The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Earned Media Coverage

June 26, 2014

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Pocahontas: Fantasy and Reality Why so many people still need the Indian princess.

By Laurie Gwen Shapiro June 22, 2014 1 She Obviously Married the Wrong Man

It’s so nice to be needed even after you’re dead. That’s what I was thinking during the rehearsal dinner for Pocahontas and John Rolfe at the Williamsburg Lodge, off Route 60 in Virginia.

In 1614, Rolfe, a tobacco farmer and recent widower, needed Pocahontas, the object of his obsession, for, well, sex. Chief Powhatan needed Pocahontas, his daughter, to wed this English colonist to secure Powhatan’s sovereignty over his chiefdom. Years after Pocahontas’ death, former Jamestown leader Capt. John Smith needed the Indian princess’s legend to secure his own fame. During the Colonial era and beyond, Virginian and British families used their genealogical connection to her to claim highborn heritage, and after the Civil War, the local Indian community used her to protect itself from deeply racist Jim Crow laws. Historic Jamestowne needs her today to promote tourism. And as I learned from the current chief of Pocahontas’ tribe, the Pamunkey still need her to protect fishing rights and help secure federal recognition.

Actors play Pocahontas and John Rolfe at their wedding re-enactment in Jamestown, Virginia, on April 5,

2014.

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Photo courtesy Preservation Virginia (Historic Jamestowne)

Pocahontas had shellfish embroidered on her wedding jacket, which was modeled on a garment from the era in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. According to a volunteer embroiderer at my table, it took 70 volunteers (including former Virginia first lady Roxane Gilmore) 55 days to stitch 130 pretty black creatures, including rabbits, deer, and crabs.

Her jacket worked a lot better than John Rolfe’s red suit, which, while historically accurate, looked disco-ish even topped by an oversized black hat.

The event would have resembled any generic upscale hotel wedding rehearsal dinner if it weren’t for the three Native American men on a dais wearing tanned buckskin and draped in raccoon mantles, their skin covered by red and blue body paint.

The next day’s wedding re-enactment was to be held at the base of the original mud-walled chapel where Pocahontas wed John Rolfe on April 5, 1614—400 years later to the date. The site of the settlement’s chapel was found just in 2010 atHistoric Jamestowne. Its perimeter exactly matched dimensions described by William Strachey, secretary of the first English colony in the New World. The discovery was acclaimed as one ofArchaeology magazine’s top 10 finds of the year.

(To clear up a common misconception for those who live outside Virginia—four out of five college graduates I polled in an East Village Starbucks got this wrong—Capt. John Smith, leader of the Jamestown settlement, who claimed Pocahontas saved him by begging her father to release him

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moments before certain death, was never married to Pocahontas. He left Jamestown after being injured by a gunpowder explosion, never to return. Farmer John Rolfe departed England in 1609 on the third supply fleet headed to the struggling English colony. After a short stint as a castaway in Bermuda, he arrived in Jamestown in 1610 and married Pocahontas four years later.)

I wasn’t out of place in a room full of Pocahontas enthusiasts. I was the girl who dressed up for Halloween in a fringe dress and braids telling everyone I was an Indian princess. My favorite picture book was Pocahontas: A Little Indian Girl of Jamestown, which described Capt. John Smith as a handsome “Paleface” hero “straight and tall” with hair “the color of gold leaves in the autumn, his eyes like the sky.” Smith told Pocahontas stories and gave her prized gifts, such as a hand mirror. She in turn walked through the forest to warn the captain that her tribe would kill him while he slept. I took out every children’s book about Pocahontas I could find in the library and questioned my mother, who as a girl had also dreamed of being Pocahontas. I was sure Smith loved his little friend back, but she was born too late. She obviously married the wrong man, and did so only because she was told the right one was dead. When she lived in England as the new Lady Rolfe, she saw Smith once, and what a tragedy that must have been! If only he had waited for her to grow up to marry him.

In 2005 I couldn’t wait to see Terrence Malick’s visually sumptuous (if a bit plotless) two-and-a-half-hourfilm about Pocahontas and the Jamestown colonists. I could convince absolutely no one to go with me.

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When I read about the wedding re-enactment, I’d been especially intrigued that a member of Pocahontas’ Pamunkey tribe had been chosen to portray her. Had the local Native Americans really signed off on this event? I decided I had to attend.

Once again no one wanted to accompany me to a Pocahontas event, not even my 11-year-old daughter, who said she was slightly embarrassed for me. I made the triumphal announcement to my family that I was going alone. “Bring me back a T-shirt,” my daughter said without looking up from Instagram.

2 Virginia’s “Administrative Genocide”

It was easy enough to get to the wedding, a straight eight-hour train ride from New York’s Penn Station to Williamsburg, Virginia. There was a free shuttle bus from the 18th-century Colonial Williamsburg to 17th-century Jamestown, 15 minutes away. But how was I going to get an indigenous perspective unfiltered by pomp and press releases?

It was simpler than I thought. Wandering around the grounds of Colonial Williamsburg, the first person I spoke with was Jeff Brown, an archaeologist digging by a slope near a cobblestone street. “You have to call my brother Kevin, I swear, he’s the current chief of the Pamunkey tribe.”

“I am the chief,” Kevin Brown said firmly over the phone, and added that he would have plenty to say on the wedding matter.

With the clomping of horses in the background, I made arrangements to meet him the next day in the upstairs bookstore café at the College of William & Mary. “Look for a man with a beaded pendant on his neck.” Then he gently advised me, “You really don’t have to keep saying ‘Native American’ in Virginia. We use the word ‘Indian’ here. Or we just name the tribe.”

The oldest Virginia families claim descent from Pocahontas.

I didn’t want to be uninformed going to an unexpected meeting with a tribal chief, so I quickly read up on the unusual status of Indian tribes in Virginia. In 1924 an astonishing law was passed called the Racial Integrity Act that restricted who could marry based on race. Anyone with a hint of black ancestry was considered black and prohibited from marrying a white person. But according to a subsection of the law known as the Pocahontas Exception, since the oldest Virginia families claimed descent from Pocahontas, a person with one-sixteenth Indian blood was considered white.

The law protected Native Americans somewhat from Jim Crow laws. But the long-term unintended effect of classifying people with Native American ancestry as white is what Laura Feller, a curator for the National Park Service and the foremost expert on this ugly asterisk of history, has termed “administrative genocide.” It has left “a modern-day legacy where today’s Virginia tribes struggle to achieve federal recognition because they cannot prove their heritage through historic documentation.”

Chief Kevin Brown was indeed sporting a colorful pendant the next day over his light blue oxford shirt and vest; his head was shaved bald except for a short black ponytail. “The marriage has never been a big story to our community,” he said. “A lot of little girls lived then who wed white men. Many other chiefs ruled beneath Powhatan, who used his children as a way to secure allegiances. He had as many as 50 daughters, and Pocahontas was not of as high a station as some of the other girls were. He had a child of his living at almost every tribal community, and viewed Jamestown as another opportunity to secure influence. Influence was currency back then.”

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Pocahontas saves the life of Capt. John Smith in this 1870 chromolithograph.

Image courtesy Library of Congress

Brown made intimidatingly direct eye contact. “I’ve anguished over this weekend, but the Pocahontas connection helps our fight for federal recognition,” he said. The tribe is already recognized by the state of Virginia, and it is on track to be the first federally recognized Virginian tribe sometime in 2014. With that designation comes enormous economic potential.

