The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) houses one of the world’s great cultural resources, with collections representing the Native peoples of the Americas from their earliest history to the present day. Infinity of Nations presents more than two hundred of these works chosen from nearly seven hundred objects of cultural, historical, and aesthetic importance on view at the museum’s George Gustav Heye Center in New York. Please visit this free online source of extraordinary images HERE.

Tova has been living in a tiny cabin in the forest for 8 years. In this video she gives you a tour of her home. This is a vlog about our struggles and joys of living off the grid in the forests of Jämtland, Sweden. See and hear her story HERE.

Harvard University Professor John Stauffer talks about African Americans and the Civil War. He examines Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, focusing on the president’s claim that secession was unconstitutional. He also teaches about President Lincoln’s efforts to keep the border states in the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the involvement of black soldiers in the Union and Confederate armies HERE.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of African and African American music to the United States’ musical traditions. Steven Lewis, a Curator of Music and Performing Arts at the Smithsonian, notes that “African American influences are so fundamental to American music there would be no American music without them.” Jon Beebe, a Jazz pianist, professional musician, and an interpretive ranger at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, leads us on an exploration of how and why African rhythms and beats came to play important roles in the musical history and musical evolution of the United States HERE.

Tidewater Virginia was the center of the first sustained English settlements in North America. For two centuries its houses and towns were clustered along its waterways, which often served in the stead of any overland roads. Virginia's waterways played a major role in the colony's economy at every level. Please join interpreter Michael Romero to learn about the enslaved and free Black mariners of 18th-century Virginia HERE.

In the 1770's, Black residents made up more than half of Williamsburg's population. The majority were enslaved, but some free Black residents lived, worked, and had families in the city. Today, the African American Interpretation program at Colonial Williamsburg is the oldest and largest of its kind in the nation. Please join actor Interpreters Katrinah Carol Lewis, Deirdre Jones, Jamar Jones, and Jeremy Morris as they reflect upon the meaning of freedom to free Black residents of 18th century Williamsburg HERE.

When Gowan Pamphlet was ordained in 1772, he became the only ordained black preacher of any denomination in the colonies. Inspired by the Great Awakening, Pamphlet preached a message of equality before God during the Revolution. He followed his calling to build Williamsburg’s First Baptist Church, which continues to this day. Please join Senior Pasto Gowan Pamphlet in 1800 as he discusses his growing congregation HERE.

Episode one-hundred and eight, in which we show you what an ordinary day looks like for a young Swedish family at Talasbuan. See and hear their story HERE.

African chattel slavery, the predominant type of slavery practiced in colonial North America and the early United States, did not represent one monolithic practice of slavery. Practices of slavery varied by region, labor systems, legal codes, and empire. Slavery also wasn’t just about enslavers enslaving people for their labor. Enslavers used enslaved people to make statements about their social status, as areas of economic investment that built generational wealth, and as a form of currency. Join Nicole Maskiell, an associate professor of History at the University of South Carolina and the author of Bound By Bondage: Slavery and the Creation of the Northern Gentry HERE.

Harvard University Professor John Stauffer talks about African Americans and the Civil War. He examines Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, focusing on the president’s claim that secession was unconstitutional. He also teaches about President Lincoln’s efforts to keep the border states in the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the involvement of black soldiers in the Union and Confederate armies HERE.

Williamsburg at the time of the revolution was half African American, half European American. Yet its fight for freedom began as a one-sided war. How do we survive our wars of slavery, freedom, and independence, and how do we form of our past a better future? Join Randolph House supervisor Janice Canaday LIVE to learn about storytelling and the significance of oral tradition HERE.

Ever wonder what it takes to plan and implement a new exhibition in a museum? See what is done at Colonial Williamsburg’s Art museums to bring an exhibit to guests. From inception to theme development, object choices to label writing, gallery design to mount construction, join us for a visit with the conservation, curatorial and exhibits staff HERE.

As the Getting Word African American Oral History Project approaches its 28th anniversary, a new generation of descendants is rising. Active in education, the arts, politics, and in their communities, they share an ambition: racial and social justice. Join us for a virtual conversation with three descendants of Monticello’s enslaved community: historian Andrew M. Davenport, artist Jabari C. Jefferson, and activist Myra Anderson as part of Monticello’s annual Black History Month programming HERE.

