Runaway slave Elizabeth found freedom, family, and equality when she was adopted into the Shawnee tribe. After ten years, she returned to slavery. Hope Smith shares the heartbreaking story behind this selfless act.

Debates over eternal American values are reborn with every generation. Co-creators Bill White and Bill Wagner help make the connections on a new interactive website.

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.

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.

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

Political parties were new, the losers became Vice Presidents, and negative campaigning was finding its feet in the election of 1796. Professor Jack Lynch has the history.

In part two, hidden symbols and invisible ink point to a long-lost fort in North Carolina. Jim Horn concludes the tale of discoveries made and discoveries to come.

The heart of Christmas remains unchanged, even as each generation lends new customs to the celebration. Historian Lou Powers talks Christmastide in three centuries.

This historic home embodies the story of Williamsburg’s rescue from decay by John D. Rockefeller and W.A.R. Goodwin. Cynthia Nothstine shares the story of the Rockefeller’s beloved country home.

Books were treasure when each tome was made in 28 separate stages. Hear how the trade is preserved by Master Bookbinder Bruce Plumley.

Film and television actress Erica Hubbard appears at Colonial Williamsburg in a live performance March 9 as part of Steadfast Spirits Weekend. Hear how she prepares to take on a period role, and the inspiration she finds in Lydia Broadnax’s story.

Williamsburg’s first school for African-American children is led by a tireless schoolmistress. Interpreter Antoinette Brennan tells the life story of Anne Wager, a woman to be remembered.

The Courthouse is a symbol of the presence of the law in the colonial community. Tom Hay tells this original building’s history.

Southerners adapt to summer temperatures in every century. Curator Linda Baumgarten tells us how to dress for the heat in colonial style on this week’s podcast.

The Indian School at the College of William and Mary was conceived for the religious conversion of Indians. Professor Jim Axtell shares the storied building’s history.

Buildings bear silent witness to the history that happens inside them. Conservator Matt Webster makes sure structures live to tell their tales.

The first combat submarine was invented as a vehicle to transport underwater bombs. Jerry Roberts of the Connecticut River Museum tells the story of an intrepid American inventor.

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.

What are the three branches of government? Only 38% of Americans can answer that question correctly. A playful Electronic Field Trip premiering October 2013 lays out the separation of powers using a baseball metaphor that keeps a dense subject lighthearted. Learn more about the new show with our guest Cash Arehart.

A town’s market house was a bustling hubbub of vendors, shoppers, and business. Colonists from all walks of life mingled on market days: housewives, servants, slaves, and tavern keepers. The market was the heart of the community, and as such, it was tightly regulated and regularly inspected. Architectural Historian Carl Lounsbury introduces the latest reconstruction […]

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.

Historian Cathy Hellier describes the poignant histories of children left without parents. The question of providing for colonial orphans was split between the courts and the children’s caretakers. Listen this week to learn how colonial society looked after its littlest citizens.

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 […]

A quiet, restrained genius is animated on the streets of the Revolutionary City by Actor-Interpreter Bryan Austin. Hear his approach to filling the shoes of the fourth president.

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.

Preserving genetic diversity one lamb at a time: Manager of Rare Breeds Elaine Shirley talks about the 2009 generation of Leicester Longwools.

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.

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.

Pass through the gates of the military encampment and you’ll become the newest member of the Williamsburg Regiment. Learn to drill, march, and think as a unit, leaving behind the life you knew for a chance at the future you hope for. Our guest Dale Smoot commands the recruits.

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.

From its origins in Chinese potions for immortality to the agent of death on the battlefield, the history of gunpowder is one of chemistry, ingenuity, and violence. Armorer Ron Potts fascinates with the tale.

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.

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.

Native son of the colonial elite, Decimus Et Ultimus Barziza fulfills his family’s legacy of prominence with his career in the Civil War. Historian Drew Gruber describes with passion the path of this “average” Civil War soldier, a story that includes a wound at Little Round Top, a prison break, and a boisterous post-war career […]

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.”

It takes a lot of bricks to build a Market House and our brickmakers are busy. So it seems like a good time to revisit this October 2011 podcast about the process for the building blocks of the Historic Area. Brickmaker Jason Whitehead tells the story.

What were colonists buried in? This was a question posed to Research Librarian Juleigh Clark. Tracking down the answer led her, and us, through the history of funerals, burials, shrouds and winding sheets.

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.

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.

The heart of a church is its organ; and the heart of its organ is its organist. This year we celebrate the 300th anniversary of Bruton Parish Church, and the 293rd birthday of the first man to grace its organ bench: Peter Pelham. Colorful and well-connected, this musician was at the center of the American […]

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.

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?

Colonial Williamsburg is embarking on its first-ever Halloween experience. The infamous pirate, Blackbeard, has returned to seek revenge after members of his crew were tried and executed in Williamsburg.