The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Earned Media Coverage - January 23, 2014

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Earned Media Coverage

January 23, 2014

“History and heritage: Visit the South for Black History Month”

By: Tracy E. Hopkins

1/13/2014

The contributions to American history and the rich cultural heritage of African-Americans are celebrated every year in February during Black History Month. And when it's cold in New York, a trip down south, especially one where you might learn something, can sound very enticing. These family-friendly events and historic sites are a must.

Savannah, Georgia

The theme of this year's Savannah Black Heritage Festival is "Dare to Dream: Create a Legacy." Each year the festival presents cultural performances, ethnic cuisine and crafts. All festival events are free and held at Savannah State University, the oldest public historically black college or university in Georgia. (Feb. 1-23)

The Southern slave trade used Savannah as a major port and historic sites and museums honor the city's African-American experience. See the highlights on Savannah's African American Heritage Tour, which includes visits to the First African Baptist Church, which is the oldest black church in the U.S. and a stop on the Underground Railroad. (Ongoing)

HOTEL PICK: The riverfront Bohemian Hotel (102 W. Bay St., 912-721-3815) blends old world Southern charm with modern style.

Hilton Head, South Carolina

Through food, music and visual arts, The Hilton Head Island Gullah Celebration showcases the rich cultural heritage of the Geechee or Gullah people -- the descendants of enslaved West Africans -- and their history on Hilton Head Island. Events range from free with donation to $12 per plate for the popular food fest, Taste of Gullah. (Feb. 1-23)

HOTEL PICK: Parklane Inn & Suites (12 Park Lane, 877-765-0921) is just steps from the island's bike and nature pathways.

Jamestown, Virginia

As part of the "From Africa to Virginia" theme for Black History Month, gallery exhibits and guided tours of Jamestown Settlement's outdoor living-history areas highlight the culture of the first known Africans

http://www.newsday.com/history-and-heritage-visit-the-south-for-black-history-month-1.6789374


http://sbhf.mindofjonas.com/

http://visitsavannah.com/

http://bohemianhotelsavannah.com/

http://gullahcelebration.com/

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http://virginia.org/

in Virginia and the experience of Africans in 17th-century Virginia. At the Yorktown Victory Center, a museum of the American Revolution, visitors can learn about the lives of African Americans during that period. Admission is $16 for adults, $7.50 for children ages 6-12. (Through Feb. 28)

HOTEL PICK: The Williamsburg Inn (136 East Francis St., 757-220-7978) is a luxury, historic hotel in the heart of colonial Williamsburg.

Baltimore, Maryland

The "Celebrate Black History Month at The B&O Railroad Museum" exhibit focuses on how significant social issues, such as segregation, affected railroading and heralds the chefs and waiters who worked on B&O dining cars. (Feb. 1-28)

HOTEL PICK: Admiral Fell Inn (888 South Broadway, 410-522-7380) is a boutique hotel in quaint Fell's Point, a neighborhood near the Inner Harbor.



http://colonialwilliamsburg.com/

http://borail.org/

http://harbormagic.com/

“Romantic Antics in... Virginia”

By: Susan Breslow Sardone

1/17/2014

Quick! Between now -- with the kiddies back in school -- and the next long weekend, there's a window of opportunity to visit America's living history museum, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, when the place isn't overrun with the little darlings.

Virginia for Grown-Ups Did you know that more than 20 wine grape varieties are grown in Virginia, and dozens of wineries dot the landscape? Come for a taste and stay overnight at one of Virginia's exceptional inns.

http://honeymoons.about.com/b/2014/01/17/destination-virginia.htm

http://honeymoons.about.com/b/2014/01/17/destination-virginia.htm

http://honeymoons.about.com/od/williamsburgvirginia/ss/williamsburg_va.htm

“Reston, Herndon Teachers Attend Williamsburg Workshops on American History”

07/17/2013

Teachers from Reston-Herndon area participating in a simulated archeological dig as a part of the

Discovering the Past Session: From left—Poneh Aranee, Karen Stevens, Kat Goodale and Meg Strasburg. Contributed

Seven social studies teachers in area schools have been selected to attend the 2013 Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute in American History. One of them had to decline at the last minute due to a family medical issue.

Four Reston/Herndon teachers attended the July 8-14 session: Katrienne Goodale of Dogwood Elementary, Poneh Aranee of Hunters Woods Elementary, Karen Stevens of Lake Anne Elementary and Margaret Strasburg of Lutie Lewis Coates Elementary School.