Williamsburg at the time of the revolution was half African American, half European American. Yet its fight for freedom began as a one-sided war. Join Colonial Williamsburg for a conversation on Williamsburg’s Black community from its founding through today. Our US: Past, Present, Future panelists this month include Bobby Braxton, Williamsburg City Council member and community leader, Janice Canaday, supervisor of Colonial Williamsburg’s Randolph House and lifelong Williamsburg resident, and Brian Smalls, former York-James City-Williamsburg NAACP President. Please join this live and archived conversation HERE.

Join Washington, Jefferson, and Madison this Presidents' Day weekend for a special LIVE! from History online evening event. The Presidents will explore how their administrations navigated party, faction, and the extensive differences that challenged America during their times. Recognizing that throughout our history, the United States has been a nation divided politically with different opinions and points of view. This was as much the case in our infancy as it is today. Hosted by Barbara Hamm Lee HERE.

When Peter Deadfoot ran away from enslavement, he was described as "an indifferent shoemaker, a good butcher, plowman, and carter; an excellent sawyer and waterman, understands breaking oxen well, and is one of the best scythemen...in America; in short, he is so ingenious a fellow, that he can turn his hand to any thing." Join a group of Historic Tradespeople for an exploration of these many skills, what it would have taken for one man to learn them all, and the lives of skilled enslaved people in colonial Virginia HERE.

Black history is American history. As the way we talk about and teach Black history continues to be debated and legislated, Colonial Williamsburg will remain a destination for discussions on our shared history. Join Deborah Canty-Downs, teacher at Katherine Johnson Elementary School and educator with The Bob and Marion Wilson Teacher Institute of Colonial Williamsburg, Jeremy Morris and Hope Wright, Colonial Williamsburg Actor Interpreters, and special guests Teens with a Purpose for a program about Black history in the United States HERE.

The Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS) is a Monticello initiative that collaborates with archaeologists working across North America and the Caribbean to bring the material and social lives of enslaved and free people to the public. Dr. Ayana Omilade Flewellen, Dr. Alexandra Jones, Dr. William White, and Ms. Gabrielle Miller will discuss how their research and community education programs on St. Croix are empowering Crucian communities while deepening local and regional understandings of enslavement. Join us for a live panel on DAACS’s collaboration with the Society of Black Archaeologists through their groundbreaking work on 18th and 19th c. sites on St. Croix.

Hairdressing and barbering were a complex and vital aspect of Black culture in 18th-century Virginia. Join Actor Interpreter Hope Wright and Apprentice Wigmaker Edith Edds as they explore how hair was used to both express and suppress Black voices and experiences in early America. Please join the conversation HERE.

After repeatedly risking his life to spy on British troops for the Marquis de Lafayette, James was denied his perilously won freedom, and continued to fight for years after to gain it. He fought even longer to ensure the freedom of his family. Looking back on his life, James Lafayette talks of the challenges he faced being a newly freed Black man in a lawfully unequal society. Please join us to hear James’s heartbreaking, inspiring story HERE.

Ivan McClellen wants to change the conversation about black cowboy culture. For the last six years, Ivan has been weaving his way between horse trailers and bucking chutes at rodeos documenting the daily life of black cowboys through photographs. It's not a novelty. This is a rich culture that has long written the story of the West, albeit an undercurrent to what the general public perceives as a cowboy. With the support of EPIC Provisions, Modern Huntsman’s interview with Ivan is a continuation of our exploration of blackness in western culture through "The Forgotten Cowboys" and brings a muted scene to the forefront of discussion HERE. See host Modern Huntsman HERE.

The AP recently covered the history of Black coachmen in Colonial Williamsburg, with a special focus on the upcoming reveal of the Benjamin Spraggins Carriage. The article also features insights on the visibility of Black guides and workers throughout CW's history. The Dedication of the Benjamin Spraggins carriage begins with a carriage processional at the Capitol building and concludes with the dedication at the Colonial Courthouse. This event is free and open to the public. Please visit the recorded live even HERE.

