Books & Media

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...

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...

Somerset Rug Mouse Pad

In celebration of the best in classic design, toss this mouse pad on your desk to offer a little color and a lot of protection. The design is straight from an 18th-century crewelwork coverlet in Colonial Williamsburg's collections featuring the scrolling...

Indienne Rug Mouse Pad

Spread a little tradition wherever you need to use your computer mouse ... and protect your table. With a detailed medallion and floral motif, this mouse pad will add a touch of rich elegance to your office or living room. Images of antique carpets in...

Entertaining Ideas from Williamsburg

Virginia, of course, is famous for its hospitality. Drawing on that tradition, here's a treasure trove of ideas for celebrating special occasions throughout the year. From a winter anniversary to a spring wedding, a Fourth of July picnic to a children's...

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...

The Rockefeller Family And Colonial Williamsburg DVD

Part 10 of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archive Series: Early Stories of the Restoration This is a story of remarkable generosity and considerable personal participation, chronicled in 1992 through archival photos and film, a narrative drawn...

The Cabinetmaker DVD

This DVD, Part 11 of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archive Series: The Trades of Colonial Williamsburg, features The Cabinetmaker Crafting a Card Table. Antique furniture produced in 18th-century Williamsburg serves as patterns for work produced...

Forged In Wood DVD

Part 9 of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archive Series: The Trades of Colonial Williamsburg This 1987 documentary shows how re-creating James Anderson's blacksmith shop provided a challenge for The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's architectural...

Silversmith Of Williamsburg DVD

Part 6 of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archive Series: The Trades of Colonial Williamsburg The colonial silversmith produced items both functional and beautiful. In this 1971 docudrama, silver scraps are transformed into a magnificent new...

A Glorious System Of Things DVD

Part 8 of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archive Series: Colonial Life through a Lens. The 18th century was an age marked by an upsurge of scientific curiosity, and this 1983 docudrama shows how early American colonists learned of such important...

The Music Of Williamsburg DVD

Part 2 of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archive Series: Colonial Life through a Lens. Filmed in 1960, this docudrama explores how music in 18th-century Williamsburg was a ritual of everyday life—the accompaniment to everything from...

I Am Murdered

George Wythe was Thomas Jefferson's mentor and friend, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, chief justice of the Virginia Supreme Court - and a victim of lethal poisoning. His murder and the trial of his nephew for the killing caused a sensation...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 Christmas Songs

Twelve carols children can play instantly of Christmas Melody Harp Songs: Angels We Have Heard On High, Deck the Halls, Go Tell It On the Mountain, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Jingle Bells, Jolly Old St. Nick, Joy to the...

Folk Melody Harp Songs

Twelve traditional folk melody harp songs young ones - or adults - can play instantly: Blue Tail Fly, Buffalo Gals, Clementine, Cripple Creek, Down In The Valley, Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, I've Been Working On The Railroad, Little Brown Jug,...

Children's Melody Harp Songs

Twelve traditional children's songs young ones can play instantly: A Hunting We Will Go, A Tisket, A Tasket, Are You Sleeping?, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Froggie Went A Courtin', Hickory Dickory Dock, I'm A Little Teapot, Mary Had A Little Lamb, Polly Wolly...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...