Books & Media

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...

Rivers and Roads: Transportation in Early America

In an era when no corner of the globe has been left unexplored, and people commute hundreds of miles every day in cars, trains and buses, it's easy to lose track of how different life would be without these modes of transportation. Travel back to a time...

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 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...

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...

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...

Colonial Williamsburg Decorates for Christmas

The beauty of a Williamsburg Christmas can be yours every year with this how-to book. Directions for making 42 gorgeous decorations, including 249 step-by-step drawings and 35 color illustrations, will help you create the perfect holiday atmosphere in...

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...

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...

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...

The Art and Soul of African American Interpretation

The Art and Soul of African American Interpretation is the first book in which African American interpreters themselves reflect on their profession. Six experienced interpreters discuss how they research historical figures and create characters, often...

Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence

The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into the life of every American, and Carol Berkin shows us that women played a vital role throughout the struggle. Berkin takes us into the ordinary moments of...

Flowers and Herbs of Early America

Rediscover our American botanical heritage with this chronicle of the history and cultivation of 56 species of colonial flowers and herbs. Researched and written by master gardener Lawrence Griffith, curator of plants for The Colonial Williamsburg...

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...

Reproduction Colonial Money - Set A

This set of reproduction Colonial and Revolutionary currency includes various denominations and sizes. Set A includes various denominations and sizes of Colonial Money, including one each of the following: $10 New York 1776, $8 Maryland 1774, 15s...

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...

Melody Harp

This finely crafted wood zither, or melody harp, is one of the easiest instruments a child can play. Simply slide one of 12 song sheets under the strings and follow the "dots" with the pick. A great way to start a child onto a lifetime of music. 14 1/2"...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...