Since the second half of the twentieth century, archaeological studies of slave life in Virginia have proliferated, resulting in a new body of evidence to support historical interpretations at historic sites and museums. This presentation uses data from archaeological sites, mainly in Williamsburg, to discuss cultural practices relating to locally made items, imported goods, the landscape, and the use of animals for foods and medicines. Please join us with Dr. Ywone Edwards-Ingram, Asst. Professor of Archaeology at the Virginia Commonwealth University and past Staff Archaeologist and Coordinator of African-American Archaeology at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation HERE.

First U.S. president, general and statesman George Washington occupies such an unassailable place in American history that he almost seems not human—"more a monument than a man," wrote Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian Gordon Wood. But George Washington was human, and in an address Monday, February 25, 2013 in the Marvin Center's Continental Ballroom, Dr. Wood discussed some of the unique characteristics that shaped the man into a hero and influenced him—and our emerging nation HERE.

As a child growing up in rural Mississippi, Lusia “Lucy” Harris often stayed up past her bedtime watching her favorite N.B.A. players, dreaming of one day playing on the same courts. Reaching 6 feet 3 inches by the time she was in high school, Harris was often called “long and tall and that’s all” by her classmates — but she knew her height would be an asset on the court. And she wasn’t just tall enough to play the game. She was a rare talent who would go on to be a three-time national college champion and an Olympic silver medalist, making her a national sensation. View this beautiful short film HERE.

Join our Coach & Livestock team as they discuss the history of Black coachmen, their impact on Colonial Williamsburg, and what plans are in place to carry their stories into the future HERE.

People of African descent have made great contributions to the United States and its history. Think about all of the food, music, dance, medicine, farming and religious practices that people of African descent have contributed to American culture. Think about the sacrifices they’ve made to create and protect the United States as an independent nation. Matthew Skic, a Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, joins us to investigate the life and deeds of the Forten Family, a family of African-descended people who worked in the revolutionary era and beyond to build a better world for their family, community, state, and nation HERE.

Join us at the Concord Museum for the ceremony of the Massachusetts Historical Society’s 2022 Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize awarded to Robert A. Gross for his book The Transcendentalists and Their World, published in 2021 by Macmillan Publishers. The Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize is given to the best nonfiction work on the history of Massachusetts published during the preceding year. The ceremony at the Concord Museum will feature Robert A. Gross in conversation with Dennis Fiori, former Concord Museum Executive Director and MHS President Emeritus HERE.

One man leaves the city life behind to build a cheap off grid log cabin and homestead in the Canadian wilderness, including a log home, an outdoor kitchen, an outhouse, a woodshed and a sauna bathhouse. Building mostly with hand tools, Shawn James harvests building materials from the forests north of Toronto, Canada and crafts them into functional tools and shelters using traditional woodworking tools and methods. He practices bushcraft and survival skills every day, including fire starting, tree identification and harvesting, wild edible foraging, fishing, hunting, camping in the summer and winter, travelling by canoe and snowshoe and much more HERE.

John Wood Sweet, a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and author of the book, The Sewing Girl’s Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America, winner of the 2023 Bancroft Prize in American History, joins us to investigate the first published rape trial in the United States and how one woman, Lanah Sawyer, bravely confronted the man who raped her by bringing him to court for his crime HERE.

Join us for this special Women’s History Month livestream as we not only meet Anne Blair Banister, a citizen of Williamsburg, but also meet the woman who portrays the historic figure. We invite you to join us for a conversation with Actor/Interpreters Hope Wright and Michelle Greensmith as they discuss their research, methods and experiences in interpreting women in the 18th century and the complexities within it HERE.

Women of the 18th century engaged in many different types of labor, inside and outside the home. Please join Amanda Doggett and our panel of tradespeople and interpreters for a discussion of the experience of working women in 18th-century colonial America HERE.

Ann Wager was the mistress of the Bray School in Williamsburg, the oldest and longest-lived school to educate free and enslaved Black children in Virginia. Please join this pioneering teacher in 1769 as she explores the various ways women receive, provide, and utilize their education in Virginia.

