71 Results for tag "Trades"

• Historic Trade: Blacksmith

  The Revolutionary War wasn't won through battles alone. To keep pace with the might of British industry, Virginia desperately needed a new armoury. Watch our blacksmiths take red-hot iron from the fires of their forges and hammer it into a variety of tools, hardware, and weapons.

• Historic Trade: Brickmaker

  During the summer, brickmakers mold and dry thousands of bricks. In the autumn, the bricks bake in a giant wood-fired oven. Keep an eye out, too, for bricklayers using these bricks in all sorts of projects around town.

• Historic Trade: Gardener

  Watch the historic gardeners use 18th-century tools and techniques to grow herbs, vegetables, and decorative flora. Plots within the garden represent provision gardens of the enslaved and American Indians, as well as the luxury gardens that ornamented the landscape of wealthy households. Visit the garden to learn more about the Sankofa Heritage Garden and the Three Sisters Garden.

• Historic Trade: Weaver

  When English imports were cut off by the Revolution, local weavers came forward to fill the need for everyday items. Watch how flax, cotton, and wool are converted from tangled masses into orderly, precise fabrics—ranging from simple linens for shirts and shifts to blankets, towels, dyed wool for needlework, and stout woolens for military uniforms.

• Historic Trade: Farmer

  Engage with our farmers as they work throughout the year to grow food for the community and to prepare the grounds as needed for the seasons to come. The well-being of the entire colonial economy is dependent on these crops. This involves the growing and harvesting of tobacco, corn, wheat, flax, and cotton.

• Historic Trade: Carpenter

  Carpentry was one of the most common trades in Williamsburg. From one end of town to another, houses, shops, sheds, dairies, smokehouses, kitchens, and storehouses exhibit the handiwork of carpenters. Discover how our experts use hand tools to transform trees into lumber, cut and raise heavy timber building frames, and enclose new structures with siding and roofing.

• Historic Trade: Joiner

  Joiners were woodworkers who produced the finish work for buildings including doors, windows, shutters, fireplace surrounds, and built-in cupboards. Watch our experts use saws, planes, hammers, and other tools to fashion wood into the pieces of a future building.

• Historic Trade: Bookbinder

  Today we might take books for granted, but in colonial America only the rich could afford a large library. Binding books—especially fancy ones—was a specialized and time-consuming craft. Visit the bindery to glimpse the fascinating world of creating fine books.

• Historic Trade: Founder

  Visit the founders on the site of the Geddy family home. See skilled hands at work crafting bronze, brass, silver, and pewter into magnificent 18th-century-style items.

• Historic Trade: Milliner & Mantua-Maker

  Fancy yourself an 18th-century customer as you shop for the latest ornaments and accessories. Consult with the mantua-maker about updating old gowns to bring them into the newest 18th-century fashion.

• Historic Trade: Cabinetmaker & Harpsichord Maker

  Cabinetmakers made fashionable furniture like tables, chairs, desks, and chest of drawers.

• Historic Trade: Gunsmith

  See how our gunsmiths make rifles, pistols, and fowling pieces using the tools and techniques of their 18th-century predecessors and uniting many skills from forging iron to working wood.

• Historic Trade: Printer

  In an age before TV, radio, and the internet, the printed word was the primary means of long-distance mass communication. Watch and learn as printers set type and use reproduction printing presses to manufacture colonial newspapers, political notices, pamphlets, and books.

• Historic Trade: Apothecary

  What was it like to be sick or injured in colonial times? Meet the apothecaries and learn how medicine, wellness, and surgical practices of the 18th century compare to today.

• Historic Trade: Wigmaker

  Routinely wearing a wig may seem strange to us, especially for men, but it communicated the wearer's elegance, his station in society, and even his occupation. With the skill of a barber and hairdresser combined, our wigmakers fashion "perukes" of quality and distinction.

• Historic Trade: Tailor

  View a variety of fabrics and garments that clothed colonial Americans, from elegant suits in the latest London styles to the sturdy uniforms of Revolutionary soldiers. Interact with the tailors as they measure customers and create clothing using 18th-century methods.

• Historic Trade: Tin Plate Worker

  Soldiers valued tinware for its durability, low cost, and light weight. To supply the army during the Revolution, Virginia's government established a tin shop to produce kettles, cups, plates, and other items. See how our tin plate workers snip, shape, and bend this flexible material.

• Historic Trade: Silversmith

  Watch as silversmiths transform coins and outdated silverware into fashionable pieces for the dining room, parlour, and personal adornment. Silver cups, teapots, and spoons are just a few examples of what you will find here.

• Historic Trade: Cooper & Wheelwright

  Wheelwrights and coopers created many of the items that colonists used every day. Wheelwrights made wheels for vehicles such as carriages, wagons, carts, and cannons. Coopers transformed thin strips of wood into items such as buckets and shipping containers. Visit these skilled tradesmen to learn more about eighteenth-century woodworking.

• Historic Trade: Leather Breeches Maker & Shoemaker

  How were men's shoes made before modern glues and rubber soles? Meet some of the last shoemakers who work entirely by hand and watch them make everyday and fancy footwear. In the same workshop, discover the practice and history of one of the 18th century's most common garments, leather breeches. The shop follows the trade in all branches: making, mending, and cleaning leather breeches.

• Historic Trade: Engraver

  Watch as our Engravers carry on the same tradition as engraver William Waddill did in late 18th-century Williamsburg.

• Historic Trade: Cook

  What did Williamsburg’s 18th-century residents eat—and how did they cook it? Visit a historic kitchen as our cooks prepare authentic colonial dishes using the equipment and recipes of the time.