The Pamunkey are one of the many related tribes classified as Algonquian. In 1607, when the English arrived, about 20,000 local Algonquian-speaking Indians called Powhatan (after their leader, Pocahontas’ father) lived near the Virginia coast. Of these Indians, about 1,000 of them were Pamunkey. About 160 European settlers lived in the village of Jamestown. Today there are 205 Pamunkey, and 50 people live on the 1,200-acre reservation in King William, about 40 miles away from Historic Jamestown on the banks of the Pamunkey River. It was set aside by treaty in 1646 and given to the tribe in 1658. On the reservation is a burial mound thought to hold Powhatan’s remains.

“We did talk to trees,” Brown said of the Disney film Pocahontas, “but the rest of the story is BS. Disney came to our reservation for research. I don’t think anyone got any money. We didn’t. Honestly, I’m going tonight for the meal, and I’m a little pissed the big rehearsal dinner’s not an open bar.”

“I’ve anguished over this weekend, but the Pocahontas connection helps our fight for federal recognition.” Pamunkey Chief Kevin Brown

He worried his reply was too frank, but I reassured him I wanted the truth, and then he smiled warmly. “I’m trying. I really am. If I can use these things as a platform to get out that my tribe’s fishing rights are under attack, I’ll go along with it. The Pamunkey and the Mattaponi have always had exemption to fish

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shad and catfish, and now the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries wants to curb our rights.” He explained that they signed a treaty for these rights in 1677, and tribal fishermen always carry cards that identify them as Pamunkey. “They say the shad is overfished and there’s mercury danger, but these are our rights by treaty.”

The Pamunkey, he said, have run a shad hatchery since 1918. Along with the Mattaponi tribe, the Pamunkey have worked to increase fertilization by 60 percent by taking the female fish and squeezing their roe into pails and then catching a male fish and adding his sperm.

“So if people look at our participation this weekend like ‘What a bunch of sellouts!’ they are not seeing the big picture. If you want justice to work, you have to be at the table. Four or five years ago, we got more involved with the events produced through Colonial Williamsburg. Before that no one particularly recognized or appreciated our existence, but they are starting to. That’s why I said yes.”

3 “Miss Pocahontas Is Getting Married Tomorrow”

Pocahontas was born about 1595 in Werowocomoco, 15 miles upriver from Jamestown. She was about 11 when she met 27-year-old Smith. Smith’s account is the primary historical record of her childhood, but it is so strewn with inconsistencies that, as historian Camilla Townsend hypothesizes, most of his thrilling account of a girl begging her father to save a white man was a spin on Indian maiden sexual fantasies popular at the time.

But no Jamestown experts have disputed that the most famous marriage in American history took place. The first church-sanctioned interracial marriage in English-speaking North America was huge news on both sides of the Atlantic. And it ushered in a seven-year period of peace and unity between the colonists and Indians before renewed war.

Captain John Smith trading with Virginia Indians. Painting by Sidney E. King/National Park Service

Apparently I was the first of 120 guests for the rehearsal dinner; when the doorman opened the entrance for me, he asked if I was going to the Edwards/Carlisle wedding.

I explained why I was there.

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“Oh dear, I forgot Miss Pocahontas is getting married tomorrow. The Rolfe party is in the Colony Room, down the hall to your left.”

Few regular visitors to Colonial Williamsburg had bought a ticket, at $95 a seat. Over cocktails I met loyal staff, wealthy board members of Colonial Williamsburg, and local “Pocahontas descendants” who identified as white and Protestant. For 400 years, American bluebloods in the thousands have claimed direct descent from Pocahontas via her son, Thomas Rolfe, and his daughter Jane. There were the Byrds, a family of famous explorers and governors, New York City’s handsome former Mayor John Lindsay, Woodrow Wilson’s wife Edith, mathematician and astronomer Percival Lowell (who thought he found canals on Mars), and Nancy Reagan, who favors astrology over astronomy. In England there are scores of additional fancy folks proudly touting Pocahontas lineage through Thomas’ other daughter, Anne.

Actors at the Pocahontas wedding re-enactment in Jamestown.

Photo courtesy Preservation Virginia (Historic Jamestowne)

Three Jamestown colonist re-enactors entered the room accompanied by the three Indians in buckskins and body paint.

Then swarthy John Rolfe arrived with his comely bride-to-be, her hair bunned and tucked into a bonnet.

A man acting the part of the colony’s Anglican minister Richard Bucke led us in a severe 17th-century form of grace, and everyone in the room bowed their heads. Oy. Was I the only secular Jew there? Did no one care that “Bucke” was an actor? After another culture-shocked glance around the room, I bowed my head, too.

Between each dish served, the historic interpreters on the dais gave a few lines of scripted dialogue. One maid was a composite of the English women who tended to Pocahontas after she became Lady Rolfe.

The menu, starting with cornmeal-crusted oyster chowder, was purported to be what could have been served in 1614, but there was no bottle-nosed dolphin served, nor shark, whale, turtle, snake, heron, eagle, crow, skunk, dog, horse, or cat.

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Was Chief Brown suffering? I squinted over to his table, and it was hard to tell. Toward the end of my sweet potato tart dessert, I strolled over to say hi, and he introduced me to his good friend, Robert “Two Eagles” Green, a former insurance executive and chief emeritus of Virginia’s Patawomeck tribe, who portrayed Pocahontas’ father, Powhatan, in an episode of PBS’s Nova.

It’s been a strange time for archaeologists at Jamestown.

Brown then presented me to Buck Woodard, a ponytailed anthropologist with a charismatic George Clooney smile. When I’d spoken with Brown at the bookstore, he said that he decided to come to the weekend’s festivities in part because Woodard “asked me to participate, and I trust him and listen to him.”

“The two tables of Indians here are my guests,” Woodard said. “Of course they didn’t pay to come. I’m honored that they did come.” Woodard is an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of World Studies and director of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s and Historic Jamestowne’s American Indian Initiative. “The dinner was a tough sell,” Woodard confessed.

A clamorous crush of well-wishers started seeking to have their pictures taken with the famous couple. Woodard and I agreed to talk more at the wedding the next morning.

4 Cannibalism at Jamestown

Before entering the old coastal fort, I signed the wedding guest book. After making sure I didn’t see any of the Indians I had been talking to at the rehearsal dinner, I asked another tourist to take a photo of me touching Pocahontas’ hand for good luck. As a child I’d seen pictures of this 1922 life-size statue by the fort’s entrance, sculpted by William Ordway Partridge. As an adult I could see how it might offend: This beauty with a feather in her hair has European features as in a Degas ballerina sculpture, and she wears clothing from a Western tribe. The iconic statue is copper-green, with both hands rubbed to a shine from so many people superstitiously touching them. The governor of Virginia presented a replica in 1958 at St. George’s Church in Gravesend, England, where Pocahontas died in March 1617, after being left off a ship with what was probably tuberculosis. She had just finished a year abroad with her husband, including a formal presentation to the royal court as the baptized Lady Rebecca Rolfe. She is buried under the chancel in Gravesend, where the important locals were placed after death, and her remains have never been disturbed or studied.

I bought a southerly sweet tea inside the small standalone cafeteria and added a $1.25 slice of white-frosted “Pocahontas wedding cake” to stay festive.

In a blue short-sleeved work shirt, archaeologist David Givens talked to passersby from the cellar of the fort, where he was busy unearthing a brick bread oven. Watching archaeologists work on site is part of the Jamestown attraction. A clutch of wedding guests crammed near me to take photos of Givens.