As power and authority were passed matrilineally in Powhatan society, there have been many strong and significant female Powhatan leaders throughout time. Jamie highlights some of these leaders since the 17th-century in today's video about female leadership in different tribes in the Powhatan paramount chiefdom. Please join us HERE.

Liberation and Freedom Day, celebrated each March 3, commemorates the emancipation of the 14,000 men, women, and children who were enslaved in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. Please join us at Monticello as we acknowledge this important moment in our community’s history with a live panel discussion. Panelists will include archivist and descendant of Monticello’s enslaved community, Calvin Jefferson; descendant of Monticello’s enslaved community and Monticello’s Public Relations and Community Engagement Officer, Gayle Jessup White; and local historian Sam Towler HERE.

Please join this week’s Online Reading of Greek Tragedy with Euripides’ powerful dramatic work, “Orestes.” In accordance with the advice of the god Apollo, Orestes has killed his mother Clytemnestra to avenge the death of his father Agamemnon at her hands, then finds himself tormented by the Furies for the blood guilt stemming from his matricide. Hosted by Joel Christensen, with special guest, Claire Catenaccio. Presented by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, the Kosmos Society, and the Out of Chaos Theatre. Stream this video here.

Visit with the apothecary and milliner/mantua-maker as they discuss the connections between fashion and health HERE.

Explore the material culture and lives of self-liberated Black women in the 18th century and the society they inhabited. In this new collaboration, based on runaway ads from 18th-century newspapers, see garments worn by our actor interpreters and made by our Millner and Mantua makers. Join our experts for a discussion of people about women who liberated themselves from slavery, and what they wore when they “went away” HERE.

While Herakles pursues the hell-hound Cerberus in the underworld to satisfy one of his twelve labours, his father Amphitryon, wife Megara, and children are sentenced to death in Thebes by Lycus. Herakles returns in time to save them, but is seized by Madness, with tragic consequences. Hosted by Joel Christensen, with Anne-Sophie Noel. Presented by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, the Kosmos Society, and the Out of Chaos Theatre. Stream this video here.

Join the carpenters for this program that puts into practice the "object-based study" system that Colonial Williamsburg uses to train trades apprentices. Using "experimental archeology" or "reverse-engineering," we study buildings in our collection (and elsewhere) to learn about traditional construction techniques and advance the skills of our apprentices HERE.

On April 10th, 1606, King James I granted the Virginia Company of London a charter. Just over a year later, on May 14, 1607, this privately-funded, joint-stock company established the first, permanent English colony in North America at Jamestown, in the colony of Virginia. What work did the Virginia Company have to do to establish this colony? How much money did it have to raise, and from whom did it raise this money, to support its colonial venture? Misha Ewen, a Lecturer in early modern history at the University of Bristol and author of The Virginia Venture: American Colonization and English Society, 1580-1660, joins us to discuss the early history of the Virginia Company and its early investors HERE.

This classic period film is a documentary profile of conservationist and wildlife photographer, Dick Proenneke, at his home in the Lake Clark area of Alaska. It features close-up scenes of native wildlife, dramatic panoramas of the change of seasons and clips of Proenneke carving his log cabin out of the wild Alaskan wilderness HERE.

Please join this week’s Online Reading of Greek Tragedy with Euripides’ dramatic work, “Bacchae.” This terrifying late work of the last great Greek tragedian is based on the Greek myth of King Pentheus of Thebes and his mother Agave, and their punishment by the god Dionysus for denying his immortal parentage. The Bacchae is considered to be among the greatest tragedies ever written. Hosted by Joel Christensen, with special guest, Tomothy Moore. Presented by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, the Kosmos Society, and the Out of Chaos Theatre. Stream this video here.

“The order of things should be somewhat reversed,—the seventh should be man’s day of toil, wherein to earn his living by the sweat of his brow; and the other six his Sabbath of the affections and the soul, in which to range this widespread garden, and drink in the soft influences and sublime revelations of Nature.” So spoke Henry Thoreau in his youthful commencement address, foreseeing a life that would come to stand for a uniquely American mysticism and woodland wisdom. Rev. Dr. Barry Andrews here delivers a sermon in preview of his upcoming book, published by the University of Massachusetts in 2024, entitled Mother Nature’s Child: The Spiritual Message of Henry David Thoreau.

