Colonial Williamsburg Publications

The Hammerman of Williamsburg DVD

The Hammerman in Williamsburg DVD is back from the archives! Produced in 1973, this 38 minute film features a master blacksmith who explains why the "hammerman" was one of the most vital craftsmen in town. Year-round work for the blacksmith kept the...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Williamsburg's Joseph Prentis: His Monthly Kalender & Garden Book

In the eighteenth century as today, Williamsburg was known for its fine gardens. Among the town's most enthusiastic gardeners was Joseph Prentis, an attorney who kept a personal garden book and calendar. This volume includes the full text of Prentis'...

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...

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 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...

The Colonial Naturalist DVD

Part 3 of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archive Series: Colonial Life through a Lens. Filmed in 1965, this docudrama highlights Mark Catesby's first visit to the colonies, where the self-trained naturalist spent time observing his natural...

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 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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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 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...