Annual Antiques Forum

About the Conference

Colonial Williamsburg’s 79th Annual Antiques Forum invites you to explore how close attention to objects and interiors can open new perspectives on history, revealing stories that extend far beyond questions of style and connoisseurship.

Bringing together scholars, curators, conservators, collectors, and historians, the 2027 Antiques Forum will consider the many ways objects can illuminate the past. From the richly colored interiors of a Shaker community and the furnishings of Queen Mary II’s Kensington Palace to Long Island furniture reflecting the contributions of Indigenous, enslaved African, and European craftspeople, the sessions will examine how material culture reflects—and sometimes challenges—our understanding of society, identity, taste, and power.

Several lectures will explore the journeys of objects through time. Portraits by Gilbert Stuart prompt questions about provenance, ownership, memory, and the enduring power of George Washington’s image, while the dispersal and gradual reassembly of furnishings from Monticello demonstrate how objects can leave their original settings, acquire new meanings, and ultimately return to reshape our understanding of a historic place. The life and work of collector and dealer Cora Ginsburg similarly opens a window onto the networks through which textiles and decorative arts were discovered, studied, traded, and preserved.

Other presentations turn to the revelations that emerge when familiar objects and historic buildings are examined anew. The reinstallation of woodwork at Edenton’s Cupola House is prompting a reassessment of its architecture, patron, and trans-Atlantic influences and the study of Ohio pottery and other ceramics demonstrates how seemingly commonplace objects can reveal technology, commerce, domestic life, and changing patterns of taste. A case study of Boscobel House & Gardens examines the institution’s emergency response to a structural crisis, highlighting the comprehensive stabilization measures and innovative public programming that enabled operations to continue while the site was secured.

Whether through provenance research, conservation science, architectural investigation, material analysis, or the stories embedded in collections, this year’s Forum will demonstrate how antiques continue to yield new information—and how changing our questions can change our understanding of the past.

Colonial Williamsburg’s 79th Annual Antiques Forum celebrates the detective work, scholarship, and curiosity that bring objects and historical spaces back to life, inviting us to look again at the things we thought we knew and discover the histories still waiting to be told.

Registration launching Fall 2026