Women’s work has often been assumed to be exclusively in the home, but that is not the only sphere where their work was needed. Join a panel of tradeswomen to discuss the complex lives of 18th century women who managed to successfully balance home, family, and business HERE.

When Women's History Month is observed, whose stories are most often shared? Join us for a discussion of the women of revolutionary Williamsburg, how we discuss women's history in the present, and some unique tools students can use to expand their understanding of women of the past HERE.

Earlier this month, we discussed the lives of enslaved women at Monticello. This week we turn to the experiences of white women who lived on the mountaintop, including Thomas Jefferson’s wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson; Jefferson’s sister, Anna Scott Jefferson Marks; Jefferson’s daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, and her daughters. Their positions of comfort and authority stood in stark contrast to women held in bondage on the plantation, yet their choices were curtailed by patriarchal laws and customs of the time. Join us for a live Q&A with Associate Curator Emilie Johnson, Associate Curator of Decorative Arts Diane Ehrenpreis, and Senior Historian and Donor Relations Officer Ann Lucas HERE.

Join a panel of experts as they explore the vital roles women played in the 18th century workforce. Formally and informally, women entered the trades, ran businesses, and labored to craft and sustain their world. This is not the past we mostly imagine today. Please enter this conversation with the women of Colonial Williamsburg for an illuminating examination of Women in the 18th Workforce HERE.

What comes to mind when you think of a quilt? Family, friends, warmth, and tradition? Perhaps you think of a quilt as a striking art object hung on the wall, or even a history lesson that makes a statement about a particular society at a given time. For many, quilts are a direct highway to the past. Join Kim Ivey, senior curator of textiles, for a personal tour of the exhibit, Art of the Quilter, and a look at how and where Colonial Williamsburg’s antique quilts are stored when they are not on display HERE.

In 18th century Williamsburg, Sarah Trebell is keeper of the famed Raleigh Tavern. Sarah enjoys having her finger on the pulse of Williamsburg's social life, and at the Raleigh, she is at the heart of it all. However, after the repeal of the Stamp Act, there's change in the air. Join her as she discusses the changes and choices before her in autumn of 1766 HERE.

How did Indigenous people adapt and survive the onslaught of Indigenous warfare, European diseases, and population loss between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries? How did past generations of Indigenous women ensure that their culture would live on from one generation to the next so that their people would endure? Brooke Bauer, an assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and author of the book Becoming Catawba: Catawba Women and Nation Building, 1540-1840, joins us to investigate these questions and what we might learn from the Catawba HERE.

“From a distance, it is hard to tell whether the three figures walking the salt playa are human, bird or some other animal. Through binoculars, I see they are pelicans, juveniles, gaunt and emaciated without water or food. In feathered robes, they walk with the focus of fasting monks toward enlightenment or death. . .”

Read this prophetic call for wholeness and healing from Terry Tempest Williams HERE.

This evocative collection by internationally acclaimed photographer Sally Mann is a masterful reinvention of the art of landscape photography. Sally Mann is among the most innovative and daring artists working with a camera today. DEEP SOUTH is a collection of her exquisite, ethereal landscape photographs, taken in the years since she rose to international fame with her groundbreaking book Immediate Family. Masterfully adapting technical methods employed by early masters of landscape photography, the photographs in DEEP SOUTH capture what Mann calls the radical light of the American South. Watch this short film of her startlingly powerful images here.

Join Colonial Williamsburg Milliners as they explore how a recent "Gown in a Day" project informs their understanding of their trade's history. Learn how recreating original objects heightens their understanding of an 18th century work environment and why shortcuts in sewing may have been a necessity to get the job done HERE.

When Heracles was near his death, he wishes to be burned on a funeral pyre while still alive. In the play Philoctetes, Sophocles develops the myth in which no one but Philoctetes would light Heracles' funeral pyre, and in return for this favor Heracles gave Philoctetes his bow. Philoctetes leaves with the Greeks to participate in the Trojan War, but is bitten on the foot by a snake while walking on Chryse, a sacred ground. For this reason he is left by Odysseus and the Atreidai (sons of Atreus) on the desert island Lemnos, with tragic consequences .Stream this video here.

