Master Silversmith George Cloyed explains that silver on the shelf is like money in the bank, and a silversmith’s records can reveal a town’s story.

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.

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

The mystery of the Lost Colony was doomed to remain unsolved, until researchers got curious about patches on an old map. Dr. Jim Horn lays out the story in two parts.

A rich, brandied fruitcake is the centerpiece of Twelfth Night celebrations. Barbara Scherer describes the dessert as it was meant to be.

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.

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

Painters and Paintings of the Early American South is a new exhibit focusing on the interrelatedness of Southern artists and subjects. See it at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.

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.

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.

George Washington copied out and adhered to 110 simple rules for polite society. What were they, and do they still apply today? Historian Cathy Hellier dissects the codes of 18th-century conduct.

Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums introduces the instruments designed to be heard under cannon fire and over musket volleys. Learn the history of their distinctive sound with Amy Miller and members of the Senior Fife and Drum Corps.

Members of the Senior Corps of the Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums play the tunes that directed a soldier through his day, from morning’s first light to the night’s last ale.

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.

King George is remembered as “The Mad King,” and “The King Who Lost America.” Was he insane, or did his doctors mistreat a medical condition? Author Ed Crews examines the evidence in his article “The Poisoning of King George” in the journal Colonial Williamsburg.

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.

History is in the hands of Junior Interpreters all summer long, as the story of the Revolution expands to include a kid’s perspective. Pam Blount tells us how sites involve children in the 18th century and today.

Sharp quills did the bidding of the even sharper intellects of the Revolution’s founding mothers. Listen to the words of Mercy Otis Warren and Abigail Adams, voiced by Abigail Schumann.

The Powell House is a hub for educating people of all ages. Interpreter Pat Chilton introduces this middling family to visitors and the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute.

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.

For the first time in decades, a new historic trade joins the tradition of craft in the Historic Area. This week, meet Steve Delisle, the first tinsmith in the Revolutionary City.

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.

George Washington slept here, ate here, planned here, and plotted here through the eight years of the Revolution. A joint project with the Museum of the American Revolution is reconstructing the tent that Washington called home during the war. Learn more about the great man when you see his life in the field.

A painful history is suppressed, until a humble schoolhouse provides a means of sharing a story of mercy. William and Mary’s Professor Terry Meyers details his search for the structure that housed the first Bray School, and his hopes for finding proof at the College of “a bright spot in an otherwise dark narrative.”

The Constitutional Sources Project launches a new initiative to present the nation’s founding document in a kid-friendly format. Executive Director Julie Silverbrook says, “These are the laws that operate on you. It’s important that you understand them.”

Reverend John Camm’s message to his 18th-century flock bears surprising relevance for today. Historic Interpreter Stephen Moore shares some delightful tidbits from his program, “A Sermon for the Season.”

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.

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.

When Pocahontas pledged herself to John Rolfe in April of 1614, she cemented an alliance that would bring seven years of peace between the English and the Powhatan. Four hundred years later, on April 5, 2014, the wedding will be reenacted at Jamestowne Island on the footings of the very church where the couple exchanged […]

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.

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 […]