CW Planner

Beyond Words: Bringing History to Life Responsibly

2026: A Five-Year Conference Series is sponsored jointly by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, William & Mary, and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture.

Candlelight Organ Recital - Rebecca Davy

Enjoy an organ recital in celebration of 20 years of Music Ministry at Bruton Parish.

Carriage Ride

Enjoy a leisurely ride through the Historic Area by horse-drawn carriage. Surround yourself with the sights and sounds of our unique city.

Christmas Dinner Shields Tavern

Ring in Christmas in 18th-century style while enjoying a three course traditional holiday fare.

Ciaconna: Tour of Italy

The recently formed Early Music Chamber Orchestra, Bruton Baroque, will begin its season “The Grand Tour” with a program from Italy, including music of Monteverdi and Locatelli.

Conversation: Meet a Person of the Past

Meet people of the past for some informal conversation or activity.

Conversation: Meet and Greet the Rare Breeds

Our Coach & Livestock team cares for over 100 rare breed animals, from lambs to cows to chickens to horses. Discover how they ensure these animals' safety and proper care.

DIY Craft: Quilting

Discover the story of Rita Mae Pettway, quilter, and enjoy a mini-quilting project.

Evening Program: Cry Witch

Question witnesses, weigh evidence, and determine the guilt or innocence of "the Virginia Witch." Not appropriate for young children due to subject matter and intense emotion.

Evening Program: Haunted Williamsburg

Brave centuries of scares, from 18th-century colonial ghost stories to creepy modern-day encounters!

Evening Program: Palace Concert

Colonial Williamsburg's early music ensemble, the Governor's Musick, offers an elegant evening of chamber music.

Evening Program: Revolutionary Points of View

Step back in time to the eve of the American Revolution. There are just as many opinions about war and independence as we hear about politics and religion today.

Evening Program: To Hang a Pirate

Join us in a trial of a Blackbeard crew member that occurred in Williamsburg in 1719. Hear the evidence and make a judgment!

Event: Halloween Williamsburg Old Time Radio Hour

Travel back in time to 1930s Williamsburg for a "live" radio broadcast. Immerse yourself in local legends and spooky sound effects. Join us for an unforgettable show.

Film: Williamsburg – The Story of a Patriot

See the 1957 film, in its vibrant 70mm format, that tells the story of a Virginia planter deciding to join the patriot cause.

For Donors: Visit a Nation Builder

Donors who have access to the donor reception center in the St. George Tucker House as part of their giving advantages are invited to meet with a Nation Builder.

Goodwin Room Halloween Tea

Enjoy a spooky afternoon with your family and friends while indulging in the fine Afternoon Tea at the Williamsburg Inn with a Halloween inspired menu.

Hands-On: Company of Comedians

Children of all ages! Join the Play House Players on the Duke of Gloucester Street to learn about Williamsburg’s theatre and participate in 18th-century entertainments.

Hands-On: Under Arms

Guests of all ages will step into the shoes of soldiers enlisting in the army during the American Revolution.

Hands-on: Daily Life

Participate in the daily activities of an 18th-century family at the Geddy House.

Historic Organ Recital - Norman Elton

Norman Elton, organist at Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, gives a recital on the Historic English Chamber Organ, one of Colonial Williamsburg's 18th-century instruments.

Historic Organ Recital - Rebecca Davy

Rebecca Davy, Music Director at Bruton Parish Church, gives a recital on the Historic English Chamber Organ, one of Colonial Williamsburg's 18th-century instruments.

Homeschool Hands-On: 18th-Century Astronomy

Step into the solar system as you become the planets. Discover how 18th-century scientists viewed the stars (or skies).

Homeschool Hands-On: Create Art!

Explore the Galleries at the Art Museums, then drop by the Goode Education Studio and create art inspired by objects on exhibit.

Homeschool Hands-On: Importance of Tobacco

Learn about to historic farming trade. See some tobacco firsthand and learn about how tobacco shaped the economy.

Homeschool Performance: Fashioning a Future

Jane is getting married! Join the Hunter sisters through disagreement, sisterhood, and a little magic. The Play House Players present: Fashioning A Future!

Homeschool Performance: Nation Builder

Step into the past with a Nation Builder. Through stories, discussion, and questions, explore the hopes, choices, and challenges they faced.

Homeschool Tour: Bray School Community

Join our interpreters to discover the communities connected to the Williamsburg Bray School on this 45-minute walking tour.

Homeschool Tour: Women and the Law

Uncover the stories of women who engaged with the highest levels of colonial law and government as victims, participants, and even criminals.

Museum Discoveries: The Public Hospital of 1773

Explore the Public Hospital of 1773 for a discussion about 18th-century mental health and the history of the reconstructed mental hospital.