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Burial of the Dead. More than 80 percent of Jamestown's 500 colonists perished during the harsh winter

of 1609–1610. Painting by Sidney E. King/Image courtesy National Park Service

It’s been a strange time for archaeologists at Jamestown. Just over a year ago, Smithsonian scientists announced that they had discovered the partial skull and severed shinbone of “Jane,” a 14-year-old girl, near the Jamestown chapel. The bones bore the marks of an inexperienced butcher. These mangled human parts were direct evidence of cannibalism during the harsh winter of 1609–1610, referred to as the Starving Time. The announcement brought on a media storm and rare mentions of dismemberment on TripAdvisor.

Givens told the tourists, all the while sifting soil, about the discovery of half-eaten Jane. Another thing archaeologists there have shown is that what masters eat, servants eat. “Archaeologists and scientists see a lot of lead poisoning; both masters and servants were eating off the same pewter plates.”

After answering a few more enthusiastic cannibalism questions from the dozen or so visitors standing above him and passing time before the ceremony, Givens tried to describe his other work, dropping words like mitochondrial and isotopic signatures. After a polite silence, it was back to more cannibalism questions.

“The softer expression for cannibalism is processing to be eaten,” he said resignedly.

5 Pocahontas Was Kidnapped Before the Wedding

Buck Woodard waved me over to continue our truncated rehearsal dinner conversation. He cast the Indians in the weekend’s events. He’s done a lot of film work, mainly as an adviser along with Chief Robert “Two Eagles” Green, and he had the know-how to do the makeup for the Indian characters.

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Actors at the Pocahontas wedding re-enactment in Jamestown. Photo courtesy Preservation Virginia (Historic Jamestowne)

Woodard worked with Native American actress Irene Bedard, who was the voice of Pocahontas in the Disney Pocahontas film and its sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World. He worked with Q'orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas in the grown-up movie The New World. Was he a fixer on set? “Emmanuel Lubezki, who was nominated for an Oscar as cinematographer for New World”—he won for Gravity—“called me an animateur, and I like that better than fixer. It’s French for the person who makes things comes alive, makes things happen.”

I complimented him on his lapel pin (“Iroquois League”) and his snazzy purple jacket. “Not purple, wampum-colored.” I was so nervous that I would get the Indian perspective wrong that I double-checked if he was being humorous. “Sort of, but wampum and belts were used in diplomatic ceremonies. But think how much of the humor of the Indians participating in the original ceremony may have been lost. I imagine the newcomers transcribed seriously. Indians can be ironic too, ya know. If only we had a linguist working on the subtleties.”

“Isn’t there?”

“Nope, nobody’s meaningfully working on Virginian Algonquian since Blair Rudes died.” I was embarrassed that I had no idea who he was talking about. “An astonishing linguist who worked on The New World. I’m proud that in this ceremony, which is for the dominant culture, there is substantive and meaningful use of Pamunkey words, which Rudes helped bring back from the dead.” Some of the words we know for sure originated from the Powhatan language are raccoon, opossum, pecan, moccasin,hickory, persimmon, terrapin, tomahawk, and wow! “As in powwow,” he explained when I questioned the last one.

So how many authentic words would be used in the ceremony a few minutes away?

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Woodard knew: “Twelve. Mostly during a native blessing in which John Rolfe and his bride’s hands will be linked and wrapped with beads by Pocahontas’ uncle Opichisco. But sometimes 12 is not 12. Algonquian phrases are polysynthetic and build like German, so one big, long word can be descriptive of people and place; one Pamunkey word would be many more in English.”

“I see my real job as an ombudsman of the local Indian voice,” Woodard said. “And as far as this weekend goes, Pocahontas is the most famous person in the story, and if we need her to get a level playing field in a dominant culture, then so be it. Just look over at those benches. Twenty Pamunkey Indians are in the fort of Jamestowne, and you tell me, when’s the last time that happened? In the 17th century? I’m not trying to sugarcoat the compromises being made this weekend, but their very presence here is a big deal in post-Colonial American history.”

We stopped talking after two musicians appeared onstage to serenade the audience by viola da gamba and recorder.

A VIP area was roped off along the 24-by-64-foot footprint of the old chapel, a few dozen of us seated inside it, the not-so-fortunate standing outside of it, four deep. In the front left rows, the honored Pamunkey guests fanned themselves with their programs while reporters and photographers from Indian Country Today and the Washington Post snapped photos of a smiling former governor of Virginia.

As the British flag flapped above us, the fanciful procession down the center aisle began, first gallant guards from the fort carrying rifles, then two priests, and then Capt. Samuel Argall, a man of influence at Jamestown. Now the Indian party arrived, the same Native American actors from the rehearsal dinner.

At first sight of the bride, the smartphones came out. Wendy Taylor, with her rich brown hair glimmering in the sun and a smashing Disney hourglass figure, was undeniably the embodiment of all little-girl and grown-man fantasies of Pocahontas. The Pocahontas fangirls around me gasped and grabbed their parents’ hands to steady themselves at her arrival.

I was secretly ashamed that I shared their excitement.

Yet Pocahontas had but one line: “I will.”

“Argall was a jerk. I’m glad that’s coming across.” A wedding spectator

Couldn’t the writing staff have added to this? Maybe they were purists. What we know about the ceremony comes from an account by Ralph Hamor, the Jamestown secretary who succeeded William Strachey, and there was no account by Pocahontas. It is wishful thinking that she would have said more.

One thing the children’s books and most Pocahontas myths fail to mention, a fact that sucks some of the romance out of the occasion, is that Pocahontas was kidnapped before the wedding. In April 1613, Capt. Argall captured Pocahontas in the town of Passapatanzy, where she had been calling on relatives. She was held prisoner at the town of Henricus for a year, had Christianity lessons, and was baptized Rebecca. (Whether or not she used the name, she almost certainly ceased being known as Pocahontas, which was a nickname. Her childhood given name was either Amonute or Matoaka; she let it be known around the time of her wedding that she preferred to be called Matoaka.)

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It is clear from diaries and records that Rolfe was infatuated with Pocahontas, but zero evidence exists that she shared an emotional connection. It is possible that she agreed to marry the widower as one of the terms of her release.

Capt. Argall, wearing a wireless microphone, laughed arrogantly to his comrade in a stagy aside. “She was traded for a small copper pot!”

The Abduction of Pocahontas, 1612.

Image courtesy Meg Eastman/Virginia Historical Society

A history enthusiast behind me behind me said to his son: “Argall was a jerk. I’m glad that’s coming across.”

After the ceremony, the newlyweds were escorted to the much-needed shade of a craft services holding tent.

A dignified lady seated next to me asked if I’d enjoyed the 20-minute ceremony. She turned out to be Anne Geddy Cross of Hanover, Virginia, president of the Board of Trustees of Preservation Virginia. Cross oversees the site as well as five core historic properties. I assumed she got to meet Queen Elizabeth II in 2007 when she visited for another historical marker, the quadricentennial of the first settlers’ arrival. “I did indeed! Royalty loves to visit Virginia.” But she claimed to be more over the moon that Indian royalty was here this time. “That’s truly something!”

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I remembered that souvenir for my daughter when I saw the T-shirt options fluttering in the hot breeze in an outdoor popup shop alongside the James River. One showed Rolfe kneeling by Pocahontas, asking for her hand, with a cringe-worthy scratched heart in a tree that read “Pocahontas + J. Rolfe, 4*5*14.”*

Here I ran into Bill Bolling and his son Sean Bolling, also buying T-shirts. Mrs. Bolling (I never caught her first name) emerged from the tent, saying she’d brought along a chart prepared by an ancestor, Blair Bolling, in 1810 that explained that her husband and son were “red Bollings,” who have the most assured heritage from Pocahontas; others identified by genealogists as “blue Bollings” and “white Bollings” have iffy links.