Katie Blomquist of Sunrise Valley Elementary School, who was recently named history teacher of the year by the Virginia Department of Education, and Jennifer Walker of Forest Edge Elementary School Katie Blomquist are attending the July 15-21 session.

Intensive six-day workshops immerse participants in early American history. During the workshops, they are involved in an interdisciplinary approach to teaching social studies with American history and citizenship as the focus. They have the opportunity to exchange ideas with historians, meet character

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2013/jul/17/reston-herndon-teachers-attend-williamsburg-worksh/



interpreters and take part in re-enactments of events of the eighteenth century. They investigate new teaching techniques with mentor teachers as well as each other. They focus on the 17th and 18th centuries and the colonization and founding of our nation. Together with the Colonial Williamsburg staff, they share ideas and new instructional materials for use in their classrooms.

Candidates have been endorsed by their principal and by Susie Orr, educational specialist in elementary social studies, Fairfax County Public Schools.




“Travel deals from the Far East to Gettysburg”

By: Phil Marty

1/14/2014

Enrichment Journeys is offering a trip that mixes the opulence of the Middle East with the exotic offerings of the Far East. But you'll need a lot of time on your hands. The 27-day journey starts in the United Arab Emirates, where you will explore Dubai and Abu Dhabi and take a desert safari via four-wheel-drive vehicle. Then it's off to Bangkok for five days of checking out temples, markets and palaces. Flying to Singapore, you'll board the Celebrity Century for a 14-night cruise that will explore Myanmar; Phuket, Thailand; and three Malaysian ports, including Penang. The Jan. 29, 2015, trip is priced from $5,199 per person double occupancy and includes round-trip air from New York on highly regarded Emirates airlines, pre-cruise lodging, four tours each in Dubai and Bangkok and the cruise. Air add-on is available from other cities, including Atlanta $300, Boston $200, Chicago $300, Miami $250 and Washington-Dulles $250. Info: 888-296-1992,tinyurl.com/kfxmvl7

Small-group adventures

The small-group adventure company Intrepid Travel is 25 years old this year, and to celebrate it is offering a 20 percent discount on its 11 most popular trips. Intrepid's trips tend to be reasonably priced, and it also frequently has discounted tours, including markdowns of as much as 25 percent for last-minute travel. Among the trips eligible for the 20 percent discount are the 10-day Vietnam Express, which can be had for $920 per person, or the 12-day North India Highlights, discounted to $1,448. To get the 20 percent discount, you need to book by Feb. 28 for travel between May 1 and Aug. 31. You can find links to all of Intrepid's discounts, including the last-minute deals, attinyurl.com/nybf9ur, or call 800-970-7299. Note that some trips require additional money for a trip "kitty" that may cover items such as food.

History at a great price

Presidents Day is Feb. 17, and the long weekend is a good chance for families to get away. The folks at Family Vacation Critic (familyvacationcritic.com) think historic towns are a perfect match for Presidents Day and have come up with lodging deals in eight that are rife with history. You can't get much more historic than Gettysburg, Pa., and its Civil War ties. The Wyndham Gettysburg has rates as low as $89 a night, making for an inexpensive place to expose the kids to important parts of the country's legacy. The Williamsburg Lodge in Williamsburg, Va., has rates from $79 per person per night that include admission

http://www.ctnow.com/travel/sc-trav-0114-trips-20140114,0,6198023.story


tickets to Colonial Williamsburg's Revolutionary City and art museums. Read about these deals and six more at tinyurl.com/l4yylme.



http://www.ctnow.com/topic/arts-culture/culture/colonial-williamsburg-PLCUL000138.topic

14th Anniversary AFAmag.comAFAnews.com

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

Impressionist Theodore Wendel

Federal Furniture

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Folk Artist Uncovered

Dining in NYC

A RICH & VARIED CULTURE

THE SOUTHERN WAY OF LIFE

GLORIOUS EXPANSIONTREASURES FROM THE PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM

TEMPTATIONS IN ARTCELEBRATING CULTURE AND CUISINE

A YEAR IN REVIEWTOP MUSEUM ACQUISITIONS OF 2013

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$6.95 US/CAN

14th Anniversary190 www.antiquesandfineart.com

A Rich & Varied CultureThe Material World of the Early South

by Ronald L. Hurst and

Margaret Beck Pritchard

F

2014 Antiques & Fine Art 191

rom the time of the earliest European explorations of North America, the continent’s southeastern region was of

special interest. Navigable waterways, abundant natural resources, and vast amounts of land signaled the potential

for creating new wealth “if…Colonies could be rightly settled.” 1 Once Great Britain established a permanent hold

on the Atlantic coast, it became even more important to populate the southern territories as a buffer against Spanish

and French incursions. As a result, hosts of British and continental European settlers and thousands of enslaved

Africans came to reside in the South over the next two centuries. Some were enticed by land or freedom from

religious persecution. Others sought new commercial enterprises or scientific discoveries. Slaves and deported

convicts had no choice in the matter. Still, each of these diverse groups found a home in the South and left their

cultural imprint on the objects they made, purchased, or commissioned. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s

newest exhibition, A Rich and Varied Culture: The Material World of the Early South, explores this fulsome heritage.