Music: Fife & Drum

Watch and listen to the Fifes and Drums as they demonstrate the music and drill of various military ceremonies from an 18th-century soldier's working day.

Music: Fife & Drum March

The Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums, representing military field musicians, march down Duke of Gloucester Street.

Music: Governor's Musick in the Geddy House

Join members of the Governor’s Musick in the Geddy House as they illustrate domestic music on period instruments.

Music: Governor's Musick in the Palace Ballroom

Join members of the Governor’s Musick in the Palace Ballroom as they illustrate domestic gentry music using period-style instruments and performance practices.

Music: Governor's Musick in the Wythe Parlor

Join members of the Governor’s Musick in the gentry setting of the Wythe House parlor as they illustrate domestic music on period instruments.

Music: How to Play the 18th-Century Violin

The violin was played by all classes and in all settings in 18th-century Virginia. Come hear how this instrument was played; it is easier said than done.

Music: Mind the Music and the Step

Join members of the Governor’s Musick for an exploration of the political lyrics set to popular tunes at the time of the American Revolution.

Naturalization Ceremony

Ceremony conducted by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, featuring remarks by prominent Nation Builders and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Fifes & Drums.

Opera in Williamsburg: Lucia Di Lammermoor

Opera in Williamsburg presents Lucia Di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti. Live fully staged opera with world-class singers and orchestra, in Italian with English supertitles.

Organ Recital & Hymn Sing

See this elegant 350-year-old worship space and enjoy a Hymn Festival presented by the Bruton Choirs, Director Rebecca Davy, and Organist JanEl Will.

Organ Recital - Dr. JanEl Will

Enjoy a candlelit recital by Dr. JanEl Will, organist at Bruton Parish Church.

Organ Recital - Scott Hayes

Experience a candlelit recital by Scott Hayes, organist from All Saints Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, in this 350-year-old worship space.

Organ Recital - Stephen Henley

Stephen Henley, organist from Richmond, Virginia presents a candlelight recital.

Performance: All Things Are Possible

On September 5, 1791, Robert Carter III recorded an extraordinary document. Why did the largest slaveholder in Virginia do what most of his peers consider impossible?

Performance: Beyond The Walls

The scholars of the Bray school have a lot that they can learn from the tiny creatures within its walls.

Performance: Designing Virginia's Seal

Join George Mason and George Wythe as committee members to design the new seal of a free and independent Virginia.

Performance: From Freedom to Slavery

After making a free life for herself as an adopted Shawnee Indian, Methotaskee is brought back into slavery.

Performance: Good Progress

Meet Mrs. Wager, teacher of the Williamsburg Bray School, as she debates the nature of her school with Elizabeth DeRosario, a free Black woman.

Performance: Harvest's In, Fiddle's Out

Join some of the members of the Play House Players as they play 18th-century songs and dance tunes from the Williamsburg harvest season.

Performance: Is Our Love Enough

Join Sarah and Lewis Hallam as they step through the trials of marriage, family, and the theatre in the 1770s

Performance: Play House of Horror

Horror-as-entertainment was as popular in the 18th century as it is today, and in both centuries, it was fodder for fun as much as fear!

Performance: The Offering

Colonel William Byrd III, one of the most powerful loyalists in Virginia, has suddenly abandoned his allegiance to the king by seeking a commission in the Continental Army.

Performance: Two Steps Forward…

Hear different stories of the people and events that shaped America’s early history through their own actions and choices.

Performance: Visit a Nation Builder

Step into the past with a Nation Builder. Through stories, discussion, and questions, explore the hopes, choices, and challenges they faced.

Performance: Visit with Colonel George Washington

Step into the past with George Washington, Colonel of the Virginia Regiment. Through stories and questions, explore the hopes, choices, and challenges he faced.

Performance: Visit with General George Washington

Step into the past with George Washington, father of the country. Through stories and questions, explore the hopes, choices, and challenges he faced.

Performance: Visit with George Wythe

Step into the past with George Wythe, teacher, lawyer, judge, and revolutionary. Through stories and questions, explore the hopes, choices, and challenges he faced.

Performance: Visit with James Armistead Lafayette

Step into the past with James Armistead Lafayette, Enslaved Revolutionary Spy.

Performance: Visit with Jane Vobe

Step into the past with Jane Vobe, keeper of the tavern "where all the best people resorted". Through stories and questions, explore the hopes, choices, and challenges she faced.

Performance: Visit with Marquis de Lafayette

Step into the past with the Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of two worlds. Through stories and questions, explore the hopes, choices, and challenges he faced.

Performance: Visit with Martha Washington

Step into the past with Martha Washington, our Nation’s first First Lady. Through stories and questions, explore the hopes, choices, and challenges she faced.

