Draping, cutting, sewing, and trim: these are the hallmarks of the milliner and mantua-maker’s craft. Apprentice Sarah Woodyard is near completion of her apprenticeship, and at the threshold of attaining journeywoman status.

More gruesome than the injuries of battle were the means of mending them: field medicine offered no anesthesia, no modern antiseptics, and no antibiotics. David Podolfino interprets the life and duties of the military surgeon.

Watching paint dry turns into a fascinating journey through time, history, science and technology when the Department of Architectural Preservation gets involved. Director Matt Webster shares the story behind the changing paint colors in the Historic Area, and why the colors you’ll see on the walls are a window to the 18th century.

Research Librarian Allison Heinbaugh stalked the stacks of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library looking for evidence of spies and spycraft in the 18th century. The bibliography she compiled tells its own story of loyalty, secrecy, and stealth.

The 2014 Early Music Festival promises to be a lively one. With instruments, scores, and performances of an 18th-century vintage, you’ll be surrounded by the sounds of another century. Enjoy this musical preview featuring Jane Hanson and Michael Monaco from the opera “Thomas and Sally.”

Retired US Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni has some sharp insights and powerful ideas to share in his new book, “Before the First Shots are Fired: How America Can Win or Lose off the Battlefield.” Listen this week as he previews some of the philosophies he shares in his fourth book.

No matter where the Earth glides on its axis, the days both long and short shine on a years-worth of work on the colonial farm. At Great Hopes plantation, the turning of the seasons brings with it a task suited to the temperatures: plowing, sowing, planting and harvest. Learn the rhythm of the year with […]

Relax with a brew from the past, courtesy of Master of Historic Foodways Frank Clark. Twenty years of study and practice have resurrected the 18th century’s favorite beer: Old Stitch.

A new web features follows an entering class of Fifers and Drummers on their journey through the ranks.

A pocket-sized ornament gives monumental insight into the private life of America’s best-known General: George Washington.

The funeral industry arises from a combination of necessity, sentimentality, and vanity. Dr. Kelly Brennan Arehart describes the path of America’s death business, and the early vestiges still with us today.

The piercing fife, the thundering drum: both can be heard over the din of battle, making them a crucial means of communication for commands like parley, cease fire, and retreat. How does this combination work?

The thrilling RevQuest: Save The Revolution™ series opens its fifth season with a new spy plot: The King’s Advance. Dive headfirst into Revolutionary history as you join the service of secret intelligence gatherers. Gather clues, crack codes, meet with covert agents, and text your secrets to receive instructions.

The wheel may be one of geometry’s simplest shapes, but the technology behind its creation is surprisingly complex. Add to that the variations among English wheels, French wheels, carriage wheels and cannon wheels, and the story gets even deeper. Colonial Williamsburg wheelwrights apply their expertise to the challenge of recreating the wheel for a French […]

The Black Petticoat Society, a TURN: Washington’s Spies fan group, interviewed Past and Present host Rachel West for their TURN-related podcast. The group discussed Colonial Williamsburg’s role as Philadelphia on the hit AMC show as well as other initiatives across the Foundation. For more information on the Black Petticoat Society and TURN: Washington’s Spies, click […]

Each year, Colonial Williamsburg hosts Return of the Cherokee. This special event draws hundreds to observe Cherokee culture as it was in the 18th century when members would come to Williamsburg for trade, diplomacy, or even education. Buck Woodard with Colonial Williamsburg’s American Indian Initiative joins to explain some of the exciting updates to this […]

John Watson, Curator of Musical Instruments and Conservator of Instruments, discusses the Foundation’s organized piano, which first belonged to the St. George Tucker family.

When the pandemic and the lockdown that followed suddenly erased packed calendars, people made use of the space to catch up with each other. For autho