It is the largest and most complex exhibition of early southern material culture undertaken to date. The show

encompasses the territory from Maryland to Louisiana, extends from the late seventeenth century through 1840,

and employs every kind of period object, from architectural and archaeological fragments to portraits, household

furnishings, costumes, tools, and machines.

As the dominant political and economic power along the South’s Atlantic seaboard, England was also the main cultural force during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Not surprisingly, the majority of free residents in the coastal plain were of English descent. However, the region was also home to substantial numbers of Scottish, Irish, German, and Welsh immigrants and their offspring, while Dutch, Swiss, and Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal made Charleston their

home. Concentrated groups of French Huguenots settled in Virginia and South Carolina, and the French established a substantial presence on the Gulf Coast. African-American populations lived in nearly all parts of the region and, contrary to popular belief, Native-American communities survived in many areas. In short, the early South was a melting pot, remarkable for its cultural variety and vitality, all to be seen in the objects its peoples imported or made.

previous pageFig. 1: Gown, London, England, ca. 1750 (textile); gown remodeled ca. 1770. Brocaded silk. Length: 52 inches (front-top of shoulder to hem). Colonial Williamsburg, gift of Mrs. R. Keith Kane , Mrs. James H. Scott, Jr., Mrs. Timothy Childs, Mrs. N. Beverly Tucker, Jr., and Mrs. Lockhart B. McGuire (1975–340).

this pageFig. 2: Garniture, Jingdezhen, China, ca. 1780. Hard-paste porcelain. Height of tallest with lid: 12¼ inches. Drayton Hall, National Trust for Historic Preservation, gift of Charles H. Drayton III.


Fig. 3: Portrait of Frances Parke Custis, attributed to the Brodnax Limner (n.d.), Williamsburg, Va., vicinity, ca. 1722. Oil on canvas, 37 x 29½ in. Washington-Custis-Lee Collection, Washington & Lee University, Lexington, Va.


Imported goods are often bypassed in studies of this nature, but they are important sources of information because they were so often carriers of new technologies, ideas, and fashions. Early southerners imported vast quantities of manufactured goods, from fashionable clothing like the English brocaded silk gown worn by Virginian Elizabeth Dandridge (1749–1800) about 1770 (Fig. 1) to the Chinese export porcelain garniture acquired by the Drayton family of South Carolina a decade later (Fig. 2). Such goods were outward symbols of their owner’s wealth and taste, but they also reveal cultural affinities: in both cases the original users of the objects sought to follow the latest English fashions by acquiring goods that were trendy in the Mother Country.

The clearest hallmarks of cultural affinity are seen in the goods made by early southerners. Immigrant artists and artisans produced objects that echoed their own backgrounds and often those of their customers. Again and again, the prevailing English presence is seen in furniture, silver, ceramics, and paintings created in the South. A likeness of Frances Parke Custis (1709–1744) was painted in the Williamsburg vicinity about 1722 and although the artist’s name is unknown, his technique is unmistakably English (Fig. 3). Depicted in her early teens, the

subject’s loosely arranged attire is likely based on engraved images of English noblewomen and may be more fanciful than accurate.

The English were but one source of British cultural influence in the South. Irish artisans occasionally left their marks as well. Although fabricated on the shores of Virginia’s Rappahannock River in the 1740s and 1750s, a number of tea tables and other forms exhibit all the hallmarks of contemporary Irish furniture (Fig. 4). The bandy cabriole legs, pointed feet, and exuberantly shaped rails on these pieces are identical to those on furniture from Dublin, Limerick, and Shannon. At least two stil l unidentified Irish cabinetmakers settled in or near one of the small towns on the Rappahannock and continued to make furniture in the Irish manner. Only the objects’ Virginia associations and their execution in North American woods reveal the true origin of these goods.

