2008 SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Jamestown Settlement & Yorktown Victory Center
February 1-29: From Africa to Virginia – Guided gallery tours and a special gallery brochure highlight the culture of the first known Africans in Virginia, from the kingdom of Ndongo in Angola, and the experience of Africans in 17th-century Virginia. Tours of the museum’s outdoor riverfront discovery area will compare boatbuilding, fishing and metalworking skills used by Africans in Angola with technology used in 17th-century Virginia. Jamestown Settlement
February 16: Curator Gallery Tours – Curator-led tours provide an in-depth look at the history, artifacts and re-created structures in expansive museum galleries that tell the Jamestown story. The 75-minute tours begin at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Pre-registration available. Tours also held March 15 and August 2. Jamestown Settlement
March 15-16: Military Through the Ages – Re-enactment groups depicting soldiers and military encounters throughout history join forces with modern-day veterans and active units to demonstrate camp life, tactics and weaponry. Jamestown Settlement
March 15: Curator Gallery Tours – Curator-led tours provide an in-depth look at the history, artifacts and re-created structures in expansive museum galleries that tell the Jamestown story. The 75-minute tours begin at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Pre-registration available. Tours also held August 2. Jamestown Settlement
May 10: Jamestown Landing Day – Maritime demonstrations, military drills, children’s entertainment, archaeology and programs on English and Powhatan Indian contact, English exploration and discovery mark the 1607 founding of Jamestown, America’s first permanent English colony. This special event features Jamestown Settlement’s re-created ships sailing in the James River and an educational program with a NASA astronaut comparing 17th- and 21st-century methods of exploration, and at Historic Jamestowne, a commemorative ceremony and ongoing archeological excavations of the 1607 James Fort. Separate admission. A jointly sponsored event at Jamestown Settlement & Historic Jamestowne
June 1-30: Seed to Stalk Theme Month– American agriculture of the 17th and 18th centuries is examined through comparison of Powhatan Indian and European methods of planting and cultivating crops grown for sustenance and crops grown for profit. Visitors can tend and water gardens and learn about the many practical uses of herbs and plants. Jamestown Settlement & Yorktown Victory Center
June 7: African American Heritage Day – African storytelling, music, dancing, genealogy workshops, children’s activities and historical museum exhibits explore the origins of the first documented Africans to arrive in Virginia, in 1619, and the important role of Africans and African Americans in the development of Virginia. Presented in partnership with the Virginia African American Forum. Jamestown Settlement
June 14: Family Day: Planting a Settlement – Through guided gallery tours and a special children’s gallery brochure, learn about English, Powhatan and west central African family member roles in planting and harvesting crops. Participants can make plant prints using types of plants grown by each of the three cultures that converged at Jamestown. Pre-registration available. Jamestown Settlement
July 4-6: Liberty Celebration – Tactical drills, military exercises and role-playing demonstrations salute America during the Fourth of July holiday. Visitors can learn about the sacrifices of our nation’s founders, including those who signed the Declaration of Independence. Yorktown Victory Center
July 12: Family Day: Jamestown Trailblazers – Discover stories of John Smith, Pocahontas, Queen Njinga and other 17th-century “trailblazers” through guided gallery tours and a special children’s gallery brochure. Families can make a compass rose to guide them on their own adventures. Pre-registration available. Jamestown Settlement
July 26: Virginia Indian Heritage Day – Intertribal dancing and drumming, panel discussions, themed museum tours and hands-on children’s activities honor Virginia Indian cultures and their important legacy in America. Presented in partnership with the Virginia Indian community. Jamestown Settlement
August 1-31: Pastimes of Colonial Virginia Theme Month– Music, games, storytelling and other diversions of 17th- and 18th-century Virginia are shown through hands-on activities and interpretive programs. Visitors can play corncob darts, ninepins, quoits, mancala and nine-men’s morris. Jamestown Settlement & Yorktown Victory Center
August 2: Curator Gallery Tours – Curator-led tours provide an in-depth look at the history, artifacts and re-created structures in expansive museum galleries that tell the Jamestown story. The 75-minute tours begin at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Pre-registration available. Jamestown Settlement
August 9: Family Day: Pastimes and Pleasures – Explore aspects of children’s work, education and play in the 17th century through guided gallery tours and a special children’s gallery brochure. Families can make and play games of corncob darts and nine-men’s morris. Pre-registration available. Jamestown Settlement