The Transcendentalists and Their World is both an intimate journey into the life of a community and a searching cultural study of major American writers as they plumbed the depths of the universe for spiritual truths and surveyed the rapidly changing contours of their own neighborhoods. No American community of the nineteenth century has been recovered so richly and with so acute an awareness of its place in the larger American story. Robert Gross is joined in conversation by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon Wood.

Conserving architectural collections, separate from those still in Colonial Williamsburg buildings, takes specialists. Chris Swan, Senior Conservator of Furniture, and Dani Jaworski, Manager, Architectural Collections will share how these primarily wood objects are conserved, stored, and displayed. This program will also explore how these objects are used to reconstruct elements missing from other buildings, and what they can tell us about decorative and utilitarian woodworking in colonial Virginia homes HERE.

Please join this week’s Online Reading of Greek Tragedy with Euripides’ dramatic work, “Iphigenia in Aulis,” The play revolves around Greek leader Agamemnon and his decision to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the goddess Artemis and allow his troops to set sail to battle against Troy, thus precipitating the epic histories we know as the Iliad and Odyssey. Hosted by Joel Christensen, with special guests Adam Barnard and Mat Carbon. Presented by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, the Kosmos Society, and the Out of Chaos Theatre. Stream this video here.

Brown University professor, Gordon Wood, discusses his new book, Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution, in which he distills a lifetime of work on constitutional innovations during the Revolutionary era with historian Richard Brown of the University of Connecticut.

This season, the US: Past, Present, Future team has been discussing how we learn about American history. In this program, we will take a hard look at how we teach and talk about the American Revolution and our nation's founding HERE.

Please join this week’s Online Reading of Greek Tragedy with Sophocles’ dramatic work, “Women at Trachis,” a story of jealousy, deceit, murder, and suicide, centering upon the death of Hercules. Hosted by Joel Christensen, with special guests Emma Pauly and Amy Pistone, and featuring actors Tim Delap, Mariah Gale, Tony Jayawardena, Martin K. Lewis, Anne Mason, and Evvy Miller. Presented by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, the Kosmos Society, and the Out of Chaos Theatre. Stream this video here.

Church of the Wild places Thoreau’s intimacy with nature into a community of spiritual practice. With a fresh look at a beloved community larger than our own species, this book uncovers the wild roots of faith to undergird our commitment to a groaning and glorious earth. Simple practices of sacred reconnection with the land, waters and creatures of our home places invites us to care for the world by falling in love with it.  It is an invitation to trust the knowing deep within us that we are an important part of an interconnected relationship with All That Is. Please join the Zoom presentation HERE.

America has a long history of protest, and how to protest “appropriately” is a hotly debated issue today. What did some of the nation’s founders think about the right way to protest? Join this many-sided and timely conversation HERE.

Please join this week’s Online Reading of Greek Tragedy with Aeschylus’ earliest surviving play, “The Persians,” a story of overweening pride, war, divine retribution, and lament. Hosted by Joel Christensen with special guest Erika Weiberg, this reading features actors Tim Delap, Tabatha Gale, Tony Jayawardena, Martin K. Lewis, and Evelyn Miller. Presented by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, the Kosmos Society, and the Out of Chaos Theatre. Stream this video here.

Please join this week’s Online Reading of Greek Tragedy with Euripides’ dramatic work, “The Trojan Women,” which tells of the awful fate of the women of Troy after their city has been sacked and their husbands killed, with their remaining families awaiting the subjection of slavery. Hosted by Joel Christensen, with special guest, Robin Mitchell-Boyask. Presented by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, the Kosmos Society, and the Out of Chaos Theatre. Stream this video here.

The Center for Constitutional Studies hosts Gordon Wood, Pulitzer Prize Winner and Professor at Brown University, during its event celebrating the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. Gordon Wood stresses the central idea of Magna Carta and the origins of the American constitution HERE.

After slavery ended, freedom beckoned to those who had been enslaved at Monticello. But what freedom meant, and how it was pursued varied from person to person, and over time. Join us for a live Q&A with Senior Fellow of African American History, Niya Bates, and Public Historian and Manager of the Getting Word African American Oral History Project, Andrew Davenport. They will share stories about Monticello’s descendant community, the generations of descendants who fought to expand the definitions of freedom, and how the Getting Word project has indelibly shaped Monticello’s scholarship and interpretation HERE.