Scottish and Scots-Irish influences are apparent as well, most often in furniture. Scores of Scottish cabinetmakers settled in Annapolis, Maryland, Norfolk, Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina, and other coastal cities, but Scots and Scots-Irish characteristics were abundant in the southern Backcountry too. Immigrants carried these traits with them as they streamed down

leftFig. 4: Tea table, Rappahannock River Basin, Va., ca. 1745. Black walnut. H: 28¼, W: 28⅞, D: 22 in. Colonial Williamsburg Museum Purchase (1999–71).

rightFig. 5: Armchair, probably Rockingham County, Va., ca. 1750. Black walnut. H: 44½, W. (seat): 22¼, D. (seat): 19½ in. Colonial Williamsburg, gift of Mrs. John Patterson Yeatman in memory of Miss Jospehine Gilmore Yeatman (1964–489).


the Shenandoah Valley and across the mountains from southern coastal settlements. An example of their presence is visible in a boldly scaled wainscot chair that descended through the Gilmore family of Augusta (now Rockingham) County, Virginia (Fig. 5). Of Scots-Irish descent, the Gilmores settled in the valley about the middle of the eighteenth century, having come from Great Britain by way of Pennsylvania. Their chair’s maker is unknown, but the piece resembles provincial Scottish and Irish wainscot chairs of the seventeenth century in both design and construction. The Backcountry tendency to hold onto familiar traditions accounts for the production of this chair so long after the style had been abandoned in coastal centers.

Transplanted German cultures also thrived in the southern Backcountr y, where some communities spoke German exclusively as late as the 1820s. Artisans in these areas made cultura lly distinctive and sometimes old-fashioned goods as represented by a clock case from Shenandoah County, Virginia (Fig. 6). Its bombé base, arched hood, cluster of five finials, and round case door window are typical of Dutch and German baroque aesthetics from the middle of the eighteenth century, but the Virginia case was made about 1800 when most of these details were long out of fashion. The same kind of cultural transfer is seen in the products of Germanic potters who worked at a number of Backcountry locales, including the North Carolina Piedmont. For example, several artisans in the St. Asaph’s district of Orange (now Alamance) County fabricated sugar pots and other vessels that clearly express their maker’s Germanic cultural identity (Fig. 7).

Backcountry Germans were also adept at putting their stamp on imported goods from other cultures. In 1782 an unidentified artisan of Germanic extraction covered the rim of an imported English pewter dish with an array of handsome engraved ornament (Fig. 8 ) . Originally a plain serving vessel fabricated from an inexpensive material, the dish was utterly transformed when it was boldly decorated for Hanna Feeshel of Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia), a market town in the upper

Fig. 6: Tall case clock, Thomas Jones (n.d.), Strasburg, Va., 1790–1800. Black walnut, tulip poplar, light and dark wood, brass, and iron/steel. H: 101, W: 19½, D: 17 in. Colonial Williamsburg Museum Purchase (2002–69).


Potomac River Valley. The design of the deeply cut ornament and the technique employed to fabricate it strongly suggest the work of a gunsmith.

Religious communities also left evidence of their presence in the objects they made in many a r e a s o f t he S out h . S e ve r a l Qu a ke r cabinetmakers from Pennsylvania moved as a group to the North Carolina Piedmont in the 1760s and continued to make the same kind of furniture they had produced at home. The Salzburgers, a group of Protestant Christians deported by the Catholic Church from modern day Austria, landed in coastal Georgia in 1734, and made furniture that would easi ly be mistaken for European woodwork were it not for the use of North American woods. Other illustrations of this pattern abound.

Less well-known is the broad array of goods made by enslaved men and women for their white masters. Although they accounted for a sizable portion of the southern workforce, it is frequently impossible to document the goods produced by artisans of African descent. One of the few exceptions is an armchair made in the joinery at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, under the direction of John Hemings (1776–1833), an enslaved woodworker (Fig. 9). The chair is clearly based on seating furniture Jefferson saw during his travels in France, but it was made in Albemarle County, Virginia, by African hands.

Few of the objects made by Native Americans in the early South have been identified, but the story of Native American interactions with British and European settlers is richly depicted in contemporary likenesses created by British artists. Cunne Shote, or Cummacatogue (circa 1704–1783), was one of three Cherokees escorted to London in 1762 by Henry Timberlake (1730–1765). While there, Cunne Shote sat for a portrait by Francis Parsons (active 1763–d. 1804); that image was subsequently engraved in mezzotint (Fig. 10). The subject’s combination of European and Native American clothing and accoutrements was meant to suggest harmony

Fig. 7: Jar, attributed to Jacob Albright, Jr. and Henry Loy, Alamance County, North Carolina, ca. 1790. Lead-glazed earthenware. H: 6⅞ in. Colonial Williamsburg Museum Purchase (2008–1).

