Discover the rich history of the plantation and historic house on this guided tour. Property pass included in ticket price.
Description
What kinds of gardens did the Madisons have at Montpelier? How did the duPonts’ gardens compare with the Madisons’? Shake off the chill of winter and enjoy a vision of spring in this virtual presentation by the Montpelier team of senior research historian Hilarie M. Hicks and horticulturist Robert Myers.
About the speakers:
Hilarie M. Hicks is currently the Senior Research Historian James Madison’s Montpelier, where she has been on staff since 2010. She served on the research and writing team for the award-winning exhibition The Mere Distinction of Colour, and is currently the project director for an upcoming exhibition on James Madison and Freedom of Conscience. Hilarie writes biographies of the enslaved for The Naming Project on Montpelier’s Digital Doorway website, and has contributed to the site’s blog on a wide variety of Madisonian topics.
Hilarie serves as a judge in the We the People student civics competition and is a past board member of the Orange County Historical Society. Before coming to Montpelier, Hilarie served as Curator of Interpretation at Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens (New Bern, NC) and Executive Director of the Rosewell Foundation (Gloucester, VA). She is an alum of the College of William and Mary (B.A.), the Cooperstown Graduate Program in History Museum Studies (M.A.), and the Seminar for Historical Administration (now the History Leadership Institute).
Date & Time
Fri, Feb 20, 2026 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM