Jefferson, Thomas | Supervising the supervisor at Monticello

Property from the Collection of Jay I. Kislak, Sold to Benefit the Kislak Family Foundation

Jefferson, Thomas

Autograph letter signed ("Th: Jefferson") as third President, to James Dinsmore ("Dear Sir") regarding craftswork on the interior of Monticello

One page (246 x 200 mm) on a half leaf of wove paper (watermarked J Whatman | 1801), Washington, 13 June 1804; several short and one longer fold separations, a bit of soiling on verso.

From the White House, Jefferson sends painstaking instructions for finishing the interior of Monticello to James Dinsmore, the master woodworker and carpenter who was engaged by Jefferson October 1798 to 1809 to create and supervise the installation of decorative interior woodwork for his "essay in architecture."

"Your’s of the 9th. is recieved, and I now inclose you a five dollar bill for mr Wanscher. after you have finished the Dome room, I would rather you should finish the three bed rooms on the same floor that we may have them plaistered & ready for use. if J. Perry has not done the floors of those rooms, he should finish them in preference to every thing else. mr Stewart should finish off the whole of the Hinges for the Venetian blinds, as all the blinds for the whole house are in hand here and will be forwarded as soon as done. the composition ornaments are in hand also. mr Culp promised me he would prepare a pump for the ice house. I presume mr Wanscher keeps it clear of water. if he does not, Joe should clear it twice a week. I am trying to engage a painter to go on. accept my best wishes."

The Joe mentioned by Jefferson was Joseph Fossett, an enslaved person at Monticello who was then apprenticing as a blacksmith. Beginning in 1807, Fossett was put in charge of the blacksmith shop at Monticello, and he was one of five enslaved persons manumitted by Jefferson's will. Fossett's wife, Edith, was also enslaved at Monticello, working as a cook, but she was not freed. "Fragmentary records suggest that Fossett worked steadily at the blacksmith trade in order to purchase the freedom of his wife and as many children as possible. By September 15, 1837, Fossett had become the legal 'owner' of Edith, five of their children, and four grandchildren, for on that date he manumitted them all. By the early 1840s, the family was settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Fossett pursued the blacksmithing trade with his sons. Through the continuous efforts of her husband and other family members, before her death Edith Fossett was able to see most of her children thriving in Ohio. Two of them, William and Peter Fossett, became prominent caterers" ("Joseph Fossett" in Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia: https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/joseph-fossett).

REFERENCE:

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. McClure, 43:581–582

PROVENANCE:

Mrs. Philip D. Sang (Sotheby's New York, 23 April 1986, lot 87)