Fig. 8: Dish, John Townsend and Thomas Giffin, London, England, 1768–1778. Engraving Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia). Pewter. Diam: 12 in. Colonial Williamsburg Museum Purchase (1995–90).


Fig. 9: Armchair, attributed to the Monticello Joinery, Albemarle County, Va., 1790–1815. Cherry, tow, linen, and leather. H: 34⅞, W: 23¼, D: 19¼ in. Colonial Williamsburg Museum Purchase (1994–107).

Fig. 10: Cunne Shote, the Indian CHIEF, A Great Warrior of the Cherokee Nation. Engraved by James McArdell after Francis Parsons, London, England, ca. 1763. Black-and-white mezzotint engraving, 14¼ x 10⅝ in. Colonial Williamsburg Museum Purchase (2002–10).

between the cultures. The medals Cunne Shote wore around his neck were struck in 1761 to commemorate the marriage of George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg, while the silver gorget at his neck is marked “GR III.” The most striking aspect of the portrait, however, is Cunne Shote’s forceful grip on a scalping knife—a visual reminder of the tenuous relationship between the Cherokees and colonists living in the South.

The passage of time and the dispersal of ethic groups in the early South brought many changes to the region, some of which are visible in images of the land. The early English compulsion to establish control over the landscape by rigorously surveying the terrain and cataloging every species in the natural environment is perhaps best illustrated in A View of Savannah as it stood the 29th of March 1734 (Fig. 11). Therein the town, as laid out by James Edward Oglethorpe, ref lects his military background and egalitarian approach to dividing the territory. The plan presents four residential wards, each with forty house lots measuring precisely sixty by ninety feet. The extreme contrast between the limitless bounds of the frontier that stretches to the horizon and the regimented layout of the town clearly illustrates England’s desire to impose order on nature.

George Beck’s circa-1805 depiction of Boone’s Knoll on the Kentucky stands in sharp contrast to this approach (Fig.12). As southerners and other Americans strove to differentiate themselves from the Mother Country in the early nineteenth century, they embraced the ruggedness of the frontier that no longer existed in Europe. Englishman Beck painted a view of the Kentucky River that romanticized the beauty of America’s wild, open spaces. In similar fashion, while earlier generations of artisans in the American South tied their products to their own cultural roots, that pattern receded as the population moved west and southwest in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Backcountry products gradually took on a look that was more American and less European. Craftsmen developed forms and motifs in response to available natural resources and American cultural trends. For example, Tennessee potter Leonard Cain (1782–1842) produced wares that exploited the region’s orange clay (Fig. 13). His pots frequently feature striking, almost abstract manganese decoration that differs markedly from that on the products of earlier artisans along the southern coast. Likewise, a desk made in Greene County, Tennessee, offers an excellent example of the emerging American aesthetic (Fig. 14). The object’s exterior is generic in


Fig. 11: A View of Savannah as it stood the 29th of March 1734. Engraved by P. Fourdrinier after George Jones, London, England, ca. 1734. Black-and-white line engraving, 20⅛ x 25⅞ in. Colonial Williamsburg Museum Purchase (1971–72).

Fig. 12: Boone’s Knoll on the Kentucky River at Camp Nelson, attributed to George Beck (1749–1812), Ky., 1804–1808. Oil on laid paper, 16¾ x 23¼ in. Colonial Williamsburg Museum Purchase (1968–502).


Fig. 13: Jar. Cain Pottery Manufactory, Sullivan County, Tenn., 1820–1840. Earthenware. H: 15¾ in. Mary Jo Case Collection.


nature and minimally detailed, suggesting little about its origin, but the interior is intricately inlaid with a variety of ornaments, all grouped around an engaging interpretation of the American spread eagle.

Ronald L. Hurst is Carlisle H. Humelsine Chief Curator and Vice President for Collections, Conservation, and Museums at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Margaret Beck Pritchardis Senior Curator and Curator of Prints, Maps, and Wallpaper at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

1. Robert Beverley, The History and Present State of Virginia [1705], ed. Louis B. Wright (Charlottesville, VA., 1947), 26.

Fig. 14: Desk. Greene County, Tenn., 1800–1815. Cherry, tulip poplar, black walnut, and lightwood. H: 32⅜, W: 44⅛, D: 22 in. Mary Jo Case Collection.