“Got that correctly?” she asked hopefully.

According to Bill Bolling, his family also has a tradition of naming daughters Pocahontas, and Bill recently found the grave of an ancestor named Pocahontas Bolling. He was thrilled to be at the wedding: “I’m pretty humbled. This is the same site it all happened on. I’m taking it all in.”

Despite misgivings, I bought the shirt with the kneeling Rolfe. I was almost ready to leave when I realized in horror I had not gotten Pocahontas’ perspective from Pocahontas.

Wendy Taylor and David Catanese. Photo courtesy Chuck Durfor

Buck Woodard agreed to introduce me to 25-year-old Wendy Taylor (Chief Brown’s cousin), but only after she had had a decent break. As I waited in the tent, my eyes roved to John Rolfe (actor David Catanese) in his red suit and 17th-century hat sneaking a Tastykake powdered sugar donut from the craft

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services table. I reached for my iPhone to document this, and he gave me a thumbs-up, then the bride was ready to say hello.

Woodard stood nearby, perhaps to make sure I was asking respectful questions. “I saw the movie Pocahontas I can’t even count how many times. I was always pretending to be her. I love being her,” said Taylor. Woodard looked like he was disappointed that Taylor’s excitement in being cast stemmed from watching a vamped-up maiden in Disney cartoons. But then he put in, “Now that she has a 4-year-old and a 9-month-old, she’s watching it again.”

I was startled and excited to find out that the silver-haired man next to me listening to our conversation was the most famous man at the fort, the archeologist who insisted more than 20 years ago that the fort had not washed away, that its traces could still be found along the James River. Oh my! I had just read his book on the train. Could I interview him, too?

William Kelso happily started in with the story he has told countless times. “I began by myself, 20 acres started by shovel, I then noticed a dark streak in the soil. Man, I was beside myself! Right away I found an object, and we have since found 1.7 million other objects.” None of this would be happening if not for his vision—not the archaeological research, not the World of Pocahontas Unearthed exhibit that opened June 6 at the Jamestown site, not the wedding re-enactment.

“I’ll fall in my last hole here, probably.” William Kelso

“It is something, isn’t it, for it’s on the genuine site? It’s a lovely day, but meeting the Queen, that was my best moment,” he said. In 2007, Kelso was made Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

“I was told the Queen wanted a reflective moment, so I racked my brains for something good to say to her. When I met her, I spent 20 minutes with her guiding her around in her blue coat and blue hat. There was a lot to catch up on since her 1957 visit to the fort. She loved all of it, and I whispered, ‘Your majesty, this is where the British Empire began, this was not just the first American colony, this was the first colony in the British Empire.’ ” He chortled. “She loved that bit of information, she gave the best smile and incorporated that tidbit into her speech. Bush was there, too, you know, but making the Queen smile. That was wild.”

Kelso pointed to where he lives year-round, a building on site, in a caretaker’s house provided by Preservation Virginia. “That’s why I can be here so often. I’m waiting on what the future still holds. Hopefully my career highlight is still ahead. Did anyone tell you work started a few days ago on the western end of the island, 20 unexplored acres? It took us 20 years to dig one acre. So think about that, one acre, 95 percent of the site is uncovered. There is years of work ahead. I’ll fall in my last hole here, probably. I’m too excited to stop.”

On the Amtrak ride home, I worried that I would, like so many before me, convince myself that I deeply understood a complicated history after a glimpsing visit. My reported journey to Jamestown will be hopelessly outdated in 50 years, like all of the accounts I have read, starting with the ones by the settlers at Jamestown who had a late-medieval perspective and offered the world a Christians vs. savages account. Their “good Indian woman who saved the life of a white man” tale is spectacularly loved even today. In other accounts, Pocahontas has been portrayed as a brat at Jamestown; she has

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/06/pocahontas_wedding_re_enactment_john_rolfe_john_smith_and_native_americans.html

been called powerless, and even matter-of-factly a prick-tease. The divide in interpreting her story is not just between cultures; in academic circles, there are still factions with brittle pride warring over whether Pocahontas really saved John Smith from death, whether he made the story up, or whether the narrative was about a ritual drama John Smith simply didn't understand. Some experts argue about the appropriation of Pocahontas as an American Indian woman that the larger public has reduced to a “Pocahottie” Halloween outfit. None of these tropes is centered within a firm Algonquian indigenous worldview, perhaps an almost impossible task 400 years later. Divergent takes on historical events will not always be reconciled.

But even if I went to Jamestown and all my daughter got was a lousy T-shirt, I have gotten so much more out of the pilgrimage.

*Correction, June 23, 2014: This story originally misstated the date on a T-shirt showing John Rolfe proposing to Pocahontas.

http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Best_US_Historic_Destinations/

Best Historic Destinations in the USA

June 25, 2014

Plan your next historical getaway at one of the destinations on this list, compiled using your votes and the opinions of travel experts. When ranking our top picks for best stateside spots for history buffs, U.S News considered the storied pasts, preserved landmarks, notable monuments and tourist-friendly services offered in each city. Please contribute below with your vote for the best historic destination in the United States.

#1

Washington D.C.

Why go: America's capital brims with things to do. The Washington Monument, the Capitol Building, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial anchor the National Mall, which boasts a variety of other attractions. Plus, you can explore the Smithsonian musuems, free of charge.

#2

Williamsburg

Why go: Part historical town, part theatrical stage, Williamsburg hosts numerous refurbished buildings and a legion of period actors. While some consider Colonial Williamsburg to be the Disneyland of the Revolutionary War, others find the recreation educational and enjoyable.

#3

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Charleston

Why go: Walking around The Battery and spotting Fort Sumter in the distance, you may believe that you've stepped back into a gorgeous antebellum world. Should you wish to glimpse the lifestyle of the wealthy 19th-century Southern gentry, tour the Calhoun Mansion or the Nathaniel Russell House.

#4

Philadelphia

Why go: You'll see Ben Franklin's name and influence across this city. Visit Independence Hall, where Ben and company signed the Declaration of Independence. Then, pay homage to the famously cracked Liberty Bell. Afterward, dig into a classic Philly cheesesteak in South Philly.

#5

Boston

Why go: Boston is a city of American firsts. The country's first public library, first subway system, first public school and first public park belong to Boston. Here, you can stroll the same cobblestone streets as the puritans and revolutionaries. Better yet, the city makes this walk through history really easy with the Freedom Trail.

#6

http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Best_US_Historic_Destinations/

Savannah

Why go: Not so long ago, Savannah stood as the epicenter of Georgia's sophisticated gentry. The upper class built upscale townhouses around quaint squares. While some things have changed, much of Savannah has stayed the same. Explore the Owens-Thomas House and Forsyth Park to catch sight of the antebellum world.

#7

Richmond

Why go: The former capital of the Confederacy is just a two-hour drive south of Washington, D.C. The Virginia State Capitol Building reminds you of Jefferson's Monticello, and the Virginia Historical Society boasts an exhaustive collection of Civil War paraphernalia.

#8

New Orleans

Why go: Many come to New Orleans to party hard on Bourbon Street, but history-lovers will take delight in admiring sights like the French Quarter, the Cabildo and St. Louis Cathedral that mark this district. Should you desire a quieter place, try the Garden District or Chalmette Battlefield.

