author
Cornelia J. (Cornelia Jefferson) Randolph
1799–1871
A granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson, Cornelia Jefferson Randolph was an accomplished teacher, artist, and translator whose work reflected the intellectual life of Monticello and nineteenth-century Virginia. Her 1861 adaptation of The Parlor Gardener remains her best-known published work.
1 Audiobook
The parlor gardener : a treatise on the house culture of ornamental plants
by Cornelia J. (Cornelia Jefferson) Randolph
About the author
Born at Monticello in 1799, Cornelia Jefferson Randolph was the daughter of Martha Jefferson Randolph and Virginia governor Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. She spent much of her youth with her grandfather, Thomas Jefferson, who encouraged her studies and taught her mechanical drawing. She also developed skills in painting and sculpture, producing architectural drawings connected with the University of Virginia.
After Jefferson’s death, Randolph helped operate a school for young women at Edge Hill, where she taught subjects including drawing and art. She translated and edited The Parlor Gardener: A Treatise on the House Culture of Ornamental Plants, adapting the French work for American readers; it was published in 1861. She never married and spent her final years in Alexandria, Virginia, where she died in 1871.