Coopers make containers comprised of wooden staves held together by hoops. Barrels, buckets, tubs and butter churns are examples of the cooper's work. This livestream will look at the techniques and processes involved in making and assembling the component parts of a bucket HERE.

The documentary ATHOS unveils one of Europe’s last remaining secrets: more than 2.000 monks live on the Holy Mountain Athos in Greece, constituting an independent republic devoted entirely to life-as-prayer. For the first time, a film team has gained access to this monastic republic, where they accompanied several monks in their daily struggle for divinity: their everyday lives in the secluded world are composed of praying, singing and working, but also of cooking and celebrating. The monks take the audience with them on their journey to divinity and give insight into their world of prayer and thought HERE.

Spiritual faith has long been shaped by the lettering on a religion’s sacred texts. This is particularly the case with Judaism, so Craftsmanship Quarterly visited three Hebrew scribes — in Jerusalem, New York City, and the liberal enclave of Berkeley, California — to understand why such laborious traditions of handcraft continue in a digitalage. Please read the article here, and hear the associated podcast here.

Please join this week’s Online Reading of Greek Tragedy with Aeschylus’ dramatic work, “Prometheus,” an austerely simple play rich with timely associations. The tragedy is based on the myth of Prometheus, a Titan who defies the gods to give the gift of fire to mankind—“that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends”—for which he is bound in perpetual punishment. Hosted by Joel Christensen, with special guest Joshua Billings. Presented by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, the Kosmos Society, and the Out of Chaos Theatre. Stream this live and archived video here.

Thomas Jefferson described the Declaration of Independence as an “expression of the American mind.” Yet in the years since 1776, the ideals enshrined in the Declaration have inspired freedom movements all over the world. Indeed, today more than half of the nations on Earth have founding documents inspired by the American Declaration of Independence. Join us for a live Q&A with veteran Thomas Jefferson interpreter and Innermost House Founding Advisor, Bill Barker. Mr. Barker will appear out of character to discuss the many legacies of the Declaration, how its interpretation has evolved over time, and its continued importance today HERE.

The National Archives Foundation and Colonial Williamsburg are partnering this #CivicSeason to bring you this virtual 4th of July program. Patrick Madden moderates a conversation with James Lafayette, an enslaved man who served the Continental Army as a spy. Join us to hear why Lafayette's battle for freedom didn't end with the Revolution HERE.

Tu Weiming is the most famous Chinese Confucian thinker of the 20th and 21st centuries. Through his decades of study and teaching at Princeton University, the University of California, Harvard University, and the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University, Tu aims to renovate and enhance Confucianism through an encounter with Western social theory and Christian theology. From Tu’s perspective, the Confucian ideas of ren (“humaneness” or “benevolence”) and what he calls “anthropocosmic unity” can make powerful contributions to the resolution of issues facing the contemporary world. Please join us in viewing this modest testament of conviction and wisdom.

The 23rd Annual James Madison Lecture, presented by Gordon S. Wood, the Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor Emeritus of History at Brown University. The Pulitzer Prize-winning professor speaks on the Revolutionary roots of the Civil War HERE.

The Raleigh Tavern is an analogy for the story of Colonial Williamsburg: the politics, the passion, and the people. In this livestream, we'll discuss how the Historic Trades, the curators, and our millwork shop came together to reinterpret the Raleigh Tavern's Public Dining Room HERE.

Please join this week’s Online Reading of Greek Tragedy with Euripides’ dramatic work, “Andromache.” Achilles has killed Andromache's husband, Hector, and the Greeks have murdered her child. Andromache is made a slave of Achilles' son Neoptolemus, and she bears him a child. Years pass, and Neoptolemus weds Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen. Now fearing again for the life of her child, Andromache seeks refuge in the temple of Thetis, and plots revenge. Hosted by Joel Christensen, with special guest Katerina Ladianou. View this live and archived drama here.

