Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. Robert H. Smith

Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc.
Robert H. Smith International
Center for Jefferson Studies
2009 Annual Report
Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc.
Robert H. Smith International
Center for Jefferson Studies (Smith ICJS)
2009 Annual Report
Table of Contents
Introduction
I.
Archaeology Department
II.
Department of Enrichment Programs
III.
The Jefferson Library
IV.
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series
V.
Publications Department
VI.
Research Department
Appendix 1:
Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies Staff
Appendix 2:
Staff Professional Activities
Appendix 3:
Fellowships Awarded
Appendix 4:
The Gilder Lehrman Junior Research Fellowship
Appendix 5:
Letters from Former Fellows
Appendix 6:
Excerpts from Coloring and Activities Book
Appendix 7:
Conferences
Appendix 8:
Presentations and Events
Appendix 9:
Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies
Advisory Board and Rotation Plan
Page
Introduction
In the preparatory study for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation‘s strategic plan of 2009,
the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies (Smith ICJS) was identified as the
department with the potential for the greatest growth. As a result of the study, the future
priorities outlined in the Foundation‘s five year strategic plan include engaging ―a global
audience in a dialogue with Jefferson‘s ideas‖ to encourage critical engagement and exchanges.
The plan envisages harnessing the synergy between the power of place and the power of ideas,
and creating a worldwide community of schools, scholars, citizens and tourists. It is part of a
broader attempt of going beyond being a onetime historic site destination, to building
relationships both among actual visitors to the house and among an external audience. Smith
ICJS is central to this mission.
During the year, the Smith ICJS hosted more international events that at any time in the
past. In April 2009, in association with the University of Sydney, Smith ICJS co-hosted a
variety of different forums on Jefferson for the first time in Australia. It sponsored the
participation of Annette Gordon-Reed (Professor at New York University and Rutgers
University), Jack Greene (Professor Emeritus of Johns Hopkins), Amy Bushnell (Brown
University), and Cinder Stanton (Shannon Senior Historian at Smith ICJS). They each gave
independent talks. Annette Gordon- Reed and Jack Greene delivered two of the annual
university lectures at Sydney. Andrew O‘Shaughnessy and Cinder Stanton spoke at the United
States consulates in Sydney and Melbourne. Amy Bushnell gave a paper at one of the university
seminars. During the trip, Annette Gordon-Reed heard that she had won the Pulitzer Prize. This
created a frenzy of national media attention. Andrew O‘Shaughnessy also spoke for an hour on
Jefferson on the popular morning national radio show hosted by Margaret Throsby. There were
receptions given by the United States Consulate in Sydney and the United States Studies Centre
at Sydney University. The main event was a symposium of academics, senior journalists and
laymen on the subject of ―What is the legacy of Thomas Jefferson and why does it matter
today?‖ The visitors were joined by some twenty professors from across Australia, Tasmania,
New Zealand, the United States and Britain. Bob Carr, the veteran Australian politician, and
former premier of New South Wales, was present and expressed a particular interest in writing
about Jefferson. Thanks to the original invitation and hospitality of former Smith ICJS Fellow
Cassandra Pybus, the trip represented an ideal blueprint for the future of scholarly venues and
larger public events. A detailed itinerary is provided in Appendix 7.
In association with the Boston Public Library and the Massachusetts Historical Society in
June, Smith ICJS also co-hosted a conference a conference on ―John Adams and Thomas
Jefferson: Libraries, Leadership and Legacy.‖ It was a moveable scholarly feast which began in
Boston and ended in Charlottesville. The conference was funded and instigated by Bob Baron, a
former president of the American Antiquarian Society. He provided a railway carriage to bring
the guests from Boston to Charlottesville. Under the auspices of the Smith ICJS, Senator Gary
Hart gave the keynote lecture at the Harrison Institute at the University of Virginia. C-SPAN
filmed the panel sessions held at the Jefferson Library. The best papers will be published in a
volume edited by Bob Baron and Conrad Wright of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
In September, Smith ICJS held a scholarly conference on the subject of ―Transatlantic
Revolutionaries: Jefferson and Paine in America, Britain and France‖ to coincide with the
anniversaries of the death of Paine and the retirement of Jefferson from the White House. There
was a reception by the United States consulate and an opening lecture at the Franklin House in
London. The panel sessions were conducted at the Reform Club in Pall Mall, London. It was
the most important scholarly event commemorating the anniversaries and will result in a volume,
edited by Peter Onuf and Simon Newman, published by the University of Virginia Press. The
discussions were enlightening and revealed both major similarities between Paine and Jefferson,
and subjects on which Paine was less radical than Jefferson. There were some particularly
illuminating papers on the dissemination of the ideas of Paine and Jefferson in Europe.
In November, the Smith ICJS held a forum in Brno at the University of Massaryk on the
subject of ―The United States of America – Jeffersonian Roots, Ideas and Policy. Continuity and
Change?‖ The visiting scholars were joined by the local faculty and presented panel discussions
before an audience of students.
The importance of Smith ICJS to the interpretation of Monticello was very apparent in
the exhibits unveiled at the new Visitor Center which opened in April 2009. Smith ICJS scholars
contributed their expertise to the curatorial department for the creation of both the film and the
exhibits. The digital quotes in the entrance hall of the exhibit center and the accompanying
publication were prepared with the assistance of the staff of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson:
Retirement Series. The quotes consequently have no capital letters, because Jefferson did not
use capitals. The treatment of the lives of enslaved people in the exhibition and film represent the
culmination of some 40 years research by our own staff members. The particularly rich
documentation and archaeology makes it possible to discuss individuals and not just speak of
slavery in impersonal terms. In the ―To Try All Things‖ exhibit, there is a section comparing the
lifestyles of the field hands, the domestic slaves, the white laborers and Jefferson‘s family. The
newly excavated artifacts in exhibition were dug by our archaeology department, which also
provided the details for the plantation model in the courtyard that introduces the visitor to the
expanse of the original plantation. Barbara Oberg, the editor of The Thomas Jefferson Papers at
Princeton suggested the title of the exhibit, ―The Boisterous Sea of Liberty,‖ during a meeting of
the advisory board of Smith ICJS. The ultimate credit must, of course, go the curatorial staff for
their own research and their discerning use of the available expertise at Monticello.
Smith ICJS global outreach is additionally achieved through publications and through the
internet. A selection of the papers from the Smith ICJS Prague conference of 2007 was
published in a volume entitled Religion, State, and Society. Jefferson‟s Wall of Separation in
Comparative Perspective, eds. Robert Fatton, Jr. and R.K. Ramazani (New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2009), with a preface by Saunders Director Andrew O‘Shaughnessy. The Smith
ICJS published a new monograph by Keith Thomson entitled A Passion for Nature. Thomas
Jefferson and Natural History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009).
Thomson is a former dean at Yale and professor at Oxford University, and a Smith ICJS fellow.
Smith ICJS also published The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series Volume 6. The
516 documents printed in full in Volume 6 of the Retirement Series of the Papers of Thomas
Jefferson (March to November 1813) include important discussions of wartime political
economy, passages in Greek and Anglo-Saxon, key statements of Jefferson‘s views on neology
and intellectual property rights, his memoir of Meriwether Lewis, and an exceptionally large and
interesting series of exchanges with John Adams on politics, history, and religion.
Smith ICJS also issued the first Monticello compact disc entitled Music from the
Jefferson Collection. An Evening of Songs & Sonatas. It includes a booklet with an aerial photo
of Kenwood and the Jefferson Library. The recording was made at a live concert hosted by
Smith ICJS at the Rotunda at the University of Virginia, and at studio sessions in Kenwood. As
a member of the board of the University of Virginia Press, Andrew O‘Shaughnessy has
negotiated an agreement that future volumes of conference proceedings, the Foundation‘s
biennial lectures at the University of Virginia and books by former Gilder Lehrman Fellows will
contain a Foundation logo and acknowledgment when published by the University of Virginia
Press. This was a generous concession by the press since it does not receive subventions from
Smith ICJS. It was decided to end the formal contract with the University of North Carolina
Press, which expires in 2010. In the future, Foundation publications will be placed with various
scholarly and commercial presses.
Among the important developments in the worldwide web publications, the first 33
volumes of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (Princeton) became available in April through the
Rotunda Project of the University of Virginia Press. This is only available to subscribing
libraries. It aims to make available the papers of all the Founding Fathers and already includes
the papers of George Washington and John Adams, with the James Madison and the Ratification
of the Constitution papers soon to follow. In December, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson:
Retirement Series at Smith ICJS submitted the first volumes to Rotunda. The Thomas
Jefferson‘s Libraries Project, initiated by the Jefferson Library, which aims to create a
comprehensive list of books belonging to or known by Jefferson, became part of the Libraries of
Early America project and is available on LibraryThing.org. In association with the University
of Southampton and the International Slavery Museum at Liverpool, the archaeology department
designed and issued a popular and lengthy summary of their work in Saint Kitts and Nevis,
which is available through http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism.
Smith ICJS is already engaged in the global dialogue envisaged in the new strategic plan.
The future will involve formal partnerships with other institutions. In fall 2009, discussions
began with the American Academy of Diplomacy, the Hoover Institution and the Brookings
Institution. There is currently no space for hosting large events without clearing the library. In
December, construction crews broke ground for a conference center on Montalto which will be
part of Smith ICJS. With its panoramic views of Monticello, this will indeed provide an
inspiring location to combine the power of place and the power of ideas.
Andrew O‘Shaughnessy
Saunders Director
I. Archaeology Department
The archaeology department made significant progress on all four of its major long-term
research and interpretive projects in 2009: DAACS, the Monticello Plantation Archaeological
Survey, Monticello Home-Farm Household Archaeology Project, and the Mulberry Row
Reassessment.
Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS)
DAACS (www.daacs.org) is designed to advance our understanding of the evolution of
Monticello plantation and the plantation society of the Chesapeake, in the larger context of the
slavery-based economy of the early-modern Atlantic world. Comparative data from other earlymodern plantation societies are critical to achieving this goal. DAACS collects, organizes, and
delivers those data to scholars at Monticello and around the world via the web. Currently
DAACS freely delivers data from
over 33 archaeological sites related
to slavery in the Chesapeake,
Carolinas, and Caribbean to
scholars and the public. (Exhibit 1)
Funding comes from peerreviewed grants and from a modest
endowment established with the
help of a National Endowment for
the Humanities (NEH) Challenge
Grant. DAACS is led by Project
Manager Jillian Galle.
NEH-JISC Grant: the Saint
Kitts-Nevis Digital Initiative
In 2009 DAACS completed
Exhibit 1. The new archaeological sites page from the DAACS
website. Circles represent plantations for which data are
available in the archive.
the Saint Kitts-Nevis Digital Archaeological Initiative (SKNDAI), funded by the NEH and the
Joint Information Systems Committee in the United Kingdom. SKNDAI was designed to
advance understanding of slave lifeways on sugar plantations in the eastern-Caribbean islands of
Saint Kitts and Nevis. The project was a collaboration with Roger Leech, professor of
archaeology at the University of Southampton, and Rob Philpott, head of archaeology at
National Museums Liverpool and its International Slavery Museum (ISM). Research activities
included completing a shovel test pit (STP) survey of two late-eighteenth century slave village
sites on Nevis, preliminary testing of their early-nineteenth century successors and a small
village site on Saint Kitts. In addition, project staff transcribed and scanned related courthouse
records. Archaeological and documentary data, including three dimensional laser scanned images
of artifacts, are now ready to be launched on the DAACS website. A popular and lengthy
summary of the project designed by Philpott, and Foundation staff Jillian Galle and Fraser
Neiman, including text, images, and video, will debut on the ISM website in early 2010
(http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/).
In November 2009, Galle and Neiman wrote and submitted a proposal to the NEH
Collaborative Research program to complete a STP survey of the two early-nineteenth century
slave village sites on Nevis that were tested during the SKNDAI project. The proposal also calls
for an intensive survey of eighteenth and early-nineteenth century slave village sites on Saint
Kitts. This is a collaboration with scholars based at ISM, the University of Tennessee, and the
University of Mary Washington. We will learn the outcome in May 2010.
NEH Grant: The Hermitage Project
In 2008 the archaeology department at The Hermitage, a house museum at the site of
Andrew Jackson‘s plantation outside Nashville, received a $285,855 NEH grant earlier this year
to catalog and analyze approximately 800,000 artifacts from the enslaved community using
DAACS protocols and software, and to make the results available on the DAACS website.
DAACS staff trained Hermitage researchers at Monticello and provided the software necessary
for the project. In May 2009, the Hermitage terminated the project‘s principle investigator.
Because the remaining Hermitage staff lacked the required expertise, The Hermitage and NEH
asked DAACS to assume responsibility for completion of the grant and approved a transfer of
the remaining funds. In July 2009, DAACS staff transported the Hermitage artifacts to
Monticello. Work resumed on the project in the DAACS lab in early 2010. NEH funding ends in
August 2011.
Other Projects
In January 2009, Jillian Galle
coordinated and supervised the second of
three planned three week field schools at
Papine and Mona slave villages, Jamaica,
in collaboration with the Department of
History and Archaeology at the University
of West Indies (UWI), Mona. (Exhibit 2)
The sites are located on the UWI campus
and were occupied from the mideighteenth century into the nineteenth
century. STP survey data from them will
provide valuable comparative data with
surveyed sites on Nevis, Saint Kitts, and
from the north coast of Jamaica.
During the year, Galle and staff
nearly completed a series of major design
improvements to the DAACS website.
Exhibit 2. Professors Gordon Shirley (Principle) and
Swithin Wilmot (Dean of Humanities and Education)
of UWI-Mona, inspect artifacts from recent
archaeological survey on the UWI campus.
Users will now have the ability to query multiple sites at once and to generate spatial data from
shovel test pit surveys with greater ease. In addition, the organization of the website has been
changed to more elegantly handle information on plantation landscapes, especially where we
have data from multiple sites at a single plantation.
The Monticello Plantation Archaeological Survey
Closer to home, the department continued work on the Monticello Plantation
Archaeological Survey. This long-term research project aims to locate all Jefferson-era
archaeological sites on more than 2,000 acres of land owned by the Thomas Jefferson
Foundation. The plantation survey is yielding startling new evidence that the Monticello tract
witnessed dramatic changes in agricultural land use and settlement organization between its
initial cultivation by Europeans and Africans around 1740 and Jefferson‘s death in 1826. During
a three month field season, a crew of six led by Sara Bon-Harper (Archaeological Research
Manager), excavated an additional 1,481 STPs to the north and west of Monticello mansion,
bringing the total number of STPs to 16,995 distributed across 505 acres. (Exhibit 3) Among
their discoveries is a scatter of wine bottle glass along a path extending north from the mansion
to the North Spring, testimony to mishaps as slaves carried water up the steep slope from the
spring, and to the fact that wine bottles, which are ubiquitous on domestic sites from the period,
were recycled. Artifacts from this season have been catalogued and context records have been
digitized for delivery on the DAACS website.
With the completion of 2009 fieldwork, the Pippin tract is the only remaining tract of
Jefferson-owned land on Monticello Mountain that has not been surveyed. The outlying quarter
farms Tufton and Shadwell await exploration as well. The Pippin and Tufton tracts have special
importance to the larger settlement history of Monticello. Documents hint that nearly all the
Monticello home-farm slaves and their houses were moved to either one or both of these tracts
when Jefferson leased them to John Craven in 1800. If this is correct, then the early-nineteenth
century sites in exhibit 3 all post-date 1810, when the Craven lease expired. Puzzling out what
really happened requires STP survey of the Pippin and Tufton tracts.
Exhibit 3. Map of plantation survey coverage to-date. The dots are shovel test pits, spaced at
40-foot intervals. Twenty-foot intervals are used when artifacts are recovered.
Monticello Home-Farm Household Archaeology Project
This ongoing project aims to explore the internal structure of sites discovered by the
plantation survey. The goal is to understand how and why the lives of Monticello‘s residents,
enslaved and free, changed over time, by examining the sites where they lived and artifacts they
discarded. In 2009 we made significant progress in the investigation of two sites.
The first is Site 17, which was home to Edmond Bacon, overseer of the Monticello home
farm in the early–nineteenth century. (See Exhibit 3 for its location.) The Site 17 research is
being conducted in collaboration with Professors Alison Bell and Sean Devlin at Washington
and Lee University. In April and May 2009, the Washington and Lee field school students,
under the supervision of Bell, Devlin, and Bon-Harper, and assisted by Don Gaylord
(Archaeological Analyst) and Derek Wheeler (Research Archaeologist), excavated a stratified
random sample of twenty two five-foot quadrats.
All artifacts have been catalogued and field records have been digitized. Much of the lab
work was done by Washington and Lee students after extensive training in DAACS protocols by
Karen Smith and other department staff. Although larger samples are required for firm
conclusions, a preliminary assessment suggests Bacon‘s ceramics were far behind the earlynineteenth century fashion curve, compared to the assemblages from Mulberry Row. Bell,
Monticello staff and Washington and Lee students will conduct a second campaign of excavation
at the site in April-May 2010. This research aligns well with Professor Bell‘s long-standing
interest in middling free white in slave societies, like the Chesapeake. Our collaboration is
designed to build expertise in the DAACS protocols among Washington and Lee staff and
students, which they can use in coming years to investigate domestic sites associated with
middling whites elsewhere the region.
During the summer of 2009, department staff, led by Bon-Harper and Karen Smith
(Curator of Archaeological Collections), and assisted by the twelve students enrolled in the
Monticello-University of Virginia Archaeological Field School. This summer‘s focus was Site 8,
where previous research had revealed a complex occupational history between its initial
settlement in 1770 and its abandonment in the 1790s, roughly coincident with the transition at
Monticello from tobacco monoculture to diversified agriculture based around wheat.
A major goal of this season‘s fieldwork was filling in gaps in the spatial coverage of the
site, to increase the accuracy of our estimates of change in household location and number over
time. We also hoped to find the buried
remains of a fifth house, which has so far
eluded us. We succeeded in the former,
but not in the latter. Sara Bon-Harper
supervised fieldwork, with help from
Don Gaylord and Derek Wheeler. Guest
lecturers for the field school included
Dan Druckenbrod (Ryder University),
Joanne Bowen (Colonial Williamsburg),
and John Jones (Washington State
University). Processing and cataloging of
artifacts by Karen Smith and her team of
analysts recovered this summer is
complete. Updated coverage of Site 8
will be available on the new version of
the DAACS website, slated for launch in
late March 2010. (Exhibit 4)
Mulberry Row Reassessment
Exhibit 4. Schematic plan of Site 8. Clusters of sub-rectangular
The Mulberry Row Reassessment subfloor pits mark the locations of four houses. The circular pits
north of house 2 were dug to obtain clay to plaster mud chimneys.
(MRR) is the archaeology department‘s
ongoing effort to digitize and analyze the mass of material excavated from seventeen sites on or
near Mulberry Row during the 1980s. The resulting data conform to the rigorous classification
and measurement protocols we have developed for the DAACS project.
The data are being made available to researchers and students across the world on the
DAACS website. Current work on artifact assemblages is being conducted by a team of trained
analysts working in the Monticello archaeology lab under Curator Karen Smith. Faunal
assemblages are being analyzed by Dr. Joanne Bowen‘s zooarchaeology lab at Colonial
Williamsburg. The MRR is making it possible, for the first time, to describe and understand
variation within and among the Mulberry Row sites using modern quantitative methods. As a
result of DAACS, we can now compare slave lifeways at Monticello to those elsewhere in the
Chesapeake, Carolinas, and the Caribbean.
Anvil
Posts
6
10 Feet
8
2
4
10 Feet
0
Exhibit 5. Archaeological plan of the nailery recently digitized as part of the Mulberry Row Reassessment.
Note the semi-circular array of holes in the western half of the building in which stumps were placed to
support the anvils at which enslaved nail makers worked.
New NEH Grant
In May 2009, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded Monticello $304,000
to fund completion of the Mulberry Row Reassessment over the next two years. By the end of
2009, Smith and her team of analysts (Beth Clites and Brian McCray, assisted part-time by Don
Gaylord and Chris Mundy) had completed work on the smith‘s shop and the nailery. (Exhibits 5
and 6) They are currently working on MRS-2, a domestic site occupied in the last quarter of the
eighteenth century for which there is no historical documentation.
Data
Occupation
Available
Site
Dates
Funding
1. Building o
1770-1800
Mellon
Yes
2. Building l
1770-1826
Mellon
Yes
3. Building r
1790-1826
Mellon
Yes
4. Building s
1790-1826
Mellon
Yes
5. Building t and "Negro Quarter"
1770-1826
Mellon
Yes
6. Stewart Watkins
1800-1810
Robert H. Smith
Yes
7. Elizabeth Hemings
1790-1810
Robert H. Smith
Yes
8. Dry Well
1770-1800
Robert H. Smith
Yes
9. MRS 1
1810-1826
Robert H. Smith
Yes
10. MRS 2
1770-1800
NEH
2010
11. Building j (Nailery)
1790-1800
NEH
Yes
12. Building m (Smokehouse/Dairy)
1790-1826
NEH
2010
13. Kitchen Yard
1800-1826
NEH
2011
14. Building c (Joinery)
1770-1826
Robert H. Smith
Yes
15. Building d (Smith‘s Shop)
1770-1826
NEH
Yes
16. Building i (Carpenter‘s Shop)
1770-1826
Robert H. Smith
Yes
18. Building e (Workman‘s House)
1770-1826
NEH
2011
19. Wash House and 1809 Stone House
1770-1826
NEH
2011
Exhibit 6. Mulberry Row Reassessment progress by site.
In DAACS
II. Department of Enrichment Programs
The department continues to facilitate the educational part of the Foundation‘s mission
statement through national and local outreach, internal involvement, and collaboration with other
historic sites, academic institutions, and philanthropic groups. The department hosts ad-hoc
lectures, residential seminars for teachers, and creates and hosts a Jefferson-related lecture series.
The department responds to academic queries, acts as a liaison between local interest groups, the
University of Virginia, historical societies and Foundation staff when requests are received for
speakers and program advice. The department continues to build on its strengths and successes,
while diversifying its academic content and continuing its outreach in the local community.
After a Foundation-wide reorganization, it was decided that the tag which best represented the
work of the department was ―enrichment programs.‖
New in 2009
―Jefferson‘s Neighborhood‖ is a six-part revenue-generating series, combining lectures
with field trips around the Monticello properties and the University of Virginia. Designed for
interested members of the local adult
community, this series received rave
reviews from the more than forty
participants who attended.
