#Monticello

[thaliawashere]

Green painted floors at Jefferson's Monticello.

[hiidkwhatimdoing7525]

The more I look at this book the funnier the cover gets

let me just...

there. So much better.

[jeanfrancoisrey]

L’Île-Rousse vue de Monticello…

[dustzvacuumcleaner]

I don’t have to sell my soul

He’s already in me.

I don’t need to sell my soul

He’s already in me.

[unteriors]

US Route 1, Monticello, Maine.

[nordleuchten]

Do you know of any Lafayette reenactors who do a good job of portraying him?

Dear Anon,

this question actually had quite the perfect timing because I planned to make a similar post regarding reenactors now that the Bicentennial is approaching.

Good reenacting is walking this very fine line between the accumulated factual knowledge you have and an engaging performance. Reenacting is handling these very tricky questions like “Did you had nightmares during the war?” (real example) that there is little to no source material for.

Probably the most famous La Fayette-reenactor is Mark Schneider. He worked for and with Colonial Williamsburg, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and George Washington’s Mount Vernon to name only a few. He also portraits Napoléon Bonaparte and Benedikt Arnold. There is quite a lot of his content on YouTube and he has produced a number of good quality “talks” with the organizations listed above, especially during the COVID.

Schneider is very versatile. He can give you a young and enthusiastic La Fayette fresh after the Battle of Brandywine or a more mature and sober La Fayette, discussing politics with James Madison in a tavern in 1825. And beside his knowledge of La Fayette, there is also his talent to entertain and engage a crowd. I honestly count on him for the Bicentennial.

The other Reenactor I have in mind is Ben Goldman from the American Historical Theater. Not quite as famous perhaps as Schneider, I have nonetheless seen him a few times and generally liked his performances. He is often invited to represent La Fayette as a guest at an event and not necessarily to portrait in the same way as Schneider does.

There are of course countless other Reenactors but the “smaller” ones are often harder to come by and I am always happy to find someone new – so if any one has a recommendation?

I hope you have/had a wonderful day!

[adventurealldays]

Lloyd’s lake at sunset

[18thcentury]

Jefferson last Sunday June 9th

and Hamilton today June 14th.

[chaotic-history]

more Monticello photos!

^trumbull miniature

^zozo, tj, and hamilton's busts in the entry room

really creepy-looking madison

dick !!

olly cromwell's death mask. excuse the shitty photo

The Bed™️

TJ's riding boots!

btw I definitely recommend visiting! The area is absolutely gorgeous andthe tour inside the house was super informative abt not just TJ but all the other people who lived there too, and the history of what happened to Monticello after Jeffs died, which I hadn't known anything about

[lascitasdelashoras]

Jean Michel Basquiat - Monticello

[digitalyarbs]

The Real Face of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson’s reconstructed life mask. The mask was cast of his head and upper torso by John Henri Issac Browere in 1825. yarbs.net

[peculiarparasol]

I have a sneaking suspicion this tour guide ships Jamilton.

Man had a bust of Alex in his main hall!

[hiidkwhatimdoing7525]

the amazing effects of the 0.5x on Camera

[unteriors]

Highway 1258, Monticello, Kentucky.

[yr-obedt-cicero]

Do you know why Jefferson place a bust of Hamilton in his entrance way? Or why he even had one at the very first place?

According to one of Jefferson's grandchildren;

After gazing a moment at these objects, the eye settled with a deeper interest on busts of Jefferson and Hamilton, by Ceracchi, placed on massive pedestals on each side of the main entrance “opposed in death as in life,” as the surviving original sometimes remarked, with a pensive smile, as he observed the notice they attracted.

Randall, Henry Stephens. The Life of Thomas Jefferson. United States, Derby & Jackson, 1858.

[Jefferson, Randolph, and Trist Family Papers, 1791-1874, #5385-ac, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.]

When a guest had questioned the scenery, Jefferson wryly replied that they were “opposed in death as in life.” [x] But despite the vague phrasing, he never gave more of a reason. It is believed by some that it was a metaphor for Hamilton's and Jefferson's divide, yet essentiality in the building of America. Or Jefferson found it amusing, as it is said that his bust was on a green marble pedestal decorated with the signs of the zodiac and the twelve tribes of Israel, towering over Hamilton's. Although Jefferson's bust doesn't survive to this today, but we have a small description of it;

This rough pencil sketch, made by an unknown hand on the verso of a retained copy of a letter written by Jefferson's grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph in December 1826, is the only extant image of a bust of Jefferson that Giuseppe Ceracchi modeled from life in Philadelphia sometime after 2 Mch. 1791. He intended to incorporate it, with other likenesses of prominent Ameri- cans, into a large monument that was never completed. In Florence during 1793 the artist transformed his original terra cotta study of Jefferson into a larger-than-life bust in marble, writing to Jefferson on 11 Mch. 1794 to report the work was finished.

Jefferson, Thomas. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 28: 1 January 1794 to 29 February 1796. United States, Princeton University Press, 2018.

We luckily still have Hamilton's to this day, stylized in a Roman form by Giuseppe Ceracchi. When Ceracchi took a visit to the US in 1791-92, he proposed a monument in honor of the Revolution and appealed to Congress to finance the project. Ceracchi had attempted to raise the funds for the memorial, and Jefferson endorsed him and told Robert Livingston that he was; “a very celebrated sculptor from Rome.” [x] But unfortunately, Congress closed the proposal on May 7th, 1792.

Today, Jefferson's bust has been replaced with a copy that you can find at Monticello.

[tj-monticello]

Today’s final jeopardy was literally “Which president lived at ‘little mountain’?”

Everyone got it wrong 😑