Travis C. McDonald is the director of architectural restoration at Poplar Forest.
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Description
List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Retreat 2. Thomas Jefferson's Education as Architect and Builder 3. Designing a Retreat 4. The Construction Saga 5. Landscapes of Use and Ornament 6. Retired Life at Poplar Forest 7. A Retirement Hobby Epilogue Afterword: Jefferson in Our Time Appendix A: Chronology Appendix B: Jeffersonian Elements and Materials Appendix C: Jefferson's Typology of Octagon Designs Notes Bibliography Illustration Credits Index
"In Poplar Forest: Thomas Jefferson's Villa Retreat, Travis C. McDonald demonstrates that, even if he had never entered politics, Jefferson would be regarded as one of the greatest pioneer architects in early America. Here, in this work of a lifetime, McDonald has produced a definitive study of Jefferson's retirement retreat, Poplar Forest. Like so much else in Jefferson's life, McDonald reveals that his retirement villa was fraught with contradictions, with much of the skilled workmanship being conducted by his unacknowledged African American sons and extended family. It is at the same time a work of greatness." - Andrew J. O'Shaughnessy, University of Virginia, author of The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson's Idea of a University