Videos

You may not recognize the name Jane Vobe, but men like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were frequent guests at her tavern. Watch this video to learn more about Jane Vobe's life.

We have more in common with the people of the past than we often realize. Tattoos are documented amongst Indigenous peoples as well as Europeans. Learn about who got tattoos, what they meant, and why they got them in the 18th century.

In the spring of 1775, revolutionary sentiment and tensions over slavery exploded when Governor Dunmore removed the gunpowder from Williamsburg’s Magazine. This marked the beginning of the collapse of royal government in Britain’s largest and most important American colony. Meet some of the real people who experienced the Gunpowder Incident.

Join Journeywoman Supervisor Milliner and Mantua-Maker Rebecca Godzik and Apprentice Milliner and Mantua-Maker E. Katherine Hargrove share the work that goes into two of the 18th-century's primary fashion trades, their history, and why it's important for them to be preserved.

In the first of this seven-episode series, learn about what the Williamsburg Bray School was and why this story matters.

On March 23, 1775 at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia, Delegate Patrick Henry presented a proposal to the Second Virginia Convention to organize a volunteer company of cavalry or infantry in every Virginia county. Henry's words were not transcribed, but no one who heard them forgot their eloquence, or Henry's closing words: “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

Today we tour the Governor’s Palace with Hannah, an enslaved housemaid owned by Lord Dunmore. Having worked at the Palace for decades under three different governors, Hannah knows how much labor is required to maintain the Palace as the grand social center of the colony of Virginia.

From the trial of Blackbeard's crew for piracy to its role in Virginia’s colonial government, learn about the pivotal events that occurred in this iconic Colonial Williamsburg building.