“Video: Snow in Colonial Williamsburg”

1/22/2014

The morning after snow fell across the Peninsula in a mid-winter storm.

Video featuring the clearing of snow in Colonial Williamsburg during a winter storm.

“Historic Figures Come to Area Schools: Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry impersonators visit Reston and Herndon elementary schools.”

By: Ethan McLeod

1/15/14

Two unlikely historical celebrities paid a visit to Fox Mill Elementary School students on Wednesday, Jan. 8, for a special assembly. When Principal Mie Devers announced that Thomas Jefferson would be a guest at their school that day, the cafeteria filled with sitting children began buzzing with excitement; at the mention of his friend, Patrick Henry, a large number of the sitting students shouted excitedly.

Jefferson, played by Bill Barker, and Henry, played by Richard Schumann, arrived at the school cafeteria at 1:30 p.m. Mr. Henry arrived first. After he introduced himself, he spoke of his undying love for the state of Virginia, as well as his recent visit to his good friend George Mason at his “Academy” just up the road. Just as he began to disparage the highly federalized country of France as compared to the United States’ new republic, President Jefferson interrupted, “I beg your pardon!” as he stepped into the cafeteria.

Together, the duo of historical impersonators told tales of the early United States’ history to the Fox Mill Elementary audience for an hour. They discussed their favorite pastimes of hunting, fishing and riding horses, and told of how over time the United States gradually dispensed of British customs such as bowing. Perhaps more importantly, Mr. Jefferson explained the importance of education for not just wealthy men, but also young women and children not born into families with money. “Who should be those to decide what is the best system of education?” questioned Jefferson, pausing, before answering his own question. “The people!” he exclaimed, receiving cheers from the audience.

The politicians welcomed questions from the students, and one fifth-grader asked President Jefferson whether he and Henry disagreed about any political issues. “Patrick Henry? He disagrees on everything!” exclaimed Jefferson, inciting laughter in the audience. The two proceeded to bicker about all the things political, including the necessary size and scope of the federal government and the importance of personal liberties.

Fairfax County was able to fund these historical figures’ visits thanks to the generosity of Fox Mill community residents Carol Ann and Jim Babcock. “It’s our effort to teach the young people today what the roots of our republic form of government are because in 10 to 12 years, they will be in the voting booth,” said Mrs. Babcock, who was in attendance at the Jan. 8 assembly. “We’re trying to teach history and make them eager to learn.”

The Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson impersonators come from The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and have visited area elementary schools before in January 2011 and 2012. In addition to

http://www.herndonconnection.com/news/2014/jan/15/historic-figures-come-area-schools/


visiting Fox Mill Elementary, Mr. Henry and President Jefferson also went to 10 other Herndon and Reston elementary schools on Wednesday, Jan. 8 and Thursday, Jan. 9.

President Jefferson impersonator, Bill Barker, addresses the sitting Fox Mill Elementary School audience.

Hard of hearing, Patrick Henry, played by Richard Schumann, leans in to hear a question from one of the students.



“Williamsburg Inn among local hotels, restaurants recognized by AAA”

By: Steve Vaughn

1/17/14

WILLIAMSBURG —Three lodgings and two restaurants in greater Williamsburg have been recognized by AAA Tidewater Virginia as Four Diamond or Five Diamond facilities.

All of the recognized facilities locally have been previously recognized with the travel authority's highest ratings for hotels and restaurants.

These local lodgings were honored:

• Kingsmill Resort and Spa, which first achieved recognition in 1990.

• Liberty Rosoe Bed & Breakfast, first recognized in 1994.

• The Williamsburg Inn, first recognized in 2002.

Local restaurants were:

• The Fat Canary, first recognized in 2004.

• The Regency Dining Room, first recognized in 2002.

AAA describes Five and Four Diamond lodgings as "refined and stylish with upscale physical attributes. They offer guests extensive amenities and a wide range of services."

“Four Diamond hotels and restaurants provide guests with a personalized experience and attentive service in comfortable, high quality surroundings,” said Georjeane Blumling, spokesperson for AAA Tidewater Virginia. “These establishments consistently exceed the expectations of the most

http://www.dailypress.com/business/tidewater/va-vg-local-hotels-restaurants-recognized-20140117,0,1388740.story



discriminating traveler – the AAA inspector. We are proud to have these dedicated businesses in our region.”

AAA inspectors visit 1,200 hotels and restaurants every week.

AAA rates more properties than any other rating entity, covering the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. AAA offers the only ratings based on professional, on-site evaluations using published guidelines weighted by member priorities.




