The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Earned Media Coverage

September 18, 2014

lmm lolksy to lunky,

Handnade legacies

That Tdl Stories

Quilt scholars are debunking afew mlths this fall.I "People think of quilts as nostal-gia, and we have to get teyondthat," the textiles historian anddealer Laura Fisher, who runs theFhher Heritage gal€ry in NewYork, said while leafing through acofiee table book by one of her cus-tomers, the colector RoderickKiracofe. The book, "Unconven,tional & Un€xpected: AmericanQuilts Below the Raalar 1950-2000'(Ste\'/art, Tabori & Chang/Abrams), is ful of bedcovers thatshe describes as "tunky, maverickkind of quilts."

Mr. Kimcole has also heard his300 pieces caled "the ugly quilts,"he said in an interview. He startedlooking for unusual quilts in 2004,after decades of focusing on moretraditional pre{940s patchworks.Loud colors and aslmmetricalstripes attract him, as do scraps ofsyntheticprints,perhapsr€cycledtrom 1950s upholstery and 1970s

.. A third of his quilts, which B?i-cally cost a lew h'rndred dollarseach (fmm surces including theQuilt Complex in Albion, Calii),were never finished. The backingsexpose l{nots, seams and paper lin-lings, incllrding Sears catalog ads

i!9r poodle skins, inaatable s]vim-tmrnS poors, campmg €qurpmenrlind spice mcks. A show oi Mr.lKiracote's collection opens nextiFebfuary at the Sonoma Va.lley

,Museun of Art in Sonona, Carif.- In some cases, the makers' iden''titieshave ben lost, paltly bFcause famiLiesdid not warr anyone

Ito know they had lallen on hardItimes and were selling the! quilts.:Mr Kimcofe continues to resedchjin a.chives, dd until he can verifyiiamily history that came wilh thetextiles, he said, "I'm not passing, on that information as fact.",. Ms. Fishef faces similarobsta-cles. "I get so many things withnotes on them that are wrong," she

The book "Four Centuries of

A quilt made of suede, polyestei ed upholstery fabric found inttuisianaand made sometime afier the 1970s.

flags and Adm. GeorAe Dewey.The museum acquir€d it in

1986, and the sralf stil hopes' someone will emerge who re-memh€rs seeing it on an mces-tral bed or wall..One theory abourits maker, said Claudia J. Nahson,the exhibition's curator, is thatshe sew€d the center panels b€-fore leaving Russia and rhen add-ed a sporty and patrioiic Ameri-can border to demomtrate herfamily's quick acsim anon.

"Eye on Elegance: Early Quiltsof Maryldd and Virainia,' ashow opening on ocL 3 at theDaughten of the Amedcan Re!o-lution Museum in Washington,features an 184& star-pattsnedcotton quilt long belie!€d to bethe bandiwork oi a Maryland ma-triarch. Research now shows thatshe stit€h€d it alter her familymoved to Texas, and femaleslaves there probably help€d her.

Other fall exhibitions concen-trate on quilts with star motils (at. the Shelburne Museum in Shel-bme,Vt.); quilB made by men(at the Vireinia Quilt Museum inHarrisonburg); quilts made forchildren (at the Los Angelescounty Museum ofArt); thosemostly made in Cormecticut (atthe New Britain Museum ofAmerican kt); thos€ used inNe\r England (st the ConcordMuseum in Concord, Mass.); andthose deploy€d in World War I (atthe New England Quilt Museumin bwell, Mass.). Tb€re are alsorecent and forthcohing book onthe qults of lrdi4 Pennsyl%niaand Colorado, and the hundr€dsof red'ard-$bite quilts that belong to the Manhattan philan-thropist Joanna S. Rose,

Panela Weeks. the curator ofthe New England Qujlt Museum,is now frnishing a book :iboutmidt9rh-century variants €Iedpotholders, pieced together fromsquar$ with bold silhouettes. Adozen snnilar ones, made bywomen in Maine, have turnedup; one was found through an'Antiques Roadshow:' taping lastyee in Boise, Idaho.

Ms. W€eks said that because ofher drive to explore the subject,she has become known in quilt-ing circles as Potholder Pam.

Quilts:-The Colonialwilliams- . .

burg Colection;' by the curatorsLinda Baumga*en and Kimlredv .

