The third president completed studies at William and Mary 250 years ago, and went on to create a college of his own. Professor Susan Kern describes what he learned and what he later built.

Code names, dead drops, invisible ink, and secret ciphers were all part of the American Revolution. Historian Taylor Stoermer introduces Benjamin Tallmadge, George Washington’s chief intelligence officer.

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin talks with us about the challenges of applying the founders’ vision to modern governance. Even after two centuries, the America they envisioned still matters.

Bruton Parish Church is as storied a building as any in Williamsburg, with a history of idealistic restorations and later revisions. Carl Lounsbury describes the evolution of this living church.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper says negative politics erodes citizens’ faith in government. Hear his views on the founders, participation, and local involvement.

Historical myths can be more appealing than the historic record. Author Mary Miley Theobald tells some of her favorites.

A disgruntled pirate’s haunted history lingers in the town where his shipmates met the hangman. Carson Hudson and Willie Balderson team up for “Pirates Amongst Us.”

Wool is spun into yarn before it hits the loom. Karen Clancy cards the fibers and feeds the spinning wheel.

The 2012 summer digging season yielded everything from human and animal burials to sawpits and fencelines. Staff Archaeologist Meredith Poole puts the clues into context.

Patrick Henry would have the church provide social services that today we relegate to the state. Listen to his religious views presented in his Assessment Bill of 1784. Richard Schumann interprets.

What were the types and tones of interactions among European settlers, native peoples, and Africans in colonial Virginia? American Indian Initiative Manager Buck Woodard sets the scene.

Evidence of blacksmiths and other tradespeople surfaces at James Fort. Archaeologist Dave Givens talks about seeing the fort populated with industry and trade.

The compromise between using authentic materials and following authentic practices requires finding a delicate balance. Cooper Jon Hallman describes the challenges of representing 18th-century trades as realistically as modern conditions allow.

Shortages of sugar, rum, gunpowder, textiles, tea and china were among the inconveniences suffered by colonial Americans during the Revolution. Historian Lou Powers describes the deprivations and the substitutions.

Tantalizing new research points to an impossible conclusion: the Reconstruction may have overlooked an original 18th-century building. More remarkable still is the possibility that it may have housed Virginia’s first school for the education of black children: the Bray School. Archaeologist Mark Kostro details the story the soil tells as his team hunts for the […]

A gruesome relic informs a desperate history. Historic Jamestowne’s Senior Archaeological Curator Bly Straube describes the find that let scientists and historians confirm the tales of cannibalism in America’s fledgling years.

Former head of the CIA and Secretary of Defense in Republican and Democratic administrations, Robert Gates is a man who knows something about politics, pragmatism, and compromise. He sits down with us this week to talk about the portability of American values, the constants of conflict, and the nation’s unique fortune in the caliber of […]

Onstage, bombastic actors bellowed. Backstage, privileged gentlemen roamed free. Enter David Garrick, the man who changed acting and reformed the theater. His innovations are with us yet, from footlights to scrims. Supervisor of Performing Arts Kevin Ernst tells the history.

In 1776, England had every expectation of winning a war with her upstart American colonies, and rightly so. And what if the war had gone their way? This is the premise of a class of fiction called “alternate history,” and Director of Publications Paul Aron has found some food for thought in its reimagined histories.

Civil war is bloody, regressive, and destructive. Revolution is forward-looking, positive, and regenerative. Yet, says historian David Armitage, even the noblest revolution bears traces of the primitive violence of civil war.

The Revolutionary City finds resonance and relevance across the country and around the world in a vibrant partnership with the Chautauqua Institution of New York. “We walk in the same intellectual waters,” says Colonial Williamsburg Foundation President Colin Campbell in this interview with Chautauqua’s President Tom Becker.

Listen closely in this kitchen. In it, objects speak of their owners and of their makers. Tools speak of technology and ability. Small personal items speak of meager comforts in a hard life. Curator Amanda Keller worked to outfit the Wythe Kitchen and imbue it with a richly layered history.

Beef hearts, pig bladders, tripe, and lots and lots of butter are ingredients kitchen apprentice Kim Kosta will come to know well as she sharpens her skills in the Palace kitchen. As she rises to achieve journeyman status, she’ll have to master 25 recipes at seven levels of difficulty.

Milliners stood at the hub of a global trade in everything from handkerchiefs to pocket pistols, purveyors of a thousand fashionable items. The Margaret Hunter shop marks 60 years of interpreting the milliner’s trade. Apprentice milliner and mantua maker Abby Cox shares the history of the little shop on Duke of Gloucester Street.

In 2014, the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute takes a moment to look back on 25 years of preparing teachers to bring the thrill of America’s revolutionary era back into the classroom.

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.

Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss visits Colonial Williamsburg and shares his views on the changes technology brings to politics and the presidency, and ruminates on the importance of place.

For Drum Major Lance Pedigo, leading comes naturally. All year round and at any time of day, chances are good that you’ll see him marching at the front of the Fifes and Drums, keeping time and metering the pace of the corps of young men and women who make the music of history ring through […]

Rats on a ship smuggle a story of transatlantic trade and a colonial global economy. It’s a big idea, but the concept is made simple by the team of writers, researchers and producers who create Colonial Williamsburg’s Emmy-winning Electronic Field Trip series.

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.

Options for cancer detection and treatment were few in the 18th century. Medical Historian Sharon Cotner lays out some of the common practices in this week’s show.

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?

Hear the Declaration of Independence read in its entirety by renowned Thomas Jefferson interpreter Bill Barker.

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 […]