Curator of Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

Diane C. Ehrenpreis is the Curator of Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. She earned a B. A. in Art History from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a M. A. in Art History from Boston University.

In her role at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, she oversees the collecting, research and installation objectives for the decorative arts and Monticello’s historic interiors. Previously she served as Assistant Curator of the Portsmouth New Hampshire Furniture Project, Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (Historic New England), as well as the National Endowment for the Arts Intern in the Department of American Decorative Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has consulted on furnishing plans for The Old Manse (1770) in Concord, Massachusetts and Poplar Forest (1806) in Bedford, Virginia.

In 2024, her essay “‘Threads & Clues of it’: Thomas Jefferson’s New York Furniture” in American Furniture, 2023, received the Robert C. Smith Award for the best essay in the field of decorative arts in English. She supervised the highly successful reinstallation of the second and third floors at Monticello, as well as Jefferson’s Private Suite. Her current project is the reinstallation of the Dining and Tea Rooms, particularly the furnishings and Jefferson’s didactic art agenda.

Ehrenpreis is a member of the Decorative Arts Trust, Decorative Arts Society, the Wedgwood Society of Boston, and the Wedgwood International Seminar. She has collaborated on projects with Historic New Orleans and Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. She has taught at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Boston Architectural College, and James Madison University, as well as offering essays, lectures, podcasts, and gallery talks on decorative arts, women’s history, and historic interiors.