Saving Monticello: The Newsletter
The latest about the book, author
events, and more
Newsletter Editor - Marc Leepson
Volume XVII, Number 9 September 1, 2020
“The study of the past is a
constantly evolving, never-ending journey of discovery.” – Eric Foner
MOSES AT MONTICELLO: Moses Ezekiel, that is. The notable Jewish-American sculptor paid a visit to Monticello on August 7, 1900, twenty-one years after Jefferson Monroe Levy had gained control of the property and had repaired, restored, and preserved it. He had an early dinner there with Jefferson Levy’s sister Amelia, her husband Carl Mayhoff, and other Levy family members.
I learned of that while researching Saving Monticello in 2000 at the Alderman Library at the University of Virginia, from a newspaper article in the Charlottesville Daily Progress. The article contained just a few words about the visit: that Ezekiel “was charmed with Jefferson’s home and wandered about the historic old place with the true love and interest of a true genius.”
Because of that not-especially-enlightening information—and because at the time I was unaware of Ezekiel’s prominence—I didn’t mention his visit in the book. In 2007, I learned of Moses Ezekiel’s life and work, and wrote a feature article about him in Civil War Times magazine. And, just recently, I learned details of Ezekiel’s 1900 Monticello excursion from Robert Gurval, an Emeritus Professor of Classics at UCLA. Professor Gurval, who will be doing a talk on the sculptor at the University of Virginia, kindly sent me an excerpt from Ezekiel’s memoirs, in which he offers his impressions of the Monticello visit.
Moses Ezekiel, who was 65 years old when he visited Monticello, had a remarkable life. He was born in Richmond, and attended the Virginia Military Institute, that august institution’s first Jewish cadet. He took part in the Civil War Battle of New Market as a cadet. After graduating from VMI in 1865, he moved to Europe where he would become a world-renowned sculptor.
Working from his studio in Rome, Ezekiel—who remained devoted to the Confederate cause his entire life—created scores of bronze and marble sculptures for public venues and private collections in the U.S. and Europe. That included an elaborate, 32-foot-high bronze, the only monument to Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.
His other works include a bronze Stonewall Jackson sculpture in Charleston, W.Va. (a replica stands on the VMI parade grounds) and the bronze of Thomas Jefferson that’s in front of the Rotunda on the University of Virginia grounds. (left)
“As I had never been to Charlottesville, Virginia, I felt a
desire to see the home of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello,” Ezekiel wrote in his
memoirs, “and also wanted to see the University of Virginia and the campus,
which he had built. I expected some day to put my Homer group on the campus and
wanted very much, if I could afford it, to present the University with a bronze
monument of Jefferson.” (Today, the Ezekiel bronze Homer, depicting him seated
in the company of a young attendant, is at the foot of the Lawn behind the Rotunda
at U-Va.)
When Moses Ezekiel
arrived in Charlottesville he checked in to the old Hotel Clermont downtown (right) near the train station.
After having lunch at the hotel, he wrote, he “drove in a
buggy over the old country shady road to Monticello and crossed over an old
crooked, rickety wooden bridge, which spanned a small creek. On the roadside
was a wooden trough into which water was trickling down from the mountains. We
stopped there to water our horse and then started to mount up to Monticello.”
At Monticello’s old gatehouse entrance, he wrote, “a bright mulatto girl opened it for us, and then we went up a long road, flanked with irregular blocks of sandstone which held up the turf and the trees on either side, until we reached the old cemetery where Thomas Jefferson is buried. Over his grave is a granite shaft, for which, I understand, our government paid ten thousand dollars; it is worth about one thousand, I should think.”
From the family cemetery, Ezekiel “went up towards he
dome-roofed house, an old colonial building, with immense composite pillars on
the porch [on the West Portico entrance, left]
holding up the big wooden cornice. A beautiful green sloping lawn leads up to
the house, and two marble statues lend an air of refinement to the place as
they were placed, I suppose, by Jefferson under the trees.” The statutes
actually were “placed” there by Jefferson Levy.
The view of the Shenandoah Valley and the
Blue Ridge Mountains, Ezekiel said, “in the distance is very beautiful from
this green sward. There is an air of refinement about it all which is almost
indescribable.”
As he came near the house, one of Jefferson Levy’s employees—likely
Willis Sheldon, the long-time gatekeeper—described by Ezekiel as “an old
white-haired, white-bearded jet-black Darkie,” greeted him.
The sculptor then recreated the ensuing conversation. Warning:
the dialogue is cringe worthy to 21st century ears:
“You’s welcome, sah! Yes sah! Yes you walk up dem
marble steps, tell you comes to de pooch ob de mansion. De family whar libs
here now is at dinner, sah, but I reckon dey’ll be monstros glad to see you all
de same.”
The “old man,” Ezekiel said, “seemed really to be one of the
relics of the olden days and in his poor way tried his best to keep up the
reputation for hospitality which Monticello was famous for in Jefferson’s time.”
Jefferson Levy’s brother-in-law, Carl Mayhoff (who husband
of JML’s sister Amelia) “came at once and begged me to join the family in the
dining room, where I found them all seated.” That was the highlight of his
Monticello visit. “So here I found myself at last, in the dining room of Thomas
Jefferson! It was filled with so many memories that I paid but scant attention
to anything but the room itself.”
“On the right of it, I saw an octagonal room, which was his
coffee room once. It has two brackets between the windows and two niches in it.
I found on one bracket a bust of Benjamin Franklin and in one niche a poor copy
of the statue of Sophocles, the famous statue… in the Lateran Museum.
Ezekiel wrote that the house contained “very little
furniture that ever belonged to Thomas Jefferson. The new furniture that has
been placed there has nothing whatever to do with his epoch.” Which is not true,
as Jefferson Levy did indeed have Jefferson-era pieces in the house.
Ezekiel noted “a number of modern paintings on the
walls. Family portraits are mixed in with the old pictures, and this gives
a strange incongruity to the whole place. I found an American eagle modeled on
the ceiling of the hall, with eighteen stars around him. This was evidently a
work done under Jefferson’s direct supervision and was very well done, indeed.
There was an old plaster bust of Jefferson himself, evidently a good likeness.”
Ezekiel “took a great deal of interest in going through the
old servants’ quarters,” he said, during his stroll around the grounds after
dinner, which he described as “a long range of one-story rooms with an arched
tunnel for their connection with the house.”
He then departed and drove back to Charlottesville.
EVENTS:
My scheduled live events for the spring and summer were all canceled or
postponed due to the pandemic. But I do have two events this month.
On
Wednesday, September 23, I will be
taking part in a Q&A about the Levys and Monticello starting at 1:00 p.m.
Eastern time from inside the house. It will be streamed live on Monticello’s website
and Facebook page, as well as on YouTube. To tune in. go to https://bit.ly/MontLiveStreams, http://bit.ly/FBMont, or http://bit.ly/MontYouTube
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.
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