Maud Littleton

Maud Littleton was a prominent lobbyist and political figure of the early 20th century, best known for her crusade to hand over Thomas Jefferson's Monticello to public control.

Littleton, originally from Dallas, Texas, was married to Congressman Martin E. Littleton of New York. She first visited Monticello on April 13th, 1909, as part of a larger visit to Charlottesville while her husband delivered the Founder's Day address at the University of Virginia. Having been invited by its then-owner, Jefferson Levy, the Littletons were treated to dinner in the estate's house. Mrs. Littleton referred to the visit as the fulfillment of a childhood dream, as she had revered Thomas Jefferson since childhood. However, she was disappointed by the visit, despite the kindness that Levy showed to her, because she thought Jefferson had been "brushed to the side" of his own home in favor of Levy's uncle, Uriah P. Levy, a Commodore in the US Navy that owned the estate prior to him.

After visiting Monticello, Littleton spent the next two years researching how the Levy family had come to own the property. At the conclusion of her research, she wrote "One Wish," a tract that pleaded for Monticello to be handed over to the public. The piece was 16 pages long, and claimed the Levy's were greedily holding Monticello for themselves, while simultaneously neglecting its upkeep. The tract ignored the hundreds of thousands of dollars the Levy family had poured into the estate over several generations.

While Littleton never explicitly stated that Jefferson Levy's Jewish faith was the reason she was so opposed to his owning Monticello, the rhetoric she employed often referenced him as a "rank outsider" or called him greedy, both terms associated with anti-Semitism and nativist ideas that were incredibly popular at the time.

In 1912, Littleton went to Congress, where both her husband and Jefferson Levy served as New York representatives. Earlier in the year, "One Wish" had been entered into the Congressional Record, meaning it would be preserved forever in the National Archives. In July, she testified in front of the US Senate, arguing that the Levy family had neglected the home, that it had become a shrine to Commodore Uriah Levy, and that the Randolph family (Jefferson's closest white descendants) were appalled by the condition of the family graveyard. Several members of the Randolph family fought back against this, with Frank Randolph personally apologizing to Jefferson Levy for Littleton's actions.

While keeping up a constant letter-writing campaign, Littleton published a sequel to "One Wish," this time a 52-page booklet that implied Uriah Levy had unethically purchased the house in the first place. In December of 1912, the House finally debated a resolution either in favor or against imploring Levy to sell Monticello. Debate was strong, and the vote was close, but the resolution failed. Levy was jubilant, while Littleton promised to continue her fight.

In 1914, Levy agreed to sell the home to the US government, performing what he called a "supreme sacrifice" for the country, though extended Congressional hearings and the beginning of World War I halted discussions. Littleton lost most of her interest in Monticello at this point, as her son died in the war, and she turned towards religion. She was the first director of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which in 1923 purchased Monticello from Jefferson Levy.

Maud Littleton died in 1953, with her library of 2,000 books, most of which focused on religion, donated to the University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center.