KEY

The key to the most hated prison fortress in France unlocks the secrets to not one but two revolutions

The expert guest for “KEY” was Adam Erby.

Adam Erby is a Curator at George Washington’s Mount Vernon who is a specialist in furniture and historic interiors. Erby, who ​​was born and raised in south central Virginia among a family of antiques experts, holds degrees from the University of Virginia and the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. Among the many exhibitions and projects he has worked on is the restoration and reinterpretation of both the large dining room, or “New Room,” and the Front Parlor at Mount Vernon.

For more on Erby’s thoughts on being a curator, see: https://www.mountvernon.org/preservation/collections/more-than-putting-objects-on-display

For more on the Key to the Bastille:

https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collections/primary-source-collections/article/key-to-the-bastille/#:~:text=Lafayette%20gave%20this%20key%20to,the%20mansion%20after%20his%20death.

https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/bastille-key/#:~:text=The%20principal%20key%20to%20the,its%20symbolic%20importance%20in%20America.

https://www.mountvernon.org/blog/2018/07/the-bastille-key-case-conservation/

Related objects of interest:

Edward Savage’s well-known “Liberty, in the form of the goddess of youth, giving support to the bald eagle” (1796)--note the key to the Bastille under her foot! Jefferson hung a copy at Monticello.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.13641/

Scale Model of the Bastille, Musee de Carnavalet, Paris

https://www.carnavalet.paris.fr/en/collections/scale-model-bastille

For more about this episode, guests, further readings and previews of upcoming episodes - please visit us at https://www.thing4thingspodcast.com/key-episode

Performance of Jopseph Haydn's Hob III:36 performed and recorded by Gregor Quendel. https://ko-fi.com/gregorquendel