Books & Media

Becoming Jefferson: My Life As A Founding Father

This collectible book is written by Bill Barker, who has portrayed Thomas Jefferson in a variety of venues since 1981 and as a historical interpreter with Colonial Williamsburg since 1993. Part history and part autobiography, Mr. Barker writes about how...

Recipes from the Raleigh Tavern Bake Shop

Gingerbread cookies and other goodies from the Raleigh Tavern Bake Shop bring back delicious memories for generations of Williamsburg visitors. In this cookbook, original recipes from rare 18th-century cookbooks are presented side-by-side with their...

The Williamsburg Bray School: A History Through Records, Reflections, and Rediscovery

Seven letters that trace the arc of the Williamsburg Bray School—from its founding in 1760 to its closing in 1774—are the foundation for a collection of essays that explores history and implications of the 18th-century school for enslaved and...

Duel in the Wilderness

Major George Washington stared grimly at the French commander facing him. The young Virginian had traveled hundreds of miles into the frontier to deliver a message from the King of England. After a dangerous journey, Washington had arrived at his...

Colonial Williamsburg: The Guide

No visit to Colonial Williamsburg is complete without our official guide book! This first new edition of Colonial Williamsburg's official guide since 2014, this book includes information on all of Colonial Williamsburg's historic sites. This guide...

Quill Pen

A goose feather quill pen and powdered ink were the basic writing instruments in the 18th century. Our quill pens are made from the finest quality bleached white goose pointers. The nib may be re-sharpened and re-shaped as often as necessary...

Karen Cruden Festive Lamp Post Boxed Christmas Cards

Our Festive Lamp Post Boxed Christmas Cards feature original artwork by Karen Cruden. A  glowing lamp post decorated with festive fruit, greenery and ribbon stands out from illuminated Colonial Williamsburg buildings in the background. The...

Colonial Williamsburg Christmas: Celebrating Classic Traditions and the Spirit of the Holiday

Drawing on 18th-century traditions, Colonial Williamsburg is famous for its Christmas festivities, and the pages of this lavishly illustrated book conjure up celebrations past and present. Here are cressets glowing warmly and fireworks exploding over the...

Trend and Tradition Subscription

Trend & Tradition: The Magazine of Colonial Williamsburg is devoted to telling the stories of 18th-century America from a 21st-century point of view. Redesigned in 2016, the Foundation's quarterly publication continues to feature history articles...

Colonial Williamsburg: The Story

It was in Williamsburg, Virginia, that American independence—and democracy—took root. And it is in the Historic Area of Colonial Williamsburg that millions have learned about the continuing relevance of America's founding ideas. Spanning...

Porch Gathering Christmas Cards

Each year during the holiday season, Williamsburg comes alive with blazing cressets, candle-lit windows, and most coveted of all, amazing fruit-and-foliage displays. Families from around the country, and even the world, flock to the Historic Area to...

The Williamsburg Cookbook

Once tasted, the food of Williamsburg is not forgotten. Visitors return again and again for Chowning Tavern's Brunswick Stew, Christiana Campbell's Spoon Bread, the Williamsburg Inn's Breast of Turkey Supreme and countless other delicacies. In this...

George Wythe House Christmas Cards

Send Christmas greetings with a charming image of one of the Historic Area's most handsome colonial homes. The fanciful artwork depicts the George Wythe House during a winter snowfall with a well-appointed stagecoach riding past. It's a charming scene...

Governor's Party Christmas Cards

'Tis the season for holiday parties and the Governor's Palace hosted the most prestigious gathering in town. This set of 16 full-color, folded cards and envelopes features a Christmas Eve gathering on a snowy evening. At the time of its completion in...

Holiday Pineapple Christmas Cards

While colonists in the 18th century did not decorate their doors and homes with expensive fruits during Christmas, the tradition of decorating the Historic Area of Williamsburg with elaborate and fresh floral and fruit arrangements during the holiday...

