The Levy Family and Monticello, 1834-1923; Saving Thomas Jefferson's House

Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc, 2001. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. Good. 256 pages. Preface by Michael Kammen. Illustrations. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Signed by author on half-title page. Cover has some wear and creasing. This is one of the Monticello Monograph Series. Melvin I. Urofsky is Professor of Law & Public Policy and Professor Emeritus of History at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Before joining VCU as chair of the History Department in 1974, he taught at the Ohio State University (1964-1967) and the State University of New York at Albany (1967-1974). He received his B.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia. . Under the auspices of the State Department he has lectured in Europe, Asia and Australia, and has spoken at many colleges and law schools in the United States. Among the more than 50 books he has either written or edited are seven volumes of the Letters of Louis D. Brandeis (with David W. Levy); American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust (1975); A Voice that Spoke for Justice: The Life and Times of Stephen S. Wise (1981); A March of Liberty: American Constitutional History (1987); A Conflict of Rights: The Supreme Court and Affirmative Action (1991); Money and Speech: The Supreme Court and Campaign Finance Reform (2005); Louis D. Brandeis: A Life (2009); with Paul Finkelman, and The Levy Family and Monticello (2001) Uriah Phillips Levy (April 22, 1792 - March 26, 1862) was a naval officer, real estate investor, and philanthropist. He was a veteran of the War of 1812 and the first Jewish Commodore of the United States Navy. He was instrumental in helping to end the Navy's practice of flogging, and during his half-century-long service prevailed against the antisemitism he faced among some of his fellow naval officers. An admirer of Thomas Jefferson, Levy purchased and began the restoration of Monticello in the 1830s; he also commissioned and donated a statue of Jefferson that is now located in the Capitol Rotunda; it is the only privately commissioned artwork in the Capitol. Monticello was the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, who began designing and building Monticello at age 26 after inheriting land from his father. Located just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, the plantation was originally 5,000 acres, with Jefferson using slaves for extensive cultivation of tobacco and mixed crops, later shifting from tobacco cultivation to wheat in response to changing markets. Due to its architectural and historic significance, the property has been designated a National Historic Landmark. Jefferson designed the main house using neoclassical design principles described by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and reworking the design through much of his presidency to include design elements popular in late 18th-century Europe and integrating numerous of his own design solutions. Situated on the summit of an 850-foot (260 m)-high peak in the Southwest Mountains south of the Rivanna Gap, the name Monticello derives from the Italian for "little mount". After Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, his only official surviving daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, inherited Monticello. The estate was encumbered with debt and Martha Randolph had financial problems in her own family because of her husband's mental illness. In 1831 she sold Monticello to James Turner Barclay who sold it in 1834 to Uriah P. Levy, the first Jewish Commodore in the United States Navy. A fifth-generation American whose family first settled in Savannah, Georgia, Levy greatly admired Jefferson and used his private funds to repair, restore and preserve the house. The Confederate government seized the house as enemy property at the outset of the American Civil War and sold it to Confederate officer Benjamin Franklin Ficklin. Levy's estate recovered the property after the war. Levy's heirs argued over his estate, but their lawsuits were settled in 1879, when Uriah Levy's nephew, Jefferson Monroe Levy, bought out the other heirs for $10,050, and took control of Monticello. Like his uncle, Jefferson Levy commissioned repairs, restoration and preservation of the grounds and house. Together, the Levys preserved Monticello for nearly 100 years. In 1923, a private non-profit organization, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, purchased the house from Jefferson Levy with funds raised by Theodore Fred Kuper and others. Since that time, other restoration has been performed at Monticello. The Foundation operates Monticello and its grounds as a house museum and educational institution. It is the only private home in the United States to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.