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Special Events

'The Beginnings of Colonial Williamsburg' Talk and Signing

August 14 at 6:00PM 

Williamsburg’s restoration has many roots, among them Americans’ nostalgia for the colonial period. But the restoration could not have happened without the vision of the Reverend Dr. W. A. R. Goodwin and the money of John D. Rockefeller Jr. This talk follows how the two came together to restore the appearance of Colonial Williamsburg, and how that restoration began to evolve—often fitfully—into an even more ambitious project: to tell the story of the nation’s beginnings. 

Arrive early to explore a related exhibition, Colonial Williamsburg: The First 100 Years, open one hour before the event begins. Book signing to follow the talk.

($5 event ticket required, book available for purchase.)

In the Hennage Auditorium

In the Galleries

Curator's Corner

Needlework Picture, England, probably, ca. 1750, silk. Museum Purchase, 1955-86. View in our Online Collections.

Needlework Picture

Needlework pictures are aesthetically pleasing and remind us of the women and girls who created these pieces. However, there is more that these pieces can reveal about the past.  

A needlework picture from the mid-18th century is evidence of the extensive network of the textile trade. The maker of the piece pictured above used polychrome embroidery threads on a silk satin ground. This seems basic; just thread and fabric.  But where did these supplies come from?   

Silkworms may have been grown in China, reeled, and woven into silk. The finished product exported to England. The reeled silk could also be sent to England as a raw material, where it could be dyed in various colors. Blue was achieved through indigo likely coming from the American colonies, India, or China. The reds, pinks, browns, and drab colors were obtained through madder root growing across Europe. Cochineal beetles from Mexico produced brilliant red dyes while European fustic and weld plants created a range of yellows.  

Opening August 22 in the Len and Cyndy Alaimo Gallery, a new exhibition will explore the vast global trade networks that supplied textiles around the world. A focus on linen, cotton, wool, and silk will showcase the common fibers used in households, explain their processing, and where they were grown.  A section on non-traditional materials such as baleen, leather, wood, and even glass look at the uses of these materials in clothing prior to plastics. A needlework carpet will explore the rainbow of colors achieved by natural pigments and the display of a gown and coat show how the world was truly wrapped in a singular object.   

Fiber, Fabric, and Fortune: The Global Textile Trade 1740-1840 invites you to consider the variety of raw materials processed into clothing and textiles in the 18th and early 19th centuries and the many places from which they were sourced.