Jefferson on Display: Attire, Etiquette, and the Art of Presentation by G. S. Wilson (review)

In Jefferson on Display, G. S. Wilson explores Thomas Jefferson's use of material culture to create and manage his public image (p. 4). This ultimately created two contradictory personas: the cosmopolitan Francophile and the American man of the people. Jefferson then deployed these personas strategically to forward the United States' position on the global stage and his own ambitions for the young nation.

Jefferson on Display follows Jefferson through his time as a foreign minister, secretary of state, vice president, president, and retired sage of Monticello. This temporal framework emphasizes the decades when Jefferson's public appearance was most notable and most important. Wilson dedicates two chapters to each of these periods, which allows him to explore the inherent tensions (cosmopolitan/yeoman or Jefferson's actions/outside observations) of Jefferson's choices. These tensions are strongest in the earlier chapters, where Wilson matches Jefferson's personal archive against outside commentary, such as when Wilson uses Jefferson's accounts to track how Jefferson adapted his personal economy to the needs of the French Court and contrasts those accounts with commentary offered on his appearance and behavior. This tension dissipates in later chapters, as Wilson relies more heavily on others' observations of Jefferson without the balancing effect of Jefferson's own thoughts. Over time, Jefferson slowly becomes less central to his own performances, while friends, colleagues, enemies, and artists take on increasing roles in structuring the Jefferson on display.

The role of slavery in enabling Jefferson to create and maintain his various personas receives minimal treatment in Wilson's analysis. The institution of slavery and the labor of enslaved individuals not only funded Jefferson's cosmopolitanism but also enabled him to consistently display it. James Hemmings, trained in France as a chef, created the sophisticated meals served at Jefferson's table at Monticello. Jupiter Evans, once Jefferson's valet then his hostler, cared for the horses Jefferson so prized. These enslaved individuals, and numerous others, played a prominent role in Jefferson's ability to maintain his material world and their efforts warrant a deeper consideration than Wilson offers.

The strongest element of Jefferson on Display is undoubtedly Wilson's material culture analysis. Cut, color, and fabric choice all played roles in Jefferson's sartorial strategies, whether he sought to adhere to the rules of the French court, shape a new political office, or mildly offend his visitors. Even something so simple as shoelaces became a signifier of Jefferson's predilection for innovation and his attempts to incorporate American society into a global culture through the use of such objects. The material cultural analysis is equally strong in Wilson's readings of images of Jefferson. The use of sets, props, and color choices varied by artist and by presumed audience, but each artist who took Jefferson's likeness deployed material culture as a way to tie Jefferson to a particular political moment. This either cemented his association with that moment, such as Trumbull's The Declaration of Independence, or forwarded his ambitions, as in Tiebout's and Edwin's 1801 engravings of Jefferson as the newly elected president.

G. S. Wilson's Jefferson on Display offers an intriguing approach to an enigmatic individual. By focusing on the material realities of Jefferson's life, the man himself takes on a dimensionality that humanizes him while also offering insights into the cunning potential of his mind. The tight focus on Jefferson allows Wilson to dive deeply into the source material and provide readers with insights into the choice and meaning of the objects Jefferson chose to use to strengthen his position in the young American republic and to strengthen the republic's position on the global stage.