Jefferson

Introductions

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:28:43 +0000

Presenters:

Dr. Lonnie Bunch, Director, National Museum of African American History and Culture
Leslie Greene Bowman, President, Monticello
Marc Pachter, Interim Director, National Museum of American History

Duration: 10 minutes

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Monticello West Front
Photograph by Geoff Kilmer

Getting Word: A Conversation with Descendants of the Enslaved at Monticello

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:28:18 +0000

Monticello
Photographed by LC Handy

Moderators:

Dr. Rex Ellis, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs, National Museum of African American History and Culture
Dr. Dianne Swann-Wright, Historian, The Getting Word Project

Monticello Panelists:

Shannon Lanier
Karen Hughes White
Jacqueline Yurkoski

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Photo Credits: The photographs of the descendants taken at the exhibition opening in January 2012 that appear in the final segment of this webinar were taken by photographer Jane Feldman.

Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:20:57 +0000

Presenters:

Rex Ellis, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs National Museum of African American History and Culture
Elizabeth Chew, Curator, Monticello

Isaac Granger Jefferson (1775-c.1850)

Description:
In this session, Rex Ellis, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs, National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Elizabeth Chew, Curator at Monticello, will discuss the Smithsonian exhibition they co-organized. The exhibition considers the paradox that Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, was a slave-holder all his life. It also examines the lives of enslaved families at Monticello and their family stories after slavery.

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Revolution and Religion: The Views of Thomas Jefferson

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:14:40 +0000

Presenters:

Barbara Clark Smith, Curator, Division of Political History, National Museum of American History
Harry Rubenstein, Chair and Curator, Division of Political History, National Museum of American History

Jefferson Bible

Description:
The first presidential candidate to be attacked for his supposed religious views was Thomas Jefferson, in the election of 1800. Clergymen and writers in newspapers suggested that Jefferson was a heretic, an atheist, and an opponent of all religion. What was the fact of the matter? And what can Jefferson’s beliefs—and the controversy about them—tell us about Jefferson’s America?

Curators Harry Rubenstein and Barbara Clark Smith discuss Jefferson’s personal beliefs, based on his writings and the book that he made, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. They explore the broad impact of Enlightenment ideas on many Americans in the age of revolution. They will explain why Jefferson never publicly replied to attacks on his religion. Most important, the curators examine Jefferson’s views of the American Revolution as a way to understand his idea of the place of religion in the new republic.

The topic offers a rich opportunity for discussing the careful use of historical evidence in understanding past individuals and the debates of their times. It illuminates social, economic, and religious aspects of the American Revolution.

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Mapping the West

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:12:14 +0000

Presenters:

David K. Allison, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs, National Museum of American History
Mark Hirsch, Historian, National Museum of the American Indian

The Land Traveler Compass, made and signed by Thomas Whitney of Philadelphia. It was carried by Captain Clark on the Lewis & Clark Expedition to the Pacific Coast, 1803-1806. The expedition was ordered by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase.

Description:
Purchasing the Louisiana Territory from France was Thomas Jefferson’s boldest action as President, and among his most consequential. To explore the new land, he sent an exploration team headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The principal goal of the Lewis and Clark expedition was determining whether there was a water passage from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean through the vast territory the nation had acquired from France. They failed to find this passageway. However they succeeded in providing a wealth of new geographical and scientific data about the territory, its flora and fauna, and the Native tribes who inhabited it.

Curators David K. Allison and Mark Hirsch will summarize the famous Lewis and Clark expedition, putting special emphasis on some of the important findings of the “Corps of Discovery Expedition.” They will discuss not only the perspectives of President Jefferson and the men on the discovery team, but also how the expedition appeared to — and ultimately affected — the tribal people who inhabited the West. They will display artifacts in the Smithsonian collection that relate to the expedition and assess Lewis and Clark’s significance in the broader context of American history.

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Monticello: American Experiment

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:07:34 +0000

Presenters:

Elizabeth Chew, Ph.D., Curator, Monticello
Bill Barker, Thomas Jefferson interpreter, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Aerial, Monticello with Mulberry Row and Vegetable Garden
Photograph by Leonard Phillips

Description:
Thomas Jefferson believed reason and knowledge were the surest paths to human progress. Influenced by Enlightenment thinkers, Jefferson continually gathered and shared information on many subjects. He used his roles on the public stage to advance his progressive vision for a self-governing American nation. The Monticello plantation became his private laboratory where he could apply the latest thinking to his various enterprises.

In his fields, gardens, plantation industries, and house, he tested new ways of using science and technology to improve efficiency and productivity and to make life more comfortable and convenient. His ambitious plans for Monticello depended upon the labor and contributions of many people—male and female, young and old, enslaved and free.

In this session, Monticello’s curator Elizabeth Chew and Bill Barker of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (in character as Thomas Jefferson) will discuss Monticello as Jefferson’s Enlightenment laboratory.

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