Beginning with an intellectual as
well as physical overview from
Montalto, the group moved between
lectures on Jefferson‘s relationship with his own family, James Monroe, James Madison, and life
at the University of Virginia (UVA) in the nineteenth century, and culminated in a reception in
the vegetable garden, followed by a private tour of Monticello focusing on Jefferson‘s
relationship with Madison and Monroe. Mary Scott-Fleming, director of the department,
designed this series, introduced all the speakers, and hosted the event at Monticello.
―Behind the Scenes at Monticello‖ will take place in September; each one-day workshop
consisting of a specialized lecture followed by a private tour to the relevant area of Monticello
house or plantation, and ending with a discussion accompanied by light refreshments. This is a
revenue-generating series.
Continuing
As part of the Virginia Festival of the Book, this year the department sponsored a talk by
Charles Irons, Professor of History at Elon University, author of The Origins of Proslavery
Christianity: Black and White Evangelicals in Colonial Antebellum Virginia. There were
seventy five people in the audience at the Jefferson Library.
As chair of the Academic Committee for the Foundation‘s Evening Conversation series,
Mary Scott-Fleming invited and worked with speakers Professor Nancy Isenberg, Department of
History, Louisiana State University, on Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr; Dr. John Stagg,
editor-in-chief, The Papers of James Madison, University of Virginia, on ―Two Crises and Two
Presidents: The War Crises of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, 1808 and 1812‖; Mr.
Benjamin Wallace, author, on ―The Billionaire‘s Vinegar: Jefferson‘s Bottle of Wine?‖; and with
Professor David Armitage, Department of History, Harvard University, on ―The Global Impact
of the Declaration of Independence.‖
Building on our idea of
publicizing Teatime Talks to past
participants of other lectures and seminars
as well as Foundation staff, and also
using the Foundation‘s website, audience
participation at these events continued to
increase, beginning at a record number of
seventy-five for our talk in January by Dr.
Helen Cripe on ―Jefferson and Music.‖
Other presentations were given by Dr. Nancy Carter Crump on ―Early American Southern
Cuisine,‖ Professor James Walvin on ―The Zong, Abolition and Public Sensibility,‖ and Ms.
Ellen Hickman on ―In Conversation He was Quite Unrestrained; Visitor Accounts of Thomas
Jefferson.‖
The ―Jefferson and Monticello‖ Lecture Series is now in its twenty-eighth year and still
one of UVA‘s most popular lecture series for the adult community, fifty-five people registered
for this series. We hosted eight lectures from March through mid-May, culminating in a private
tour of Monticello and reception. Mary Scott-Fleming introduced each speaker, attended all
lectures, and planned and hosted the final reception at Monticello.
―The Age of Thomas
Jefferson‖ is sponsored by the Gilder
Lehrman Institute, and hosted by the
Foundation at UVA and Monticello.
This series was co-directed for the first
time by Professor Peter Onuf,
Department of History at UVA, and
Professor Frank Cogliano, Department
of History at Edinburgh University.
Mary Scott-Fleming worked with the directors to build the schedule, invited speakers, and liaised
with UVA and Monticello to provide residential and lecture facilities, audio visual needs, dining,
transportation and field trips. She delivered the official introduction to participants and hosted a
private tour of Monticello and the following reception. Thirty participants came from eighteen
states.
―The Global Impact of the Declaration of Independence,‖ now in its third year, this
residential seminar at UVA and Monticello is now one of the most popular sponsored by the
Gilder Lehrman Institute. Mary Scott-Fleming worked with the program director, David
Armitage, on the schedule for this six day program, and organized lectures, discussions, field
trips, social events, dining and travel for the thirty participants. She also delivered the official
welcome and introductory session. The program continues to receive extremely positive
feedback from Gilder Lehrman and participants.
This is the third year in which adult education has overseen the Foundation‘s intern
program. Seven departments hosted twelve interns this year, compared to six departments
hosting nine last year. Since we now work with more and more interns and the Foundation also
has an active relationship with a number of volunteers, it was decided in the fall of 2009 that the
interns would join our volunteers under the auspices of the human resources department.
Expanded
As a speakers‘ bureau, the department liaised with local business groups, church groups,
special interest groups, other historic sites and national parks to provide speakers from within the
Foundation; liaised with authors and connected same with museum shop personnel for booksigning events; provided information to other historic site; and acted as liaison between other
Foundation departments and potential queries regarding same.
Answering ad-hoc enquiries, we provided information and liaison assistance to the author
of ―Founding Foodies‖; worked to engage a new contract videographer for the Foundation;
assisted Jack Robertson in setting up his Jefferson Institute Program; advised African American
Programs on guest lecturers in general and the Roger Willkens event in particular; advised the
National Public Radio producer of Studio 360 on ―Jefferson‘s Architecture‖; visited the UVA
staff at Morven to advise on setting up lecture programs; assisted in bringing the UVA Rotunda
group and the East Harlem schools to Monticello; gained permission for an artist to paint on
Montalto; worked with the Fluvanna Historical Society; passed on information on beekeeping in
Thomas Jefferson‘s day; advised Historic Jamestown on special programs, the Montgomery
County Parks on special tours, the National Park Service on curatorial permissions and
copyright, the Sage Moon gallery on a speaker, Spirit Walk on a Jefferson speaker; and assisted
in setting up site visits for UVA‘s Special Collections conference. The department continued to
work with the educational directors at Montpelier, Ash Lawn-Highland, Poplar Forest and local
historical societies vis-à-vis new programs, interpretation, and visitation.
III. The Jefferson Library
The Jefferson Library achieved success in 2009 marked by modification of processes and
redeployment of resources. These adjustments and modifications were adapted into the
Library‘s professional ethos.
The volunteer program was significantly expanded. Two dozen people were
interviewed, and one dozen individuals have been trained to carry out public services and
technical processing functions. With substantial training and supervision by current Library
professional staff, volunteers have contributed to progress in some projects.
The statistical overview for the year is positive in light of external forces and factors.
Events (728) and attendees (3,909) in the library declined by over 30 percent because of the new
venues available at the Visitor Center. Reference and research transactions (6,886 questions)
decreased by almost 40 percent because of fewer staff members trained to provide authoritative
response to queries; also increased use of the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia as a self-service
Internet information tool may have contributed to the decrease in personal contacts with the
Library. Cataloging (1,748 items) increased by 47 percent due to contributions by volunteers
and by greater efficiencies among staff who participate in cataloging activities. Acquisition by
purchase (363 titles) increased by over 60 percent, and donated items (1,197) decreased by 60
percent. Nevertheless, gifts accounted for significant and valuable materials with major
contributions from Professor Merrill E. Peterson and his family, Professor Terry Belanger
(retired director of UVA‘s Rare Book School), Professor Matthias Kayhoe (retired from the
UVA School of Architecture), and the Liberty Fund publishing firm which provides gratis copies
of all its titles.
The Thomas Jefferson Portal is the premier research database for topics related to
Jefferson‘s life, times, and legacy. Inclusion of full descriptive cataloging records for journal
and magazine articles, book and art sales catalogs, unpublished research papers, findings aids,
web-based resources, and relevant items not owned by the Library or the Foundation makes this
bibliographic tool much more comprehensive – and useful – enabling discovery of many
resources not typically found in institutional catalogs. Professor Frank Shuffelton‘s vast and
valuable work in compiling and annotating over 6,000 published works on Jefferson has been
included in the TJ Portal, with the exception of titles he found over the past decade. Cataloging
records for tens of thousands of items included in some of the digital archives of full text
historical titles provided by vendors have also been added to the TJ Portals bibliographic
database. Summary abstracts are provided for many of the Portal‘s entries, and these improve
users‘ ability to discover relevant materials.
Title: The design and construction of Monticello: reflections on Thomas Jefferson / by
Cara Lyons Alfieri.
Main Author: Alfieri, Cara Lyons.
Item Type: Unpublished Manuscript
Thesis/Dissertation: Thesis (M.A.)--California State University, Dominguez Hills, 1996.
Publisher/Year: 1996.
Description: viii, 58 leaves, bound: ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.
More Like This: Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 --Aesthetics.
Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 --Contributions in architecture.
Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 --Homes and haunts --Virginia --Monticello.
Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 --Homes and haunts --Virginia --Albemarle
County.
Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 --Relations with slaves.
Monticello (Va.)
Monticello (Va.) --Designs and plans.
Monticello (Va.) --Construction.
Other Titles In Series: Thomas Jefferson : a comprehensive, annotated bibliography (by Frank
Shuffelton)
Thomas Jefferson and slavery (bibliographic project)
Summary/Abstract: Focuses "on the character and humanity of Thomas Jefferson as reflected in his
work in the design of Monticello." Includes discussion of his relationships with
his slaves. -- Frank Shuffelton
--This thesis uses information on various aspects of Thomas Jefferson‘s Monticello
as a means to explore Jefferson as a person. Specifically, the author examines the
architecture, design, and construction of the building as well as Jefferson‘s
relationship with his slaves, and his interactions with various people with whom
he came in contact. Regarding slavery, the author is extremely sympathetic to
Jefferson. It is argued that Jefferson was opposed to slavery, yet was a victim of a
time in which slavery was accepted. The author claims that Jefferson had a very
personal, even paternal, relationship with many of his slaves. Jefferson‘s
documented thoughts, as well as first-hand accounts at Monticello are used to
support these arguments. -- Reilly Kayser and Jeri Kent (Monticello High School
Scholars Program, Spring 2003)
Progress in processing archival and Special Collections materials was achieved. Fifty
archival collections are identified, and preliminary finding aids now exist for six of these.
Volunteers have contributed to the item-by-item sorting and describing of collections. The
backlog of books to be cataloged remains at approximately 2,000 items because as titles are
processed new volumes are received. The backlog has been prioritized and arranged into
processing queues. Two dozen boxes of historical publications (approximately 3,000 items),
including many multiple copies of Foundation keepsakes and reports, were inventoried, and
selections made for processing and/or appropriate disposition. A large influx of materials from
Foundation departments required compressing contents in Special Collections. Storage space in
Special Collections for books is 75 percent occupied and archival materials exceed 100 percent
of available storage capacity.
Approximately 500 books from the Watson family collection previously stored in
Kenwood have been relocated to shelving in the Library‘s Nichols Room and the Trustees
Room. These are available for browsing, and may be checked out by library users, although
none of these items have been accessioned or cataloged into the Jefferson Library collections as
they are out of scope.
New electronic resources were acquired for use by all Foundation staff members and
Smith ICJS scholars. Among the most important are the Burney Collection of seventeenth and
eighteenth century British newspapers, nineteenth century British newspapers, and nineteenth
century British periodicals. University of Virginia Press added the Papers of Thomas Jefferson
and the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution to the American Founding
Era project. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, both in print and full text online was
acquired. A total of 22 vendor-provided research databases are now available. A usage summary
of these electronic tools through the end of 2009 indicates that 137,000 searches have generated
281,000 downloads.
A system providing proxy server access from anywhere in the world at any time was
initiated with assistance from the Foundation‘s Information Technology Department.
Authorized access is available for all staff and fellows, as well as selected members of the
extended Thomas Jefferson scholarly community.
Over 280,000 unique visitors used the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia in 2009. This is
an increase of 94 percent over last year. Concerted effort was given by staff members in
compiling and updating entries for Jefferson‘s plants and flowers, the works of art and
Monticello objects documented in The Worlds of Thomas Jefferson, and purported Jefferson
quotations. There are now 950 articles in the Encyclopedia. Librarian/editor Bryan Craig
contributed to the building of authoritative content, and his one-half time position ended in
December.
Category: Spurious Quotations
Government big enough to supply you... (Quotation)
The following statement, or variations thereof, is often attributed to Thomas Jefferson:
―A government big enough to supply you with everything you need, is a government big enough
to take away everything that you have....‖
We have never found such a statement in Jefferson's writings. As far as we know, this statement
actually originates with Gerald R. Ford, who said, "A government big enough to give you
everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have," in an
address to a joint session of Congress on August 12, 1974.[1]
This quotation is sometimes followed by, "The course of history shows that as a government
grows, liberty decreases," which is most likely a misquotation of Jefferson's comment, ―The
natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.‖
Sources consulted:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Monticello website
Ford‘s Works of Thomas Jefferson
L&B (CD-ROM version)
UVA EText Jefferson Digital Archive: Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, Thomas Jefferson on
Politics and Government, Texts by or to Thomas Jefferson from the Modern English
Collection
5. Thomas Jefferson Retirement Papers
6. Quotable Jefferson (searching in the index under ―government‖)
The Thomas Jefferson‘s Libraries project continues to expand and become more and
more of a rich research tool. This is a searchable database of the books Jefferson owned,
recommended, or knew about at different times in his life. Initiated in 2004 with Institute of
Museum and Library Services funding, this project became part of the Libraries of Early
America project (http://www.librarything.com/groups/PLEA) on LibraryThing.org in 2008.
Detailed bibliographic information for Jefferson‘s books is linked directly to transcriptions of
book entries and manuscript images of Jefferson‘s booklists. Libraries of Early America provides
integrated searching so that researchers may discern which books Jefferson shared in common
with other prominent individuals in early America such as Washington, Adams, Franklin,
Madison, and several dozen others. The database for Jefferson currently holds over 5,400 entries
and will expand to some 9,000 entries. Based on special research, Thomas Jefferson‘s Libraries
will include titles from a reconstruction of the Shadwell Library prior to 1770 and book titles he
drew up for the University of Virginia Library in 1825.
A pilot project was conducted in the summer to explore the feasibility and benefits of
making diverse information resources available in a single search solution. Named the ―Thomas
Jefferson Portal II‖ (at least for the time being), the system is built by vendor DeepWeb
Technologies. The project has been expanded to twelve sources, with another half dozen titles
selected for inclusion in 2010. Sources include:
Monticello Resources
Free Internet Sources
1.Thomas Jefferson Portal
5.Early American History
Sites*
6.American Memory,
Library of Congress
2.Thomas Jefferson
Encyclopedia
3.Family Letters Project
4.Monticello Website
7.Thomas Jefferson Papers,
Massachusetts Historical
Society
8.New York Public Library
Digital Gallery
9.Library of Virginia
Catalogs
10.OCLC WorldCat
11.Google Books
Site-Licensed Digital
Archives
12.American Founding Era
Project, UVA
13.Eighteenth Century
Collections Online & Early
English Books Online
14.JSTOR
15.America‘s Historical
Newspapers
16.American Periodical
Series
17.Early American
Imprints, Series II: ShawShoemaker
18.Goldsmith‘s Kress
Library
[*This is a Google Custom Search application which searches the websites and combines
results from the following institutions: American Antiquarian Society, Ash LawnHighland, Colonial Williamsburg, Gunston Hall, Montpelier, Mount Vernon, Poplar
Forest, Stratford Hall, and Virginia Historical Society.]
Although some of the sources are restricted by site-licensing agreements with vendors,
searching is possible in all sources for global Internet audiences to enhance ―discoverability.‖
The goal is to bring as many as 100 databases, archives, collections, websites, and full text
resources containing essential content for the study and interpretation of Thomas Jefferson into
the single search system for quick and easy Internet access.
IV. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series has had an excellent year. Our most
significant achievements were publication of Volume 6, covering the period from 11 March to
27 November 1813, which we received from Princeton University Press on 13 January 2010;
submission to the Press on 17 December 2009 of the completed manuscript for Volume Seven,
covering the period from 28 November 1813 to 30 September 1814; and the submission of our
first four published volumes to the University of Virginia Press for inclusion in the electronic
edition of the full Papers of Thomas Jefferson appearing in its Rotunda electronic imprint under
license from the Princeton University Press. Other highlights include major progress on Volume
Eight and the beginning of work on Volume Nine; the preparation and release on our website of
more featured letters and more Jefferson quotations and family letters in our Digital Archive;
further advances in our ongoing effort to scan major collections of pertinent manuscripts; and
continued progress in ―retro-tagging‖ the first volumes so that a later release on Rotunda can
have much more dynamic indexing and linking.
We experienced some staff turnover early this year, but are now back to full strength. A
vacancy created by a promotion was filled on 9 March 2009 with the arrival of full-time Editorial
Assistant Andrea R. Gray, who came to us from the Virginia Historical Society. Assistant Editor
Deborah Beckel left the project on 20 April 2009. Her replacement is Christine A. Patrick, who
has a decade of experience at the Papers of George Washington and arrived on 3 August 2009.
Julie L. Lautenschlager was promoted to Associate Editor on 1 January 2010. The other staff
members are Catherine Coiner Crittenden, Senior Digital Technician; Lisa A. Francavilla,
Managing Editor; Robert F. Haggard, Senior Associate Editor; Ellen C. Hickman, Assistant Editor;
J. Jefferson Looney, Editor; Susan Spengler, Senior Digital Technician; and Paula Viterbo, parttime Editorial Assistant.
Transcription
During the past year, our digital team completed preliminary clean-up of some 127
documents and prepared them for the commencement of editorial work, including all documents
falling in the ninth volume. In most cases we begin with very rough transcriptions originally
prepared for us by an overseas keyboarding firm. The digital team then improves the
transcription, focusing especially on difficult formatting issues and problem documents (which
the overseas firm is instructed to ignore), so that a volume‘s documents are ready when the
editors begin formal verification and annotation.
Our progress in the preliminary clean-up of documents was slower than usual this year because
we have directed most of the energies of our digital team to preparing our first published
volumes for digital publication. We expect this to continue for much of the current year. The
temporary diversion of energies from basic transcription is acceptable because this preliminary
clean-up is now just past the halfway point in 1822, and so this delay will not impede work on
the volumes currently being edited. While the first stage done by the overseas firm is complete
for the Retirement Series, at some point we hope to have similar work done for a substantial
grouping of additional documents for the Family Letters Project as well as material relating to
the founding of the University of Virginia.
On the federal level, great interest has been shown in putting raw transcriptions of as yet
unpublished Founding Fathers documents online to give some form of access well ahead of their
publication. A local nonprofit organization, Documents Compass, has done a pilot project in this
connection, supported by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The
Retirement Series is not part of this effort at present, but if we are asked to take part, resources
can be identified, and logistics can be worked out, we are willing to consider doing so.
Verification and Annotation
Accurate transcription will always be our most important responsibility. Each document
undergoes a combination of visual and oral textual verifications. During the past year, we
completed our final checks of the transcriptions in Volume Seven and made significant progress
on the verifications for Volumes Eight and Nine. Annotation and final editorial review of
Volume Seven was completed and the volume went to Princeton University Press on 17
December 2009, keeping us on track for our ambitious goal of submission of a volume annually.
During the last year, we reviewed page proofs and prepared an index for Volume 6, and we
received the first printed copy on 13 January 2010.
Imaging of Documents
Our goal is to supplement existing photostats with digital images of original retirementera texts whenever possible, since it enables us to transcribe more efficiently, back-up our
document archive, and uncover overlooked Jefferson documents. We process the digital images
by adding repository information, printing out copies for our document folders, and linking the
digital images to our database. This project progressed this year with the ordering and receipt of
a second and final batch of scans of the retirement-period documents at the Missouri History
Museum (formerly the Missouri Historical Society) at Saint Louis. With this collection in hand,
we now possess some sort of digital image for the six largest repositories of retirement-period
Jefferson documents, collectively constituting well over 80 percent of the known corpus of texts.
Scanning work at the University of Virginia continued this year. Our project to scan the
retirement-period Jefferson documents at this institution is substantially complete, but we are
supplementing it with a multi-year project to scan its important collections of Jefferson family
documents and material relating to the early years of the University of Virginia. The scans
received this year include the original minute book of the board of visitors of Central College
and the University of Virginia, much of which is in Jefferson‘s hand. This year we also received
scans of the large collection of Nicholas P. Trist Papers in the Southern Historical Collection at
the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. For the scans resulting from all of these initiatives,
linking and completeness checks are ongoing. This year we also made significant advances in
digitally organizing and labeling our scans and linking them to the database that stores our
bibliographical information and transcriptions. Some 600 document images were linked in this
way this year. In the year ahead, we expect to continue scanning work at the University of
Virginia and stay alert for imaging possibilities at institutions with smaller holdings of Jefferson
material, including exploring the possibility of creating some scans ourselves on occasional visits
to archives with minor collections.
Electronic and Typesetting Issues
We are gratified that other projects have adopted the content management software that
we helped develop. Similar systems are now in use at projects devoted to Abraham Lincoln,
Thomas Jefferson (our Princeton counterpart), Theodore Roosevelt, Joseph Smith, George
Washington, and Woodrow Wilson. We have also been among the leaders in submitting volumes
directly to the press in the form of XML files. Our typesetter for Volume 6, as for most of our
previous volumes, is the same firm that supports our content management system, and the
resultant conversion of XML-tags to typesetting codes has been quite successful and led as
before to comparatively clean page proofs.
In February 2007, the Princeton University Press and the University of Virginia Press
signed an agreement by which the former granted the latter a non-exclusive permission to issue
the published volumes of the Jefferson Papers in its Rotunda electronic imprint. During the last
year, Rotunda put the first 33 chronological volumes of the parent Jefferson edition online,
joining releases of George Washington and John Adams, with James Madison and the
Ratification of the Constitution soon to follow. Because the first Retirement Series volumes are
already tagged for XML, they have not needed to be double-keyboarded overseas. We submitted
the first four volumes to Rotunda in December and expect to see them go online in the first half
of 2010. It has been agreed that this release will be only the first phase, to be replaced in a year
or so with an enhanced version ―retro-tagged‖ at a somewhat higher level, with more content
tags for persons and places, more links to related documents, tagging of all additions and
deletions, and improved placement of indexing tags. Rotunda may not be able to put to
immediate use all features of the improved version we will be submitting soon, but we expect
that they will be able to implement the ―smart‖ index tagging, which will take the reader to the
point in the document referenced by an index entry, rather than to the top of the page of the
printed volume, which is often not even in the same document. We believe that this one feature
will open up all sorts of possibilities for dynamic use of the material and will thus make a bit of a
splash when it comes out in the second release.
Document Searching and Research Tools
While our search for new documents is fundamentally complete, we are always on the
lookout for material that may have surfaced recently or where our research in annotating
documents may identify promising new leads. This year the annotation process led to discovery
of a long and interesting letter from Thomas Cooper to Jefferson that appeared in a contemporary
issue of the Port Folio, a popular literary magazine, without the addressee‘s name and with only
Cooper‘s initials. The otherwise unknown minutes of an 1814 meeting of the Albemarle
Academy attended by Jefferson surfaced in an 1856 edition of documents relating to the
University of Virginia. Our project to scan the Nicholas P. Trist Papers at the University of North
Carolina led to the unexpected discovery of a number of letters from his grandmother Elizabeth
Trist, some of which predated Jefferson‘s retirement and were passed on to our colleagues in
Princeton. A later text was a draft of a letter for which only the recipient‘s copy was known; the
draft arrived just in time for us to incorporate significant and interesting notes into annotation as
Volume 7 went to press.
