12:00-1:00pm
Free, drop-in
Book lovers take note! What would it be like to curl up with a good novel in an 18th century library? Books were luxury items at this time. To properly showcase their expensive books, the Virginia gentry often set aside a specialized space, called the “study” or “closet.” These colonial libraries could be very simple or quite elaborate. This presentation focuses on the study of statesman Francis Lightfoot Lee at Menokin, a Richmond County plantation house built in 1769. Watch this library come alive using probate inventories, diaries, and descriptions of Lee and his contemporaries.
Speaker: Patrick Sheary, Curator of Furnishings
Image: The Reverend Say and His Wife painted in 1752 by Arthur Devis