#9

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Santa Fe

Why go: Founded in 1610, Santa Fe boasts a colorful past. The Palace of the Governors has been around since the city’s formation. Also on Santa Fe Plaza, the St. Francis Cathedral evinces the region's Catholic heritage. Lastly, the Georgia O'Keefe Museum and the galleries along Canyon Road epitomize Santa Fe's storied artistic tradition.

#10

San Francisco

Why go: While Silicon Valley builds modern marvels, San Francisco is a treat for history buffs. The myths of Alcatraz draw conspiracy theorists and school children; the architectural achievement of Golden Gate Bridge attracts gawkers and giddy engineers; and the vibrant Castro and the Mission District bring in social progressives.

#11

San Antonio

Why go: Remember the Alamo? You'll learn about the Texas state history as you explore this historic site, where 189 Texans died fighting for their independence. Those looking for more remnants of the past should not pass up a trip to the historic missions lining San Antonio Missions National Historic Park.

#12

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Yellowstone

Why go: Ulysses S. Grant made history when he established Yellowstone National Park as the first national park in the world. Yellowstone hosts some of America's most remarkable natural sites, including Old Faithful and Mammoth Hot Springs.

http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Best_Family_Vacations_in_the_USA/

Best Family Vacations in the USA

June 25, 2014

In order to provide recommendations for a family vacation in the USA, U.S. News gathered a list of destinations that have been praised by experts for offering kid-friendly entertainment and reasonable rates. We then asked our readers to help us pick the top places in the country to visit as a family. The list below includes a variety of family vacation ideas based on votes from thousands of travelers; we hope you find these ideas helpful when planning your next trip, and we invite you to cast your vote for your favorite places below.

#1

Orlando-Walt Disney World

Why go: Known for its timeless appeal, thrill rides and performances, Disney World is engineered specifically for families, and its formula is very successful. But if you aren't up for putting on mouse ears, Orlando hosts a slew of theme parks that are sure to excite wee ones.

#2

Honolulu - Oahu

http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Best_Family_Vacations_in_the_USA/

Why go: Honolulu — especially Waikiki — offers excellent child-friendly beaches and activities, like snorkeling, swimming with dolphins and the Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park. Plus, many hotels sit along the shore, negating the need for public transportation or a vehicle.

#3

Yellowstone

Why go: Kids will get a kick out of watching Old Faithful erupt, and there's nothing quite like an afternoon hike to bring the clan together. Hotels inside the park can be expensive, so make this a BYOB (bring your own bed) vacation.

#4

Yosemite

Why go: What makes Yosemite an excellent family destination is its numerous outdoor offerings, from hiking and camping to mountain climbing and rafting. And, unlike other parks, Yosemite boasts relatively easy accessiblity (San Francisco is only a few hours away by car).

#5

Grand Canyon

http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Best_Family_Vacations_in_the_USA/

Why go: The Grand Canyon is a universally admired family destination, perhaps due to the Brady Bunch and the Griswolds. You'll find lots to do here, including hiking, kayaking, rafting and riding Grand Canyon Railway. The Grand Canyon also manages to be budget-friendly.

#6

Washington D.C.

Why go: The key to D.C.'s family appeal is the National Mall, which is surrounded by free, kid-friendly museums and renowned monuments. If you have some extra time, spend a few hours at the National Zoo (which also offers free entry) or snag a treat at one of Georgetown's cupcake shops.

#7

San Diego

Why go: The simple truth: San Diego offers 70 miles of sandy fun. When the waves start to bore little ones, the creatures at the San Diego Zoo or SeaWorld are sure to hold their interst. Plus, if you need some relief from the sun, head to the museums of Balboa Park.

#8

Myrtle Beach

Why go: Myrtle Beach lacks the diversity of other destinations on this list. But in terms of accessibility and cost, Myrtle Beach offers an excellent family getaway. Meanwhile, Ripley's Aquarium and Mount Atlanticus Miniature Golf are welcome distractions from the shoreline.

http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Best_Family_Vacations_in_the_USA/

#9

San Francisco

Why go: San Francisco is home to some excellent family-friendly attractions — Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, to name a few. The city is also close to great outdoor areas, including Yosemite National Park and Muir Woods. The only downside: It's pricey.

#10

Williamsburg

Why Go: Nearly everything in this tiny Virginia town caters to families. Colonial Williamsburg allows youngsters to immerse themselves in history. If you're visiting in the summer, don't deny the kids a chance to cool down at Water Country USA or to ride the coasters at Busch Gardens.

#11

Anaheim-Disneyland

Why go: Similar to it's Disney sister city, Orlando, Anaheim has enough mouse-themed attractions to keep parents and kids busy and smiling. Plus, Anaheim has the added benefit of its California location, which sits in close proximity to the beaches and sites of Los Angeles and San Diego.

http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Best_Family_Vacations_in_the_USA/

#12

San Antonio

Why go: San Antonio contains an abundance of family-oriented attractions, including the Alamo, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, SeaWorld and several historic parks. Add plentiful family-friendly restaurants and a relatively unique setting and San Antonio truly is a first-rate family destination.

#13

Tampa

Why Go: Trade crowded, expensive Orlando for relaxed, affordable Tampa. Mingle with manatees at the Tampa Electric Manatee Viewing Center or look for lions at Big Cat Rescue. If your family can't shake the longing for roller coasters, Busch Gardens and Adventure Island will do the trick.

http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Best_Weekend_Getaways/

Best Weekend Getaways

June 25, 2014

Sometimes, the only way to unwind after a long week is to get the heck out of town. But it can be dauting to decide where to dedicate your dollars when you only have a few days time. To help you choose the best destinations for maximizing your weekend, U.S. News — with the insight of user votes and expert opinions — ranked the best weekend getaways. We've compiled places with just the right ratio of accessibility, affordability and entertainment to leave you rejuvenated and ready to return to the grind on Monday. Vote for your favorite spots to help us determine next year's ranking.

#1

Sedona

Why go: Sedona's dazzling red rocks are sure to impress even the most jaded traveler. Adventurous visitors savor the 100-plus hiking trails that grant spectacular views. Less active travelers can take in the vistas from the Chapel of the Holy Cross or go art shopping at Tlaquepaque.

#2

Charleston

Why go: Slow it down with a trip to Charleston, South Carolina. Spanish moss-laden bed-and-breakfasts and gas lamp-lit cobblestone streets transport you to a simpler time. Stroll along The Battery or visit the vibrant Old City Market.

http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Best_Weekend_Getaways/

#3

Monterey

Why go: Higher hotel rates may deter some budget travelers, but gorgeous weather year-round makes California's Monterey a popular spot. Golfers find it hard to resist the bright green fairways of Pebble Beach. Laid-back towns like Carmel-by-the-Sea and Cannery Row offer a variety of ways to unwind.

#4

Colorado Springs

Why go: Views of purple mountains majesty and amber waves of grain make for a very photogenic weekend. Prime picture-taking real estate can be found atop Pikes Peak. Sports fans will love the Olympic Training Center and the Air Force Academy's flight demonstrations will leave all visitors in awe.

#5

Vancouver

Why go: It's hard to rival Vancouver's idyllic natural landscape: Hiking, skiing, mountain biking, whitewater rafting and boating are all easily accessible. Get your dose of the great outdoors on a picnic blanket in Stanley Park or on the sands of Kitsilano Beach.

#6

http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Best_Weekend_Getaways/

Austin

Why go: Austin sure knows how to have a good time. Sixth Street is constantly grooving to the sweet melodies of undiscovered musicians, which means you'll hear fresh tunes come Friday and Saturday night. Meanwhile, you can spend your days relaxing in Zilker Park and chowing down excellent barbecue.

