A lost relic returns to the Pamunkey tribe in a new form. American Indian Initiative Manager Buck Woodard guides us through treaties and time.

George Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address teems with advice that rings true today. Listen to interpreter Ron Carnegie read excepts from the timeless epistle.

Early maps and prints leave geography for last, focusing first on politics and propaganda. Curator Margaret Pritchard talks about a new exhibit at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.

Author Susan Berg on what the 18th century read for work and for fun.

Hear tales of hair farms, shaved heads, yak fur, and wigs rigged with live ammunition, told by wigmaker Betty Myers.

A tale of murder in the final chapter in a great man’s noble life. Chris Hull tells George Wythe’s story.

At his inauguration, George Washington had just one tooth left. Mount Vernon curator Laura Simo describes history’s most famous set of dentures.

Old-fashioned fire engines had to do much the same jobs as today’s, but they relied on classic physics and plenty of manpower. Curator Erik Goldstein describes the fire engine at the center of a new exhibit at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.

Feathers, fur, hoofs and horns bring the Historic Area to life. Elaine Shirley, manager of rare breeds, explains how we show happy animals to the public.

The American Revolution came from an old British tradition. Hear how the English were in the habit of rebelling in “A Very British Revolution,” a tour at The Colonial Williamsburg Art Museums led by Emma Ross.

Gravesites tell the stories of the dead and the people who mourned them. Learn about cemetery archaeology and preservation with Jolene Smith and Joanna Green from the VA Department of Historic Resources.

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.

Historic sites can speak volumes if you know what to listen for. Professor Jim Whittenburg on how to get the most out of site visits.

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.

For Thomas Jefferson, religion was a matter between a man and his god, with no interference in between. Listen to Bill Barker’s portrayal.

London’s foundling children were orphans in the midst of a crowded city. The exhibit Threads of Feeling tells their stories, as well as those of their mothers.

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.

Apprentice cook Melissa Blank learns her way around a 200-year-old kitchen.

An ordinary tavern keeper makes the choice to side with the patriot cause, risking his livelihood and his reputation. Chris Allen portrays James Southall for Colonial Williamsburg.

Students discover the power of citizenship when they review policy, suggest changes, and find ways to get involved. It’s all happening on a new website: The Virtual Republic.

An onsite game embroils players in a Revolutionary spy’s world of danger, loyalty, codes and plots. “The Black Chambers” is game three in “RevQuest: Save the Revolution” series.

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 […]

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.

Williamsburg was a town of revolutionaries, but not everyone thought rebellion was a good idea. Men like William Hunter Jr., printer of the Virginia Gazette, stayed loyal to king and country. Actor-Interpreter Sam Miller explains how patriotic fervor made life difficult for those men and women who opposed it.

A new blog launching March 3 follows the restorative conservation of a rare survival: an organized piano. A piano combined with a pipe organ, this unique instrument towered at nine feet tall and seven feet wide. Its restoration raises questions at every step. Repairing a broken element could mean erasing a piece of the object’s […]

Ongoing excavations at James Fort reveal a surprising discovery: the site of the 1608 church where Pocahontas married John Rolfe. Chief Archaeologist Bill Kelso shares the excitement of rediscovery.

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.

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.

America’s colonial history offers a unique perspective on the modern stage. What inspiration, ideas, and cautions can today’s global revolutionaries draw from the 1776 uprising in the British colonies in America? The Center for Strategic and International Studies brings together leaders, scholars, and historians to debate some of the questions facing emerging democracies.

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.

The common cold was a nuisance our forbears suffered in much the same way we do today. But what remedies were uniquely colonial? Eighteenth-century apothecarist Robin Kipps shares the causes and eases for the cold.

When people from various regions of Africa were forcefully transported to the colonies, they brought nothing with them but the clothes on their backs and the beliefs of their hearts. This latter possession varied widely by region and tradition, but was to each a fundamental part of daily life. Historian Harvey Bakari describes the African […]

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.

Jamestowne Island’s Director of Archeological Research and Interpretation Bill Kelso says that choosing which historic sites to protect from deterioration of all kinds is a matter of reading history backwards. We must consider “What are the priorities today, what are the legacies today of our history? And then look to what areas contributed.”

Gain a new respect for the good old pumpkin. Author Mary Miley Theobald traces the history of the venerable gourd.

The Historic Campus of the College of William and Mary had one more secret to tell, and it was a big one. Archaeologist Andy Edwards describes the surprise, and the clues that lead them to hope they’ve stumbled upon the College’s early brewhouse.

Technologies that used to be beyond reach for museum professionals now can lend new insights into the hidden compositions of materials, metals, and paints. Conservator Kirsten Moffitt explains how a spike on a screen can spot a fake or reveal a discovery.

African American history is weighted with tragedy, but bringing the fullness of life to the stories of enslaved individuals is the mission of the African American History Program under the direction of Stephen Seals.

Chowning’s Tavern is reborn as an alehouse: a rough-and-rugged sanctuary for the colonial man in search of an ale. Listen as curator Amanda Keller and Director Department of Architectural Preservation Matt Webster describe the choices they made to re-open the doors to a more authentic past.

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 […]

Colonial Williamsburg and First Baptist Church have joined together for the Let Freedom Ring Challenge. Americans from across the nation are invited to ring the First Baptist Church bell in the name of freedom and equality throughout the month of February and beyond.

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 […]

The cast and crew of Colonial Williamsburg’s groundbreaking program Journey to Redemption join to talk about how the piece was developed and why it’s so important to be having conversations surrounding racism and the history of slavery in our nation. Learn more