“Williamsburg restaurants dominate magazine awards: Williamsburg Inn ranked 1st in Hampton Roads”

1/21/2014

Restaurants from Greater Williamsburg claimed three of the top ten positions in Coastal Living Magazine's Platinum Plate awards announced in the January edition of the magazine.

Best overall was the Regency Room at the Williamsburg Inn, touted as "a comfortable-but-upscale atmosphere, impeccable service, and incredible culinary offerings that blend southern regional flavors with classic French techniques"

Executive Chef Travis Brust was labeled "a culinary powerhouse, larger than life in stature and grasp of cuisine." In 2012 Brust placed first in the chef competition at the World Food Championship, and he took second place in 2013.

Also in the top ten was Fat Canary at No.8. David Everett's Blue Talon Bistro tied for tenth place. Other area restaurants earned platinum status but were unranked: Le Yaca, The Trellis and Waypoint Seafood & Grill.

The magazine also awarded 24K Gold awards to a number of Williamsburg restaurants. They include DoG Street Pub in Merchants Square, Three restaurants from New Town: Dudley's Bistro, Ichiban and Opus 9; and the Williamsburg Lodge. The Seafare on Richmond Road received a Gold award.

http://www.vagazette.com/news/va-vg-platinum-plates-0122-20140121,0,7890624.story

http://www.vagazette.com/news/va-vg-platinum-plates-0122-20140121,0,7890624.story

“Williamsburg Businesses Receive AAA Diamond Ratings”

1/20/2014

Two restaurants, two hotels and one bed and breakfast in Williamsburg earned AAA Tidewater Virginia Four Diamond Awards.

The Four Diamond rating is one of AAA’s highest awards and is given to upscale, stylish establishments.

Kingsmill Resort & Spa, Liberty Rose Bed & Breakfast, and Williamsburg Inn received the award for lodgings. Under the restaurant category, Fat Canary and The Regency Dining Room at Colonial Williamsburg were recognized.

“Four Diamond hotels and restaurants provide guests with a personalized experience and attentive service in comfortable, high-quality surroundings,” said Georjeane Blumling, AAA Tidewater Virginia spokesperson, in a news release. “These establishments consistently exceed the expectations of the most discriminating traveler – the AAA inspector. We are proud to have these dedicated businesses in our region.”

For more information about AAA Diamond Ratings and award winners, visit the AAA website.

http://ww2.aaa.com/scripts/WebObjects.dll/AAAOnline?association=AAA&club=258&page=DiamondsHome&area=vanity_Diamonds&zip=23325&stateprov=va&city=chesapeake&devicecd=PC

“Martin Luther King Jr. Stopped in Williamsburg to Spread His Civil Rights Message”

By: Nicole Trifone and Brittany Voll

1/20/2014

On a summer day in 1962, spectators filled First Baptist Church on Scotland Street in Williamsburg with a crowd so large it spilled onto the street.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King speaks with members of First Baptist Church in Williamsburg, including Pastor David Collins (right) in June 1962. (Photo courtesy First Baptist Church)

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. visited the church on June 26 of that year, addressing the group of both black and white audience members about civil rights and their role in not only continuing the movement in Williamsburg, but trusting others along the way.

An 11-year-old James Patterson sat among the congregation in the church he had attended all his life, unaware of the magnitude of the visit until much later in his life. He remembers thinking, “Why are all these people here?” on the day of King’s visit.

Lafayette Jones, a college student at the time, stood among those who came to the church just to hear King speak.

“He gave us the steps to be successful … and improve our community. He said all the things should be done in a peaceful manner,” said Jones, who grew up in Williamsburg and is now chairman of the James City County Historical Commission. “It was highly motivational for African Americans and gave us a lot of cause to change the direction of our lives.”

http://wydaily.com/2014/01/20/martin-luther-king-jr-stopped-in-williamsburg-to-spread-his-civil-rights-message/



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More than 50 years since King’s visit to Williamsburg, First Baptist Church — the oldest Baptist church organized by blacks in the U.S. — continues to celebrate the reverend’s legacy.

In honor of King’s 85th birthday, the church hosted a history program Wednesday that focused more on his sermons than his speeches as a civil rights leader. Dozens of attendees celebrated through prayers, sermons and songs, culminating with the congregation joining hands in a circle to sing “We Shall Overcome.”

Though King’s visit to First Baptist Church came eight years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, much of Williamsburg remained segregated.

Colonial Williamsburg, which the Rockefellers began developing in the 1920s after buying and demolishing a black neighborhood, became one of the first areas in town to begin the integration process. The institution provided job opportunities for black people — as doormen, drivers, cooks and maids — and forced buildings it owned to desegregate.