#7

Williamsburg

Why go: History buffs will enjoy watching re-enactors perform in Colonial Williamsburg, while connoisseurs will relish wine-tasting at the Williamsburg Winery. And if you're traveling with kids, plan a fun day at Water Country USA or Busch Gardens.

#8

Tucson

Why go: Come for the cactus-strewn trails of Saguaro National Park, the prime golf courses in the Catalina Foothills, the palm tree-lined museums on the University of Arizona campus and the colorful adobe shops in the Barrio Histórico. Just make sure you can handle the heat, as this southern Arizona town is known for its warm weather. #9

http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Best_Weekend_Getaways/

Santa Barbara

Why go: A scenic drive north along Route 1 from Los Angeles will lead to this peaceful (and less smoggy) seaside oasis. Santa Barbara's laid-back, small-town vibes are sure to a welcome reprieve from the hectic workweek. Spend your days strolling State Street, touring the historical County Courthouse or lounging on East Beach.

#10

Kennebunkport

Why go: If your ideal weekend includes fishing, long beachside strolls and fresh lobster dinners, then Kennebunkport is your town. At this idyllic spot on Maine's southern coast, spend your day meandering through Dock Square or Walker's Point before curling up for a good night's sleep in one of the area's quaint hotels.

#11

Miami Beach

Why go: Itching for the beach without the fuss of traveling overseas? Then Miami is the place for you. At Haulover Beach Park, you'll find shores made for sunbathing, kite flying and volleyball playing. Or saunter over to South Beach, where cocktails and party people abound.

http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Best_Weekend_Getaways/

#12

Las Vegas

Why go: While some travelers look to Vegas as the ultimate escape, most people can't handle Sin City's vices for more than a few days. Two nights is just enough time to dip your feet in the pool without drowning in everything Vegas has to offer. Test Lady Luck on the Bellagio floor or shop in the Venetian.

http://www.funfindsforfamilies.com/williamsburg-with-kids-family-travel/

Williamsburg with Kids: 5 Modern Places to Visit – Family Travel

By Alissa

June 24, 2014

If you’re headed to Williamsburg with kids anytime soon, chances are Colonial Williamsburg is on your

must-see list (as it should be). But there’s also a lot to do in the Williamsburg area that’s a bit more

modern, and it would be great to find time to fit in both eras as you explore the area.

5 (Modern) Places to Visit in Williamsburg with Kids

1. Busch Gardens Williamsburg – If you’re looking to inject a little extra thrill and adventure into your

Williamsburg visit, be sure to carve out some time for Busch Gardens Williamsburg, offering

rollercoasters, rides and European themed areas.

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2. Duck Donuts - Stop in to taste these popular made-to-order sweet treats (once only found in the

Outer Banks) – and watch your donuts being made on-site as you wait. Especially fun for the little ones,

this behind-the-scenes look at how donuts are made all happens right out in the open. No appointments

necessary. Duck Donuts, Monticello Market Place Shoppes, 4655-103 Monticello Avenue, Williamsburg,

VA 23188

3. Make Your Own Pizzas at Huzzah! BBQ Grille – This was a great way to unwind after a long day of

walking the grounds of Colonial Williamsburg. The kids traded their colonial hats for chef hats and were

able to personalize their own pizzas. Be sure to complete the Colonial Williamsburg scavenger hunt for

kids and redeem your pin for a free dessert at Huzzah! too.

Please note, though: Huzzah! is a dinner-only option. We were a bit disappointed when we first arrived

at Huzzah’s (weary after a long day of walking), hoping to grab a late lunch before heading back to our

hotel (off-site) and were turned away. We thought it would be a convenient lunch option, since it’s right

on the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center grounds. We did end up returning for dinner—and we’re glad

we did—but not without considering some other options closer to our hotel. Here’s to hoping they’ll

someday open a lunch service for all that foot traffic!

http://www.funfindsforfamilies.com/williamsburg-with-kids-family-travel/

4. Virginia Living Museum – A short drive from Williamsburg in Newport News, this museum offers

several great exhibits. If you have a dinosaur fan, you’ll definitely want to visit this summer, during

their Dinos LIVE! exhibit.

5. Yankee Candle Village – Stop in at Yankee Candle Village and be prepared to explore! There are

several family-friendly activities here, including making your own candle, making a wax replica of your

hand, and generally enjoying smelling as many Yankee Candle scents as you can possibly imagine (and

probably more). Yankee Candle Village, 2200 Richmond Road, Williamsburg.

http://www.mapquest.com/travel/articles/patrick-henry-selfie-colonial-williamsburg-virginia-20909141

S U M M E R T R A V E L Q U E S T # 2 3

Get Patrick Henry to Take a Selfie By Candyce H. Stapen June 12, 2014

At Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia —the largest living history museum in the U.S.—you can interact with historical figures. The bewigged gentleman wearing spectacles leans over his demitasse at Charlton’s Coffeehouse in Williamsburg, the capital of the colonies, points to a visitor’s cellphone, raises his eyebrows and declares, “That looks like the work of the devil, madam.” This from the politician who recently risked treason because he successfully argued in Virginia’s House of Burgesses for the repeal of the Stamp Act. At Charlton’s the year is 1766, a decade earlier than the rest of Colonial Williamsburg. Revolution is still a whisper, but Mr. Henry speaks freely in private chambers with other legislators and often—but not always—mingles with fellow citizens over coffee in Charlton’s public room in the afternoons from 3 to 5 p.m.

Eyeing the device that receives messages and conjures voices out of thin air, the patriot, who will later gain fame for declaring “Give me liberty, or give me death,” informs the guest that she’s lucky the witch codes were repealed in 1736, “else you would be hung by your neck or whipped.”

Nonetheless, Mr. Henry investigates the supernatural contraption. Intrigued, he states “1766 is a 4-mile-an-hour world. The Stamp Act was repealed in March, but we did not learn of it until 2 months later. Even with a good wind and a calm sea, it takes 6 weeks for news to cross the Atlantic.”

http://www.mapquest.com/travel/articles/patrick-henry-selfie-colonial-williamsburg-virginia-20909141

Smiling, the possible sorceress taps the screen, showing the future rebel how the tool can instantly capture her image without the need for artist, oils or canvas. Amazed, Mr. Henry gives in to temptation. He raises the otherworldly mechanism carefully and, with a renegade’s smile, takes a selfie.

COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG EXPLAINED

The largest living history museum in the U.S., with 500 structures on 301 acres, Colonial Williamsburg recreates Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, England’s oldest and richest colony, in the years prior to the American Revolution. The most fun comes from interacting with personages from the past. Check the weekly program guide to find Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Patrick Henry. One-day admission is $43.95 for adults, $22 for ages 6-12 and free for kids younger than 6.