Smith lvey, due nen month fromYale Univefsity Pr€ss, deh€s intothe genearogies of craftswomen,jrcluding a Maine bluebetrt,farn€r, a Brookbn philanthropistand an Alabama housekeeper.

An 1860s swath of silk he!a-gons has been attributed to aPhiladeiphia teenager. I-ouisPhiUippi, and his sisters, andthey n€ver finished iL The fam-ily's typemitten label explains

that fdr Louis, the ldborious seiv-ing project "was the cause of hisrunning away from home andjoining the Uniqn Army at theage of14l'

Througb February, the JewishMuseum in New York is displav-ing d 1890s American quilt madefor Jewish immigrants ffom Ruesia who ha!€ not yet b€en identifi€d. Someone beaded and €m-broidered the velvet b€dcover'with images of tennis rackets,Russian folk dscer€, circus per-rormerc, butterfl ies, Americd

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THE NEWYORKTIMES, FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 5,20T4

Things To Do in the Fall in Williamsburg

9.16.14

Events and Festivals

3. Tavern Ghost Walks – Learn of the ghosts that still haunt the taverns and historic buildings of Colonial Williamsburg. This family-friendly program is suitable for all ages and is wheelchair- and stroller-friendly. Enjoy spirited and interactive 21st-century folklore of the Revolutionary City. Tours leave from Shields Tavern.

http://www.tidewaterparent.com/2014/09/16/things-fall-williamsburg/

15 Things to Do with Kids in Williamsburg SEPTEMBER 2, 2014 BY ERIN GIFFORD

As a final getaway before the school bell rang, I took my kids to the Williamsburg, Virginia area for a couple of days of sightseeing around town and

splashing it up at Kingsmill Resort. It’s been ages since I’d been to the area – known as America’s Historic Triangle, which also includes Jamestown and

Yorktown – and I was excited by how much there is to do (and not everything is historic in nature). Take a look at 15 must-do’s if you’re considering a trip

to the Williamsburg area as a family.

1. Dress Up in Period Costume. In Colonial Williamsburg, kids can rent costumes to get into the spirit of what it was like to live in the 18

th century.

Children will also receive a letter of introduction to city life and a list of activities to participate in around historic Williamsburg.

2. Hunt for Fossils. Enjoy a short hike to Fossil Beach at York River State Park to hunt for fossils that get washed onto shore. You should be able to spot

quite a few shells and coral on the beach, too. However, in order to preserve the park, take only pictures, leave only footprints, as the saying goes.

3. Go on a Ghost Walk. Learn about ghosts that haunt historic taverns and buildings in Colonial Williamsburg. There are several ghost walks in-town. My

parents recently took my older daughters (ages 9 & 11) on the one-hour Tavern Ghost Walk and found the walk to be both interesting and kid-friendly.

4. Walk in the Treetops. I took my 5 y.o. son, Paul, to Go Ape in Williamsburg to complete theTreetop Junior course. Once we got harnessed up, we

walked along wooden boards and metal wires 20 feet above the ground before zipping back down to the ground. So. Much. Fun.

5. Enjoy a Guided Segway Tour. Meet up with Patriot Tours in Yorktown for a one- or two-hour historical Segway tour of Yorktown. The tour includes the

waterfront area as well as the historic village along Main Street. Quick note that the minimum age to ride a Segway is 14.

6. Sit In on a Witch Trial. Become part of a jury, ask questions of witnesses and consider evidence as you determine the fate of a suspected witch in a

mock witch trial. Cry Witch lasts one hour and takes place on Friday evenings in Colonial Williamsburg.

7. Explore Jamestown Settlement. Climb aboard replicas of three colonial ships at Jamestown Settlement, then pop in and out of shops and dwellings at

the re-created James Fort and Powhatan Indian Village. Look for hands-on demonstrations, like artillery drills, that take place throughout the day.

8. Complete a RevQuest Mission. Break secret codes, hunt for clues and exchange secret messages as part of RevQuest, an interactive game to be played

in Colonial Williamsburg. Kids meet characters along the way who aid their quest to declare independence from Great Britain. It’s a fun way to learn about

revolutionary history.