We have continued to build the project‘s own collection of essential reference works, and
the Foundation Librarian consults us regularly about acquisitions for the Jefferson Library.
Major acquisitions this year included digitized, word-searchable collections of British periodicals
and newspapers and the addition to Rotunda of the Documentary History of the Ratification of
the Constitution. The library‘s microfiche collection of early American city directories was also
expanded significantly. Added to earlier acquisitions, these purchases have enabled us to
improve and expedite our research efforts, reduced the burden we have placed on the Jefferson
Library‘s interlibrary loan system, and curtailed our need to contact or travel to other
repositories.
We are pleased to report that one key research tool is putting the Retirement Series to
good use. The online version of the Oxford English Dictionary now contains a number of
references to our volumes, including one crediting a letter from William Duane to Jefferson with
the first reference to ―proofreading.‖
Family Letters, Quotations by and about Jefferson, and Visitors’ Accounts Projects
Our online Family Letters Project continues to grow and attract users. We added another
50 documents this year, bringing the total to more than 500 documents available on this site. We
have a much larger pool of documents accessioned, with further scanning ongoing, and we will
work from this to add to the website as time permits.
Last year as our main contribution to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation‘s new Visitors‘
Center, we checked all quotations used in the exhibits there, and in order to give enduring value
to the work we had done in checking these quotations, we have put them online as a second
component of our Digital Library, called ―Quotes by and about Thomas Jefferson.‖ Over the past
year, we have significantly increased the number of extracts in this online collection to more than
400 quotations from roughly 350 documents. We will continue to add to it as people ask us to
confirm other quotations, making it a progressively richer source of frequently encountered
statements by and about Jefferson.
Our section of the Monticello website attracted roughly 900 unique visitors during
calendar year 2009, with average stay exceeding five minutes and viewing approximately eight
pages, both of which are regarded as very good numbers. Interested scholars have commended
us for this site and have put it to excellent use, but we think that there are technical issues
inhibiting much wider location and use by internet patrons. We hope to begin addressing these
shortcomings in the year ahead.
This year our work on a separate project to locate authoritative texts of all descriptions of
visits to Monticello and Poplar Forest continued. Identification, accessioning, and transcription
of contemporary visitors‘ accounts are well underway, and we continue to add to our database of
known visits. We anticipate putting this material online at some point, but this work is done as
time permits and electronic publication is still well down the road. Ellen Hickman, our assistant
editor who has taken the leading role in this work, gave a well-received Foundation teatime talk
on the subject in November.
Oversight and Outreach
The Retirement Series Advisory Committee had a good meeting early in March 2009. We
took the opportunity to celebrate the bicentennial of Jefferson‘s retirement from the presidency,
but our real reason for meeting was a useful discussion of the upcoming preparation of an online
edition of the Retirement Series in the Rotunda imprint.
Founding Fathers, Inc., the confederation of projects editing the papers of Benjamin
Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, is involved
in discussions with the National Historical Publications and Records Commission regarding
efforts to put more documents online free to the user. The Retirement Series editor has attended
one meeting on this subject with his fellow editors and the executive editor of NHRPC, and we
will be discussing this further in the year ahead. As mentioned above, there is interest in putting
unpublished transcriptions, many of which are not fully verified, online, and the hope is that
ways and means can also be found to make the published volumes freely available online. The
Retirement Series has a somewhat anomalous position among the Founding Fathers editing
projects in these conversations because it is not federally funded, but it is definitely part of the
Founding Fathers effort and eager to contribute constructively where this is feasible.
The Princeton and Monticello branches of the Papers continue to enjoy good relations.
We share information, leads on new documents, similar methods, and a strong commitment to
accuracy.
During the last year, we have given a number of formal and informal tours and talks,
including presentations to a group of archivists from the Virginia Historical Society; a session of
the Gilder Lehrman Teachers‘ Institute; a meeting of the Foundation‘s Education Department;
two interviews for WINA radio and one for Radio France. We have fielded a wide variety of
questions on Jefferson‘s retirement and on editing from Foundation colleagues, Smith ICJS
fellows, and outside scholars and visitors.
V. Publications Department
This year has been one of many challenges for the publications department as we strive to
produce books with the appearance, content, and appeal necessary to compete in today‘s
marketplace. A review of our retail performance has led to significant changes in our method of
operation, all of which will increase our ability to market the unique combination of scholarly
and popular books supported by the Foundation. To this end, we look forward to establishing
partnerships with major publishers on a case-by-case basis. This type of collaboration will allow
us to produce Foundation-approved books, identified by our logo and website, with the
appearance and quality demanded by international publishing firms.
Thomas Jefferson and Music
In 2009, the Foundation published Thomas Jefferson and Music, Revised Edition, by
Helen Cripe, the first in-depth exploration of Jefferson‘s musical world. This significantly
revised edition includes new details about the music Jefferson enjoyed throughout his life, the
musical instruments of his time, and the importance of music to Jefferson and his family at
Monticello. The book features color photographs, a new finding aid for the Monticello Music
Collection, and a revised transcription of the music section of Jefferson‘s 1783 Catalog.
Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, third printing
Our best-selling coffee table book, Thomas Jefferson‟s Monticello, went into its third
printing this year. The latest version of the book features a new forward, a revised reading list
coordinated with our website, and an updated bibliography.
“A Day with Thomas Jefferson”
The department worked throughout the year to promote the writing of a children‘s book,
―A Day with Thomas Jefferson,‖ and has signed a contract with H. Abrams of New York to
publish a forty-eight-page book for young readers. The book will be designed as a children‘s
companion to our new exhibit, ―To Try All Things,‖ but will also stand alone as the only major
book for ages eight to twelve describing Jefferson‘s daily life at Monticello with accuracy and
exuberance. It will feature color photography from our collection as well as illustrations by a
professional artist.
Publications in Progress
In 2010, the department will continue to assist staff authors with the preparation of
manuscripts for publication. We expect further progress this year on two exciting works – a new
book on Thomas Jefferson‘s garden by Peter Hatch and Cinder Stanton‘s book version of the
Getting Word project. We look forward to continued work on these much-anticipated
publications and to moving into the production phase of the projects within the next year.
VI. Research Department
Lucia (Cinder) Stanton, Shannon Senior Historian, was involved in final projects related
to the new Visitors Center, particularly the African-American graveyard and the ―To Try All
Things‖ exhibition. She gave ten presentations in Australia, Virginia, Baltimore and
Washington, D.C., on Jefferson and science and natural history, slavery at Monticello, and the
Getting Word oral history project. She organized two events for the Black History 2009
program: a presentation by Roger Wilkins and a panel discussion involving descendants of
slaves from Monticello and James Madison‘s Montpelier. She responded to research inquiries
by staff members, Smith ICJS fellows and former fellows, outside scholars, and the media.
Stanton continued to coordinate monthly meetings of the Central Virginia History
Researchers (CVHR), a group of historians, archaeologists, and community members currently
developing a web-accessible way to understand the transition from slavery to freedom in
Albemarle County by combining public and private records and mapping technology. A website
is under development at http://www.centralvirginiahistory.org. The research shared by CVHR
members has made a significant contribution to understanding the lives of Monticello‘s African
American families and their descendants.
All of Stanton‘s remaining time was devoted to continuing work on a book synthesizing
the results of fifteen years of the Getting Word oral history project, which was conducted in
collaboration with Dianne Swann-Wright and with the support of this Foundation as well as the
Ford Foundation, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, and other funding institutions.
This work incorporates extracts of interviews with descendants of Monticello‘s enslaved African
Americans (more than 170 people have been interviewed) into a biographical narrative of the
lives of members of the Gillette, Granger, Hemings, and Hern families from Jefferson‘s death to
the early years of the twentieth century. Central to the narrative are Jefferson and Monticello in
family memory and the importance of the Jefferson-Monticello connection to descendants. The
book is expected to be completed by the end of 2010.
Gaye Wilson, Historian, moved forward on her major research and writing project based
upon the Jefferson image through his life portraits. She is continuing this project under the
guidance of the Ph.D. program at the University of Edinburgh and in September 2009
satisfactorily completed her first year review held in Edinburgh. This review was conducted by a
panel of three University professors and included a defense of the project, a draft of chapter one
and a summary that will form a portion of the introduction to the dissertation. While at
Edinburgh, she refined her research and writing goals for the next two years of study. Following
her return to the United States, she completed a working draft of chapter five, which was
submitted to her dissertation supervisors in Edinburgh at the end of the year. The ultimate goal of
this study is a book on the Jefferson image.
She represented the Foundation at scholarly conferences and as a public lecturer on
various Jefferson topics. In September 2009, she presented a paper at the conference,
―Transatlantic Revolutionaries: Jefferson and Paine in America, Britain and France,‖ held in
London. This paper was chosen to move forward for possible publication in a volume from the
conference. She represented the Smith ICJS at the British Group of Early American Historians at
their conference held at the University of Stirling in Scotland just prior to the London
conference. She prepared and presented a lecture for the Longwood Visual Arts Center in
Farmington, Virginia, using research from her long-term project on the Jefferson image and
supported the Charlottesville Downtown Merchants Association with a lecture on ―Jefferson and
the Foods of Italy.‖
Her internal work for the Foundation included lectures, and she spoke on Jefferson and
James Monroe for the ―Jefferson‘s Neighborhood‖ portion of the Jefferson in Depth series. She
continued to serve on the evening conversation committee and nominated and made the initial
contact with a British author, Andrea Wulf, who has been selected as a speaker a 2010 evening
conversation. She has regularly attended the Smith ICJS fellow‘s forums and has stepped in for
Director Andrew O‘Shaughnessy as moderator when needed. She lends support to visiting
Smith ICJS fellows by meeting and consulting with them individually on their various research
projects.
Appendix 1: Staff of the Robert H. Smith International Center for
Jefferson Studies
Andrew O‘Shaughnessy, Saunders Director
Joan Hairfield, Executive Assistant to the Saunders Director
Archaeology Department
Sara Bon-Harper, Archaeological Research Manager
Beth Clites, Archaeological Analyst, Mulberry Row Reassessment
Leslie Cooper, Archaeologist Analyst, Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery
Jillian Galle, Project Manager, Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery
Don Gaylord, Archaeological Analyst
Brain McCray, Archaeological Analyst, Mulberry Row Reassessment
Chris Mundy, Laboratory Assistant
Fraser Neiman, Director
Jesse Sawyer, Archaeologist Analyst, Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery
Karen Smith, Curator of Archaeological Collections
Derek Wheeler, Research Archaeologist
Department of Enrichment Programs
Mary Scott-Fleming, Director
The Jefferson Library
Anna Berkes, Research Librarian
Martin Perdue, Technical Services Assistant
Jack Robertson, Foundation Librarian
Endrina Tay, Associate Foundation Librarian for Technical Services
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series
Catherine C. Crittenden, Senior Digital Technician
Lisa A. Francavilla, Managing Editor
Andrea R. Gray, Editorial Assistant
Robert F. Haggard, Senior Associate Editor
Ellen C. Hickman, Assistant Editor
Julie L. Lautenschlager, Assistant Editor
J. Jefferson Looney, Editor
Susan J. Spengler, Senior Digital Technician
Paula Viterbo, Editorial Assistant
Publications Department
Sarah Allaback, Publications Coordinator
Research Department
Lucia (Cinder) Stanton, Shannon Senior Historian
Gaye Wilson, Historian
Appendix 2: Staff Professional Activities
Andrew J. O’Shaughnessy, Saunders Director
Publications
Preface in Religion, State, and Society. Jefferson‟s Wall of Separation in Comparative
Perspective, ed. by Robert Fatton, Jr. and R.K. Ramazani (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2009), vii-x.
Preface in Light & Liberty. Thomas Jefferson and the Politics of Knowledge, ed. Robert M.S.
McDonald (University of Virginia Press, forthcoming).
Preface, Seeing Jefferson Anew: In His Times and Ours, ed. John B. Boles and Randal L. Hall
(University of Virginia Press, forthcoming).
―The Loyal Colonies: The British Caribbean and the American Revolution,‖ Colonial
Williamsburg Magazine (forthcoming).
―The First Salute. Saint Eustatius and the British Defeat at Yorktown,‖ Colonial Williamsburg
Magazine (forthcoming).
Media
―American Icons: Monticello,‖ interview with Amanda Aronczyk, producer, Studio 360,
National Public Radio, December 2009
The Foundation for The National Archives Records of Achievement Awards 2009 – Annette
Gordon Reed, film interview, presented at the 75th anniversary of the annual gala, Washington
D.C., September 2009
―First in War: George Washington and the American Revolution,‖ Mount Vernon Estate and
Gardens, broadcast by free satellite on the education network with a potential of reaching 9.3
million high school students, October 2009
―Mornings with Margaret Throsby,‖ ABC Classic FM, a one hour interview on national radio,
Sydney, Australia, April 20
Awards
The Teacher of the Year Award, Thomas Jefferson Chapter of The National Society of the Sons
of the American Revolution, May 2009
Talks
Talk, United States Consulate, Sydney, Australia, April 2009
Talk, English Speaking Union, Farmington Club, Charlottesville, Virginia, March 2009
Lecture, Jefferson and Monticello Lecture Series, University of Virginia, School of Continuing
and Professional Studies, Charlottesville, Virginia, March 2009
Speaker, ―The American Founders and their World,‖ Stanford University, Stanford, California,
May 2009
Guest lecture for David Armitage, Gilder Lehrman Seminar, August 2009
Chair, moderator and discussant
Chair, panel session entitled ―Family and Intimate Relations,‖ European Early American Studies
Association, Palazzo Pesaro Papafava, Venice, Italy, December 2008
Reviews
Review of article manuscript for Journal of the Early Republic, ―A More Baneful Evil Than
Toryism‘: Commerce, Virtue, and US-British Relations in the Evolution of Jeffersonian
Ideology, 1784-1789.‖
Review of manuscript book, Julie Flavell, When London was the Capital of America (Yale
University Press).
Review of manuscript article for the Journal of the Early Republic “The Old World Meets New
World: The Opinions and Encounters of James Oglethorpe and John Adams.”
Professional Service
2009 – Selection Committee for the Editor of the George Washington Papers
2008 - Scientific Committee of the European Early American Studies Association
2008- Member of the board of the University of Virginia Press
2007- Advisory Board of the Founding Fathers' Libraries Project
2005- Advisory Council, McNeil Center for Early American Studies.
2005-2009.Editorial Board, Journal of the Early Republic
2003-Board of Advisers of The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution,
Center for the Study of the American Constitution, Department of History, University of
Wisconsin, Coordinating Board, Princeton University Press, Thomas Jefferson Foundation and
Princeton University, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson
2003- Series Editor, with Peter Onuf and Jan Ellen Lewis, of Jeffersonian America, University of
Virginia Press
2003- Advisory Board, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Monticello, The Papers of Thomas
Jefferson: Retirement Series, Princeton University Press
Frasier D. Neiman, Director, Archeology Department, and Staff
Boards
Advisory Committee, IGERT Program in Evolutionary Modeling, University of Washington and
Washington State University, sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
http://depts.washington.edu/ipem/ (Neiman)
Science Board, DigitalAntiquiy.org, Mellon-funded collaborative organization to design, seek
funding for, and direct a set of cyber infrastructure initiatives for archaeology,
http://digitalantiquity.org/ (Neiman)
Editorial Board, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory (Neiman)
Advisory Board, Chaco Digital Initiative. http://www.chacoarchive.org (Neiman, Galle)
Treasurer, Southeastern Archaeological Conference (Smith)
Conference Sessions
―From Access to Collaboration and Synthesis: How do we get there?‖ A Roundtable Organized
by Fraser Neiman, 37th annual meeting of the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods
in Archaeology Conference Williamsburg, Virginia, March 2009
Conference and Invited Papers
Clites, Elizabeth. ―Quarters in Comparison: The Fairfield Quarter in a Temporal and
Geographical Context,‖ annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology, Toronto,
Canada, January 2009
Clites, Elizabeth, Fraser Neiman, Karen Smith, and Joanne Bowen. ―Dynamic Diets: New
Insights into Faunal Resource Use at Monticello Plantation,‖ poster presented at the annual
meeting of the Society of American Archaeology, Atlanta, Georgia, April 2009
Smith, Karen Y. ―Joseph Caldwell on the lower Chattahoochee River,‖ invited paper for ―Not
Your Average Joe: Caldwell‘s Contributions to Archaeology,‖ a symposium at the Southeastern
Archaeological Society annual meeting in Mobile, Alabama, November 2009
Neiman, Fraser D. and Jillian Galle. ―Digital Data Sharing in Historical Archaeology: a DAACS
Perspective,‖ 37th annual meeting of the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in
Archaeology Conference Williamsburg, Virginia, March 2009
Galle, Jillian, Fraser Neiman, Leslie Cooper, and Derek Wheeler. ―Sugar, Slaves, and STPs:
Preliminary Results from Nevis,‖ poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society of
American Archaeology, Atlanta, Georgia, April 2009
Bon Harper, Sara. ―Spatial Variation and Cultural Practice at Monticello‘s Site 8,‖ poster
presented at the annual meeting of the Society of American Archaeology, Atlanta, Georgia, April
2009
Bon Harper, Sara. ―Defined Spaces: Landscape on the Monticello Plantation,‖ lecture presented
in the Smith College Archaeology Event Series, Northampton, Massachusetts, February 2009
Bon Harper, Sara. ―Survey and Spatial Sampling,‖ lecture presented in the Smith College
Archaeology Lunch Series, Northampton, Massachusetts, February 2009
Neiman, Fraser. ―The Residues of Human Decisions: Archaeological Applications of Behavioral
Ecology,‖ Theoretical Archaeology Group, Stanford University, Stanford, California, May 2009
Galle, Jillian E. ―Uncovering the Papine Slave Village through archaeological survey,‖ lecture
to the Archaeological Society of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica, January 2009
Galle, Jillian E. ―Strategic consumption: archaeological evidence for costly signaling among
enslaved men and women in the eighteenth century Chesapeake,‖ invited lecturer for
Washington and Lee‘s Anthropology 280 class, Archaeology of Race and Class, February 2009
Galle, Jillian E. ―DAACS and designing databases for material culture research,‖ lecture to
Archeology 8001 class, Theories and Methods of Architectural History, University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, Virginia, October 2009
Galle, Jillian E. ―Understanding Slavery in the Atlantic World through the use of digital
technology: an archaeological perspective,‖ lecture to HSPV 624 class, Methodological
Approaches for Historic Preservation Through the Use of Digital Media, University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 2009
Galle, Jillian E. ―Costly signaling and gendered social strategies among slaves in the eighteenth
century Chesapeake: an archaeological perspective,‖ lecture for University of Tennessee
Department of Anthropology Visiting Lecture Series, Knoxville, Tennessee, November 2009.
Galle, Jillian E. ―Jamaica Counterpoint: economic diversification, demographics and enslaved
laborer participation in Jamaica's internal economy,‖ lecture for University of Tennessee
Department of Anthropology Visiting Lecture Series, Knoxville, Tennessee, November 2009
Dissertation
Smith, Karen Y., 2009, Middle and Late-Woodland Period Cultural Transmission, Residential
Mobility and Aggregation in the Deep South. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology,
University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
Publications
Neiman, Fraser D., 2009, (with Ann F. Ramenofsky and Christopher D. Peirce), Measuring
Time, Population, and Residential Mobility From The Surface At San Marcos Pueblo, North
Central New Mexico. American Antiquity 74(3): 505-530.
Galle, Jillian E., 2010, Costly signaling and gendered social strategies among slaves in the
eighteenth century Chesapeake. American Antiquity 75(1):19-43.
Galle, Jillian E., 2010, Big island, small world: the archaeological correlates of male and female
signaling strategies in eighteenth century Jamaica and Virginia. In The Historical Archaeology of
Jamaica, edited by James Delle, Douglas Armstrong and Mark Hauser. University of Alabama
Press. (Now Spring 2011 scheduled publication date.)
Mary Scott-Fleming, Director, Department of Enrichment Programs
Academic Representation and Participation
External:
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities‘ Festival of the Book, member of the steering committee
American Association of Museums annual meetings including the committee for historic houses,
the educational committee and the marketing committee. Participation at these events has kept
the department in touch with current thinking in education and at historic sites, as well as new
and successful strategies in marketing.
Internal:
Selections committee for the Barringer fellowship for teachers
Chair of the academic committee, evening conversations speakers
Operations committee
Educational programs committee
Montalto working committee
Professional Development
The American Association of Museums‘ annual meeting in Philadelphia and attendance at
specialized sessions relating to education and marketing
The University of Virginia history, art history and anthropology departments, in-house lectures
Lectures at Ash Lawn-Highland, Montpelier, the Woodrow Wilson House, the
Charlottesville/Albemarle Historical Society, the Augusta Historical Society
Monticello and Smith ICJS in-house lectures
Introductory Sessions, Presentations and Hosting
Introductory and welcoming address at Gilder Lehrman‘s residential seminar on ―Jefferson and
Democracy‖
Introductory and welcoming address at Gilder Lehrman‘s residential seminar on ―The
Declaration of Independence‖
Introductory, welcoming and farewell addresses at the Monticello-Stratford Hall residential
seminar ―Leadership and Life in Revolutionary America‖
Welcome address, introduction of speakers, and hosting of farewell reception for the ―Jefferson
and Monticello‖ lectures
Welcome address, introduction of speakers, and hosting of farewell reception for the ―Jefferson
in Depth‖ lectures
Welcome address, introduction of speakers, and hosting of farewell reception for the ―Jefferson‘s
Legacy‖ lectures
Welcome address and introduction of speakers at the teatime talks
Professional Affiliations
American Association of Museums; committees on education, and marketing
Charlottesville/Albemarle Historical Society
UVA‘s Kluge Ruhe Museum of Art
The Virginia Association of Museums
Publications
―Jefferson and Monticello‖ brochures (nine-day series at the University of Virginia) and series
booklet
―Jefferson‘s Neighborhood‖ brochure (six-day lecture series at Monticello properties and the
University)
Jack Robertson, Foundation Librarian, The Jefferson Library, and Staff
Jack Robertson, Foundation Librarian
Mount Vernon Research Library Planning Group, January and July 2009
Digital Curation Workshop, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, March 2009
Anna Berkes, Research Librarian
Virginia Forum, University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Virginia, April 2009
Computers in Libraries Conference, April 2009
University of Illinois, School of Library Science Externship host
Endrina Tay, Associate Foundation Librarian for Technical Services
Computers in Libraries, Crystal City, Virginia, April 2009
The Humanities and Technology Camp (THATCamp), George Mason University, May 2009
Libraries of Early America Project planning
J. Jefferson Looney, Editor and Project Director, The Papers of Thomas
Jefferson: Retirement Series, and Staff
Publications
Editor, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series: Volume 6, 11 March–27 November
1813 (Princeton University Press, 2009)
Lectures and Presentations
The Virginia Forum, chaired a panel entitled ―Living with the Legacies of the American
Revolution,‖ Longwood University, Longwood, Virginia
Conference on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson: Libraries, Leadership, and Legacy, paper
entitled ―‗I shall not retain a single one‘: The Limits of Thomas Jefferson's Library Catalogues,‖
Boston, Massachusetts and Charlottesville, Virginia
Conference on Transatlantic Revolutionaries: Jefferson and Paine in America, Britain and
France, paper entitled ―Thomas Jefferson‘s Communications Network, 1809–1826,‖ London,
England
Gilder Lehrman Institute spoke on editing Jefferson in retirement
Interviewed on ―Charlottesville – Right Now! with Coy Barefoot,‖ WINA radio, Charlottesville,
Virginia, December 2009 (also published as a podcast) February 2010
Teaching
Taught an upper-level undergraduate course in the history department at the University of
Virginia on ―Jefferson‘s Last Years,‖ spring semester 2009
Professional Service
Referee for grant proposals for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
and of a book manuscript for the University of Virginia Press
Staff
All members of the Retirement Series staff are actively involved in scholarly pursuits. In
the past year, members attended a meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early American
Republic, taught an undergraduate course at the University of Virginia, and presented papers or
chaired panels at conferences on the libraries of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and on the
transatlantic influence of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, as well as meetings of the
Association for Documentary Editing, the Conference on Iroquois Research, the Southern
Association for Women Historians, and the Virginia Forum.
