July 2020

Saving Monticello: The Newsletter

The latest about the book, author events, and more

Newsletter Editor - Marc Leepson

Volume XVII, Number 7                                                                  July 1, 2020

“The study of the past is a constantly evolving, never-ending journey of discovery.” – Eric Foner

HAPPY FOURTH: Jefferson Monroe Levy appeared at Monticello nearly every Fourth of July to celebrate Independence Day beginning soon after he bought the property in 1879 until 1923 when he sold it to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation.On July 4^th Levy typically would assemble his farm employees and guests and read the Declaration of Independence from Jefferson’s music stand on the steps of the East Front Entrance.

After 1889, Frederick Rhodes, the son of Monticello’s superintendent, built catapults and scaffolds for displays of fireworks. Often, a band came from Charlottesville to play patriotic tunes.

President Truman at Monticello, July 4, 1947

In the 1950s, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation began holding naturalization ceremonies every July 4th at Monticello. But because of the pandemic, this year’s Independence Day Monticello ceremony will not include the naturalization component—and it will be a virtual one. The festivities begin at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time, and will feature remarks from the noted historians Annette Gordon-Reed (The Hemingses of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings) and Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: President and Philosopher, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power), along with the celebrated Spanish-American chef and philanthropist José Andrés.

Among other things Gordon-Reed will interview Velma Williams, a great-great-granddaughter of Peter Hemings, Jefferson’s enslaved cook and brewer. Fittingly, Velma Williams turns 100 years old on July 4.

The event will be live-streamed on Monticello’s website and its Facebook page. More details on Fourth of July 2020 at Monticello at  https://bit.ly/July4thMonticello

Monticello, by the way, reopened in June after having been closed to visitors due to the pandemic. To read about the new advanced safety procedures that are in effect, go to https://bit.ly/MonticelloReopening

THE CORRECT GIG: In last month’s newsletter I quoted from a letter that Frances Lewis (a niece of Jefferson Levy) wrote in the early 1960s describing her girlhood visits to Monticello around the turn of the 20^th century. In the letter she described objects that were stored in Monticello’s Dome Room, including “a two wheeled gig that Thomas Jefferson rode in when he went to sign the Declaration of Independence.”

I wrote in the newsletter—as I did in Saving Monticello—that Thomas Jefferson, indeed, did drive that one-horse carriage (known as a gig or a phaeton) on two six-day journeys from Monticello to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1775 and 1776. And that the gig remained unused and unchanged after it was stowed away upstairs at Monticello following Jefferson’s death, although its wheels and shaft had disappeared by the time Jefferson Levy had taken over.

While that was the state of our knowledge about the gig when I wrote the book in 2000, Monticello’s curatorial staff recently learned that the gig that Frances Lewis saw and wrote about is not the one that took Jefferson to Philadelphia.

Monticello’s curator Susan Stein emailed to say that the gig in the Dome Room in the early 1900s when Frances Lewis visited was made in the early 1800s when Thomas Jefferson was President.

“We hold the Levy family in eternal gratitude for their role in saving and preserving” the circa 1800 Jefferson phaeton, “even if it wasn’t exactly as advertised,” Emilie Johnson, a Monticello associate curator who discovered its true provenance, told me. Since the phaeton was made in 1802, she said, “it couldn’t have been the carriage that Jefferson drove to Philadelphia in 1775, but the association is certainly what saved it.

“The earliest mention of the seat as Jefferson’s Continental Congress conveyance I’ve found is in Benson Lossing’s 1853 article [in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine]” about his visit to Monticello. “Lossing actually sketched the seat for his article.” (above)

That gig/phaeton was built in 1802, Emilie said.

“We believe the chassis, or running body, was made on site at Monticello by blacksmith William Stewart and joiner James Dinsmore,” and that Jefferson “ordered the seat from Jones & Kain, a Washington D.C., carriage-maker, to whom he sent a sketch and extensive instructions. A copy of Jefferson’s requests for the seat exists at Massachusetts Historical Society, and I was fortunate enough to be able to identify it when I was researching the phaeton.”

Under Emilie’s direction, Monticello commissioned a reproduction of the 1802 gig in 2017 (below).

“Since we have the original seat, we were able to do paint sample analysis on it,” she said.

 “It was snazzy. Most of the seat was a rich green, framed by a thin silver bead, with evidence of red leather upholstery. With its curved footboard and sculptural springs, it must have made quite an impression coming down the road.”

Here’s the link to a YouTube video with more info: https://bit.ly/GigPhaetonVideo

EVENTS: My scheduled live events for the spring and summer have been canceled or postponed due to the pandemic. To check out my scheduled late 2020 events, go to the Events page on my website at http://bit.ly/Eventsandtalks

If you’d like to arrange an event for Saving Monticello, or for any of my other books, feel free to send me email at marcleepson@gmail.com  For info on my latest book, Ballad of the Green Beret, go to http://bit.ly/GreenBeretBook

GIFT IDEAS:  Want a personally autographed, brand-new paperback copy of Saving Monticello? Please e-mail me. I also have a few as-new, unopened hardcover copies, along with a good selection of brand-new copies of my other books.