9. Take a Guided Tour of Bassett Hall. Stop in the manor home of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller. See how the Rockefellers lived at Bassett Hall and take

a walk through the Colonial Revival gardens. Bassett Hall is open for guided tours on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

10. Play Mini Golf. Sometimes, you just need to take a break from historic and educational activities, so get in a round at one of several mini golf courses

around town. My kids really enjoyed Pirate’s Cove, but you can also check out Gold Rush Mini Golf and Catfish Cove Mini Golf.

11. Take a Driving Tour Through Yorktown. It’s easy to explore the nearby Yorktown Battlefield by way of a self-guided driving tour. Simply pop in a CD

that you can purchase at the Visitor Center into your CD player for an audio guide along the seven miles of the driving tour.

12. Eat at a Pancake House. Yes, eat at a pancake house. Truly, there must be more pancake houses in the Williamsburg area per capita than in any other

area of the country. A few worth checking out includeAstronomical Pancake House, Old Mill Pancakes and Capitol Pancake House.

13. Walk the William & Mary Campus. Just steps away from Colonial Williamsburg is the campus ofWilliam & Mary, the second oldest college in the

country. Walk around the grounds and don’t forget to stop in the Campus Shop to pick up a t-shirt or coffee mug to mark your visit.

14. Enjoy a Pirate Boat Tour. Hop aboard a schooner for a 90-minute pirate cruise with Yorktown Sailing Charters. Kids will love interacting with a

costumed crew as they learn to raise the sails and steer the boat. As a bonus, pirate-themed tattoos.

15. Discover Creatures Native to Virginia. Make the short drive to Newport News to pay a visit to theVirginia Living Museum. There, children can touch

live horseshoe crabs, walk along the outdoor boardwalk trail and see otters and turtles being fed. It’s a great way to learn about Virginia wildlife.

A quick tip for those looking to save a few dollars on a visit to the Historic Triangle area, head to McDonald’s to pick up a visitor’s guide, which contains

many money-saving coupons. I found three different guides, each with coupons, inside a McDonald’s near Kingsmill Resort.

New Colonial Williamsburg lab unravels secrets of the 1700s

9.16.14

By Mark St. John Erickson

No one who works forColonial Williamsburg's vast and perpetually busy collections department signs up for the job because they think it will be easy.

Starting with nearly 70,000 examples of American and British fine, decorative and mechanical art, this world-famous cultural hoard also includes some 5,000 pieces of American folk art, more than 20 million archaeological artifacts and 15,000 architectural fragments — all of whose long-term survival depends upon professional care and feeding.

Throw in 528 buildings and the never-ending task of studying, monitoring and conserving a host of rare objects ranging from historic structures to 250-year-old garden seeds looks even more epic.

But with the opening of a new materials analysis lab, the relatively modest corps of several dozen conservators, technicians and volunteers who carry out the bulk of this work now has a small battery of advanced new scientific instruments that can help them do the job more smartly and quickly.

http://www.vagazette.com/news/dp-nws-cw-conservation-lab-20140916,0,4316234.story

Overseen and operated by CW's first full-time materials analyst, these same devices are also opening new windows into the 18th-century world through their uncanny ability to unravel the physical secrets of many objects with an accuracy and speed that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago.

"The XRF is a great piece of equipment — completely point and shoot — and it will give you a lot of very accurate information about an object very quickly," CW director of conservation David Blanchfield says, describing a handheld instrument known as an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer.

"If you point it at a piece of metal — say a piece of silver — it will tell you exactly what it's made of in 30 seconds. And that's invaluable when you're deciding how to take care of an object."

Scientific bent

Outfitted with a suite of laboratory-grade cabinets furnished by Georgia-based LOC Scientific, the new materials center inside the Wallace Collection & Conservation Building looks more like something you'd see in a major hospital or industrial lab than in a cultural and historical institution.

It also represents the cutting edge of change in a field that has evolved rapidly over the past few decades from the job of restoration to conservation — and from an art to a science, Blanchfield said.

Three decades ago, Colonial Williamsburg operated only one conservation lab — and that was devoted to wood and furniture.

That number has grown to nine since the opening of the foundation's 75,000-square-foot Wallace collections complex in 1997, enabling conservators to add archaeological materials, musical instruments and mechanical arts, objects, paintings, paper, textiles and upholstery as well as preventive conservation to their mission of preserving an often irreplaceable cultural legacy.