Sarah Allaback, Publications Coordinator, Publications Department
Professional Affiliations
Society of Architectural Historians
Research Department
Lucia (Cinder) Stanton, Shannon Senior Historian
Publications
―Jefferson‘s People: Slavery at Monticello,‖ in Frank Shuffelton, ed., The Cambridge
Companion to Thomas Jefferson (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
―Better Tools for a New and Better World: Jefferson Perfects the Plow,‖ in Leonard Sadosky et
al., eds., Old World, New World: America and Europe in the Age of Jefferson (University of
Virginia Press, 2010)
―Perfecting Slavery: Rational Plantation Management at Jefferson‘s Monticello,‖ in collection of
papers from the 2006 National Woodrow Wilson Symposium (University of Virginia Press,
forthcoming)
Getting Word: The Newsletter (Thomas Jefferson Foundation, 2009)
Presentations
―Fulfilling the Declaration,‖ Contemporary Club, Charlottesville, Virginia, January 2009
―African-American Women in the White House,‖ Douglass-Myers Museum, Baltimore,
Maryland, March 2009
―Slavery at Monticello,‖ University of Virginia Continuing Education class, Charlottesville,
Virginia, March 2009
―Getting Word Project,‖ University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, April 2009
―Monticello and the New Visitor Center,‖ University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, April
2009
―Monticello Plantation Landscape,‖ Monticello‘s Historic Landscape Institute, Charlottesville,
Virginia, June 2009
―Jefferson and Natural History,‖ annual conference of Virginia Natural History Society,
Martinsville, Virginia, September 2009
―Jefferson, American Epitome of the Enlightenment,‖ private dinner in Washington, D.C.,
November 2009
Panel with descendants of slaves at Monticello and Montpelier, Kenwood, Charlottesville,
Virginia, November 2009
Professional Affiliations
Agricultural History Society
Albemarle County Historical Society
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
Association for Living Historical Farms and Agricultural Museums
Organization of American Historians
Society for Historians of the Early American Republic
Society for the History of Natural History
Virginia Natural History Society
Gaye Wilson, Historian
Conferences and Papers
Presented a paper for the conference, ―Transatlantic Revolutionaries: Jefferson and Paine in
America, Britain and France,‖ London, England September 2009
Attended the British Group of Early American Historians conference at the University of
Stirling, Scotland, September 2009
Attended the Charlottesville portion of the Adams-Jefferson Conference, ―Libraries, Leadership
and Legacy,‖ Charlottesville, Virginia, June 2009
Publications
―The Journey Home: Jefferson Retires to Monticello,‖ cover article for the Monticello
Newsletter, Summer 2009
Edited paper presented at the 2008 conference at United States Military Academy at West Point,
―Recording History: The Thomas Sully Portrait of Thomas Jefferson‖ for forthcoming
publication.
Lectures and Presentations
―Images for the Presidency,‖ Longwood Visual Arts Center, Longwood, Virginia, January 2009
―Jefferson and the Enlightenment,‖ Monticello-University of Virginia Continuing Education
series, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, March 2009
―Jefferson and Foods of Italy,‖ Charlottesville Downtown Merchants Association,
Charlottesville, Virginia, March 2009
―Jefferson and Retirement,‖ J.C. Penney‘s Retired Managers Association, Charlottesville,
Virginia, May 2009
―Jefferson and James Monroe,‖ Monticello‘s Jefferson in Depth series, Charlottesville, Virginia,
October 2009
Professional Service
Reader of book manuscript for Yale University Press
Appendix 3: Fellowships Awarded
International Fellowships
Trevor Burnard
Professor of the History of the Americas, University of Warwick, England
―An Empire for Liberty? Jefferson‘s Empire for Liberty, Settler Discourses and the Late
Eighteenth Century British Empire‖
Lyn Carson, Ph.D.
Academic Program Director, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney, Australia
―Thomas Jefferson and Deliberative Democracy‖
Louis Cellauro, Ph.D.
Art History, University of London, England
―Thomas Jefferson, Palladio, and American Palladianism‖
Ivor Conolley
Ph.D. candidate, history and archaeology, University of the West Indies-Mona, Jamaica
DAACS fellowship
―Statistical Analysis of Slave Sites‖
Renaud Contini
Ph.D. candidate, history, National University of Ireland-Maynooth, Ireland
―Nurturing Utopia: Environmentalist Sensibilities, Empire and the Lewis and Clark Expedition,
1800-1806‖
Felicity Donohoe
Ph.D. candidate, American Studies, University of Glasgow, Scotland
―Relations between Native American Women and White Men in the Age of Jefferson‖
Suzanne Francis-Brown
Ph.D. candidate, history and archeology, University of the West Indies-Mona, Jamaica
DAACS fellowship
―Slave Quarter Replication, Interpretation and Presentation‖
Iain McLean
Professor of Politics, Oxford University, England
―Jefferson in Paris‖
Marie-Jeanne Rossignol
Professor Institut Charles V, Université Paris–Diderot, France
The Bertrand L. Taylor Fellowship Memorial Fellowship
―Thomas Jefferson and Antislavery: An Atlantic Perspective‖
Andrew Struan
Ph.D. candidate, history, University of Glasgow, Scotland
―Anglo-American Connections and the Idea of Empire during the Period of the American
Revolution, c. 1763-1783‖
Istvan Vida, Ph.D.
Instructor, North American Department, Institute of English and American Studies, University of
Debrecen, Hungary
―Sustained by Mr. Jefferson: Abraham Lincoln and the invocation of Jeffersonian Ideals and
Political Vision‖
Andrea Wulf
M.A., R.C.A., History of Design, Royal College of Art and Victoria and Albert Museum,
London, England, independent writer and historian
The Founding Gardeners: How the Revolutionary Generation created the American Eden (under
contract with Alfred A. Knopf / Random House, to be published in 2011)
Short-Term Fellowships
Fred Anderson and Andrew Cayton
Fred Anderson, Professor of History, University of Colorado-Boulder
Andrew Cayton, Distinguished Professor of History, Miami University-Ohio
―Imperial America, 1672-1764‖ (a volume in The Oxford History of the United States)
Mia Bay
Associate Professor , Department of History, Rutgers University and Associate Director, Rutgers
Center for Race and Ethnicity
―The Ambidexter Philosopher: Thomas Jefferson in Black Thought 1776-1877‖
Kevin Butterfield
Ph.D. candidate, history, Washington University in St. Louis
―Unbound by Law: Association and Autonomy in the Early American Republic‖
Helen Cripe, Ph.D.
Researcher, author and editor on a wide range of projects and publications.
―Thomas Jefferson and Music‖
Matthew Crow
Ph.D. candidate, history, University of California-Los Angeles
―In the Course of Human Events: Jefferson, Enlightenment and Historical Consciousness‖
Lawrence Hatter
Ph.D. candidate, history, University of Virginia
―Thomas Jefferson, John Jacob Astor and the Political Economy of Western Expansion, 18081817‖
Joel Kovarsky, M.D., M.S.
Owner and operator of The Prime Meridian: Antique Maps and Books
―Foreshadowing Manifest Destiny – The Geographic and Cartographic Imaginations of Thomas
Jefferson‖
James Martin
Distinguished University Professor of History, University of Houston
―The Governor and the Traitor: Thomas Jefferson versus Benedict Arnold‖
Michelle Oriehel
Ph.D. candidate, history, Syracuse University
―Jeffersonian Democracy is Coming to the USA?‖ The democratic Societies and Republican
Governance in 1790s America‖
Justin Roberts
Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
―Sunup to Sundown: Plantation Management Strategies and Slave Work Routines in Barbados,
Jamaica and Virginia, c1780-1810‖
Travel Grant Awards
Craig Blackman
High school teacher – advanced placement and honors American history classes
Masters in education with a focus on American history, Pennsylvania State University
―Jefferson‘s Writings on the Revolutionary War in Virginia‖
Mark DeWalt, Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Studies, Bank of America Professor, Educational Research, Winthrop
University
Thomas Jefferson activities and coloring book
Natalie Federer
Academic Advisor/Instructor, Ph.D. candidate, Agricultural Communication Program,
Department of Youth Development and Agricultural Education, Purdue University
―Jefferson‘s Contributions to Agricultural Literature‖
Barringer Fellowships
Christopher Bates, United Kingdom
Thomas Jefferson and George Marshall lesson plans
David Chamberlain, Kearsarge, New Hampshire
Jefferson‘s Perspective on the Ohio Region lesson plans
Beth Doughty, Lacenter, Washington
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison supplemental classroom text
Mike Kleiner, Vancouver, Washington
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison supplemental classroom text
Appendix 4: The Gilder Lehrman Junior Research Fellowship
The Gilder Lehrman Junior Research Fellowship is the flagship of the fellowship
program of the Smith ICJS. It is the longest of the fellowships that we currently offer. The past
fellows have played a major role in welcoming and introducing some twenty fellows that
participate in our fellowship programs for periods of between a few weeks and four months.
They have become an integral part of the Center and of the community at Monticello. The
fellowship is now in its fourth year. The past, current and future fellows are:
John Ragosta, 2010-2011, University of Virginia, ―The Virginia Statute for Establishing
Religious Freedom: Jefferson‘s Legacy, Our Heritage.‖
Christa Dierksheide, 2009-2010, University of Virginia, ―The Amelioration of Slavery in
the Anglo-American Imagination, 1770-1840.‖
Hannah Spahn, 2008-2009, Free University of Berlin, ―Jefferson‘s Conceptions of Time
and History.‖
Matthew Hale, 2007-2008, Assistant Professor of History, Goucher College, Maryland,
―Neither Britons nor Frenchmen: The French Revolution and American National
Identity.‖
Martin Clagett, 2006-2007, Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of
Richmond, ―William Small, 1734-1775: Teacher, Mentor, Scientist.‖
Philip Ziesche, 2005-2006, Yale University, ―Americans in Paris in the Age of
Revolution, 1788-1800.‖
Doug Bradburn, 2004-2005, University of Chicago, ―Revolutionary Politics, Nationhood,
and the Problem of American Citizenship, 1787-1804.‖
Leonard Sadosky, 2003-2004, University of Virginia, ―Revolutionary Negotiations: An
Intellectual and Cultural History of American Diplomacy with Europe and American
Indians in the Age of Franklin and Jefferson.‖
Anthony Iaccarino, 2002-2003, Reed College, ―Virginia and the National Contest over
Slavery in the Early Republic.‖
The Gilder Lehrman Junior Research Fellows are given an office in the Jefferson Library
specifically designated for the fellowship. The door of the office has a plaque with their title.
The purpose of the fellowship is to enable a post doctoral student to develop and complete their
first book manuscript from their doctoral thesis. The Smith ICJS has sponsored and hosted a
review committee to help the Gilder Lehrman Junior Research Fellows develop their manuscript.
The committee is convened three quarters of the way through their fellowship. It consists of
invited senior scholars who are noted experts on the topic, together with the Andrew
O‘Shaughnessy, Peter Onuf, Robert Holway (the history editor at the University Press of
Virginia), local faculty and graduate students. Doug Bradburn‘s committee included Rogers M.
Smith, the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science and the
Department Chair at the University of Pennsylvania, and David Konig of Washington University
in St. Louis. Leonard Sadosky‘s committee included Dan Richter, the Director of the McNeal
Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and David C. Hendrickson,
the Robert J. Fox Distinguished Service Professor at Colorado College. The tradition elevates the
standard and profile of the fellowship while the fellows regard it as the most invaluable part of
their experience. It has led, in all cases, to a publishing contract with the University Press of
Virginia in their Jeffersonian America Series.
The fellows are invited to participate in our regular seminar, together with the University
of Virginia graduate seminar hosted at the Smith ICJS and to the various staff social events at
Monticello.
Appendix 5: Letters from Former Fellows
Dr. Thomas N. Baker, State University of New York-Potsdam
As president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson received from his countrymen and
women literally thousands of letters. My project focuses on the over one hundred of these that
were anonymous or pseudonymously signed communications. I aim to understand and
contextualize these letters, thereby illuminating an understudied aspect of the complex
relationship between the American people and their third president; in the process, the function
of anonymous correspondence generally will also be explored.
The Jefferson Library was an ideal place to pursue this agenda. Here, under one roof,
were all manner of Jeffersoniana and an expert staff. In my time in Charlottesville, librarians
Eric Johnson and Anna Berkes most obligingly ferreted out information relating to my research;
they also helped me to navigate the library‘s extensive printed and electronic resources.
Essential to my work were various microfilm reels of Jefferson-related collections drawn from
other archives and several electronic databases (those covering early American newspapers,
American imprints to 1820, and British imprints). From these resources I compiled a catalog of
anonymous letters to Jefferson held at various repositories and began investigating the most
interesting examples for clues to their provenance and meaning. I sought to build up knowledge
of their peculiarities and to link them to their immediate contexts; in several cases I was able to
ascertain identities of the anonymous or pseudonymous authors. My aim here was to furnish a
kind of thick description that will allow the letters‘ often opaque meanings to be developed and
assessed.
My most exciting find among the anonymous letters is one purporting to be from ―A
Slave‖ to President Jefferson. The jury remains out as to the author‘s actual identity; and of
course it is possible he or she was never a slave at all. But if the signature can be believed--and
several clues in the letter suggest that the author was at least onetime held in bondage—this letter
is on par for significance with the well-known one sent by Benjamin Banneker to Thomas
Jefferson seventeen years earlier. Like Banneker, ―A Slave‖ wrote to confront Jefferson about
American slaveholding; but ―A Slave‖ wrote more extensively (the letter runs to twenty pages)
and in a voice both more angry and more politically charged and engaged. In addition to the
usual appeals from evangelical religion, ―A Slave‖ also draws extensively from texts of what
Henry May calls the Radical Enlightenment. I know of no other African American of the era
who makes such use of this important transatlantic tradition, which makes ―A Slave‖ sui generis
and certainly an important addition to our knowledge of early republican antislavery thought,
ideology, and rhetoric.
To publicize this discovery I now propose to write an article based on ―A Slave‘s‖ letter
to Jefferson. Ultimately, as initially planned, the research pursued at Charlottesville will also
become the basis for a short (80 to 120 page) book, tentatively titled “You Red-Headed Rascal”:
Anonymous Writes Mr. Jefferson. This is meant to appeal to both a popular and a scholarly
audience. A twenty-to-thirty page introduction will consider the anonymous communications as
a product of their writers‘ desire intersecting with the invitation to write implied by the
president‘s station and public personality. This opening essay will be followed by a dozen or so
illustrative examples of the variety of letters—political warnings, spiritual exhortations, and the
like—each to be framed by a short consideration of its historical significance.
George W. Boudreau, Ph.D., Associate Professor, History and Humanities, Penn State
Capital College
A month‘s reading and writing at Monticello‘s International Center for Jefferson Studies
in Charlottesville, Virginia provided me with time for research, writing, and thinking in April
2009. My project was to research my book on Philadelphia‘s Enlightenment and the ways it
influenced sometime-Philadelphian Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson‘s experience of Philadelphia –
including his writing the Declaration of Independence while residing there in 1776 and his
participation in the American Philosophical Society and other groups during the 1790s – are
critical stories related to my book. Time working with the Smith ICJS library‘s collection
allowed me to look into the revolutionary and post-revolutionary world in more depth. In
addition to a fine collection of secondary works, the Jefferson Library‘s amazing electronic
resources and its staff‘s expertise in them (particularly Anna Berkes) benefitted me greatly.
I must admit that my work at Monticello came with distractions. Spending April 2009
there was serendipitous. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation was dedicating its new interpretation
and education center ―up the mountain,‖ and I had incredible experiences discussing Jefferson,
the Enlightenment, the Anglo-American world of ideas, and public history with the amazing
staff, including Elizabeth Chew, Susan Stein, Carrie Taylor, Robin Gabriel, and others. While
my interests in academic history are keen, I am also a public historian. The work Monticello has
done on public history is path breaking, and the new multi-technical experience for visitors
(which was closely associated with my own research) was phenomenal. I could write a much
longer report on these topics alone. Suffice it to say, I was deeply honored to receive this
fellowship, and it has piqued my interest to expand the research I did there, once my current
book projects are done.
The core of this fellowship and research sabbatical was to return to the topic of my
doctoral dissertation, but to re-explore and expand on that topic in ways that my research in the
years since its completion has taken me. My project, The Surest Foundation of Happiness:
„Useful Knowledge,‟ the Enlightenment, and the Cultural Transformation of Philadelphia is an
example of the new cultural history. Highly interdisciplinary, using the methods of history,
material culture studies, art history, and literary studies, my book explores the life experiences of
men and women in the largest city in the British colonies of North America during the critical
period from the 1720s through the 1790s. That period coincided with Benjamin Franklin‘s
residence in the City of Brotherly Love, and indeed Franklin is a central character in my
narrative. His work in community development, writing, politics, and science are exemplary of
the American Enlightenment. Yet Franklin has been viewed too often, I argue, as a man in a
vacuum, a lonely scientist working in abstracts. Rather, Franklin was a part of a community, a
participant in the intellectual and cultural revolutions that were the Enlightenment.
For too long, the Enlightenment was interpreted as a realm of great thinkers and great
abstractions, a collective of white men in periwigs who seemed poised to pose for formal
portraits, and whose works were destined to sit in lofty volumes in rare book libraries. But
cultural history looks at experience. How did people actually experience the transformations that
the Enlightenment brought? How did they see their mental worlds change? What ways did they
use to organize these experiences? What texts tell us about these experiences, including what
physical objects can be used as texts? My research ranged from reading original treatises on
science, politics, and education to the scrawled minutes of club meetings, notes between women
and men, and poems circulated in private or published in newspapers. I ―read‖ cityscapes,
portraits, buildings, rooms, and furniture. I crawled through tight spaces and walked in the
footsteps that colonial Philadelphians in America and Britain. I read accounts of other characters
of the Enlightenment and their experiences in Philadelphia‘s clubs, salons, and schools and
visited the spaces they knew. I think the end result offers a far more nuanced understanding of
this critical period of world history and the people who lived during it.
Jefferson‘s connections to this story are, as Franklin had him put it, self evident.
Jefferson‘s pursuit of advanced medical treatment, his interactions with other men and women
who were exploring various Enlightenment fields, his interactions with the American
Philosophical Society, and his enjoyment of the clubs and entertainments Philadelphia had to
offer all connect to this story.
First, my recommendation is to change nothing. I hope the Smith ICJS will continue to
provide fellowships for diverse scholars exploring Jefferson and his age. I think this program is
Monticello‘s master stroke, keeping scholarship fresh, ideas circulating, and communication
between academic and public historians ongoing. Many thanks to Joan Hairfield, Andrew
Jackson O‘Shaughnessy, Gaye Wilson, and the rest of the S ICJS staff for providing a warm,
welcoming atmosphere in which to work and think.
My one recommendation is to expand the connections between academic historians and
public historians. I think it is easy for public historians who are surrounded by a resource to
become dulled to just what they have. I had an amazing experience connecting physical objects
and spaces to the materials I was using in the library, largely because of the warm, collegial
relationship that I have developed with Carrie Taylor, Robin Gabriel, Elizabeth Chew, Susan
Stein, and Justin Sarafin. I would recommend that the Smith ICJS and Monticello create, as it
were a ―buddy system‖ for all newly arrived scholars. Get them to the mountaintop as soon as
they arrive, talk to them about the house, museum, and collections, discuss the education
facilities. I‘ve heard that some scholars spend most a month there without this experience and
that, I think, is a tragedy.
In this visit, and in the two that preceded it, my scholarship benefited greatly. I am very
grateful for the opportunity to spend a month in Charlottesville, and hope to have the chance to
return again soon.
Suzanne Francis-Brown, Ph.D. candidate, University of the West Indies-Mona
Six weeks at Monticello as an International Centre for Jefferson Studies/Digital
Archaeological Archive (Smith ICJS/DAACS) Scholar enabled me to focus significantly on
heritage site interpretation in general and slave quarter replication, interpretation and
presentation in particular. The Fellowship offered me access to Thomas Jefferson‘s Monticello
and Poplar Forest at a time when there is significant work on re-interpreting aspects of his
legacy, especially those aspects relating to his enslaved community. Developments relating to
Mulberry Row and to the Hemings family story were particularly relevant. It was very useful
having the opportunity to meet other past and present fellows whose work had contributed to
these developments. I was also able to extend my enquiry to Colonial Williamsburg and the team
at Archaeology, particularly Fraser Neiman and Jillian Galle were very helpful in making
contacts and facilitating discussions which enabled me to make good use of a short time there.
Access to the design consultants and a range of specialists working on new exhibits but
most especially on the new visitor center, was also very useful in gaining insights into technical
aspects of interpretation.
The research opportunities available through the Thomas Jefferson Library and the
significant database accessible through its portal, was also very useful in extending my on-going
research related to interpretation and specifically to the Papine Estate slave village site which is
located on the site of the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. The helpfulness of the library
staff is noteworthy.
The opportunities for discussion with scholars within the Smith ICJS, with those at
DAACS, and more broadly in the heritage-focused community in Virginia were helpful in
exploring my area of interest; moreover it was a great pleasure. I appreciate the opportunity
afforded for collegiality, reflection and learning.