Performance: Visit with Patrick Henry

Step into the past with Patrick Henry, the Revolution’s son of thunder. Through stories and questions, explore the hopes, choices, and challenges he faced.

Performance: Visit with Reverend Gowan Pamphlet

Step into the past with Gowan Pamphlet, revolutionary Black Baptist preacher. Through stories and questions, explore the hopes, choices, and challenges he faced.

Performance: Visit with Thomas Jefferson

Step into the past with Thomas Jefferson, The Rebellious Philosophe.

Performance: Washington and the Shawnee War

Washington had a long history with the Shawnee as allies and enemies. Come hear his perspectives on the war against the Shawnee in the frontiers of Virginia in 1774.

Performance: Washington’s Road to Revolution

Join George Washington before he leaves for Congress in 1774 to learn about how the year’s events affected life both publicly and privately on the Road to Revolution.

Presentation: Deed Without a Name

Discover the tale of this musical theater playwright, who lost his career due to public exposure of his homosexuality. Mature subject matter, audience discretion advised.

Presentation: Firing of the Noon Gun

The noon gun signaled a cessation of morning drills and work parties and a start to preparing the midday meal.

Presentation: Good Stories about Great Stuff

Join a curator, conservator, educator, archaeologist, or historian to discover who created an object, who owned it, and how it ended up in the Colonial Williamsburg Collection.

Presentation: Musket Demonstration

Military Programs staff will demonstrate the loading and firing of the musket. Experience the sounds and smells a soldier experienced during the Revolution.

Presentation: Order in the Court

After a short exploration of the Courthouse and its surroundings, participate in a local court session where lives, liberties, and property are contested.

Presentation: Rediscovering the Bray School

Discover how our interpreters and scholars are making history by exploring the untold and ongoing story of the Williamsburg Bray School.

Presentation: Researching Indigenous History

Join the American Indian Initiative team as they share their research, programming, and outreach efforts as the initiative turns twenty years old.

Presentation: The Necessity of Order in Battle

Witness a demonstration of tactics that are crucial to success in combat.

Presentation: The Shawnee and Dunmore at War, 1774

Discover how Indigenous alliances, the Proclamation of 1763, and settlers’ quest for land contributed to the 1774 Shawnee-Dunmore War and why choosing a winner isn't always clear.

Presentation: To Paint for War

Discover the warfare of the Eastern Woodlands tribes and nations and its lasting legacy in the United States.

Presentation: Two-Spirits in American Indian Life

Join a member of our American Indian Initiative as they explore the lives of two-spirit indigenous people who embody both female and male spirits.

Public Auction

Take part in an exciting auction! Bid on selected items from Colonial Williamsburg stores as well as exclusive items not available elsewhere.

Social Terrace Fall Bash

Bring your fall scarves, boots, and warm-up around the fire pits on the Social Terrace. We will have fall inspired food and cocktails and live music.

Social Terrace Tide to Table

Join us for our 2nd Annual Tide to Table event featuring local brews, oyster farmers, seafood, and music.

Special Event: A Veterans Day Salute & Procession

Join us this Veterans Day weekend for a march and ceremony honoring America's veterans.

Special Event: Celebrating Lafayette

A celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Marquis de Lafayette’s 1824 Return Visit to Williamsburg with music, pomp, and military salutes.

Special Event: Cherokee History and Culture

Join John Tooni for an evening of history and storytelling from the Cherokee culture.

Special Event: Custis Square Community Open House

Join us for a day of archaeology at Custis Square! Free flow exploration all day and conversations with George and Martha Washington.

Special Event: Dye Day at the Weaver

Join us as we recreate natural dyes and dye recipes of the 18th century to achieve a spectrum of dazzling colors.

Special Event: Firing of the Brick Kiln

Fall is time to fire the bricks! Come see the kiln fires rage as the bricks reach a temperature of over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Special Event: Ghouls, Ghosts, and Gleeful Gloom

Sing along, shiver, and quake during this delightful family-friendly program of spooky tunes and songs from these veteran performers.

Special Event: Gothic Airs on the Organized Piano

Step into the Making Music in Early America exhibit with Governor's Musick's Kyle Collins for a night of gothic-flavored music on the organized piano.

Special Event: Il Était Une Fois-Once Upon a Time

In this dramatic presentation, the Marquis de Lafayette returns to Williamsburg on October 20, 1824, and reflects upon the people and events that he experienced in his life.

Special Event: Indigenous Gown in a Day

The Mantua-makers are making a gown in a day! See what prominent northern Indigenous nations would have considered the height of fashion made with European trade goods.

Special Event: Lafayette's "Homecoming"

Commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Marquis de Lafayette’s Honorary Degree of Laws from William & Mary.

Special Event: Lighting of the Cressets

Join us on the historic Duke of Gloucester Street as we bring our 18th-century streets to life at night.

