Peter Hatch will present “Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello” at 7 p.m. Thursday. Hatch is the director of Gardens & Grounds Emeritus for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. He was responsible for maintenance, interpretation and restoration of the 2,400-acre landscape at Monticello from 1977 to 2012.
Thomas Jefferson wrote that “the greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.” Restored in 1984, the garden and the Jefferson legacy continue to inspire the farm to table movement today.
The talk will incorporate collecting issues at Monticello with stories of plants dying, seed collecting compromised by naughty harvesters, varieties not being true to name, and more. The lecture will be held at Whitlock Hall in St. John’s Episcopal Church, 212 S. Green St.
This installment of the Dr. Howard Miller Lecture Series will complement the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum’s current annual exhibit, “This Just In: Recent Acquisitions at the Museum.” The exhibit, which is open in the Carriage House Interpretive Center 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday free of charge, focuses recent acquisitions to the Museum’s collection.
Museum staff encourages visitors and lecture attendees to wear masks and maintain six feet social distancing.
For more information, contact Larry Paarlberg at 765-362-5769 or lpaarlberg@ben-hur.com. Lectures are free and open to the public, but reservations are requested.