Since my return, I have shared discussions with colleagues and have integrated aspects of
my fellowship experience into two pending articles – one on the interpretation of the Papine
Estate village via archaeology as well as scholarship, for the Jamaica Journal, a well respected
referred publication of the Institute of Jamaica; the other a chapter on heritage interpretation on
the UWI site for a planned chapter in a book being prepared by the UWI‘s Social History
Project. I have also prepared a brief report on issues arising out of the fellowship discussions as
they relate to plans for a replication project at the village site on the old Papine sugar estate. That
project of the University of the West Indies is still pending. I anticipate that the opportunity to
focus on heritage interpretation, as well as the contacts which I was able to make during my time
at Monticello, will prove to have long-term value as I continue to work on heritage-related
projects.
My thanks to Smith ICJS Director Andrew O'Shaughnessy, Assistant Joan Hairfield and
staff. The widespread welcome and general helpfulness makes me hesitate to name names.
However I must note the on-going assistance with contacts and conversation offered by
Coordinator of Special Programs Mary Scott-Fleming and the on-going interest in shared topics
of African-American Research Historian Leni Sorenson. The warm welcome from the team at
Archaeology/DAACS was also constant. The willingness of the Director to recognise the
connections between the experiences of enslaved populations in the Caribbean and the Eastern
seaboard of the US made the entire experience possible.
Lyn Carson, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney, Australia
This proposal for a short-term fellowship at the Robert H Smith International Center for
Jefferson Studies at Monticello will involve an exploration of the Jefferson Library‘s resources
to enable the writing of several papers about Jefferson‘s legacy in relation to contemporary
theories of deliberative democracy and the expression of democracy in the US and Australia
today. In addition, the applicant plans to investigate the influences behind the choices that were
made by Jefferson and his contemporaries. Speculations will inevitably arise about the different
route that idealists such as Jefferson might have taken, had their influences been informed by that
which is now known. In short, what can Jefferson teach today‟s deliberative democrats and what
might deliberative democrats be able to teach Jefferson if he were alive today?
Inevitably, this project changed course during my 26 days as a Smith ICJS Fellow. I
began to think more about a conversation with Thomas Jefferson and the overlaps between his
ideas and my own. I liked the idea of a letter because of Jefferson‘s own prolific letter writing. I
began, from day one, to write 500 words per day about anything which came into my head based
on what I was reading or discussing.
I was ―violently smitten‖ [Jefferson‘s phrase—in relation to Paris] with Maira Kalman‘s
beautiful illustrated blog [for the New York Times] and decided to illustrate my own letter. This
correspondence to Jefferson grew quickly and culminated in an illustrated 12,000-word letter:
‗Dear Thomas Jefferson... from an Australian democrat‘. It was a fanciful document which
allowed me to follow some interesting diversions that were irrelevant to deliberative democracy.
For example, I found that Jefferson had written about Australia—speculating about the
expedition of ‗Peyrouse‘ [la Perouse, the French explorer, perished north of Australia] and
France‘s ―intention to settle factories, and not colonies, at least for the present ―perhaps in ―New
Holland‖ [the name by which Australia was then known], also Jefferson knew about ‗The
Duckbill‘, i.e. Australia‘s unusual duckbill platypus.
This letter-writing took place in the Marquis Cottage, a quiet, delightful place for inquiry
and reflection. To watch deer, squirrels, bugs, to listen to the startling conversations of tiny birds,
to hear the rain fall, to witness the soaring of eagles, to contemplate an exquisite blue butterfly
perched on my big toe, to have serious conversations with hundreds of brown stink beetles about
their need to find a home away from my bedroom, to be surrounded by so much greenery and red
soil and real silence, there can be no finer way to pass days and weeks.
From that growing and lengthy letter I eventually extracted the more serious observations
and arguments and began to write a paper (now 7,000 words) that I will continue to refine
[thanks to come helpful comments from participants in the presentation of my work at the end of
my stay]. The current draft of ―Ignorance, Mr Jefferson, is good for democracy‖ is attached. I
expect to seek publication for this paper shortly. I will also be able to incorporate my learning in
courses that I teach at the United States Studies Centre—for example, in Fundamentals of US
Studies, and Issues in American Thinking.
I had a number of worthwhile conversations with others at Smith ICJS: for example,
Istvan Vida (Hungary), Nicholas Cole (UK) and Andrew O'Shaughnessy (Saunders Director of
Smith ICJS). Thanks to Wi-Fi in the cottage, I was also able to correspond with people
throughout the world via email, for example, with Jorge Cancio (Spain) who contributed several
important insights. I consulted a number of sources (books, articles, films and collections of
Jefferson‘s writings at both the Jefferson Library and the Alderman Library at the University of
Virginia, see list of sources below).
During my stay I visited Monticello, Montalto, Poplar Forest, Fredericksburg,
Williamsburg, Jefferson‘s Library at the Library of Congress, and the Jefferson Memorial in DC.
I also attended the National Conference on Citizenship in Washington DC and a number of
interesting lectures , one by Rick Britton and another by Muhammad Yunus (founder of
Grameen Bank)—both at the University of Virginia.
The experience has been immensely rewarding, to take time out from a busy academic
life, to be given the gift of time and a quiet place to think, read and write. For that I am grateful
to the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello for the
international fellowship it provided in September 2009 to enable me to do so.
David Chamberlain, Barringer Fellow
After a month spent reflecting on my work and overall experience at the International
Center for Jefferson Studies, I can state without equivocation and with great sincerity that it was
the most rewarding professional development opportunity that I have had in my seven years of
teaching. I will recommend it enthusiastically to other educators. As I mentioned previously to
both Joan and Andrew, the most refreshing aspect of the Barringer Fellowship was the laissez
faire approach toward the fellows. At every other institute or professional development seminar
I have attended, the teachers have been so overbooked with activities and subjected to such
onerous oversight that it was difficult to do any serious, independent thinking and research. That
said, I am grateful that despite the polite respect for scholarly independence, all of my material
needs and requests for information and assistance were so generously accommodated. Another
aspect of the fellowship that I enjoyed greatly and profited from enormously was the opportunity
to interact both formally and informally with the other scholars in residence. Whether it was
talking to Bill Merkel about the history of the early republic over dinner in Charlottesville or
attending Justin Robert‘s talk on the links between slavery in the Chesapeake and bondage in
Barbados, I took away a wealth of knowledge from my colleagues.
I am pleased to report that I accomplished my research goals, albeit in a slighted changed
form, during my two week tenure and am looking forward to sharing my thoughts and findings
with my students after we have concluded our introductory units on Pre-Contact America and the
Age of Exploration. Initially, I had planned to explore Jefferson's perspective on the Ohio
country and how this region figured into his larger political philosophy. Very quickly, however,
I decided that this topic would be too narrow to be of much practical use in a high school
classroom so I expanded the topic to Jefferson's perspective on the West more generally,
including Ohio, and how expansion into to this region coupled with its integration into the
emerging nation both shaped and reflected his political ideology.
Before delving into the primary sources, I spent several days consulting books and
articles, written over the last thirty years, which have delineated the contours of Jefferson's
political ideology. I found most useful Peter Onuf's Statehood and Union and Jefferson's
Empire, Drew McCoy's The Elusive Republic, and a serious of exchanges in the William and
Mary Quarterly between Lance Banning and Joyce Appleby. Then after mining the footnotes in
these secondary sources, I began to search the primary sources, especially the Papers of Thomas
Jefferson, to locate material that would elucidate the centrality of the West to Jefferson's
ideology for my students.
I reached two tentative conclusions in the course of my research. First, U.S. expansion to
the West challenged a fundamental component of Jefferson's political ideology and thus he was
forced to shift his views in at least one significant respect. Although there is a major
historiographical dispute over whether Jefferson is best understood as a liberal or a classical
republican, there is agreement that he initially believed, following Montesquieu, that a republic
was only possible in a small area with a homogenous population. However, it is clear that after
the Revolution Jefferson abandoned this position, gradually came to embrace Madison's theory
of the extended republic, and came to see expansion into the West as the surest way to preserve a
republican form of government. I intend to use Jefferson's letter to Francois d'Invernois on 6
February 1795, his Second Inaugural, and his letter to Barre de Marbois on 17 June 1817, to
discuss this issue and more importantly demonstrate Jefferson's political ideology was fluid,
changing over time to fit changed circumstances.
The second tentative conclusion that I came to at the Smith ICJS concerns how
Jefferson's support for a speedy transition of the western lands from territorial status to full
statehood reflects an enduring aspect of Jefferson's ideology. From my reading of the secondary
sources, I gleaned that historians, following the lead of Bernard Bailyn, believe that Jefferson,
along with the rest of the Revolutionary generation feared centralized power and its tendency to
lead to despotism above all other political concerns. Moreover, from reading Edward
Countryman's "Indians, the Colonial Order, and the Social Significance of the American
Revolution" I learned that one of the characteristics of the British Empire was its "composite"
quality, that is, the empire was a patchwork of realms ruled by different laws and customs but
that all the colonial areas, whether Indian or white, shared a common dependent status to the
crown.
Given this background and Jefferson's antipathy toward the British Empire, it is easier to
understand why Jefferson initially opposed Washington's policy of allowing the Indians of the
old Northwest a degree of autonomy immediately after the Revolution. Jefferson viewed the
Federalist policy as strangely similar to that of the composite policy of the British. Jefferson's
support of the campaign against the Indians of the Ohio in 1790 and his advocacy of a swift
transition for the Western lands from territorial status, with its inherent dependency on the
national government, to a status of equality with the other states reflected his fear that if this did
not occur Congress would use the territories to aggrandize their own power. Jefferson's
Ordinance for Territorial Government in 1784 will be used to introduce this admitted complex
subject to students.
In conclusion, I feel that my time at the Smith ICJS allowed me to engage with the
secondary and primary sources in a sustained manner that deepened and complicated my
understanding of Jefferson's political ideology. I feel that my new appreciation for how the West
fit into Jefferson's political vision also helps me to better understand the rancorous debates that
took place between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans in the early republic. I look
forward to sharing the above ideas with my AP students and thank the institute again for such a
wonderful opportunity.
Helen Cripe, Ph.D., Smith ICJS fellow, researcher, author and editor on a wide range of
projects and publications
Not many people get a chance to revisit a 35-year-old project and have the unique
experience of discovering that people are still interested in it. Thanks to Google and the
persistence of Mary-Jo Kline, an old friend from my former involvement with scholarship, I have
been rediscovered. As a result I was offered a Fellowship at Smith ICJS to come to the Center
and do the research necessary to update and revise my 1974 book, Thomas Jefferson and Music.
I was a little apprehensive at first – this was going to be a major re-entry into a world with which
I had not been associated for many years. I had left historical research to own a small business,
do part time contract work in a variety of areas, and ultimately work for an IT company.
Thanks to the care, thoughtfulness and generosity with which Smith ICJS arranges its
relationship with visiting scholars, re-entry was not only painless but one of the most enjoyable
experiences of my long and somewhat checkered career. Smith ICJS does not require, or
inundate applicants with, reams of paper – forms, contracts and printed guides are simple, clear
and short. Cheerful responses from staff by email or phone handle questions or concerns. Both
stipend and mileage payments are prompt. Best of all, Smith ICJS is one of the very few places
to have free, comfortable and onsite living accommodations available for visiting scholars. I, for
one, could not have afforded to come to Smith ICJS if I had had to pay a month's worth of
housing.
My perspective of the Center's resources is that of one who wrote a book in the early
1970s with a pencil, legal pad, and portable electric typewriter – the electric typewriter being the
leading edge of that era's technology. What a joy to come to the Center's library and find wireless
internet and LAN connections (also in the cottages), copiers, all manner of modern technology –
plus web access to digitized photographs and transcriptions of all of those documents I ploughed
through in boxes in several libraries, plus many published volumes of both primary and
secondary sources. And anything the Jefferson Library doesn't have, they will try to get for you
on Interlibrary Loan.
I would like to thank the staffs of the Center and the Library, and all of the resident
scholars working on projects for their interest and help – willingness to take the time to talk
about their projects as well as contribute to mine. Special mention goes to:
Joan Hairfield – every organization needs an ombudsman like Joan as the first contact
with visiting scholars, the person who makes one feel at home and is able to answer any
questions and solve any problems.
Sarah Allaback – I look forward to continued contact with this tireless searcher into the
murky depths of who owns which copyrights, and the person who will guide my new
book through publication.
Mary Scott-Fleming – for arranging my lecture and tea, and introducing me to that
delightful harpist, Eve Watters.
Jack Robertson – for his help in the library and for arranging a reunion with Jim Bear.
Eric Johnson – for searching the Interlibrary Loan facilities for all the weird items I
requested – and finding them.
Anna Berkes – for whatever help in the library I needed, always with good humor.
Endrina Tay – for guiding me through the details of Jefferson's catalogs of his libraries
and the sales of his libraries.
Leah Stearns – for helping me with technology and in anticipation of her expertise with
material for possible illustrations for the new book.
Diane Ehrenpreis – for searching for any new material on Jefferson violins.
And last but not least – all the people with whom I exchanged cat stories!
Mark W. Dewalt, Bank of America Professor, Winthrop University, and graduate students
that were included in the travel grant: Merrissa Ritch, Ginny Ramirez-DelToro and Jennifer
Fowler
We are very grateful for the opportunity provided by the Robert H. Smith International
Center for Jefferson Studies to study in Charlottesville. We accomplished numerous essential
tasks on our trip. While on the grounds at UVA, photographs were taken of a variety of
buildings and gardens, at a variety of angles; we were also able to determine several additional
pages of material for our book.
Our tour of Monticello and the grounds was absolutely critical for our book. Visiting
each room and gathering information from the docents helped us determine what content should
be included about Jefferson, his family, and Monticello. Photographing the exterior of the
buildings and the gardens will help our artist create accurate pictures for our book.
After orientation to the Jefferson Library, we spent the majority of our time there
studying reference materials. The reference librarians helpfully directed us to all available print
and electronic sources. Study at the Jefferson Library was vital to our research since we had
immediate access to needed materials.
As a result of this trip, we accomplished a variety of tasks related to our book. Our artist
was able to envision numerous drawings. She has, in fact, completed over 10 drawings including
a view of Monticello, Jefferson‘s study, Boston Tea Party, Natural Bridge, Wren Building at
William and Mary, Independence Hall, the kitchen at Monticello, tack room at Monticello, and
the Rotunda. We also brainstormed a page number theme for the book and determined two
ideas: a stylized Rotunda or parchment.
Our background research covered a broad scope of topics, including Jefferson‘s invention
of the mould board plow, pets, horses, study, travels to France, and education. We finished
research on key events of Jefferson‘s time that might be of interest to children, including the
Boston Tea Party, invention of the cotton gin, first balloon flight in America, journey of Lewis
and Clark, Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution.
Initial and summative research was completed on Monticello‘s building, gardens and
cemetery. Research was also completed on plants and animals common to the area.
Research on activity pages for the book was completed. Teachers report that in addition
to coloring, students also like to complete activity pages. The book will include more
information on languages than we first envisioned; activity pages introducing French, Spanish
and perhaps some Latin will be included in the book.
Ideas for 56 pages of material were confirmed, with 15 pages being new material as a
result of study at the Jefferson Library. By the end of the study grant, about 75 percent of the
captions had been completed for the first draft of the book. Finally, the travel grant allowed us
time to determine 75 percent of page placements in the book.
Graduate students were very appreciative of the chance to visit UVA and Monticello, and
to study at the Jefferson Library. Their statements are found in the appendix of this report. The
appendix also includes several drawings as well as activity pages that will appear in the book.
Graduate Student Perspective: Ginny Ramirez-DelToro:
Where We Went and Why. Because Jefferson planned and founded the University of
Virginia, we first visited the Rotunda, lawn and gardens there. We took notes and photos of
unique characteristics of the building and landscape designs. Furthermore, we noted how much
emphasis Thomas Jefferson placed on teachers and students collaborating with and gaining
knowledge from one another. The professors‘ pavilions that sit nestled between students‘ dorm
rooms in the heart of the campus are a testament to this, and to the enduring belief in the value of
Jefferson‘s ideas.
Stepping Back in History. Had we not been afforded the opportunity to use this grant,
our exploration of UVA would most likely not have been a consideration. This brings me to the
central theme of this trip: Monticello itself. Jefferson spent over 54 years completing the
building of this home, and in a matter of a few hours, we were able to absorb a vast amount of
knowledge about him, his family, his interests, his seeming contradictions, and his contributions
to our nation. After touring Monticello and asking the expert staff members numerous questions,
we then went to the Jefferson Library. In this library, we spent the majority of our time
researching primary and secondary sources that would provide the most truthful and detailed
accounts on Jefferson‘s life and how the United States was shaped during his time. Indeed,
nothing is worth recounting if its validity has not been determined. As a result of the hours we
spent working independently and collectively in the Thomas Jefferson Library, we feel that each
aspect of Jefferson‘s life about which we write will be truly educational and thought-provoking
for our target audience.
Working Toward a Common Purpose. I personally believe that by being able to
investigate first-hand elements of Thomas Jefferson‘s life which most honestly define him, we
shared a common purpose with the third president of the United States. Among those values to
which Jefferson most consistently and wholeheartedly adhered was education. What we were
seeking by going to Monticello, the Jefferson Library, and the University of Virginia was to
enhance the educational experience for the children who will use our book, as well as for
ourselves. Learning through experience and teamwork is one of the most lasting and meaningful
methods by which to receive authentic instruction. Going to Monticello on this grant provided
me with just that
Graduate Student Perspective: Merrissa Ritch:
Our trip to the Jefferson Library, UVA and Monticello was an experience that I will never
forget. This coloring book project is a wonderful way to incorporate history with visual art and I
feel honored to have been on this project as the Illustrator. My responsibility on this trip was to
take photographs of the different places we visited on the trip. As an Illustrator the benefits of
this trip were that I could experience where Thomas Jefferson lived and walked and take pictures
of these areas at angles that would be appropriate for me to draw. I had the opportunity to work
on the last coloring book and I can tell you that this experience was better for me. Instead of
being given images of Thomas Jefferson‘s life I got to experience it and see it with my own eyes.
Going to UVA and standing on the Rotunda and looking across the lawn or walking through the
gardens is a view that cannot be captured justly with a photograph. Now I can look at the
photographs I have taken and recall the vision of it in my mind. That in itself is priceless and
worth the trip.
Graduate Student Perspective: Jennifer Fowler:
Nothing compares to doing research on Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, on the grounds
at UVA and in the Jefferson Library. Having the experience of seeing Monticello and UVA in
person rather than in books or online photos was an experience that adds depth to our perceptions
and ideas for our coloring and activity book. Most importantly, we are striving to create a
coloring book that teaches children history. Had we not had the opportunity to visit Monticello,
we would have given false information that we have received about Jefferson in books about
how he created several different inventions. Thankfully, we learned that this is not true at all
about Jefferson.
Some of the more fascinating things that I learned on our trip to Monticello includes, but
is not limited to the following. It took Jefferson 56 years to finish building Monticello. He
recorded everything especially information regarding finances and gardening. The first hot air
balloon to ascend in North America occurred during his time. He had a total of 4 mocking birds,
two in which had received singing lessons before he purchased them for $10 and $15. His
favorite bird was named Dick. I find it interesting that Jefferson did not want a grand stair case
in Monticello, but after seeing the stairs in the home and noticing how tiny they are, I see that he
probably did not even want any stairs. I was shocked to learn that the Jefferson‘s family rarely
used the dome room in Monticello, but then I just think about what a hassle it would have been
to go up and down those stairs.
At UVA, I had no idea how unique the campus is on the lawn, behind the Rotunda. I
learned that some fortunate students live in the little dorm rooms by the lawn and that some
professors live in the Pavilions that separate some of the ‗lawnies‘ rooms. The grounds at UVA
are incredibly charming. Our coloring and activity book on Thomas Jefferson will be great due
to the fact that we were able to visit Monticello and UVA ourselves.
Elizabeth K. Doughty, Barringer Fellow
The Barringer Fellowship provided me with a life-altering opportunity to explore and
research Thomas Jefferson that I know that I would have never had the ability to pursue without
the receipt of this fellowship. My colleague, Mike Kleiner, and I had been participating in
history grants studying the Constitution and the Founding Fathers that were comparable to
graduate level, but are both 8th grade teachers. We wanted to find a way to distill the ideas and
concepts that we were examining with our students. We conceived of the idea of using the
words of Thomas Jefferson as the vehicle to grab the students' attention to consider the
ambiguity of changing one's mind when new information or concepts are presented. We wanted
to look at major events in Thomas Jefferson's life, and use his actual letters, legal decisions, etc.
to present his thoughts on both sides of the issues. We wanted to create a book that would be
available for other classroom teachers to use to present this idea to their middle or high school
teachers. The Barringer fellowship allowed us to actually begin the process of writing our book.
Of course, two weeks was not long enough for us to complete our book, but being in the
Kenwood Library and having the incredible resources of the librarians, published texts, and
online works got us started on the actual writing of our book. We left at the end of two weeks
having our first chapter almost completed, and many of our other chapters outlined. We know
that without the dedicated, uninterrupted time we had due to the fellowship, we would not be
anywhere near where we are with our research and product. Being in Charlottesville also
allowed us the opportunity to make connections with invaluable people who we can contact in
the future - librarians at the University of Virginia, academics from Monticello, The Center of
the Constitution at Montpelier, University of Richmond. I feel that my work is being taken more
seriously by these honorable people, and also from my administrators at my school district in
Washington State. I also feel that when we are ready to publish our work, having received the
honor of the Barringer Fellowship will aid us in our pursuit of finding a publisher. I look back at
my two weeks at Kenwood and Monticello as some of the best days in my entire life, and I will
never be able to thank the people enough for choosing me as a Barringer Fellow.
David Hancock, Professor of History, University of Michigan
I spent March and April 2009 working at the Smith ICJS library on a biography
tentatively entitled ―The Cosmopolite: William Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne and the
Promise of Atlantic Internationalism, 1737-1805.‖ This study considers the force exerted by the
Irish officer, politician, improver and thinker William Petty and his associates in shaping the
contours of the late eighteenth century Atlantic community, and the central influence that
cultural, philosophical and political cosmopolitanism had upon their approaches to working in
and developing it. In it, I will probably argue that their cosmopolitan vision was a permeate trait
of Atlantic culture.
