, and when Mr. Seymour observed it, Mr. Jefferson replied—“And I hope it will remain so during my life, as architecture is my delight, and putting up, and pulling down, one of my favourite amusements.” –Thomas Jefferson (as told by Margaret Bayard Smith) Thomas Jefferson was constantly designing and reinventing furnishings […]
