Existing comment:
Monticello and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation:
Jefferson's debt forced his heirs to sell Monticello after his death. In 1831, local physician James Turner Barclay bought the house and some surrounding land. In 1834, Barclay sold the estate to Uriah Levy (1792-1862), a Jewish U.S. naval officer who admired Jefferson's views on religious freedom. Commodore Levy and his nephew Congressman Jefferson Monroe Levy (1852-1924), who acquired Monticello in 1879, devoted themselves to Monticello's preservation.
Levy family ownership continued until 1923, when the newly formed Thomas Jefferson Foundation acquired Monticello. A non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Monticello (a United Nations World Heritage site) and education about Jefferson, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation owns and operates Monticello today. Since the 1950s, staff archaeologists, historians, and curators have been engaged in research about the plantation and its communities. |