“I think the presence of Colonial Williamsburg mitigated a lot of [segregation issues] because the Rockefellers tried to set up a bit of a policy where no one was refused service, especially on the basis of race because they were here for everybody,” said Lois Hornsby, who has lived in Williamsburg since 1948.

Racial tensions remained relatively calm in Williamsburg compared with the Deep South during the 1950s and 1960s, but the area was not without its bursts of conflict.

Jones, who grew up in a home where High Street now stands, remembers walking along Richmond Road from its intersection with Ironbound Road when a car headed in the wrong direction came toward him. A passenger in the back seat of the car opened the rear door, striking Jones — who was 13 at the time — and knocking him into the ditch. Uninjured, Jones ran home to report the news to his father, who then called the sheriff’s office. He said the deputies launched an investigation and found the suspects, who were students at the College of William and Mary. Despite the incident, Jones said he felt relatively safe growing up in Williamsburg.

“I don’t recall any major conflicts or confrontations because the blacks stayed to themselves and the whites stayed to themselves,” Jones said.

But that did not stop Jones and his friends from pushing back against segregation. Jones, a high-achieving student who received the merit-based Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Foundation Scholarship upon graduation from the black high school Bruton Heights, at one point attempted to enroll in the white school, James Blair High.

He received pushback from administration, who called Jones in for a sit-down with Superintendent Rawls Byrd. He said Byrd demanded to know which Bruton Heights teacher put him up to applying, threatening to fire all the Bruton Heights teachers if Jones did not name names.




Not wanting to cause trouble for the teachers, Jones withdrew his request.

Earlier in his teenage years, Jones and a few friends protested in front of the movie theater on Duke of Gloucester Street, which divided seating by race. The same day, the theater employees allowed them to sit anywhere in the theater — a policy that remained from then on.

In 1968, the schools in Williamsburg and James City County integrated, creating a new set of problems in race relations.

Edith Heard, a classmate of Jones’ who joined in the movie theater protest, said she had concerns about her children being taught by white teachers.

“I did not want white teachers to be teaching at my kids, instead of teaching them,” said Heard, who elected to send her children to private school instead. “I think a lot of black kids got the short end of the stick when they integrated the schools because they didn’t really understand black kids.”

Elise Emanuel, a current member of the Williamsburg-James City County School Board and former teacher, taught at James Blair in the late ‘60s when the schools were integrated.

“When we totally integrated the schools, there was a little contention. … There was no staff development about what to look for or how to go about it,” Emanuel said.

Black and white students had to work together on things they had always done separately: planning the yearbook, writing cheers for the cheerleading squad and planning marching band events.

“It got contentious with these kind[s] of teenage issues,” Emanuel said. “It wasn’t substantial stuff that was causing the difference.”

To help mitigate the issues, parents volunteered to monitor the halls during school to prevent arguments from breaking out.

“They were committed to making sure that this worked, so I give a lot of credit to the parents, both black and white,” Emanuel said.

One of those active parents was Hornsby, whose three boys attended school when the schools began integrating. Her two oldest sons, Bobby and Bruce, both joined a group for students called Up With People, which put on a show at William and Mary about integration.

“That was a real help in the desegregation because it pointed out the generational differences,” said Hornsby, who grew up in New England where issues among people were usually rooted in cultural heritage rather than race.

Hornsby welcomed the teenagers involved in Up With People into her home, but noticed the black teens would get “askance” looks from her white neighbors.

Christine Jordan, a longtime area resident who attends First Baptist Church, said racism existed in this area but remained “undercover” for the most part.




“This town was not screaming because of oppression,” said Jordan, who saw King’s 1962 speech in Williamsburg and attended her church’s celebration of his birthday last week. “… [Williamsburg] was no Utopia.”

The church earned a visit from King through their pastor, David Collins, who was the vice president of the Tidewater chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a prominent civil rights organization that King helped cofound.

Dr. Aaron Butler, a speaker at the church’s history program last week, brought along a book of King’s sermons called “A Knock at Midnight,” encouraging attendees to reflect on King’s religious messages in addition to his civil rights speeches.

He referred to King’s “Strength to Love” sermon, in which King discusses being in the “midnight of social order” and how faith, hope and love can bring society out of the darkness.

“While there may be darkness in our social order today, our message must continue to be that of hope, of love, of faith, of peace and of power through faith in God,” Butler said.




Documents

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Earned Media Coverage - January 23, 2014