Books & Media

Botany - A Naturalist's Notebook

Whether you make observations close to home (how does your garden grow?) or keep detailed, accurate field notes for your Journal of Researches (like Darwin!), take along this Botany - A Naturalist's Notebook. Make at least one discovery every day! 48...

Norfolk Naval Shipyard

Norfolk Naval Shipyard has a long history that predates the United States of America. Founded in 1767 as the Gosport Shipyard, it has been burned and rebuilt three times, once to prevent it from getting into the hands of the newly independent state of...

Yorktown, Virginia: A Brief History

Yorktown's history is often overshadowed by its pivotal role in the Revolutionary War. The site of the British surrender has held several victory commemorations over the past two hundred years. Yorktown also was a thriving colonial port and the site of...

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...

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...

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...

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum Booklet

Revolution & Evolution: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum is a catalog of the 2017 Winter Antiques Show loan exhibit which is also an introduction to the extraordinary treasures of the Abby Aldrich Folk Art Museum and to the rich variety of...

Down On The Farm: A Sticker Adventure With Prince

Down on the Farm follows the adventures of Prince, a dog who explores the countryside and along the way meets various friends who, like Prince himself, are based on works of art at the museum. Rooster weather vanes roost on walls, toy sheep graze, and...

Maria's Story: 1773

Maria's Story: 1773 is part of The Young Americans Book Series by award-winning author Joan Lowery Nixon. When Maria Rind's father dies, her mother is forced to continue his work writing and publishing the Virginia Gazette newspaper. That leaves Maria...

Physick Medicine in Williamsburg

The professional practice of medicine and the methods used to treat patients in colonial Williamsburg between 1740 and 1775 are thoroughly explained. Topics include medical theory, education, treatments, surgery, and brief biographical sketches of...

The Colonial Williamsburg Tavern Cookbook

It's six o'clock, stomachs are rumbling and suddenly you have a yearning for the Crab and Shrimp Stuffed Flounder you enjoyed at Christiana Campbell's Tavern. No problem. Pull out The Colonial Williamsburg Tavern Cookbook, roll up your sleeves, and in an...

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,...

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

The United States was more a fragile hope than a reality in 1790. During the decade that followed, the Founding Fathers - reexamined here as Founding Brothers - combined the ideals of the Declaration of Independence with the content of the Constitution...

Lion and Shield Bookends

Choose these lion and shield bookends for a stately accent to any bookshelf, desk or side table. In Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area, a chiseled stone lion stands guard at the gates of the Governor's Palace, representing the British crown with a...

Nancy's Story: 1765

The Young Americans Book Series by award-winning author Joan Lowery NixonVirginians are protesting the Stamp Act and Nancy Geddy is afraid the uncertain times will harm her father's business. And if that worry is not enough, Nancy's stepmother is making...

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...

Changing Keys: Keyboard Instruments for America

The transition from harpsichord to piano and the accompanying shift in taste between 1700 and 1830 was a musical revolution in revolutionary times. So, also, was the transition from London's monopoly on the manufacture of instruments to a burgeoning...

Civil War Williamsburg

Williamsburg is known for its central role in the American Revolution. Less known is that the city also played a role in the Civil War, suffering through a bloody battle on its doorstep and a three-year occupation. The Virginia history book Civil...

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...

Why The Turkey Didn't Fly

In the Colonial Williamsburg book, Why The Turkey Didn't Fly, the answers to the following questions are revealed: Why did the eagle become our national symbol, even though Franklin preferred the turkey? How did Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Washington...

Painters and Paintings in the Early American South

Painters and Paintings in the Early American South by the Juli Grainger, Curator at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, gathers into one volume a large body of materials related to the paintings and the artists of the American South between 1564 and...

1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy

1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy by James Horn details a year in which American democracy and American slavery emerged hand in hand. Along the banks of the James River, Virginia, during an oppressively hot spell in the middle...

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...

The Duel: The Parallel Lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr

In The Duel: The Parallel Lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, you will learn more about the men who inspired Hamilton: The Musical in this fascinating look at the historical friends turned revolutionary rivals! In curiously parallel lives,...

Alexander Hamilton's Guide to Life

Two centuries after his death, Alexander Hamilton is shining once more under the world's spotlight, and we need him now more than ever with this Alexander Hamilton's Guide to Life book. Hamilton was a self-starter. Scrappy. Orphaned as a child, he came...

Hamilton: The Revolution

Hamilton: The Revolution is written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter. This behind-the-scenes book gives readers an unprecedented view of the beloved musical. The book traces the Broadway show's development from an improbable...