Thanks to Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest for sponsoring this event with Hagley.

Click here to register. (Registration is free!)

Thomas Jefferson had a long association with the du Pont family. Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours first met Jefferson after the American Revolution, when Jefferson served as U.S. Ambassador to France. The two struck up a lifelong friendship that lasted to P.S. du Pont de Nemours’ death in 1817. Jefferson also corresponded with Victor and E.I. du Pont about business and American economic conditions. The du Pont family and DuPont Company emphasized their connections to Thomas Jefferson during the 20th century, especially during the Company’s sesquicentennial celebrations in 1952.

Join for a special evening program that will dive into the Jefferson / du Pont connection! Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest is Jefferson’s personal retreat home built near Lynchburg, Virginia, between 1806 and 1826. Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest recently completed a decades long architectural and landscape renovation project to restore the site to its appearance during Jefferson’s lifetime. The site is open to the public and interprets Jefferson and his family along with the craftsmen and enslaved workers who built and maintained the estate.

Hagley Historian Lucas R. Clawson will lead a discussion with Travis McDonald, formerly Architectural Historian at Poplar Forest, and Bill Barker, who has portrayed and interpreted Thomas Jefferson since the 1990s (most notably for Colonial Williamsburg). They will talk about topics such the friendship between the du Pont family and Jefferson, their homes and how they used them, restoration and maintenance of historic landscapes, and the intellectual worlds in which Jefferson and the du Ponts lived. Audience members are encouraged to join in the discussion as well. We hope you will join us on July 30 for a lively discussion on Thomas Jefferson, the du Pont family, and the landscapes they created!

This event will be held at the Soda House Auditorium on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. There will a reception from 6-7 pm with light refreshments and items from Hagley’s collections about Thomas Jefferson. The discussion will start at 7 with time for audience questions at the end.