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A RICH AND VARIED CULTURE: THE MATERIAL WORLD OF THE EARLY SOUTH TO INCORPORATE TEXTILES TO COMPLETE THE EXHIBITION ON VIEW AT THE ART MUSEUMS OF COLONIAL

WILLIAMSBURG ON JULY 4, 2014

June24, 2014

Plan of the City of Washington Eve Resler (ca. 1784-1813) Probably Alexandria, Washington D.C. (now Virginia), 1800-1804 Silk embroidery threads, ink, and paint on silk with linen tape Stitches: back, cross

and split satin Colonial Williamsburg Museum Purchase, Partially funded by Cristy Bennett, Dr. and Mrs. Thomas L. Isaac and Jeannine's Sampler Seminar, 2006-26

(Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg)

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Sampler William Levington and possibly unknown maker Baltimore, Maryland, 1832 Silk and crinkled silk

on a linen ground of 28 x 28 threads per inch Stitches: cross and satin Colonial Williamsburg Museum Purchase, 1996-85

Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg

Sewing Case with Thimble Holder Fabrics: England and Europe, 1760-1800 Made in America, 1805-1820

Silk, paper and wool Colonial Williamsburg, Gift of an anonymous donor, 1971-1419

Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg

An extension of the highly acclaimed and groundbreaking exhibition, A Rich and Varied Culture: The Material World of the Early South, which opened in February at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum (one of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg), will open there on July 4, 2014. A Rich and Varied Culture: Textiles of the Early South will add a selection of important textiles, primarily from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation collection; additional pieces will be on loan from The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) at Old Salem Museums and Gardens in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and private collectors. Featuring more than 60 works, including rare examples of southern schoolgirl samplers and embroidered pictures; quilts; imports; homespun linens, cottons and wool blankets and textiles; Martha Washington mementoes and Masonic symbolism, these historic textiles add another dimension to the furniture, paintings, prints, metals (silver and pewter), ceramics, mechanical arts and arms, architectural elements, archaeological objects, rare books, maps, costumes and accessories and musical instruments that show the diversity of early southern culture in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The exhibition will remain on view through May 2016.

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“Textiles reveal a great deal about historic cultural patterns and are particularly illustrative of women’s lives and education for young girls,” said Ronald L. Hurst, the foundation’s Carlisle H. Humelsine Chief Curator and Vice President for Collections, Conservation, and Museums. “Yet they are also among the most fragile of artifacts, particularly in humid climates like that of the South. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has assembled a large and diverse collection of early southern textiles over the past eighty years and we are pleased to be able to share so much of it at one time in this exhibition setting,”

Among the myriad textiles on view in A Rich and Varied Culture: Textiles of the Early South are extraordinary examples of southern schoolgirl samplers and embroideries. As diverse as the southern geography itself, these works reflect the different cultures, religions and education of the people—both free and enslaved—who lived in the South during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Most of the schoolgirl needlework shown in this exhibition was stitched by girls between the ages of six and sixteen who worked under the careful guidance of a teacher. Two examples in the exhibition are particularly unique: the Choctaw Mission School Sampler by Christeen Baker (b. 1817), age 13, in Mayhew, Mississippi, 1830, and The William Levington Sampler from Baltimore, Maryland, 1832. The first is a rare and important work wrought by a Native American girl on the American frontier in what is now Mayhew, Mississippi. Christeen Baker was the white name given to a young native Choctaw who worked her sampler while attending the Female Mission School there in 1829 and 1830. Just three months after she completed her sampler, the Choctaws surrendered their claims to the Mayhew area in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek; in exchange, they were given lands in present-day Oklahoma to which most of them moved. It is not known what became of Miss Baker, but her surviving sampler provides a glimpse into her life and powerfully illustrates the story of cultural assimilation, women’s education and the forced removal of an indigenous people.

The second extremely rare sampler is The William Levington Sampler, made in Baltimore, Maryland, which carries the inscription, “Worked by William Levington, Rector of St. James First African P.E. Church in Baltimore and Respectfully presented to James Bosley, Esq. July 4, 1832.” (Bosley had donated land for the church—the first African-American Episcopal Church south of the Mason-Dixon line—seven years earlier.) The Reverend Levington, a free black deacon in the Episcopal Church, directed day and Sunday schools at Saint James School for the neighborhood black children. This sampler is unique among typical schoolgirl needlework by its large-scale flowers, bold border, patterning on the basket and unusual ornamental peacock-head handles. It is rare for an adult to be associated with a piece of needlework, and samplers attributed to males are so rare that their numbers are undocumented. Almost as rare are surviving samplers worked by African-Americans of either gender.

“The Choctaw Mission School sampler and the Reverend Levington presentation embroidery are remarkably rare because the majority of American schoolgirl embroideries were created by middle and upper class white girls who lived on the Eastern seaboard in the New England and the Mid-Atlantic states,” said Kimberly Ivey, Colonial Williamsburg’s curator of textiles and historic interiors. “Like the other schoolgirl embroideries and southern quilts in the exhibition, they are rich in stories of human experiences and provide an important perspective on the southern past.”

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Among the quilts on display, two by Amelia Heiskell Lauck (1760-1842) are notable. Amelia, who married Peter Lauck at the age of 19 in 1779, settled with her husband in Winchester, Virginia. Together they had eleven children, six of whom survived into adulthood. At least four quilts made by Amelia have survived, two of which are the Framed Center-Medallion and Pieced Delectable Mountains Quilts, the first created as a wedding gift for her eighth child in 1822 and another by the same name, made ca.1825, are in the Colonial Williamsburg collection (the other two are owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution). The 1822 quilt is exceptional due to its workmanship, beauty and condition. At some time in the quilt’s history, the outer border was removed and presumably used in the creation of at least one pillow cover, which survives with the quilt. Although the ca. 1825 quilt is not signed by Amelia Lauck, it can be attributed to her. Both are configured in a famed center-medallion format with concentric borders of alternation stuffed-work quilting and pieced sawtooth and zigzag patterns with eight-pointed stars in the corners and use many of the same printed cottons.

Along with these pieces in the exhibition are other items that reflect the tastes and lives of Southern Americans. A sewing case with a thimble holder, made in America between 1805-1820 of fabrics from England and Europe made between 1760-8100, was made as a memento following Martha Washington’s death in 1802. People sought ways to remember the famous first lady, and several articles of her clothing were cut into pieces and used in making items that her grandchildren were known to hand out as souvenirs to visiting friends and relatives. This sewing case, a popular and useful souvenir, was made from pieces of gowns she wore during her husband’s presidency (1789-1797).

Another item displayed in Textiles of the Early South, featured Masonic symbolism, a familiar element in southern decorative arts in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. (Freemasonry, which emphasized belief in a higher power without specifying which god, and its democratic ideals appealed to many of the South’s prominent figures, including George Washington, Peyton Randolph, Chief Justice John Marshall, James Madison and James Monroe.) A Masonic Apron worn by Andrew Estave, made in Georgetown, District of Columbia, 1789-1793, is one such example. Andrew Estave (ca. 1740-1808) was an active member of early Masonic lodges in Georgetown and the District of Columbia, and was a significant participant in the Masonic ceremonies surrounding the laying of cornerstones of the President’s House (now know as the White House) and of the nation’s Capitol. In accordance with Masonic ritual, Estave would have worn this apron at those and other historic events in the capital city.

A Rich and Varied Culture: The Material World of the Early South is a groundbreaking exhibition examining the material culture of the early South from the 17th century through 1840, and is the first of its kind to include a wide variety of media. It opened at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, one of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, on February 14, 2014. The exhibition features a dozen categories of media and represents four geographic regions of the South with more than 400 objects drawn from the Colonial Williamsburg collections, those of 10 other institutions and 14 private collections. Many of the items in the exhibition are on public view for the first time in a museum setting. Like the culture they represent, the objects are diverse, chronologically telling the story of the region’s population as it expanded westward and southward toward the frontier.

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A Rich and Varied Culture: Textiles of the Early South is curated by Ms. Ivey and Linda R. Baumgarten, curator of textiles and costumes at Colonial Williamsburg.

A portion of this installation was funded by Williamsburg residents, Carolyn and Michael McNamara, who also funded A Rich and Varied Culture: The Material World of the Early South.

