The Blog of Colonial Williamsburg
Visitors to Colonial Williamsburg may think that our work to preserve Virginia’s 18th-century capital means that the place never changes. Every day, however, we strive to learn more about the past and build on the work of our predecessors to represent the city as accurately as possible.
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Looking for meaningful gifts this holiday season? Delight your loved ones by giving a gift that makes a difference: a Present from the Past from Colonial Williamsburg.
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On Sept. 24, 2016, the National Museum of African American History and Culture will open its doors to the public, and First Baptist Church’s very own Freedom Bell will play a key role at the dedication ceremony….
In 1848, the journalist Benson Lossing made a pilgrimage to the sacred sites of the American Revolution. He was preparing his two-volume Pictorial Fieldbook of the Revolution, a combination of a historical account and a patriotic travelogue. He visited Boston, Philadelphia, and Williamsburg, but also battlefields in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. In Williamsburg, he paid his respects at the site of the Capitol and stopped in at the Raleigh Tavern.
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I put the 3-D glasses on as instructed and gaze into the screen as the image comes to life. A room, rotating slowly. There is the clank of metal as a door unlatches. Voices at the bottom of the stairs, then footsteps.
Brian Emery, Associate Professor of Photography at the Fashion Institute of Technology, might seem like an unlikely candidate to be conducting a study of the attic at the Robert Carter house. I tell him as much, and he agrees….
“They don’t make ‘em like they used to” is how the saying goes. In the case of some 19th-century German-made toys, that might be a good thing.
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What’s wrong with this 1955 postcard? Well, a few things, if we’re talking about how 18th-century Williamsburg would have really looked. Colonial Williamsburg’s “hostesses” used to wear formal hoop skirts. Duke of Gloucester Street used to have a lot more trees. But ongoing research has revised and enlarged our understanding of how the town looked, and how we interpret it. Today our interpreters wear more everyday clothing, and there are fewer trees.
Another revision is now imminent. The Raleigh Tavern is getting a front porch….
If you’re visiting the Historic Area in early 2016, you can expect to see critical conservation and landscape maintenance work underway at two locations–in the Governor’s Palace formal gardens and along portions of Duke of Gloucester Street….
A new vodcast shows how the Paper Conservation Lab is protecting 1770s Virginia Gazettes.
You receive a copy of the first full printing of the Declaration of Independence in Virginia. It’s a true rarity. Only a handful of copies are known to still exist….
What’s that smell? If you’ve visited the newly erected Market House or Anderson’s Blacksmith Shop and Public Armoury, you may have noticed something in the air after the buildings were painted. The odor of chicory? A nearby BBQ? Believe it or not, it’s paint! Tar paint, to be exact. …