Even before the facility was completed, the staff envisioned the need for a materials lab and lobbied for the allocation of a dedicated space that could be used for that purpose sometime in the future.

But not until recently did the foundation begin acquiring various pieces of equipment and conducting analyses of its own rather than contracting the work out to other sources.

"It's been a pretty dramatic change," says Ron Hurst, vice president for collections, conservation and museums, describing a shift that started with the acquisition of the XRF in 2007.

"Twenty years ago, you would have been talking about a room-size proposition and a cost of $1 million compared to something that today costs $50,000 and is about the size of a hair dryer."

Probing the past

Following that change in direction, it didn't take long to realize that the XRF and the sophisticated analytical instruments that followed in 2009 and late 2013 — largely through the generosity of California donors Clint and Mary Turner Gilliland — needed a dedicated specialist and lab space if they were to be employed to their fullest.

http://www.vagazette.com/news/dp-nws-cw-conservation-lab-20140916,0,4316234.story

So this past January the foundation hired Kirsten Travers Moffitt — a graduate of the Winterthur Museum/University of Delaware Art Conservation Program — who had spent three years at Colonial Williamsburg studying and analyzing painted surfaces in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum's early-1800s Carolina Room as well as numerous Historic Area structures.

"This is one of the few institutions in the world where architectural paint analysis is a paramount goal," says Moffitt, whose prior conservation experience ranges from period wall papers and decorative painting to metals.

"And here it's not simply about analyzing the colors and finding out what they looked like but how they were used and what they meant in the 18th century. So it's very exciting."

Revealing secrets

Equipped with a state-of-the-art infrared micro-spectrometer, fluorescence microscope and microscope colorimeter as well as the XRF, Moffitt has already conducted numerous pigment analyses for the foundation's paper, archaeological materials and furniture labs as well as identifying metals and other materials for the objects conservator.

She's also performed paint analyses for the architectural research and architectural resources departments, using her instruments to not only view the paint layers in cross section but also identify their ages, ingredients and original colors.

Among the discoveries that resulted was the existence of an earlier color and simpler casework than was previously suspected inside the public rooms of the Geddy House on Duke of Gloucester Street.

"Previous studies had identified a kind of gray color on the trim. But I found evidence of a bright green, very expensive verdigris pigment that had been used only on the inner trim and the doors," Moffitt says.

"That told us that the trim had originally been simpler — and then added on to later — giving us a much better idea about the physical history of the space."

Other analyses have included various kinds of materials, residues and coatings, resulting in findings that have not only helped conservators, curators and other researchers better understand an object's composition and condition but also provided insights into its history and authenticity.

In one recent case, Moffitt's instruments helped untangle the mystery of an otherwise unidentifiable and undateable bottle repair that needed attention after starting to turn yellow.

"It was an 18th-century glass apothecary bottle with an old repair to the neck. But we couldn't figure out how old the repair was or how it was done," objects conservator Tina Gessler says.

"When the analysis told us it was epoxy, we were surprised — because it looked like it had repaired much earlier. But once we knew what it was we knew exactly what to do."

http://www.vagazette.com/news/dp-nws-cw-conservation-lab-20140916,0,4316234.story

‘To Support and Defend’ Celebrates Constitution Day with Music, Interpreters

9.14.14

Celebrate the signing of the Constitution on Wednesday in Colonial Williamsburg.

The sixth annual “To Support and Defend” event starts at 7 p.m. in Merchants Square.

The free program is in tribute to the country’s founding document, and will include music and speeches to honor the anniversary of the signing of the document on Sept. 17, 1787. It also pays tribute to the bicentennial of the “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which was penned by Francis Scott Key on Sept. 14, 1814, during the War of 1812.

Members of the USAF Heritage of America Band and the USA Training and Doctrine Command Band, both stationed locally, will perform as a combined ensemble. Colonial Williamsburg’s Fifes and Drums will join them, playing their own selections along with works by well-known American composers.

The evening will also feature guest narrators, including Colonial Williamsburg interpreters Ron Carnegie as George Washington and Bryan Austin as James Madison.

Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets.

A rain date is scheduled for Thursday.

http://wydaily.com/2014/09/14/to-support-and-defend-celebrates-constitution-day-with-music-interpreters/?cat=hometown/

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

Career Corner

Tune in to WMBG AM 740

http://www.wmbgradio.com/