This beautiful film features moving wilderness footage from around the world, accompanied by the haunting music of the early-modern French master, Erik Satie. The melodies of these atmospheric pieces use deliberate, mild dissonances against the harmony to produce a piquant, melancholy effect. The compositions are accompanied by the composer’s performance notes to render each piece "painfully" (douloureux), "sadly" (triste), or "gravely" (grave), communicating an affect of pathos and nostalgia for lost origins. The three Gymnopédies and six Gnossiennes are presently available online HERE.

Thanks to Thomas Jefferson’s fastidious record keeping, we know a great deal about the objects inside the house at Monticello during his lifetime, how they were used, and in some instances, even the exact spot they were placed. Since the creation of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in 1923, curators have worked to return original objects to the house to better interpret the history of Monticello. Some items remain a mystery to this day. Join us for a special livestream to discuss how our curatorial team locates Jefferson-era objects centuries later, and some of their still “unsolved mysteries” HERE.

Join the silversmiths of the James Craig shop as they make mourning rings! We'll be discussing the meaning of these very specific pieces of jewelry, and the motivation behind production and ownership HERE.

Wooden rowboats like the Whitehalls of San Francisco Bay are still constructed with the traditional “lapstrake” design that allowed the chandlers of old to traffic goods to and from 17th-century sailing ships. Today, the pretty woodens that you can see pulling around the Bay are distant cousins of those first workhorses,preserving in their beautiful utility the spirit of a past age. Read the article and see the short film about these wonderful watercraft HERE.

Please join this week’s Online Reading of Greek drama with Aristophanes’ comic masterpiece, “The Clouds.” The play is famous and even infamous for its lampooning of intellectual fashions in classical Athens, and in particular for its treatment of Socrates. It can be considered the world's first extant "comedy of ideas" and is considered by literary critics to be among the finest examples of the genre. Hosted by Joel Christensen, with special guest Joel Schlosser. Presented by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, the Kosmos Society, and the Out of Chaos Theatre. Stream this live and archived video HERE.

Who really built our nation? that is a great question, and the answer may surprise you. Meet those that physically built the nation and those that built the nation with enlightened ideas, and examine their combined and lasting legacy HERE.

In 2005, when Dr. Khaled Azzam, a British-trained architect, took a trip back to his native Egypt, he had little idea of the profound experience that awaited him. Six years earlier, Azzam had been appointed to lead The Prince of Wales’ School of Traditional Arts, based in London. What he discovered in his homeland was an ancient tradition of craft founded upon geometrical principles that transcended time and place, principles that would open a window on the origins of art. Read this inspiring and provocative article HERE.

Join us on for an encore presentation of our popular livestream, “Monticello Voices.” Guides discuss Monticello’s history as a plantation, and share stories about the enslaved men, women, and children whose labor kept Thomas Jefferson’s 5,000-acre enterprise running HERE.

As we mark the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment, historian Laura Dassow Walls will discuss Henry David Thoreau’s mother, sisters, and aunts based on her book, Thoreau: A Life which the late Robert Richardson described as “the best all-around biography of Thoreau ever written.” Henry David Thoreau: A Life (2017) is the first full-length, comprehensive biography of Thoreau in a generation, and presents Thoreau as vigorously alive in all his quirks and contradictions—fully embedded in his place and time, yet speaking powerfully to the problems and perils of today. Please join us HERE.

Sir David Attenborough has probably seen more of wild nature across the planet Earth than anyone living. In the course of his 94 years, he has visited every continent on the globe many times, documenting the living world in all its variety and wonder. Now, for the first time in public, he reflects upon the defining moments of his life as a naturalist and on the devastating changes he has seen. “A Life On Our Planet” is a much beloved naturalist’s statement of witness. It has been called the most important documentary of the year. Watch it HERE on Netflix.

Please join this week’s Online Reading of Greek Tragedy with Sophocles’ stunning dramatic work, “Oedipus Colonus,” widely regarded as among the masterpieces of ancient Greek tragedy. Like Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” the characters and plot of this powerful dramatic series have become archetypes of world culture. Hosted by Joel Christensen, with special guest Laura Slatkin (New York University). Presented by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, the Kosmos Society, and the Out of Chaos Theatre. Stream this archived video here.