Special Event: Public Archaeology Day

Join us at Custis Square for a day of archaeology, featuring exhibits and hands-on activities with archaeologists from across Virginia! Open to the public from 10am-4pm.

Special Event: Regency Music of Barraud & Beyond

Step into the Making Music in Early America exhibit with Kyle Collins for a Classical concert on the organized piano, one of the few playable keyboards of its kind in the world.

Special Event: Salute to the Heroes

A lone bagpiper plays from the Governor's Palace in a heartfelt tribute to honor those men and women who have served in the United States Armed Forces.

Special Event: Secrets of the Chocolate Maker

Enjoy a demonstration of 18th-century chocolate-making methods.

Special Event: Splendid Settings

Mottahedeh's President and Design Director Wendy Kvalheim will look back at the founding of the company, highlighting ongoing partnerships with America’s historic properties.

Special Event: The Arts and Mysteries of Brewing

Enjoy this enlightening demonstration of the brewing process as it was practiced in the 18th century.

Special Event: The Crisis of 1798

How must a democracy work if it is to survive? How should citizens disagree? What is a loyal opposition? Explore these questions through America's constitutional crisis in 1798.

Special Event: Veterans Day Proclamation

Our Veterans Day begins at 10:00 a.m. with a ceremony on Palace Green honoring the men and women who have served in the United States Armed Forces.

Special Event: We are Everywhere

Join Professor Greg Smithers to open new insights into histories of gender diversity and sexual fluidity in Native America.

Special Events: Indigenous Short Films

Richmond's acclaimed Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival comes to Williamsburg to share a series of short films written, directed, and produced by Indigenous artists.

Street Theater: A Right to Freedom and Education

Join our 18th-century community and engage with the residents of Williamsburg as we explore multiple different perspectives about freedom, community, and education.

Street Theater: The Alternative of Williamsburg

Join the residents of Williamsburg as they consider the cost of pursuing a new government. What sacrifices would you make in support of your government?

TVHS 2024 Sunday Lecture Series Kick-Off!

Enjoy a lecture by Calder Loth, retired Senior Architectural Historian on the importance of protecting our historically significant buildings, landmarks, and properties.

Terrace Room Fall Tea

Enjoy a delightful afternoon with your family and friends while indulging in the fine Afternoon Tea at the Williamsburg Inn with a Fall inspired menu.

Tour: Arboretum Central Historic Area

Learn about some of Colonial Williamsburg's most asked-about trees, how the colonists used them, and how they continue to be important today.

Tour: Art Museums Overview

Join us on a 20-minute guided tour and enjoy some Museum favorites.

Tour: Backstory

During this guided tour, explore the stories behind the objects on display.

Tour: Bassett Trace Nature Trail Walk

Take a leisurely stroll on Bassett Trace Nature Trail and learn about Virginia’s wildlife and native habitats. If you like nature and enjoy being outdoors, this walk is for you!

Tour: Black Artists and Artisans

Enjoy a guided tour of the exhibit “'I made this': Works by Black Artists and Artisans."

Tour: Bray School Community

Join our interpreters to explore and discover the communities connected to the Williamsburg Bray School on this one-hour walking tour.

Tour: Custis Square Archaeology

Take a guided tour and talk with archaeologists in the field about the current archaeological investigations at John Custis IV’s four-acre home and early 18th-century gardens.

Tour: Good Stories about Great Stuff

Explore the galleries with a curator, conservator, educator, archaeologist, or a historian on this guided tour.

Tour: Meet the Gardener

Garden volunteers answer questions about growing flowers and vegetables in the Historic Area.

Tour: Nassau Street, Past, Present, and Future

Join us for a walking tour and learn how a century of archaeology is contributing to a dynamic past, present, and future on Nassau Street.

Tour: Stables Behind-The-Scenes

Get a behind-the-scenes look at our modern stables and learn more about our carriages.

Tour: Williamsburg Lost & Found

Explore the history of Williamsburg through objects on exhibit during this guided tour.

W&M Homecoming Weekend Tailgate Party

Join us at the Sweet Tea & Barley Patio on Saturday, October 19, 2024, from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. for the ultimate W&M Homecoming Tailgate Party!

Winston Churchill: Defending Liberty

This stirring, inspirational “Theatrical Keynote” brings Winston Churchill’s keen, incisive message of hope to the 21st Century.

Winston Churchill: Man of the Century

Journey with Winston from his 18th Century upbringing through his various careers and ultimately exploring his lasting legacy of leadership and its meaning in the 21st Century.

Winston Churchill: The Blitz

London 1940. Never have so many been so inspired by one man heroically leading the British people to Victory from a Rooftop. The audience lives through one night with Winston.