Christmas in Market Square Christmas Cards

Vivid colors and sculpturally embossed details make this Colonial Williamsburg Christmas card stand out. On the front, a large illuminated evergreen stands in Market Square surrounded by historic structures decked in holiday wreaths. Features 16 cards...

Reproduction Colonial Money - Set B

This set of reproduction Colonial and Revolutionary currency includes various denominations and sizes. Set B includes 1 each of the following notes: 20 Dollars - United States 1778,  4 Dollars - North Carolina 1778, 8 Dollars - Massachusetts Bay...

Grand Illumination Christmas Cards

These festive Grand Illumination Christmas Cards feature a scene of fireworks bursting in the air above the Governor's Palace in the background, amidst the snow, with cressets burning and decorated homes in Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area...

Colonial Williamsburg Hauntings

Based on the official Colonial Williamsburg ghost tours, this book features stories from employees, residents and guests. Here are tales of unexplained alarms, moving chairs and windows, even flying checkerboards - plus spooky images of scenes guests on...

Bruton Parish Church Christmas Cards

A Christmas Eve stroll down Duke of Gloucester Street may find the Historic Area under a blanket of snow. Share the best of Williamsburg during the winter season with this beautiful set of boxed holiday cards. In the distance stands Bruton Parish Church...

Holiday Fare Cookbook

Hot Cranberry Wassail! Cheese and Chive Crisps! Buttery Rum Pumpkin Pie! Sixty easy-to-follow recipes from Executive Chef John Gonzales are featured in the Holiday Fare Cookbook, including historic local flavors from Colonial Williamsburg's famed...

Horse and Sleigh Christmas Cards

Send your loved ones a warm holiday greeting with the Horse and Sleigh Christmas Cards. This set of 20 cards includes two different designs with artwork by Karen Cruden, matching envelopes and boxed packaging for easy storage. One greeting card...

Holiday Welcome Embossed Christmas Cards

The door of the Historic Area's Roscow Cole House is beautifully decorated on this set of Christmas cards. The Roscow Cole house has anchored the east end of Market Square since about 1812. It is named for the merchant who built it and owned it until...

Restoring Williamsburg

From our fascinating and highly readable best-selling classic, Williamsburg Before and After to our revised and expanded edition, Restoring Williamsburg combines the history of a major restoration bringing the story up to present. Sheds new...

Four Documents of Freedom

Choose this unique set for the American history buff in your life, young or old. This impressive set of four antiqued historical documents includes the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights, and Abraham...

Snowy Village Boxed Christmas Cards by Marcia Long

Send your loved ones a warm holiday greeting with the Colonial Williamsburg Snowy Village Christmas Cards. Created by local artist, Marcia Long, these cards feature an illustration of iconic structures and imagery from Colonial Williamsburg set amongst...

Early Upholstery Seating

Watch a feature about our restoration expert, Leroy Graves, on CBS Sunday Morning. Leading Colonial Williamsburg conservator Leroy Graves has changed the way collectors and museums regard historic upholstery. Little upholstery from the eighteenth and...

Powdered Ink

Pen a note the 18th century way with this Powdered Ink. When mixed with water, this powder produces a rich colored ink for use with quills and other dip pens. Instructions and historical information are provided on the envelopes. A fun way to send a...

Plants of Colonial Williamsburg

This guide to the plants in Colonial Williamsburg's gardens describes and discusses two hundred flowers, trees, herbs, and shrubs. The historical background of each plant links it with the colonial period. Brief biographies of early plantsmen explain the...

Red Thunder

While cannons thundered, swords flashed, and the sky turned red with flame, Nate Chandler and his enslaved friend, James, went about the darker business of espionage. Their spy world of whispered conspiracies, secret missions alone in the dead of night,...

Ghosts Amongst Us

Based in part on Colonial Williamsburg's popular evening programs "Cry Witch" and "Ghosts Amongst Us"—and also including stories that have never been performed—here are the tales that chilled and amused Virginians over two hundred years ago...

American Traditions Secret Decoder Cypher Wheel

The American Traditions Secret Decoder Cypher Wheel is a fun toy for kids to explore and learn the art of encoding and decoding messages. Get two and send secret messages between friends! Made of wood. Includes instructions. Recommended for ages 5 and up...