William Petty, or as he is more commonly known Lord Shelburne (he succeeded his
father as 2nd Earl of Shelburne in 1761 and was created Marquess of Lansdowne in 1784), was
one of the most noteworthy and influential leaders of the late eighteenth century Anglophone
world. Among his many roles, he was a political figure, briefly sitting in the House of Commons
in the early 1760s and in the House of Lords thereafter; on at least four occasions between 1763
and 1783, he held four high ministerial posts – First Lord of Trade, Secretary of State for the
Southern Department, Secretary of State for Home Affairs, and First Lord of the Treasury. All
these various assignments directly affected the governance of Jefferson‘s America.
At the Smith ICJS, I primarily read through the published correspondence of Founding
Fathers who dealt with Petty, either directly or indirectly. Chief among these collections were
the letters of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush, Henry Laurens, John Jay, George Washington,
John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. Particularly useful was the online version of Jefferson‘s
papers, which were released during my stay in Charlottesville. While these letters form only a
small portion of the relevant material I will be examining in the years to come, they are an
important foundation. They helped me better glimpse how Petty attempted politically to redirect
the workings of the nation-state from the center, enlisting the help of colonial enterprisers and
intellectuals to operationalize a developing trans-Atlantic cosmopolitan agenda. In his political
probes, pronouncements and policies, he consistently strove to recognize the variations and
deviations among cultures within Britain‘s empire and allow for a plurality of its states and
peoples, which would then use different levels of consensus to gain leverage over common
enemies. Never once in two decades in office did he entertain the idea of a single imperial (or
world) order; rather, he always appreciated and acknowledged ―otherness of those who are …
different,‖ ―the otherness of other rationalities‖ and ―the otherness of the future.‖ It was an
attitude and approach woefully out of sync with the immediate future, one that was centuries
ahead of its time.
In addition to gaining further insight into the idea of political cosmopolitanism in the age
of Jefferson, I helped a member of staff with his work on the refurbishment of the wine cellar at
Monticello – something I am fairly well equipped to do, having just completed a book on wine in
the Atlantic world (released by Yale in August 2009).
All in all, my time in Charlottesville was extremely productive, and I am sorry I was not
able to spend more time there. The staff was consistently helpful. It was a perfect haven for
quiet reading and reflection.
Joel Kovarsky, M.D., M.S., owner and operator of The Prime Meridian: Antique Maps
and Books
The most significant part of the fellowship, in general terms, was the ability to read,
think, and refine my thoughts about the subject. The number of books scanned, and articles read
and re-read, are too numerous to list here. Many diverse online resources were explored. Having
access not only to the extensive general reading materials of the Jefferson Library, but also to the
original cartographic and geographic materials of the Albert and Shirley Small Special
Collections Library of the University of Virginia, were particular strengths. There are not many
places, other than perhaps the Library of Congress, where I would have had access to the
combination of resources available here.
On more specific levels, I got a better feel for online resources gathered by the Jefferson
Library, such as the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia, Thomas Jefferson‘s Libraries, and the
Information Files (especially the section on cartography). The TJ Libraries site is particularly
helpful, given its search capabilities crossing all the known library lists. Given the essential
nature of online resources (JSTOR, Academic Search Complete, Google Scholar, etc.) a good bit
of time was spent with increasingly refined keyword searches, leading to more extensive primary
and secondary source materials. I was also able to prepare a list, from the Calendar of the
Jefferson Papers of the University of Virginia, of all the letters there with material relative to
cartography and geography. I was also able to pull full text versions of his inaugural addresses,
and addresses to Congress, through a variety of online sources (such as the Avalon Project).
Several of these were particularly appropriate for insights into his geopolitical thinking. One very
impressive resource, the Rotunda database segment containing all the Jefferson Papers
(Princeton and Monticello series), was just announced as I was finishing the fellowship. There is
no doubt this will be a major help with future work.
During the fellowship I went through all the indices for the numerous published volumes
of the Jefferson papers and memoranda books, particularly noting those elements related to
maps, surveys, geography and cartography. I spent time reading various relevant works of John
Logan Allen, Donald Jackson and James Ronda, all of whom have written extensively on
Jefferson, geography and maps. I was able to locate and review many pertinent letters to and
from Jefferson, from individuals such as Astor, von Humboldt, Ledyard, Lewis (Samuel),
Gallatin, Melish, Stockdale, Ellicott and others.
Developing a list of the individual maps Jefferson owned was not feasible, nor likely the
best way to approach his ―cartographic vision.‖ It is even more difficult identifying specific map,
as opposed to book, purchases during his time in Paris, when he was building much of his great
library. The issue of map access and use is a much more productive line of inquiry.
While I think a detailed online teaching site is a reasonable idea, this will have to wait—
at the moment there are neither available funds nor digital support. I was, however, able to find
inexpensive sources for almost all maps that would be required as primary source documents for
such an undertaking. I believe that a book focusing on Jefferson‘s geographic and cartographic
vision—not simply from the perspective of foreshadowing Manifest Destiny— is both
reasonable and desirable: I am in the process of preparing a book proposal.
Marion C. Nelson, Independent Scholar affiliated with Virginia Commonwealth University,
Richmond, Virginia
My two months at the Smith ICJS were devoted to Part three of my manuscript,
developed from a dissertation (Penn, 2006) in which I traced the success stories of two
Virginians, John Breckinridge and Thomas Worthington, who moved west in the 1790s to fulfill
their ambitions for themselves and their families. Migrants like Breckinridge and Worthington
quickly called themselves as ―Western Men,‖ as they plunged into the turbulent politics of the
Federalist decade by leading vigorous western episodes of opposition to the administration in
power. They were, in other words, Jeffersonians, even during the 1790s when we might say the
term itself was still in embryo. After 1800, such men were obvious candidates for national
office; both Breckinridge and Worthington served as U.S. Senators (from Kentucky and Ohio
respectively) during Jefferson‘s presidency.
This was my situation when I came to the Smith ICJS in January: always working and
writing from the inside of my subjects‘ papers and daily operations outward, I had already seen
and shown (in my manuscript, parts one and two) how the Virginia-and-western experience of
men like Breckinridge and Worthington offers bits of new light on both revolutionary Virginia
and the trans-Appalachian West. Poised to plunge into the final third of my project, which
begins with Jefferson‘s presidency, I was confident that the experience of ―Jefferson‘s Western
Men‖ could similarly offer a fresh angle on Jeffersonian politics and on the vast and expanding
Jeffersonian republic itself. But to understand and explicate this, I needed to master the best and
the freshest literature on Jefferson and the West and on ―Jeffersonianism‖ in general. Huge and
formidable task! And what better place to approach it than in the elegance and abundance of the
Jefferson Library at Smith ICJS! Gradually toward the end of my fellowship and since, I have
begun in a specific way to join this vast literature to my own research on ―Jefferson‘s Western
Men.‖ What are the results so far (beyond presenting a significant-and-hitherto-neglected cadre
of Jeffersonians)? Jefferson‘s extended republic functioned in large measure through the very
sort of ad hoc and personal circulations of power of which men like Breckinridge and
Worthington were masters. This improvised practice of government was the taken-for-granted
ground on which more philosophical ideas of government—both Jeffersonian and Federalist—
were built, and it can refine how we look at both those positions and at the dialogue between
them. The views and operations of western Congressmen, by the way, also suggest ways in
which the muddy, half-built City of Washington served about as well as a true metropolis might
have done—a subject I hope to address in a separate article in coming months. During this
academic year I will be offering this new material in several scholarly forums and sending it out
for collegial readings as I work to finish my draft of this final part of my manuscript.
We apply for residential fellowships seeking time and space to attempt an intense sort of
work that seems all but impossible in our scattered workaday lives. We hope not just for peace
and quiet but also for the stimulation and serendipity of intellectual encounter. All of this I found
at the Center, whether from coffee-klatch and colloquium exchanges with fellow fellows and
Monticello staff, or from the stellar expertise and support of librarians Anna Berkes and Eric
Johnson. Even in the quiet of evenings, week-ends, and Monticello ―snow days,‖ the
incomparable digital resources hum companionably along. And, always, one feels in the
Jefferson Library the inspiriting company of past, present and future Jeffersonian scholars whose
work gathers here.
Michelle Orihel, Ph.D. candidate, Syracuse University
The Smith ICJS fellowship enabled me to spend one month (July 2009) at the Jefferson
Library researching and writing my dissertation, ―‘The Infamy of Self-Creation‖: the Democratic
Societies and Republican Governance in 1790s America.‖ I read Thomas Jefferson‘s
correspondence systematically from 1793 to 1796, the period during which the democratic
societies formed and were most active in organizing opposition to the Washington
administration. I supplemented this research with keyword searches of Jefferson‘s
correspondence from 1787 to 1792 and from 1797 to 1801 in the Rotunda database, looking for
references to political opposition and mobilization. I also read the relevant correspondence
between Jefferson and John Adams in retirement. In those letters, the two former presidents
reflected on the political struggles of the 1790s—their discussions about popular sovereignty and
the nature of republican governance were particularly helpful.
This research helped me to trace not only the development of Jefferson‘s attitudes
towards the democratic societies and other forms of extra-legal governance, but it also deepened
my understanding of the larger contexts of politics and print culture in which the clubs operated.
Before this summer, my dissertation research relied heavily on pamphlets and newspapers, which
furnished much of the evidence of popular political culture in the new republic. However, a
systematic examination of Jefferson‘s correspondence provided a useful counterpoint to my
research in the printed sources. When the Democratic Society of Philadelphia formed in spring/
summer 1793, Jefferson first dismissed it as simply a local phenomenon, but, over the following
year or so, he became increasingly sympathetic to their objectives and opposed to Washington‘s
condemnation of the clubs as ―self-created societies.‖
My reading in Jefferson‘s correspondence also opened up some new questions for future
research, particularly about the democratic movement in Virginia. Though few popular societies
formed in that state, the Republican opposition organized numerous extra-legal meetings. In
particular, James Madison kept Jefferson informed about Virginian efforts to oppose the
neutrality proclamation in the summer and fall of 1793. These Republican meetings issued
resolutions that expressed similar sentiments as the publications of the democratic societies. A
fuller examination of the meetings that took place in Virginia should broaden our understanding
of what constitutes a democratic club.
Finally, during the last two weeks of my stay, I spent part of my time writing, nearly
completing the second draft of my three chapters on the Kentucky democratic movement.
I very much appreciate the support of the Smith ICJS and the efforts of the staff at the
Center and the Library in creating an extraordinary environment for research, writing, and
scholarly exchanges. The fellowship experience made my last summer of dissertation work both
memorable and enjoyable.
Justin Roberts, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
The most important helpful part of my time at the Robert H. Smith International Center
for Jefferson Studies were the contacts I made. I had the opportunity to cultivate some extremely
rewarding and long-term connections with the other fellows and with some faculty and graduate
students at the University of Virginia--not to mention the staff at the Center. My discussions with
two Hopkins‘ alumni Trevor Burnard and Max Edelson were particularly beneficial. Trevor and I
had some rich discussions about the Caribbean and about slave life in Jamaica and we talked
about methodological approaches to large amounts of quantitative data and writing strategies for
conveying that data. Max has agreed to act as a commentator for me on a panel for the 2010
annual Omohundro conference and he gave me great suggestions on how to re-conceptualize my
dissertation as I redraft my manuscript, ―Sunup to Sundown: Plantation Management Strategies
and Slave Work Routines, 1770-1810.‖ I hope to continue building that relationship in the
coming years. The large turn-out for my presentation was unexpected and quite pleasing and I‘ve
continued to correspond with some of those who attended, including Frederick Abbey who has
asked me to participate in some consultations for the Woodlawn project. I also had the
opportunity while I was at Monticello to meet and speak with David Armitage and Joyce Chaplin
who were in town for David‘s talk towards the end of my fellowship. My lunch with the director
Andrew O‘Shaughnessy was also an excellent opportunity to discuss slavery and the Caribbean
and Andrew‘s comments on my presentation were very helpful. My sense is that the Center is
attracting some high profile academic talent and it will become an important site for connecting
with other scholars.
Beyond the contacts I made with scholars at the Center and the conversations we had, I
was able to advance my project significantly. I did a remarkable amount of writing and redrafting
work in the peaceful setting atop the hill in Monticello. It was the perfect place to relax and
think. The online database collection at the library, which I‘m still exploring with the help of
offsite proxy access, was more helpful to me than even the collection at Johns Hopkins where I
did my graduate work. The Center has access to a database called The Making of the Modern
World. Not many libraries have signed up for this database because of its prohibitive expense.
Having the opportunity to access it at the Center allowed me to easily consult a large collection
of agricultural improvement manuals as background context for my work. I will continue to
access this database throughout the year. I also began to expand the Virginian side of my threesided study by reading closely through an edited collection of Thomas Jefferson‘s Farm Book.
The area of my dissertation which needs the most work is the background context of late
Enlightenment reform movements and the impact of the disruption of the imperial system that
came with the American Revolution. The library has a rich collection of secondary literature
addressing those topics and I was able to get a better sense of the period I was exploring by
perusing these holdings--which often meant simply browsing amongst the shelves. I am coming
to appreciate the extent to which agricultural improvement movements and the amelioration of
slavery in the plantation Americas were part of broader pan-Atlantic reform movements.
Overall, my experience at the Center for Jefferson Studies was richly rewarding and the
staff—particularly Joan Hairfield—were more generous with their time than I could ever have
anticipated. I can only hope I‘ll have the opportunity to return.
Marie-Jeanne Rossignol, Professor of American history and civilization, Université Paris –
Diderot, France
My stay at Monticello was motivated primarily by the necessity of finding a retreat away
from my home University to carry on with the writing of my book on the first antislavery
movement in North America (1760-1815). I have important administrative responsibilities at the
University and I needed to get away from them.
The stay at Monticello was immensely profitable. First I immediately started turning
earlier notes on the years 1794-1795 into a narrative. Then I used the library‘s very appropriate
secondary resources (and published primary resources) to explore and start writing about the
years 1800 to 1808, exploring how the notion of ―colonization‖ gradually came to the fore, in
particular on the occasion of Gabriel‘s Conspiracy. As he was about to be elected president,
Jefferson suggested to Monroe, then governor of Virginia, that he should stay the hand of the
executioner. The Assembly of Virginia soon required the new president to find a solution abroad
for the delinquent slaves (but also for freed slaves). But Britain did not take up the offer of
sending American blacks to its beleaguered colony of Liberia.
One turning-point in the history of the early antislavery movement is 1796, and the end of
the 1790s more generally. I read about how Baptists and Methodists in Virginia first agitated for
antislavery but after 1796, most evangelical activists (especially the Baptists) went to Kentucky
where the struggle for antislavery resumed. In the early 1800s, it soon became apparent that
antislavery was no longer a tenet of the Baptist faith. 1796 is also the date when St. George
Tucker published his famous Dissertation on Slavery, hoping that the Assembly of Virginia
would consider a law gradually abolishing slavery. However the plan was tabled, to Tucker‘s
surprise.
Though this plan was fed by recent events (there are at least three references to the slave
insurrection in Saint-Domingue then pouring refugees on the coasts of North America), yet it
closely resembles the plan described by Thomas Jefferson in Notes on Virginia. My stay at
Monticello also enabled me to investigate the publishing and reception history of Notes, first in
Paris, then in the United States. Notes was a very widely circulated and widely read book, and
its arguments about slavery were a model for both opponents and supporters of antislavery.
Why Brissot (founder of the first French antislavery society) does not mention Notes in
his published papers is thus all the more surprising as he was keen on currying favor with the
American minister to Paris right as Notes was being printed and circulated. I now need to
explore this question by going to the French National Archives and checking Brissot‘s papers for
more information on Brissot and Jefferson, as well as Brissot, Crèvecoeur, and Jefferson.
Finally I realized early in my stay that William Short, Jefferson‘s secretary in Paris, had
emancipated his slaves in the 1780s. It is important to check whether this decision came as a
result of his own convictions or as a result of his time in the French antislavery society in the
1780s. Though T. Jefferson did not join, he did. This research may be conducted at the Library
of Congress next year, where his papers are held.
As a conclusion, I want to thank all those who made this stay so enjoyable. First I want to
thank Fay Taylor, for funding this fellowship generously. Then I want to thank Andrew J.
O‘Shaughnessy and Joan Hairfield for helping in organizing my trip. Coming from France on a
fellowship requires quite a lot of preparation, especially if you come with your family, as I did.
The fact that Monticello offers accommodation greatly simplifies matters and makes the stay all
the more profitable. I also want to thank Eric and Anna; the librarians who helped me find the
books I needed, ordered microfilms and books for me.
One highlight of the stay was going to the renovated visitors‘ center at Monticello, and
generally speaking discovering Jefferson‘s Virginia, as well as Charlottesville. We really loved
it.
Britt M. Rusert, Ph.D. candidate, Duke University
My research tenure at the Smith ICJS this past May (2009) was both productive and
enjoyable. I used the time, resources, and idyllic background provided by the Center to start the
beginning of my book project, which is a study on race, enslavement, and empiricism on the
eighteenth and nineteenth century plantation. The book is tentatively entitled The Experimental
Plantation and in it, I want to reorient discussions about American plantation and ―experiment‖
to the South in order to illuminate how an emergent transatlantic empiricism changed how early
Americans understood the character and use of plantation space. I spent much of my time with
the TJ Papers, gaining insight into how Jefferson understood the relationship between the
―American experiment‖ and his plantation at Monticello. My trip to the archives at UVA was a
definite highlight of the trip; I spent several days poring over the multiple editions of Notes
housed in the Smalls Special Collections Library. I plan to use Jefferson‘s handwritten edits to
Notes in an article on Jefferson and the rise of the experimental plantation. I hope to complete
that piece in the coming weeks and will submit it to American Quarterly. In addition to starting
research for the book project, I began research on an article about botanical tourism on plantation
sites in the U.S. While I originally conceived of this study as a contemporary account of this
phenomenon, the various travelers‘ accounts to Monticello inspired me to change the direction of
that project to think more historically about the draw of pastoral plantation environments for
international visitors during the late eighteenth and nineteenth century. I was particularly drawn
to visitor accounts of the estate during the mid-nineteenth century, when the dilapidated estate
seemed to draw so many comparisons to the state of the Union, or the state of the South, for
observers. I look forward to researching more about Monticello and the status of Jefferson
during the sectional conflicts leading up to and during the Civil war.
I was very impressed by the knowledge of the staff and fellows working at the Center and
in addition to the print resources available at the Jefferson Library, I benefited from many
conversations with interesting and interested people at Monticello and at the Smith ICJS.
I was also very delighted by the opportunity to talk and collaborate with the other visiting
fellows—these conversations were an invaluable part of my research experience. Thank you for
the opportunity to spend a month researching at Monticello. I look forward to keeping in touch.
Allison M. Stagg, Ph.D. candidate, History of Art, University College, London, England
As a short-term fellow at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies
at Monticello I was able to concentrate my dissertation research on the political caricatures
published during Thomas Jefferson‘s tenure as Vice President and President of the United States.
This twelve-year period is the most prolific in terms of caricature output from the early Republic
period. While in residence at Smith ICJS, I was able to make several new discoveries regarding
artist attribution and production dates. These new findings are an important contribution to the
history of caricature production in the United States.
Resources I consulted as a fellow included the American Historical Newspaper database,
as well as several books on the image of the presidents (notably scholarship by Jefferson
historian Noble Cunningham). The on-line database of newspapers is extremely important to my
study on these caricatures, as it allows for searches in contemporary newspapers for
advertisements and, occasionally, the rare description of caricatures that were published in major
cities along the eastern seaboard. The library‘s impressive collection of scholarship on art and
presidential portraiture of the period was also useful. I was grateful to have the opportunity to
consult contemporary historical accounts as well as modern texts on Jefferson and culture in
America during the period in which he was serving our country.
Presenting an informal paper on my research midway through my tenure in residence was
also extremely beneficial to my overall Ph.D. dissertation. The discussion on print production
and politics of the period that occurred after my presentation continued in many forms, notably
in emails and in informal coffee sessions in Charlottesville. I am very grateful to have had the
opportunity to discuss my research in such a supportive environment and with so many
individuals with diverse backgrounds and academic interests. The critiques and positive
feedback I received have led to further avenues of study, as well as developing a critical
approach to this group of rare caricatures.
The Robert H. Smith library was a wonderful place to work and I feel very fortunate to
have had the opportunity to spend a month in the reading room, as well as in the office that was
provided to me. The greatest component of the fellowship was the community of fellows in
residence, all of whom were extremely supportive scholars. Their own research topics were
interesting and the lively discussions held in the Library were fascinating; it made going to work
every day such a pleasure! As well, Andrew and Joan were instrumental in introducing me to
other scholars within the wider academic community outside of Kenwood.
I am currently in the ―writing up‖ stage of my Ph.D. and the research completed as a
fellow will contribute to two chapters focusing on print production in Philadelphia and in
Massachusetts at the end of the 1790s and beginning of the 1800s, as well as discussions on
presidential iconography.
Appendix 6: Excerpts from Coloring and Activities Book
(Professor Dewalt was a travel grant recipient.)
Sentence Unscramble
1. third of President the United Jefferson the States was.
_________________________________________________________________.
2. made Jefferson in while many Europe was discoveries he.
_________________________________________________________________.
3. to was play about old, learned Thomas ten the when violin years he.
_________________________________________________________________.
4. lifetime over wrote his Jefferson 20,000 in letters.
_________________________________________________________________.
5. from Jefferson George Thomas purchased Natural III King Bridge the.
_________________________________________________________________.
6. wrote Jefferson in Independence the 1776 of Declaration.
_________________________________________________________________.
7. years took complete to Jefferson to Monticello it 54.
_________________________________________________________________.
8. different seven read Jefferson to in languages learned.
_________________________________________________________________.
Appendix 7: Conferences
(Complete programs for 3 conferences will be inserted later.)
The Jefferson Symposium, Sydney 2009, Report
Background
In 2008 following a visiting research Fellowship by Prof. Cassandra Pybus to The
International Centre for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, Virginia, the idea of bringing the annual
Jefferson Symposium to Australia was first mooted. Pybus persuaded Professor Andrew
O‘Shaughnessy, the Saunders Director of the Centre that to hold the conference at Sydney
University would take advantage of Sydney‘s increasing role as an international centre for the
study of American history. Once the dates were finalized for April 2009, there was an
enthusiastic response from Americanists and Jefferson experts around the world. Several
outstanding scholars expressed an interest in proceedings and the tentative guest list was drawn
up. This list included such luminaries as Jack Greene, Rhys Isaac, both O‘Shaughnessy and
Lucinda Stanton and the 2008 National Book Award winner Annette Gordon-Reed. Paul Giles
from Oxford University also expressed an interest in attending, as did a large number of scholars
in Australia.
After several weeks of deft negotiation during December 2008, early April 2009 was
decided upon as being the best time to hold such a gathering. This negotiation took some
handling as many of the academics attending had busy schedules. Travel to Sydney is not easy
for many and several visitors would need a few more days to recover than normal travel in the
northern hemisphere. This lag would make any potential event take longer in Australia than the
rather modest event timetable given by the Jefferson foundation of two days.
