Arrives on myself phone and i was a little taken aback i think. I dont know exactly what i expected or what i wanted. I began to study it and i thought, you know what . I think the designer may have done me a favor here in that, yes, jefferson is there. I think you can make out the profile. But its not maybe the first thing you look at. Hes not coming at us full faced straight on invaded living color. In fact, actually the saturated color you see is found in the clothing. I thought, that does encapsulates what i am trying to do with this. Yes, this is about jefferson, but its not your usual biography. We begin with the birth, we hit all the high points and then we end with his death. What i am looking at really is more about the person. I do use the clothing a lot in this study. I thought, okay, this is leading into it very well. I thought, okay, this does work. This is what i need here. The book then is about the jefferson image and how he went about putting this particular image together. As Research Often does, it began with some questions. As a way of explaining why was i then looking at his clothing. Well this is actually, this being an early american story, this is my second career. I began actually in theater art. Specifically as a Costume Designer for the theater. Of course, through that then i did a lot of study of art history. The history of clothing. I even thought the history of dress in Different University settings. So this is what what is the background for this interest in this approach of looking at this jefferson image. When i joined him on to cello, i began to look at reproductions of the extant jefferson portraits. I started looking at what hes wearing. Why is it different in this one . Has the grooming a little different . What is going on in the portraits . Why do i see that image shifting and changing a bit . Of course, you need to put it in the context. What was happening with jefferson . I began, of course, then to look at the political context. What is this going to tell us . What i come up with and how did he fashioned himself for the political stage . That is how i began to look at jefferson. A little bit about my approach and what this book is about. Today, what might we call this if were looking at how someone presents themselves . We might put the term on two branding. Well of course, jefferson did not use that term nor did any other 18th century gentlemen. But i did find in my research that i think they were all extremely aware of their personal self presentation. This could tell you a lot. This could tell you about a persons status. Whether it was economic, whether it was the status within society. It could tell you about the reputation. They even interpreted a lot of character through how a gentleman was presenting himself out in public. So what were the tools they were working with . Therefore what was jefferson working with . Well, the self fashioning through clothing, grooming, as ive already mentioned, that would perhaps be the most obvious. But then going on past that, what was the gentleman adept at with the conversation to display maybe his intellect or his wit . What about etiquette . Could he conduct himself well indifferent such a waste since . Did he know the proper way to behave we four different situations that he might find himself in . In line with this, how did the gentlemen perhaps preside at the dinner table . This is one place that jefferson got some very good marks. He was very fond of fine food and fine wine. I will be touching on that a bit more. Even whether someone agreed with him politically ordained, they did enjoy attending his dinner parties. This was another thing. How could you preside at table . This was another part of this self image and sell fashioning. Besides that, what was the setting . Was it a very elegant residents . As you may know, jefferson, of course, was very strongly interested in architecture. His own home, monticello, and then his retreat home in southern virginia close to bedford, he designed both of those. He played with that design a lot. But then following him from paris to new york to philadelphia to washington, wherever he was living, he was always engaging somewhat in the architecture. Tweaking and adjusting it to his needs or to his esthetic meets as well. So the setting played a part in this presentation of itself. These are some of the things that you might look for when you are thinking about this gentlemanly display. In jeffersons world we, these were indications of status, a bright, a character. They were a vocabulary unto themselves and they could certainly be read, whether its european or an american, they certainly could read these visual signs. So these are the tools that hes working with. As lord chester field wrote to his son, maybe you are familiar with the letters of lord chester field. He wrote to his son and the one quote that i chose here is, do you dress well and not too well . Do you consider your air and manner of presenting yourself enough and not too much . Neither negligent nor stiff. All these things deserve a degree of care. A second right attention. They give an additional luster and merit. Of course, the marriage, the character, thats what was really important. But theres nothing wrong with adding a little bit of extra luster to that. Jefferson even before, and he did have lord chester feel in his library, he had the 1774 addition of it. I would say even before hes reading this, i mean, he came through the virginia chan tree. He would have been attuned to this from the very early age. He knew these rules a presentation. I think the question then becomes, as we follow him on through his political career, is he going to adhere to the rules or is he not . And how is he going to present
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