September 27: Children’s Day – A festive day of children’s 17th-century games, music, juggling, stilt walking, fire eating, puppet shows, storytelling and hands-on crafts. Jamestown Settlement
October 11: Legacy Lecture: “Guns, Germs, and Steel”– Jared Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at the UCLA School of Medicine, will discuss his Pulitzer-Prize winning book that examines the environmental impacts that have shaped human history over the last 10,000 years. Lecture begins at 7 p.m.; reservations recommended. Jamestown Settlement
October 18-19: Yorktown Victory Celebration – Military life and artillery demonstrations mark the 227th anniversary of America’s momentous Revolutionary War victory at Yorktown, on October 19, 1781. To experience Continental Army life firsthand, visitors can enroll in “A School for the Soldier,” and try on uniforms, drill with wooden muskets and join in other hands-on military activities. Special programs also are held in Yorktown and at Yorktown Battlefield, administered by the National Park Service. Yorktown Victory Center
November 27-29: Foods & Feasts of Colonial Virginia – Virginia foodways are featured during this three-day event beginning on Thanksgiving Day. At Jamestown Settlement, learn how food was gathered, preserved and prepared on land and at sea by Virginia’s English colonists and Powhatan Indians. At the Yorktown Victory Center, learn about typical soldiers’ fare during the American Revolution and trace the bounty of a 1780s farm from field to kitchen. Jamestown Settlement & Yorktown Victory Center
December 20-January 4, 2009: A Colonial Christmas – Holiday traditions of 17th- and 18th-century Virginia are recalled through special interpretive programs. At Jamestown Settlement, a film and guided tours compare and contrast English Christmas customs of the period with how the season may have been observed in the difficult early years of the Jamestown colony. At the Yorktown Victory Center, hear accounts of Christmas and winter in military encampments during the American Revolution and glimpse holiday preparations on a 1780s Virginia farm. Jamestown Settlement & Yorktown Victory Center
SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS
Through April 9, 2008: “The World of 1607”– This one-year special exhibition that opened in 2007 for the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown portrays a larger world of discovery, strife, expansion, innovation, artistic expression and cultural exchange. The exhibition is divided into four distinct cycles, each approximately three months in duration, with its own topics and artifacts. Jamestown Settlement
July 15-October 15, 2008: “A New World: England’s First View of America” – The watercolor drawings of John White, the earliest visual record by an Englishman of the flora, fauna and people of the New World, are presented in an exhibition from the British Museum. White accompanied a number of expeditions sponsored by Sir Walter Raleigh to Virginia in the 1580s and was governor of the short-lived colony at Roanoke Island, part of modern North Carolina. Scenes of the Algonquian-speaking people of the region, as well as of other parts of the Americas and peoples of the world are among the more than 70 White drawings in the exhibition.
Companion lecture series: July 19 – “Roanoke’s Achievement,” Karen Ordahl Kupperman; August 9 – “Tassentasse in Tsenacomoco: Native People and the English, 1560-1622,” Daniel K. Richter; September 20 – “Painting in Elizabethan England: John White in Context,” Karen Hearn. Lectures begin at 7 p.m.; reservations recommended. Jamestown Settlement
2008 Admission: A combination ticket to both museums is $19.25 for adults and $9.25 for youth ages 6- 12. Jamestown Settlement is $13.50 for adults, $6.25 for youth; the Yorktown Victory Center is $9.25 for adults and $5.00 for youth. An annual pass to both museums is $35.00 for adults and $17.50 for youth. Special events/programs included in admission.
Pre-registration for Curator Gallery Tours is available at (757) 253-4970 or rsvp.tours@jyf.virginia.gov. Pre-registration for Family Day programs is available at (888) 868-7593 toll-free, (757) 253-4939 or group.reservations@jyf.virginia.gov. All evening lectures are free; reservations recommended at (757) 253-4415 or rsvp.lecture@jyf.virginia.gov.
Operating Hours: Museum hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily year-round (until 6 p.m. June 15 through August 15). Both museums are closed on Christmas and New Year’s days.
Location: Jamestown Settlement is located on State Route 31 in James City County, just southwest of Williamsburg, and adjacent to Historic Jamestowne. The Yorktown Victory Center is located on Route 1020 in Yorktown, near the Yorktown Battlefield. The museums are separated by a 30-minute drive along the Colonial Parkway.
General Information: Call (888) 593-4682 toll-free or (757) 253-4838.
Jamestown Settlement and the Yorktown Victory Center are administered by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia accredited by the American Association of Museums.
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