In conjunction with the Symposium, a number of spin off events also took place
involving various attendees. Many scholars expressed a desire to take advantage of the trip to
further ties with Australia, both formal and informal. Jack Greene was scheduled to give the
prestigious John M. Ward Memorial Lecture on April 8th for the faculty of Arts and Annette
Gordon-Reed the Sydney Ideas public lecture on April 22nd. As well as these two main lectures
Professor Amy Bushnell also expressed a desire to meet and give a talk for the Department of
History‘s Nation Empire Globe Research Cluster for the lunchtime of April 8th. Many delegates
were, by January 2009, already lining up private appointments and social events with other
visitors to coincide with the Symposium.
Funding for this event came principally from The Jefferson Foundation at Monticello and
Sydney University‘s School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI). The United States
Studies Centre at Sydney University provided one of the Symposium venues, the conference
room on level 47 of the MLC Building, (with its breathtaking views of Sydney Harbour), and by
hosting the welcome reception the day before. With Jefferson‘s interest in science and his
reputation as an enlightened thinker in an age of natural enquiry, the natural history collection at
the University of Sydney‘s Macleay Museum would provide a fitting backdrop for the final day.
The formal invitations were sent out during February to scholars from around Australasia
including Shane White, Richard Waterhouse, Ian Tyrrell, Lucy Frost, Alan Atkinson and
Michael Bennet, Peter Field and Michael McDonnell, in all some 33 people. On top of the
academic interest in ‗Jefferson‘, over February and March a large group from outside of the
academy also telephoned Prof. Pybus to express their desire in attending. Many of these people
could not be catered for due to the large uptake of scholars. Fortunately the Symposium was able
to accept several independent people who could be squeezed into the list most notably The
Sydney Morning Herald senior journalist, Paul Sheehan.
The welcome reception at the US Studies Centre, scheduled for the 16th April also
provided an opportunity for the School to invite a number of important dignitaries who expressed
a desire to assist and lend their support to the Symposium despite their own timetables excluding
them from attending the main event over the following two days. The Vice Chancellor of the
University of Sydney, Doctor Michael Spence, offered to formally welcome guests, the Dean of
Arts, Prof. Stephen Garton enthusiastically accepted his invitation to the reception, as did the
Consul-General of the United States Ms Judith Fergin and the former Premier of New South
Wales, Mr Bob Carr.
Preliminary Events
On Sunday the 5th of April, Jack Greene and Amy Bushnell arrived in Sydney. Over the
next two days they recovered from their flight and regained their acquaintance with Sydney. At
lunchtime on the 8th they both arrived in the department of History for Prof. Bushnell‘s
lunchtime discussion. Fourteen leading postgraduate and faculty scholars in Colonial American
History turned out on a normally quiet Wednesday to hear Prof. Bushnell speak and to
participate in a lively and engaging topic hosted by the Nation Empire Globe Research Cluster
with an introduction delivered by Cassandra Pybus.
In the evening was the formal Ward Lecture, with a welcome reception held at the
Nicholson Museum beginning at 5.30pm. The Lecture began at 6.30, hosted by SOPHI, with
introductions by Prof. Stephen Garton as Dean, Prof. Robert Aldrich as Head of the Department
and Prof. Richard Waterhouse. The lecture was a resounding success, attended by a large and
diverse group of people. Gauging by previous years, this year‘s successful lecture reflects the
stature and influence Jack Greene and his forty-year career at the top of colonial American
Studies.
Symposium 16-18th April
The influence of the Jefferson Symposium and the reputation of some of the attendees led
the office of the Consul-General of the United States to request that they might also officially
demonstrate their support in some way. Accordingly, on the 15tth April, Consul-General Fergin
hosted, fifteen of the top delegates including Greene, Bushnell and Stephen Garton to an
informal cocktail party at her residence in Double Bay. At this event she also invited several
senior members of the diplomatic Corps as well as other dignitaries including former Premier
Carr. This was a most pleasant of occasions, held on a gorgeous night in one of Sydney‘s most
desirable suburbs.
On the evening of the 16th April, beginning at 5.45 the Welcome Reception started at the US
Studies Centre where participants were welcomed by the Vice- Chancellor, Dr Spence.
The first day of the Symposium began at 9.15 am at the MLC centre. By this stage all the
guests had arrived except Annette Gordon-Reed who was scheduled to arrive that morning. All
were delighted (and impressed) when, despite her lengthy trip, she arrived not an hour into the
day.
The Symposium was opened by Prof. Stephen Garton the Dean of Arts. While it was
divided up into segments based around specific issues or themes to do with or in the context of
Jefferson and his life, there were no formal papers. It was a free an open discussion which was
introduced by a chosen scholar. Following this introduction, the platform was given over to the
group to discuss and explore issues raised or bring new ones in the context of the theme if they
chose. The free flowing nature of the debate meant that the group could never be large in
number. Keeping the numbers caped in this way brought about a better communicative
environment. We were delighted that the numbers present seemed absolutely perfect for the
passage of ideas and debate.
Within minutes of Jack Greene opening the first theme, ‗Thomas Jefferson an overview
of his legacy‘ both he and Rhys Isaac, as elder statesmen, engaged in a lively debate about the
nature of ‗legacy‘ and its value with important contributions from Pybus, McDonnell and Paul
Giles. This set the tone for the rest of the day. Gradually more and more minds added,
contributed and were generally drawn into the evolving discussions, ranging from Rhys Isaac in
the second session ‗ Jefferson as the Father of American Democracy and Exceptionalism‘ to
Andrew O‘Shaughnessy introducing ‗A Polymath and an Enlightened Man‘ in session three.
Most would agree however that the most interesting session was session four hosted by Cinder
Stanton. There was a slightly different approach to this session as her opening address contained
some terrific photographs taken of people, families and places associated with the Jeffersonian
legacy which she used to introduce the idea of ‗Thomas Jefferson: The Slave Holding Champion
of Liberty‘. Delegates were also especially interested to hear what she and Annette Gordon-Reed
had to say on this issue, a lively way to end the day.
At the end of the first day, the more formal dinner was held at nearby Postales Tapas
Restaurant in the historic GPO building. There can be no better food and atmosphere for a
conference dinner than Spanish Tapas. Everyone had a great time.
The following day was again well attended, on a bright and sunny Saturday morning at
the Macleay Museum, Sydney University. There were two sessions that day. The first, opened by
Annette Gordon-Reed explored the idea of ‗Jefferson as a Metaphor for Race Relations‘. This
was probably the most hotly debated topic not least because of its deliberately ambiguous title
and the nature of America today, both politically and socially.
The final session hosted by Cassandra Pybus asked ‗Does Jefferson Still Matter‘ and was
a fitting conclusion to end upon and just as keenly observed by delegates as the other sessions
had been. It was clear that for everyone, whatever their view of the man, Jefferson really did still
matter.
The delegates then went to a local Pub round the corner from the University for a
typically Australian lunch, a meal complete with Beetroot in the burgers and lots of fantastic
Tasmanian Beer.
The last event to take place surrounding the Symposium was Annette Gordon-Reed‘s
Sydney Ideas Lecture given on the 22nd April at the Seymour theatre entitled ‗Barrack and
Michelle Obama: Rewriting the Narrative of American History‘. Just two days before, while
enjoying several well-earned days off, she learned that she was to be the latest recipient of the
Pulitzer Prize. This gave an enormous boost to her lecture. The buzz created by such an award,
not to mention the press and media interest meant that her lecture was both well attended, and
particularly well received. The Sydney Ideas lecture attracted a number of people including
correspondents for the BBC, ABC and other local Radio.
Throughout what was ostensibly a collection of events, the media interest has been
impressive. The University of Sydney‘s Media team, in conjunction with SOPHI and the Sydney
Ideas lecture series have co-jointly managed a high profile round of newspaper columns, stories,
radio, TV and other media including extensive coverage on the main page of the university
website for both the Symposium and Gordon-Reed‘s Sydney Ideas lecture as well as producing
several eye-catching and memorable posters and flyers.
With the Pulitzer Prize and the normal exposure that the Sydney Ideas series usually
receives, naturally, Annette Gordon-Reed was a main focus for the popular press.
Here is a list of the main parts of the media coverage:
Deborah Cameron from ABC Radio‟s ‗Morning With Deborah Cameron‘; interviewed
Annette on the 20th April.
John Barron from ABC News Radio also interviewed Annette on the 20th April
As did Philip Adams on ABC Radio‘s ‗Late Night Live‘.
Annette also appeared on ABC TV News Breakfast on the 21st April.
Marcus Coombs for 2SER ‗The Wire‘ also interviewed Annette on 21st April, as did Rod
Quinn for ABC Local radio.
In addition Annette was also interview by Margaret Throsby on ABC Radio.
Andrew O‘Shaughnessy in his capacity as Saunders Director of the Jefferson Centre was
also interviewed by Margaret Throsby.
There were a number of press releases and stories in the both the Sydney Morning Herald
and The Australian including: ‗The Black First Lady Who Wasn‘t‘- The Australian,
22/04/09, Higher Education, page35 by Stephen Matchett and ‗Long Distance Nod‘ in
The Sydney Morning Herald, 22/04/09, General News, page 16 by Nick O‘Malley and
Emily Dunn. Cassandra Pybus was also interviewed by Andrew West for the Sydney
Morning Herald in a piece called ‗The Hypocrisy of Jefferson‘ on the 18th April. Brendon
O‘Connor wrote a piece for The Australian entitled ‗Obama as a Modern Day Jefferson‘,
which came out on April 16th.
The Sydney Ideas event was televised on ABC 2 on Sunday the 26th April and broadcast
on ABC Radio on Friday 24th April.
Future Plans
Given the overwhelming success of these events but in particular the Jefferson
Symposium, Cassandra Pybus and Andrew O‘Shaughnessy determined to organize another. This
Symposium will be held in Sydney in 2010. At the moment this event is scheduled to be held in
early April and promises to be even bigger and better, with the emphasis on the impact of the
revolution on the wider world including the Spanish, French and second British Empire.
It goes without saying that this reflects and underscores the importance of Sydney as a
crucial point in the global study of American History and an important destination for American
scholars.
Appendix 8: Presentations and Events
Fellow‘s Forum, January 15
Thomas Baker, Associate Professor, History, State University of New York-Potsdam
―You Red-Headed Rascal: Anonymous Writes Mr. Jefferson‖
This project will explore an array of anonymous correspondence directed to Thomas
Jefferson as a particular scribal form that can illuminate the complicated relationship between the
American people and their third president. It will consider these anonymous communications as
a product of their writers‘ desire intersecting with the invitation to write implied by the
president‘s station and public persona. The research pursued at Charlottesville is meant to
become the basis for a short book, tentatively titled “You Red-Headed Rascal”: Anonymous
Writes Mr. Jefferson. This volume is projected to consist of an opening essay followed by a
dozen or so illustrative examples of the variety of letters – political warnings, spiritual
exhortations, and the like – each to be framed by a short consideration of its historical
significance.
Fellow‘s Forum, January 21
Allison Stagg, Ph.D. candidate, History of Art, University College, London, England
―American Political Caricatures, 1780-1810‖
Ms. Stagg‘s dissertation research on American political caricature published between the
years 1780 and 1830 endeavors to consider critically the tradition of art, works on paper, the
press, and politics in America and its influences from international sources. Her project, based
on historical and iconographical research, will incorporate approximately 100 American political
caricatures. She will concentrate primarily on research from Jefferson‘s period in various public
offices, and consider prints of him and of his close political friends and rivals. This research will
examine Jefferson‘s likeness considered alongside other Founding Fathers and international
leaders in American and English caricature.
Distinguished Lecture Series, January 23
Inge Reist
―Art Collecting During the Colonial Era and First Decades of the Republic‖
Inge Reist is the Chief of Research Collections and Programs at the Frick Art Reference
Library of The Frick Collection, where she is also the Director of the Center for the History of
Collecting in America. A scholar of Italian Renaissance and Baroque art by training, having
received her Ph.D. from Columbia University writing on Palladio, Veronese and Venetian
Humanism and having taught and published widely on the subject, Dr. Reist today devotes her
energies to research on art collecting in the United States as a reflection of the cultural climate of
different historical eras in our nation. This lecture will examine patterns of art collecting during
the Colonial era and the early decades of the Republic in an effort to determine the motivations
for collecting art at all and the preferences for particular categories of art that developed among
collectors of this period.
Teatime Talk, January 27
Helen Cripe, Ph.D., Smith ICJS fellow, researcher, author and editor on a wide range of projects
and publications
―Jefferson and Music‖
Jefferson has been described as a lover of music who cultivated his musical interests at
Monticello, shared his passion with his family and friends, and who left us a significant
collection of period music. Dr. Helen Cripe will speak on ―Jefferson and Music,‖ the topic of her
forthcoming book in the Thomas Jefferson Foundation‘s Monticello Monograph Series. Dr.
Cripe is the author of Jefferson and Music and American Manuscripts 1763-1815: An Index to
Documents Described in Auction Records and Dealers‟ Catalogues. She is a visiting Fellow at
the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello.
Fellow‘s Forum, February 11
Marion C. Nelson, newly-independent scholar, Richmond, Virginia
―Jefferson‘s Western Men: Identity, Geography, Distance and Connection‖
This project began by tracing the success stories of two Virginians who migrated west in
the 1790s, and who quickly established themselves in their new western home places.
Politically, these two men were soon leading vigorous western episodes of opposition to the
(Federalist) administration in power. They were, in other words, Jeffersonians, and, after 1800,
obvious candidates for national office. John Breckinridge and Thomas Worthington, the chief
subjects of Dr. Nelson‘s work, served as U.S. Senators (from Kentucky and Ohio respectively)
during Jefferson‘s presidency.
Oddly, these western men have often been mis-placed and the roles they played in the
early republic consequently misapprehended. Dr. Nelson will introduce these issues of
geography and identity by sketching Thomas Worthington in his native Berkeley County (now
West Virginia), and then John Breckinridge‘s Albemarle County years. She will then skip
forward to consider these western Jeffersonians after 1800 (her focus at Smith ICJS). This
project looks always from the inside of these men‘s daily occupations and pre-occupations
outward. What can this fresh vantage point suggest about early Washington City, about the
workings of the vast and expanding republic, even about what being ―Jeffersonian‖ meant to
Jefferson‘s western men?
Celebrate Black History at Monticello, February 17
Dr. Leni Sorensen, African-American Research Historian at Monticello
―Ladies Maids, Butlers, and Chefs:
Understanding Skilled Domestic Service at Monticello‖
At Monticello, Thomas Jefferson was surrounded by an enslaved domestic staff whose skills
ensured the smooth running of the house. Butler Burwell Colbert managed the practical needs of
the many guests and the daily activities of the household slaves. Ladies maid and seamstress
Sally Hemings understood the proper care of fine clothing and the correct dressing of a
plantation mistress. Edith Fossett and Frances Hern spent 16 years in the Monticello kitchen
producing meals said to be ―half-French, half-Virginian.‖
Dr. Sorensen will offer a view into that world of service.
Fellow‘s Forum, March 3
Suzanne Francis-Brown, Ph.D. candidate, University of the West Indies-Mona
―‗Slave Quarter‘ Replication, Interpretation and Presentation‖
Ms. Francis-Brown‘s focus while at Monticello will be on heritage site interpretation in
general and slave quarter replication, interpretation and presentation in particular. This will
contribute to the current development of a replication project at the village site on the old Papine
sugar estate – part of the historic heritage of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona
Campus.
Discussion of the findings from DAACS‘s on-going work at the Papine site is
particularly relevant, especially given limited material remains. So, too, are opportunities for
research and discussion relevant to DAACS‘s broad comparative database; to Mulberry Row and
Poplar Forest; and beyond, to relevant initiatives at Colonial Williamsburg.
Distinguished Lecture Series, March 18
Andrew Cayton, Distinguished Professor of History at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, will
present research conducted jointly with Fred Anderson, Professor of History at the University of
Colorado, Boulder
―Imperial America, 1672-1764,
a volume in The Oxford History of the United States‖
The volume will narrate the history of North America from 1672 to 1764. It will not,
therefore, touch upon the history of the United States. Rather than make the volume the
prologue to an inevitable (or even an imaginable) break between the Anglo-American colonists
and Great Britain, these nine decades will be cast as the story of how British imperial authority,
construed in cultural as well as political terms, came to predominate in eastern North America.
Readers will see it as a fundamentally surprising story, the outcome of which was anything but
foreordained. They will understand Britain's imperial triumph as the product of complex
interactions, by turns peaceful and violent, cooperative and resistant, among native peoples,
colonists (both free and enslaved), and metropolitan Europeans – people who shared little except
the desire to make the dangerous world they inhabited a place where they could lead tolerable
lives.
No writer has yet created a compelling narrative for North America in this period, which James
Merrell once called "America's own 'dark ages.'" The most common view seems to be that these
decades, when North America's native and colonial settlements remained deeply fragmented,
simply do not constitute a historically coherent era. This, at least, would seem to be the
informing assumption most textbook treatments of the colonial period. Nevertheless, Anderson
and Cayton believe that the decades from 1672 to 1764 can in fact be characterized a coherent
period in North American history, and related in a narrative form accessible to the educated
general reader.
Virginia Festival of the Book, March 31
Dr. Charles Irons
―The Origins of Pro-slavery Christianity:
White and Black Evangelicals in Colonial and Antebellum Virginia‖
Black and white evangelicals frequently prayed, sang, and worshipped together in the
colonial and antebellum South. Even though white evangelicals claimed spiritual fellowship
with those of African descent, they nonetheless emerged as the most effective defenders of racebased slavery.
Dr. Charles Irons‘ talk is a part of the Virginia Festival of the Book. Dr. Irons is Assistant
Professor of History at Elon University and Adjunct lecturer in history at the University of
Virginia.
Fellow‘s Forum, March 31
Joel Kovarsky, M.D., M.S., owner and operator of The Prime Meridian: Antique Maps and
Books
―Foreshadowing Manifest Destiny – The Geographic
and Cartographic Imaginations of Thomas Jefferson‖
The project will focus on four main areas: developing an expanded list of individual maps
owned and/or drawn by Jefferson, a detailed evaluation of the books Jefferson considered to be
geographical in nature, reviewing Jefferson‘s personal communications with individuals tied to
the history of cartography and western expansion (Melish, Morse, Astor, King, Ledyard,
Stockdale, etc.), and obtaining high resolution images of copies of individual maps owned by
Jefferson. There are a number of potential image sources, most of which could be obtained at
very little cost, including the David Rumsey Map Collection, map collections of the British
Library, and the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. These images can be used
to improve those in Monticello‘s main house, and for an online teaching site, perhaps hosted by
the Jefferson Library, focused on Jefferson‘s geographic and cartographic interests, particularly
as relevant to ideas of manifest destiny.
Fellow‘s Forum, April 8
Martha Hill, Special Exhibitions Curator, Small Library, UVA
―The Style of Power: The Role of Classicism in Forming the American Republic‖
The Style of Power, a book in preparation, addresses the question of how and why the
political and commercial leaders of the new American republic adopted the idiom of
neoclassicism to express their ideals and ambitions – embracing stylistic conventions that had
developed in Western Europe since the Italian Renaissance under the aegis of Old World powers
so recently rejected through bloody Revolution. The richly-illustrated text draws from
scholarship in history and material culture to explore the economic, political, social, intellectual,
and aesthetic origins and development of this movement.
Fellow‘s Forum, April 23
David Hancock, Associate Professor of History, University of Michigan
―William Petty and His Associates Shaped the Contours
of the Late Eighteenth Century Atlantic Community‖
The Cosmopolite William Petty, First Marques of Lansdowne and the Promise of
Atlantic Internationalism, 1737-1805 considers the force exerted by Jefferson‘s contemporary,
the Irish officer, politician, architect of the Peace of 1782-1783, improver and thinker William
Petty, and his associates in shaping the contours of the late eighteenth century Atlantic
community, and the central influence that cultural, philosophical and political cosmopolitanism
had upon their approaches to working in and developing it. It goes on to argue that their
cosmopolitan vision was a permanent trait of Atlantic culture. The Cosmopolite will detail three
dimensions of their cosmopolitanism: cultural, philosophical, and political. In particular, it will
examine Shelburne‘s long life struggle to make the wide Atlantic community a site for
improvement that would be worthy of global imitation – a design he wrought in concert with
like-minded officials and intellectuals. They were impelled by a need to affirm and solidify the
unity of Atlantic community, by a charge to withstand and possible overturn contemporary and
competing ideologies of patriotism and nationalism. Because of their endeavors, the approach
came to be seen as possessing great power, inasmuch as it could help introduce and implement
universal change in the social, scientific and religious realms, even if during his lifetime its very
strangeness raised obstacles to implementation.
Teatime Talk, April 22
Dr. Nancy Carter Crump
―Early American Southern Cuisine‖
Nancy Carter Crump will parallel developments in Colonial Southern food ways with
those of our social and political culture. She will share some of the methods, accepted beliefs,
and misconceptions of the time and also talk about the influence of our early Native American,
European and enslaved communities. Nancy Carter Crump is a culinary historian and founder of
the Culinary Historians of Virginia. Author of Hearthside Cooking: Early American Southern
Cuisine, she is a frequent lecturer at historic sites and other venues throughout the South.
Fellow‘s Forum, April 27
George Boudreau, Associate Professor, History and Humanities, Penn State Capital College
―Thomas Jefferson, Philadelphia, and ‗Useful Knowledge‘‖
The phrase ―useful knowledge‖ was ubiquitous in the age of Jefferson. Transforming
ideas of science, politics, letters, and community all led to intensive cultural changes throughout
the Atlantic world. The research will focus on Thomas Jefferson‘s life in Philadelphia during the
various times he resided in the city, and his interaction with the cultural changes taking place in
early America's largest city. It will include Jefferson's interactions with and presidency of the
American Philosophical Society; his participation in the book culture of the city; and his writings
as reflections of the city's divergent people; and the objects he purchased and commissioned and
the world of trade and goods to form a clearer picture of the transformations associated with
―useful knowledge.‖
Distinguished Lecture Series and book launch, May 13
Andrea Wulf , M.A., R.C.A., History of Design, Royal College of Art and Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, independent writer and historian, Smith ICJS Fellow
The Brother Gardeners. Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession (published by
Knopf/Random House) tells the fascinating story of a small group of eighteenth century
naturalists who made England a nation of gardeners and the epicenter of horticultural and
botanical expertise. It is the story of a garden revolution that began in America in 1733 when a
farmer, John Bartram, dispatched two wooden boxes of plants and seeds from Philadelphia,
addressed to a London cloth merchant, Peter Collinson. Most of these plants had never been
grown in British soil before, but in time the American evergreens, magnificent trees, and colorful
shrubs would transform the English landscape and garden forever. Over the next forty years,
Collinson and a handful of botany enthusiasts would cultivate hundreds of American species.