About The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg

The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg include the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum is home to the nation’s premier collection of American folk art, with more than 5,000 folk art objects made during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum exhibits the best in British and American decorative arts from 1670–1830. The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg are located at the intersection of Francis and South Henry Streets in Williamsburg, Va., and are entered through the Public Hospital of 1773. Museum hours are 10

a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. For museum program information, telephone (757) 220-7724.

About The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation preserves, restores and operates Virginia’s 18th-century capital of Williamsburg, Va., as a 21st-century center for history and citizenship. Innovative and interactive experiences, such as the street theatre Revolutionary City® and the RevQuest: Save the Revolution! series of technology-assisted alternate reality games, highlight the relevance of the American Revolution to contemporary life and the importance of an informed, active citizenry. The Colonial Williamsburg experience includes more than 400 restored or reconstructed original buildings, renowned museums of decorative arts and folk art, extensive educational outreach programs for students and teachers, lodging, culinary options from historic taverns to casual or elegant dining, the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club featuring 45 holes designed by Robert Trent Jones and his son Rees Jones, a full-service spa and fitness center, pools, retail stores and gardens. Philanthropic support and revenue from admissions, products and hospitality operations sustain Colonial Williamsburg’s educational programs and preservation initiatives.

Golf in Colonial Williamsburg Virginia | Canadian Golf Traveller

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Tee Off in 1776 at Colonial WilliamsburgJUNE 7, 2014 BY BRIAN KENDALL LEAVE A COMMENT

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Legendary golf architect Robert Trent Jones, Sr. designed Golden Horseshoe Golf Club’s acclaimed Gold Course. (Image: Colonial Williamsburg)

The spirit of the American Revolution lives on at Colonial Williamsburg, a remarkable living history museum in Virginia that’s also home to groundbreaking Golden Horseshoe Golf Club.

Thomas Jefferson, a golfer?

Well, that was the tale spun in fun last autumn at Colonial Williamsburg, the renowned living history museum in Virginia that celebrates the patriots of the Revolutionary War and the early days of the United States. A bag full of antique hickory golf clubs slung over his shoulder, Jefferson—or rather, an actor portraying the American Founding Father—waxed eloquently about

Virginia’s long ties to the game, which some historians date to the 18th century.

The occasion was the 50th anniversary celebration of Golden Horseshoe Golf Club, one of the newer attractions among

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Hundreds of re-enactors in period costume fill the streets of Colonial Williamsburg. (Image: Colonial Williamsburg)

Street theatre scenes, called The Revolutionary City, occur several times daily. (Image: Colonial Williamsburg)

the dozens of original or re-created buildings and other exhibits related to colonial life found throughout the 301 acres of Colonial Williamsburg.

Built on the site of an 18th century plantation, Golden Horseshoe’s original Gold Course is an acclaimed Robert Trent Jones, Sr. beauty featuring tree-lined fairways, pinched and often sloping landing areas, and long carries to small greens.

Rees Jones, the legendary architect’s almost equally famous son, took a similarly traditional approach when he designed the meticulously groomed property’s second 18-hole layout, the Green Course, which opened in 1991.

Rounding out the lineup is the Spotswood Course, an executive-style nine-hole layout by Trent Jones, Sr. named for colonial governor Alexander Spotswood.

But no matter how beautiful Golden Horseshoe’s courses—or deep golf’s roots in the red clay of Virginia—the game plays second fiddle to the many other attractions offered at Colonial Williamsburg, which annually draws about 1.5 million visitors.

Starting in the 1920s, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and his wife, Abbey Aldrich Rockefeller, spearheaded the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s purchase and rebuilding of the historic downtown core of the city of Williamsburg, the capital of Colonial Virginia from 1699 to 1780. Together with Jamestown and Yorktown, Williamsburg is part of Virginia’s Historic Triangle.

Preserved in time are the original Courthouse and Bruton Parish Church, and reconstructed to their former glory are the Governor’s Palace, the Capitol and Raleigh Tavern. Altogether, there are more than 500 buildings in the designated Historic Area, 88 of them original.

Alehouses, theatres and the workshops of printers, coopers, cabinetmakers, wigmakers and gunsmiths are staffed by hundreds of re-enactors in period costume.

Though the final break with Britain has yet to come, in the streets of Colonial Williamsburg there is growing discontent and even calls for

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open rebellion.

An indignant, red-faced militia captain exhorts a gathering crowd to storm the Governor’s Palace, and demand the return of the weapons taken by the authorities from Williamsburg’s arsenal. One of a series of daily street theatre scenes, called The Revolutionary City, the captain’s outrage effectively draws visitors into the tension that gripped the colony.

“What we see before us,” the captain shouts, “is the erosion of the rights and liberties we have known all our lives.”

A little of that revolutionary spirit may even have infected the great Trent Jones, Sr. during the

building of Golden Horseshoe’s original Gold Course. His groundbreaking par-three 16th hole, featuring one of the game’s first island greens, has been admired and copied by golf architects ever since.

Colonial Williamsburg can have that effect.

Getting ThereThe closest commercial airport to Williamsburg is Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport, about 30 minutes away. The city is also about midway between two larger commercial airports, Richmond International and Norfolk International, each about an hour’s drive away.

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or losers at the box office? PAGE 12

Catholic teachers chided over Pride

A DRAG-OUT DRAWMexico’s Rafael Marquez collides with Brazilian poster-boy Neymar during World Cup action in Fortaleza,

Brazil, on Tuesday. No team has fared better against Brazil over the last 15 years than Mexico, which held

the host nation to a scoreless draw. Story, page 20. EDUARDO VERDUGO/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Catholic school board in Kingston is the latest to wade into the debate over whether Catholic teachers should march in Toronto’s World Pride parade.

Trustees in London, Hal-ton, York and Waterloo have come down on both sides of the issue at their boards after the provincial English Cath-olic teachers’ union voted in March to walk in the global gay-pride parade for the first time.

“This year, because it’s World Pride, the delegates at our annual meeting decided that (the union) would have a presence in the parade in support of students, teachers and others in the LGBT com-munity and their right to be

free from bullying and ha-rassment, and trying to stand in solidarity with a group that is quite marginalized,” said James Ryan, president of the Ontario English Cath-olic Teachers’ Association (OECTA).

The teachers’ participation is opposed by Parents As First Educators (PAFE), an advocacy group that has collected more than 5,000 signatures de-manding the union pull out of the event on June 29.

“As a Catholic organiza-tion, the union is obligated to support the faith in all its public activities,” said Teresa Pierre, president of PAFE, in a press release.

Ryan said he was dis-appointed by the opposition, which failed to recognize the teachers were supporting per-secuted members of the LGBT community.

Teachers are free to choose whether they will march in the parade, Ryan said.

In a public statement after

the union’s March vote, To-ronto Cardinal Thomas Col-lins said the decision demon-strated an “inadequate and mistaken understanding of their faith.”

“I understand that some of the bishops are unhappy with our participation,” Ryan said. “They probably see it as an affirmation of a way of life, whereas we would see it as a parade that celebrates diversity, and also a parade that speaks out against the discrimination that members of the GLBT community have traditionally suffered,” Ryan said. TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE

Joining in the parade.

Union argument about inclusivity falls on deaf ears of parents, bishops

NEWS WORTH SHARING.

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Them’s the rules

“It’s not congruent with church teaching. How can we openly support staff attending?” Cathy Ferlisi, a York Catholic District School Board trustee, who brought forward a suc-

cessful motion in April asking the local unit

of OECTA to not participate in World Pride

Join Colonial Williamsburg’s Edward Joyner every Friday at 4:15 pm for

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