Each year, half a million people visit Thomas Jefferson’s home in Charlottesville. Monticello offers a variety of tours featuring the house, the enslaved community, the gardens and grounds. This year, program director Rachel Baum says guests can also opt for a special guide.
“Jefferson spent his final years in retirement here at Monticello, and Bill Barker has actually been portraying Thomas Jefferson since the 1980’s, and in his retirement years has come here to Monticello to help portray Thomas Jefferson as he is reflecting back on 50 years since the Declaration of Independence.”
As he walked through the house Jefferson designed and refined over forty years, he would pass dozens of souvenirs from a rich life in politics and scholarship. There is his library of 2,500 books proudly displayed by Barker…