The Brother Gardeners follows the lives of six of these men whose shared passion for plants
gave rise to the English love affair with gardens. Here is the extraordinary friendship between
Collinson and Bartram; Philip Miller, head of the Chelsea Physic Garden; Swedish botanist Carl
Linnaeus, whose standardized nomenclature helped bring botany to the middle classes; Joseph
Banks and Daniel Solander, who studied the flora of Brazil, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia
on the greatest voyage of discovery of their time, aboard Captain Cook‘s Endeavour.
Andrea Wulf is the coauthor of This Other Eden: Seven Great Gardens and 300 Years of
English History, 2005 (with Emma Gieben-Gamal). She has written for the Sunday Times, the
Financial Times, The Garden, Kew Magazine, and Early American Life and reviews for several
newspapers, including The Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement. She regularly appears
on BBC television and is frequently interviewed on the radio. Andrea was a guest on The Diane
Rehm Show, NPR, on April 30, 2009.
Distinguished Lecture Series, May 20
Simon P. Newman, Brogan Professor of American History, University of Glasgow
―Printer and Tradesman: Benjamin Franklin‘s Class Politics‖
This lecture will explore how and why Franklin celebrated his working class origins and
the effect it had on his image and reputation during and immediately after his own lifetime.
Perhaps the most widely read American autobiography, Franklin‘s story became a model of how
to succeed in life. One aspect of Franklin‘s story of his rise from impoverished working class
origins to genteel status has been largely overlooked, despite the fact that Franklin made much of
it in his autobiography and in other writings and actions. While most of the small number of
Anglo-Americans who rose to genteel respectability were anxious to forget and obscure their
humble origins, Franklin celebrated his working class past as a virtue. Moreover, throughout his
life, Franklin was as respectful of working men and craftsmen as he was of their social betters.
He was a hero among Philadelphia‘s working men, a status that benefitted him during the Stamp
Act Crisis; when Philadelphia‘s Sons of Liberty threatened to attack Franklin‘s property because
he had supported the law, a host of workingmen came to the defense of his name and his
property. This was the only occasion when a crowd of urban working men defended a supporter
of the Stamp Act.
Simon Newman is Brogan Professor of American History at the University of Glasgow.
A former chair of the British Association for American Studies, he is the author of Parades and
the Politics of the Street: Festive Culture in the Early American Republic (1997) and Embodied
History: The Lives of the Poor in Early Philadelphia (2003), as well as editor of Riot and
Revelry in Early America (2002) and Europe‟s American Revolution (2006). He has held a
British Academy Research Readership (2005-7), and is currently engaged in a study of the
confusion of race with free and unfree-labor, Britain‘s Atlantic slave trade and construction of
plantation slavery.
Fellow‘s Forum, May 27
Britt Rusert, Ph.D. candidate, Duke University
―The ‗Peculiar Soil‘ of Slavery: Monticello and Plantation Ecology‖
Ms. Rusert‘s dissertation tracks the plantation‘s emergence as a space for the production
of experimental knowledge. Monticello is a central site of investigation where she will explore
the relationships between experimental farming, botany, and racial discourse.
Fellow‘s Forum, July 7
Trevor Burnard, Professor of the history of the Americas, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
―Colonel Despard Goes Mad in Honduras:
Race and Authority in the British Empire in the Late Eighteenth Century‖
As early as 1780, in his letter to George Rogers Clark, Thomas Jefferson was dreaming
of a future America that was both a beacon of liberty to the world and a continental power
dominated by relatively equal (or at least non-aristocratic) white men devoted to the settler ideals
that Jefferson himself had enumerated in the 1776 Declaration of Independence. Of course, this
empire for liberty ran up against another empire – the British Empire – that was seen by Britons
as also being an empire of liberty. The British idea of liberty, however, was strikingly different
from that envisioned by Jefferson. It did not, as Jefferson‘s empire for liberty did, accept
unquestionably a settler discourse that linked liberty with the privileges of white male colonists
of British heritage. In order to examine the intersection between colonial/American ideas of
egalitarianism, settler dominion and white racial hegemony and imperial determination to impose
an authoritarian idea of colonial subjection to parliamentary power alongside a humanitarian
inspired urge to incorporate non-white subjects into an expanded British imperium, Professor
Burnard will examine a small but significant episode in British Honduras in the 1780s, where an
authoritarian but benevolent governor, Edward Despard, tried unsuccessfully to create a new
policy of racial and sexual equality in a colony where settlers devoted to the twin ideas of settler
liberty and white supremacy held sway. The aim is to say something interesting about the
relative competing claims of America and Britain after 1780 to be empires of liberty.
Fellow‘s Forum, July 9
Marie-Jeanne Rossignol, Professor of American history and civilization, Université Paris –
Diderot, France
Why Thomas Jefferson Declined Joining the First French Antislavery
Society in 1788 and Other Stories in Transatlantic Antislavery
Marie-Jeanne Rossignol‘s presentation will focus on the connection between American,
British, and French antislavery activities in the 1780s and the 1790s. She will first briefly recall
the main arguments in her recent published article, ―Brissot and the Quakers,‖ in which she has
tried to retrace the network of transatlantic Quaker influence that led to the creation of the first
French antislavery society, the Society of the Friends of the Blacks in 1788. Then she will raise
questions that are still pending and which she is still investigating for a follow-up article:
If Thomas Jefferson did not join, why? More importantly, why did his secretary William
Short join? With which political and personal consequences?
Under which circumstances did Warner Mifflin, the emancipationist Virginian Quaker,
become an international emblem of antislavery? Who was responsible for his meteoric rise to
transatlantic fame? Why did he eventually feel he had to defend his conduct and honor in a 1796
pamphlet?
Fellow‘s Forum, July 21
Michelle Orihel, Ph.D. candidate, Syracuse University
―Towards the Future of Jeffersonian Democracy?
The Democratic Societies and Republican Governance in 1790s America‖
Historians have traditionally depicted the nearly forty democratic societies that formed
across the United States during the 1790s as a national and cohesive opposition to the
Washington administration, one that was centered in Philadelphia and that foreshadowed the
triumph of the Jeffersonian-Republican party in the election of 1800. The similar rhetoric
contained in the publications of those societies has led many historians to stress the unifying
impact of the print culture of the national capital on the rest of the country. This project reexamines those assumptions by searching for evidence of the communications and reception of
the clubs that formed in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Kentucky. In those states, democratic
associations formed early in the movement and achieved a degree of strength. This comparative
perspective highlights the diverse contexts of politics and print in which the clubs circulated their
ideas, revealing the fragmented nature of the democratic network. Indeed, during the 1790s, the
local, state and sectional interests of the democratic clubs constrained the formation of a national
opposition to the Washington administration. Furthermore, although the democratic clubs shared
a similar set of concerns with the emerging Jeffersonian-Republicans, Thomas Jefferson never
participated in the associations, supported their agenda, or defended them publicly. Therefore,
Ms. Orihel draw a finer distinction between the Jeffersonian-Republican party and the
democratic societies.
Fellow‘s Forum and concert, July 28
Cecelia Conway, Professor of English, Appalachian State University
―Monticello Traditional Music‖
Forum. Thomas Jefferson was an accomplished violinist and his brother, Randolph, was
an inspired fiddler and dancer. Comparison of their music with old-time fiddler Thomas
Jefferson Jarrell (1901-1985), who shared a taste for ―Scotch songs‖ and traditional playing
techniques with the Jefferson‘s, is illuminating. Thomas Jefferson‘s musical knowledge made
his comments on traditional music especially insightful and pertinent. Professor Conway will
discuss the Celtic and African roots and the formation of traditional Chesapeake music, including
gourd banjo playing, which emerged no later than 1740 and remained in the hands of African
Americans for almost one hundred years. Jefferson appreciated African Americans‘
improvisational abilities and his remarks are significant because documentation of African
American traditions are few and scattered. Jefferson clarified that Africa was the source for the
American gourd banjo and this instrument was indigenous to blacks because of their appreciation
of and competence on it. In 1781, Jefferson also offered our only clue to eighteenth century
gourd banjo tuning.
Concert. Two traditional Virginia musicians, singer and fiddler James Leva of Lexington
and akonting and ngoni and banjo player Greg Adams of Washington, D.C., will illustrate
traditional fiddle tunes and gourd and antebellum open-back banjo pieces during the forum.
After the forum, they will perform a concert that will illustrate the history of traditional
Chesapeake music from the time of settlement.
Fellow‘s Forum, August 3
Justin Roberts, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
―Sunup to Sundown: Plantation Management Strategies
and Slave Work Routines in Barbados, Jamaica and Virginia, c1780-1810‖
Dr. Roberts will compare systems of plantation labor and agriculture in Barbados,
Jamaica and Virginia in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Although most
historians draw sharp distinctions between slavery in the West Indies and slavery in the
Chesapeake, Dr. Roberts will endeavor to show the ways in which these areas of the plantation
Americas were shaped by similar concerns and by a common set of intellectual and cultural
developments throughout the British Atlantic. He will explore the ways in which plantation
management strategies and work routines were shaped by currents of thought such as the
amelioration of slavery and an agricultural improvement movement that circulated throughout
the eighteenth century Atlantic. Anglo-American planters like Thomas Jefferson strove to
improve the amount they could extract from their land and labor resources by tightening the
screws on their bondsmen by increasing workloads and seeking improvements in farming and in
agricultural tools wherever they could. They diversified crops and eliminated down periods in
the annual work rhythms of the plantation by producing secondary crops. At the same time,
planters in this era claimed to be trying to improve the lives of slaves by reducing or
ameliorating the demands of work. Jefferson, like many of his contemporaries, called for less
whipping, less corporal punishment and a greater use of incentives to compel slave labor. Not
surprisingly, these goals of humanitarian reform and a greater extraction of resources were often
contradictory. Dr. Roberts examines work logs, which record day-to-day labor allocation, the
correspondence of plantation managers, slave inventories, crop reports, financial accounts,
newspapers, travelers‘ accounts, agricultural manuals and medical treatises. With this array of
remarkably detailed records, he is able to discuss daily labor and the seasonal rhythms of life on
large plantations in more detail than anything currently existing in the scholarly literature. He
will explore the relationship between the working world of the plantation and key aspects of
slave lives such as health, community status and community and family formation. His study is
both a labor and a business history, stressing the ways in which the humanitarian reform and
agricultural improvement movements of the late enlightenment shaped the day-to-day world of
plantations such as Monticello.
Fellow‘s Forum, August 12
William Merkel, Associate Professor of Law, Washburn Law School
―Jefferson and Slavery: Legal and Constitutional Issues, 1801-1809‖
My work this summer involves carrying forward a legal-historical study of Jefferson‘s
conflicted relations with slavery that began with my doctoral thesis Race, Liberty, and Law:
Thomas Jefferson and Slavery, 1770-1800. Currently, I am examining legal and constitutional
problems involving slavery, racism, and emancipation that Jefferson confronted and/or avoided
during his presidency. These include the role of the Three Fifths Clause in the election of 1800,
the War against the Barbary Pirates, relations with and diplomatic non-recognition of Haiti, the
legal status of slavery in the existing western territories and the new territories acquired through
the Louisiana Purchase, federal prohibition of the international slave trade into the United States,
and colonization of African Americans outside the United States. This study is a work in
progress, and critical commentary and/or reading suggestions would be particularly welcome.
Fellow‘s Forum, August 21
Lyn Carson, Ph.D., Academic Program Director, United States Studies Centre, University of
Sydney, Australia
―Thomas Jefferson and Deliberative Democracy‖
This research involves an exploration of the Jefferson Library‘s resources to enable the
writing of several papers about Jefferson‘s legacy in relation to contemporary theories of
deliberative democracy and the expression of democracy in the United States and Australia
today. In addition, Dr. Carson investigates the influences behind the choices that were made by
Jefferson and his contemporaries. Speculations will inevitably arise about the different route that
idealists such as Jefferson might have taken had their influences been informed by that which is
now known. In short, what can Jefferson teach today‘s deliberative democrats and what might
deliberative democrats be able to teach Jefferson if he were alive today?
Teatime Talk, October 6
Professor James Walvin
―The Zong, Abolition and Public Sensibility‖
The mass killings of enslaved Africans on board the Liverpool slave ship Zong in 1781
have long been recognized as an unpunished crime. Even by the standards of Atlantic slavery,
the Zong affair horrified contemporaries. In a world where Africans were routinely killed on
slave ships, what caused such public revulsion? Does the incident provide a way of looking into
a changing sensibility about slavery itself?
Professor Walvin will discuss the Zong affair in the years after 1781, and suggest that it showed
a turning point in public feeling towards the slave trade. James Walvin, Professor Emeritus,
Department of History, University of York. Author of numerous books and articles, advisor to
The Slavery Museum in Liverpool, England, currently working on The Slave Ship Zong - due to
be published in Spring 2010. Professor Walvin is also currently working on the project, Slavery
and Modern Memory.
Celebrate Black History at Monticello, October 8
―Racial Change in America: Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama‖
Mr. Wilkins, a civil rights leader, emeritus history professor at George Mason University,
attorney, and journalist, is also the author of Jefferson's Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the
Dilemma of Black Patriotism. Please join us for a book signing following Mr. Wilkins' talk.
Fellow‘s Forum, October 14
Istvan Kornel Vida, Assistant Professor, North American Department, Institute of English and
American Studies, University of Debrecen, Hungary
―Sustained by Mr. Jefferson: Abraham Lincoln
and the invocation of Jeffersonian Ideals and Political Vision‖
2009 is the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln as well as of the end of the
second term of Thomas Jefferson as president. This seems a perfect occasion to commemorate
them by a research project which aims to study how Jeffersonian political ideals affected
Abraham Lincoln as a Whig congressman, a Republican politician, and as president. Abraham
Lincoln looked to Jefferson for inspiration, and he regarded ―Jefferson‘s principles‖ as ―the
definitions and axioms of free society.‖ Along these lines, Dr. Vida will analyze the obvious
links between Jefferson and Lincoln by focusing on the following: 1) the role of the government
as envisaged by Jefferson and Lincoln; 2) universal individual freedom(s) in an American
setting; 3) the future of the very existence and expansion of the peculiar institution; and 4) the
place of Jefferson and Lincoln in public memory, in and outside America. In his research, he
follows the footsteps of Lincoln, since, as a congressman, Lincoln studied Jefferson‘s writings
and speeches from the books in possession of the congressional library that had once belonged to
Jefferson himself. Dr. Vida will use the collections of the Robert H. Smith International Center
for Jefferson Studies to trace back how Jefferson inspired Lincoln, and how so many of their
ideas regarding American democracy, values and human rights pointed to the same direction.
Furthermore, he will present the similar tendencies in the place of Jefferson and Lincoln in
American public memory by showing their highs and lows from the re-evaluation of the issue of
race in the 1960s to the latest sex scandals (Sally Hemings case vs. ―gay Lincoln‖ theory).
Fellow‘s Forum, October 21
Maya Jasanoff, Associate Professor, Center for European Studies, Harvard University
―The American Loyalist Diaspora: A Global History‖
During the American Revolution, 60,000 loyalists, with 15,000 of their slaves, left the
thirteen colonies to resettle across the British Empire. Professor Jasanoff is completing the first
global history of the loyalist diaspora, following the refugees to Canada, the Caribbean, Sierra
Leone, and beyond. Their experiences expose a little-explored dimension of the American
Revolution as an international event with rippling human consequences. They also cast into relief
a transformative moment in British imperial history, when the empire‘s ethical, territorial, and
political foundations were reshaped. As a fellow at the Smith ICJS, Jasanoff is investigating how
loyalist refugees participated in British and American empire-building during the early republic.
Book event, November 4
David G. Post
Professor Post is the author of In Search of Jefferson's Moose: Notes on the State of
Cyberspace (Oxford, 2009), a Jeffersonian view of Internet law and policy. He is also co-author
of Cyberlaw: Problems of Policy and Jurisprudence in the Information Age (West, 2007, with
Paul Schiff Berman and Patricia Bellia), and numerous scholarly articles on intellectual property,
the law of cyberspace, and complexity theory. He has been a regular columnist for The American
Lawyer and Information Week, a commentator on the Lehrer News Hour, Court TV's Supreme
Court Preview, NPR's All Things Considered, BBC's World, and recently was featured in the
PBS documentary The Supreme Court.
Professor David G. Post is currently the I. Herman Stern Professor of Law at the Beasley
School of Law at Temple University, where he teaches intellectual property law and the law of
cyberspace. He is also a fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a fellow of the
Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School, an adjunct scholar at the
Cato Institute, and a contributor to the Volokh Conspiracy blog.
Teatime Talk, November 10
Ellen Hickman
―In conversation he was quite unrestrained‖: Visitor accounts of Thomas
Jefferson Contemporary visitor accounts of Thomas Jefferson and Monticello offer
interesting insights on the former president in his retirement years. This talk outlines a project
underway at the Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series to gather and publish visitor
accounts and discusses how studying visitor descriptions alters our understanding of Jefferson.
Ellen Hickman earned an MA in U.S. History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has
worked at the Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series for four years. She is an assistant
editor currently working on volume 7 of the Papers which will include documents from
November 1813, to September 1814.
Celebrate Black History at Monticello 2009, November 17
―We Always Heard....‖
Join us for a panel discussion with four descendants of the Monticello and Montpelier
enslaved communities and researchers from these historic houses. They will talk about the
difficulties and rewards of tracing roots to presidential plantations by combining oral history and
records research.
Fellow‘s Forum on November 19
Felicity Donohoe, Ph.D. candidate, American Studies, University of Glasgow
―Relations between Native American Women and White Men in the Age of Jefferson‖
My research explores the variety of relations that developed between native North
American women and European men in the eighteenth century, and seeks primarily to recover
female experiences which have traditionally languished on the sidelines of colonial history. The
thesis has three focuses: it assesses the differences between two regions and tribes at the outskirts
of empire that receive less historical attention than the middle colonies; it explores Indian
women‘s preferences and attitudes towards the French and British colonisers, and it locates
women at the centre of a narrative that has so far been dominated by discourses in masculine
aspirations. Using analysis of captivity narratives, religious records, trade accounts and colonial
office materials, native women begin to emerge as masters of opportunity as war ravaged the
colonies. Undaunted, and armed with a variety of cultural tools and socially-sanctioned
authority, they navigated these upheavals utilising a blend of red and white gender relations to
buttress their tribal status, and with an eye to the next generation, began the delicate process of
laying alternative, cultural foundations.
Appendix 9: Advisory Board and Rotation Plan for the Robert H. Smith
International Center for Jefferson Studies
Richard Bernstein
Adjunct Professor of Law, New York Law School
Director of Online Operations, Heights Books, Inc.
Author of Thomas Jefferson; and Are We to be a Nation?: The Making of the Constitution
Andrew Burstein
Co-holder of the Mary Frances Barnard Chair in Nineteenth Century American History,
University of Tulsa
Author of The Inner Jefferson: Portrait of a Grieving Optimist; and Jefferson‟s Secrets: Death
and Desire in Monticello
Max Byrd
Former Professor at Yale University and University of California at Davis
Author of Jefferson; and Jackson
Joanne Freeman
Professor of Early U.S. Republic, American Revolution, Politics, and Eighteenth Century
Political Culture, Yale University
Author of Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic
Annette Gordon-Reed
Professor of American Legal History and American Slavery and the Law, New York Law School
Author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (Pulitzer Prize winner); Thomas
Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy; and editor of Race on Trial: Law and
Justice in American History
Ronald Hoffman
Director, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
Author of Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland: A Carroll Saga, 1500-1782; and editor of
the Charles Carroll Papers
Jan Lewis
Acting Dean of the Rutgers Faculty of Arts and Sciences-Newark
Rutgers Chair of the Federated History Department of Rutgers-New Jersey Institute of
Technology, Rutgers University-Newark
Author of Making the American Nation, 1763-1830; and The Pursuit of Happiness: Family and
Values in Jefferson‟s Virginia
John McCusker
Ewing Halsell Distinguished Professor of American History and Professor of Economics,
Trinity University
Author of Money and Exchange in Europe and America, 1600-1775: A Handbook; and co-author
of The Economy of British America, 1607-1789
Simon Newman
Sir Denis Brogan Professor of American Studies, University of Glasgow
Author of Europe‟s American Revolution; and Embodied History: The Lives of the Poor in Early
Philadelphia
Peter Nicolaisen
Professor of English (retired), Flensburg University
Author of Thomas Jefferson, published in 1995
Barbara Oberg
General Editor, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Princeton University
Co-author of Federalists Reconsidered; and Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards and the
Representation of American Culture
Peter Onuf, ex officio
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of History, University of Virginia
Author of The Mind of Thomas Jefferson; Jefferson's Empire: The Language of American
Nationhood; and Jeffersonian Legacies
Jack Rakove
W. R. Coe Professor of History and American Studies, Stanford University
Author of Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution (Pulitzer
Prize winner); and James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic
R. K. Ramazani, honorary
Edward R. Stettinius Professor Emeritus of Government and Foreign Affairs,
University of Virginia
Author of numerous books and articles, and consultant to the United Nations, the White House,
the State Department, and the Department of Defense
Robert ―Roy‖ Ritchie
W. M. Keck Foundation Director of Research, The Huntington Library
Author of The Duke's Province: A Study of Politics and Society in New York, 1664-169; and
Captain Kidd and the War Against the Pirates
Frank Shuffelton
Chair, English Department, University of Rochester
Author of Thomas Jefferson: A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography of Writings About Him
1826-1980; and A Mixed Race: Ethnicity in Early America
Herbert Sloan
Ann Whitney Olin Professor of History
Barnard College, Columbia University
Author of Principle Interest: Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Debt
Alan Taylor
Professor of American History, University of California at Davis
Author of William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American
Republic, (Pulitzer Prize winner, Bancroft Prize winner); and American Colonies
Rotation Plan
The approved composition and terms of reference of the Center‘s Advisory Committee specify
that the President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and previous and present holders of the
Thomas Jefferson Foundation professorship at the University of Virginia serve ex officio. Other
members normally serve for four years.
Final Year of Service
Alan Taylor
Joanne Freeman
Frank Shuffelton
Richard Bernstein
Andrew Burstein
Max Byrd
John McCusker
Jack Rakove
Herbert Sloan
Jan Lewis
Peter Nicoliasen
Annette Gordon-Reed
Ronald Hoffman
Simon Newman
Barbara Oberg
Robert Ritchie
2010
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