In 1924 Monticello’s new owners began the process of restoring the gardens Jefferson had designed for his mountaintop home. But after a century of differing uses—and sometimes outright neglect—by various owners and caretakers, very little evidence remained of Jefferson’s original plans and plantings. It was a daunting task, and it could have ended quite differently were it not for the perseverance, personalities, and ingenuity of several individuals committed to restoring Jefferson’s vision. In this episode of our “In the Course of Human Events” podcast, Monticello’s Curator of Plants, Peggy Cornett — with help from colleagues Monticello Senior Historian Ann Lucas and guide Elizabeth Lukas — tells the story of how two relatively young organizations, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation and the Garden Club of Virginia, worked together to restore Jefferson’s unique vision for his flower gardens and laid the groundwork for future historic landscape restoration projects at Monticello and elsewhere across the United States.

In a recent episode, we focused on the more influential aspects of Jefferson’s architecture. But in a conversation like that we can miss out on other details. Monticello guide Kyle Chattleton shares with us how the nooks and crannies of the third floor of Jefferson’s home can point to smaller, yet still memorable stories.

Eclipses come and go, but these marvels of nature always draw attention from astronomers — both professional and amateur — across the globe. In this episode, Monticello guide Kyle Chattleton explores the stories of two eclipses that occurred during Thomas Jefferson's lifetime, and how both point to his pursuit of scientific knowledge.

Monticello guide Don McCracken takes us outdoors to the historic gardens of Thomas Jefferson’s home. While the gardens were designed and built for food and pleasure, they also represented ideas replanted from Europe as well as opportunities for education, and made only possible by enslaved labor.