I’ve encountered plenty of prohibitions on picture-making in fifteen years as a photojournalist. But the most infuriating came recently at the home of Thomas Jefferson, of all places.

U.S. News & World Report had assigned me to photograph a touring Elderhostel group for the magazine’s annual retirement guide, and I was thrilled. This was the kind of job a photographer relishes: scenic, upbeat, and uncompetitive. My editor had cast one warning, though: a representative for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello, had said I could not take photos inside the home. The space was too tight, apparently, and filled with valuable antiques.

Just a smokescreen, I thought. If a dozen photographers can race in and out of the Oval Office without destroying the place, a solo act in Jefferson’s residence could work. This was the home of the founder of democracy, after all, and the father of the free media.

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