The Art-Full Tree: Ornaments to Make Inspired by the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum

Based on art from Colonial Williamsburg's Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum's collection, each of the 33 projects in The Art-Full Tree: Ornaments to Make Inspired by the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art features an image of the original work and...

Colonial Spices and Herbs

Colonial Herbs and Spices by well-known food writer Patricia B. Mitchell is full of fascinating information, quotations, and descriptions about the typical usages of 23 of colonial America's most common spices and herbs. It offers brief descriptions of...

Old World Internet Address & Password Logbook

Keep track of websites, passwords, software licenses, and device information with this Old World Internet Address & Password Logbook. Features an antique map cover, tabbed A-Z pages, and a removable cover band. Features Multicolor antique map...

Blue Pineapple Note Cards

What better way to say "thank you" than with the traditional symbol of hospitality? Each note card features an illustration of a ripe, plump pineapple in blue and white surrounded by swirling vines. The inside is blank so you can craft your own unique...

The American Flag: A Handbook of History & Etiquette

A perfect patriotic gift, this handsome guide to the American flag is a concise collection of the history and etiquette of the U.S. flag. The book, bound in hardcover in a distinctive blue leatherette with gold stamping, includes details of the laws...

The Williamsburg Art of Cookery

In 1938, Helen Bullock compiled an amazing collection of favorite "receipts" or recipes known to have been used in Virginia households in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Williamsburg Art of Cookery allows modern cooks to offer the same time-tested fare...

Williamsburg Watercolor Note Cards

These reproductions of original watercolor paintings of Historic Area scenes capture the look and feel of historic Colonial Williamsburg long after your visit has ended. Painted by Williamsburg artist Marcia Long, each notecard features a different...

The Idea of America: Our Values, Our Legacy, Our Future

"The Idea of America backs us out of current conflicts and gives insight into the values that have made our country such a shining light to others. Now, more than ever, we need to revisit these values and the tensions they create - and work to fulfill...

The Bookbinder in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg

Illustrated in the style of the period, each softbound booklet in this series describes a trade of eighteenth-century Williamsburg and the lives and times of the artisans who practiced it. Features An Account of the Life, Times, & Craft of a...

The Journal of Major George Washington

In 1753, Virginia Governor Dinwiddie appointed 21-year-old Major George Washington to a delicate mission - deliver a letter to the local French commander demanding that he and his forces leave British Territory and bargain for support with the local...

Vintage Handle Wax Seal Kits

These Vintage Handle Wax Seal Kits have everything you need to create beautiful wax seals on your letters! The flexible sealing wax is made to withstand the modern mailing system. Add a touch of historical charm and your own personality with vintage...

Four Centuries of Quilts: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection

Grand in scope and gorgeous to look at, Four Centuries of Quilts is one of the most important references on quilts and quilting available. Quilts are among the most utilitarian of art objects, yet the best among them possess a formal beauty that rivals...

Flexible Sealing Wax Tri-Pack - Gold, Silver, Red

This Flexible Sealing Wax Tri-Pack makes the perfect companion to our brass letter seals! Made to withstand the modern postal system, this mailable sealing wax can be used on greeting cards and invitations for added historical charm, or on...

Red Earthenware Inkwell

Add historic charm to your desk with this Red Earthenware Inkwell. This reproduction inkwell would have been a common site to inhabitants of Williamsburg in the 18th century. Made of more common materials, such as earthenware, or finely crafted in...

Flexible Sealing Wax Tri-Pack - Navy, Burgundy, Forest Green

This Flexible Sealing Wax Tri-Pack makes the perfect companion to our brass letter seals! Made to withstand the modern postal system, this mailable sealing wax can be used on greeting cards and invitations for added historical charm, or on...

Historic Trades

With more than 90 color photos, this charming hardcover book celebrates Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Trades in vivid detail. Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area is home to the largest, most diverse museum-operated trades program in the world. Here...