42 Results for "Clothing"
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Historic Trade: Tailor
View a variety of fabrics and garments that clothed colonial Americans, from elegant suits in the latest London styles to the sturdy uniforms of Revolutionary soldiers. Interact with the tailors as they measure customers and create clothing using 18th-century methods.
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Wearing 18th Century Clothing as a Modern Uniform
When visiting Colonial Williamsburg, we hope that guests feel they have taken a step back in time. One way to accomplish this is visually, by dressing our interpreters in historical clothing. It is one of many tools our interpreters use to convey the impression of time travel. The garments seen …
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A Suit of Clothes For Puss
“I had been at work about two months when Christmas came on – and here I must relate a little anecdote. The principal and his lady were invited to a part among their friends and the other boy was permitted to go to his father’s to spend the holidays, when …
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How Much Clothing Did an 18th-Century Woman Really Own?
Ever wondered how much clothing did the average woman have in the 18th century? Read on to learn how clothing represented the socioeconomic position of women.
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The Regiment’s New Clothes
Military interpreter’s research triggered changes in the wardrobe for British foot soldiers
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Thomas Jefferson Wore Patched Clothes and You Can Too!
Using 18th-century techniques to increase the life of your modern clothes.
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Symposium on Historical Dress: Collections, Collectors and Collaborations
November 14-16, 2024
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Historic Trade: Milliner and Mantua-Maker
Fancy yourself an 18th-century customer as you shop for the latest ornaments and accessories. Consult with the mantua-maker about updating old gowns to bring them into the newest 18th-century fashion.
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Fashionistas Itinerary
Did you know colonialists often wore bright colors and patterns? Explore the world of 18th-century fashion and style.
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Cutting to the Chase
In the 18th century, gowns were made by cutting to the body for the perfect or stitching a new one based on an old garment. Learn more about the process.
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A Musical Tapestry
Music-making was woven into the fabric of life in early America
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The Brafferton Indian School
Indigenous faces were a familiar sight in early Williamsburg. Native peoples came into the town to trade and conduct diplomacy. Some also lived in Williamsburg while attending the Brafferton Indian School. Today, the Brafferton Building is an administrative building for William & Mary, closed to the public. While you cannot visit it in the Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area, it is one of the town’s most fascinating historic sites.
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Historic Trade: Weaver
When English imports were cut off by the Revolution, local weavers came forward to fill the need for everyday items. Watch how flax, cotton, and wool are converted from tangled masses into orderly, precise fabrics—ranging from simple linens for shirts and shifts to blankets, towels, dyed wool for needlework, and stout woolens for military uniforms.
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Historic Trade: Leather Breeches Maker & Shoemaker
How were men's shoes made before modern glues and rubber soles? Meet some of the last shoemakers who work entirely by hand and watch them make everyday and fancy footwear. In the same workshop, discover the practice and history of one of the 18th century's most common garments, leather breeches. The shop follows the trade in all branches: making, mending, and cleaning leather breeches.
- Colonial Fashion Days
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Scottish Dress in 18th-Century Virginia
While dressing Colonial Williamsburg’s interpretive staff is both exciting and rewarding, it also comes with a great deal of responsibility. Along with daily tasks of constructing and maintaining period-appropriate clothing, there is the obligation to ensure that the clothing presented is correct not only in fit, but accurately represents the …
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Zack Pinsent
Living Historic Fashion
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American Indian
American Indians were a political and economic force in 18th-century Williamsburg, and a constant presence in the colonial capital. Their activities, influence and perspectives have not been fully reflected in the Historic Area. The American Indian Initiative supports research, programs, demonstrations, interpretation and a permanent encampment site that educate guests about the often-overlooked role of American Indians in early American history and illuminate their still-thriving governments, traditions, culture and languages.
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Made in American
Learn how Virginians began domestic production as the tensions grew between American Colonies and Great Britain. Read on to learn more about homegrown fabrics.
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New Animal Crossing Fashions
We may have all been living in yoga pants and joggers for the last couple of months, but in the 18th century what you wore told the story of who you were.“18th-century men and women had diverse wardrobes,” says Neal Hurst, Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles at Colonial Williamsburg …
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Staying Warm This Winter: Blanket Coats in 18th-Century Chesapeake Bay
As temperatures cool, cozy thoughts come to mind. Exciting cozy thoughts like, it’s finally wool blanket weather! Nothing in the world can provide warmth like a wool blanket, a thought likely shared by people in 18th-century Virginia. All too often in today’s America, wool blankets are seen only as a …
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Familiar Bedfellows
American commerce and politics have long been entangled
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Provisioning the Fleet to Fight Contagion and Maintain the Health of the Crew
Uncover the 18th-century theories about the cause and prevention of diseases of that era. Read on to learn about Dr. Blane's advice on prevention on ships.
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'Fighting as a Common Soldier'
Anna Maria Lane distinguished herself in battle and won a military pension
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The Speaker’s Man: John Harris and the Anatomy of a “Runaway” Advertisement
Less than two hundred words long, this advertisement doesn’t tell us nearly as much as we would like to know about Harris. But when read carefully, it offers some fascinating clues, perhaps more than its author meant, about how Harris might have experienced this revolutionary era.Learn more: The Virginia Gazette …
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Jane Austen Lovers
Colonial Williamsburg and Austen novels have quite a few things in common. Both interpret overlapping time periods, namely the late 18th-century. And while Austen’s books examined British gentry, much of what we know about customs, trades, materials, and architecture in Colonial America comes from Britain, of course. Residents of Williamsburg …
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The Politics of Fashion
Discover how early first ladies played a key role in creating an American style. Learn how fashion reflected status and power as well as a political message.
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A Survey of the Material Culture of Enslaved Black Women through Runaway Slave Advertisements
The lives of enslaved women are often viewed through their enslavement, their work, and their suppression and violation within a slave society. They are often viewed as an amorphous group, nameless, faceless, unchanged over 200 years of slavery. Their individual stories obscured by neglect. Few stop to think about these …
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Past Colonial Williamsburg Research Fellowship Topics
Colonial Williamsburg fellows present portions of their research during their residence, where they engage directly with our community of scholars and interpreters. The brief list below highlights some of the topics studied by our most recent fellows.
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Inside the Textiles Lab
In a brightly lit lab on the first floor of the Collections Building in the Bruton Heights complex, conservators Gretchen Guidess and Jacquelyn Peterson-Grace balance preservation with esthetics, all while performing intricate work that is necessary but nearly imperceptible to most observers.
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The Right Stuff! A Black Worsted Wool Gown
Take a look at this worsted wool damask gown from the 1780s worn for mourning. Learn about the story behind the dress and the garment industry of that era.
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The Gardeners Dictionary
Recommended by Eve Otmar
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New Hunting Shirts for the Junior Fifes and Drums Corps
For many, the sight and sound of the Fifes and Drums marching down the Duke of Gloucester Street is iconic to Colonial Williamsburg. Sadly, this has not happened in over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the senior and junior corps are not marching, behind the scenes our …
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How to Stage a Revolution: Behind the Scenes with the Burgesses
This was one of many dilemmas facing Colonial Williamsburg researchers and producers as they planned a January 2024 video shoot recreating two pivotal moments in the Williamsburg Capitol during the American Revolution: Governor Dunmore’s 1774 dissolution of the Burgesses, which sparked an escalation in colonial protests, and Virginia leaders’ decision …
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Who Did I Marry? Margaret Bannerman and the Gold Digger
[Note: the historical account described below includes domestic violence.]What do you do when you discover that your new husband isn’t the man you thought he was? Margaret Bannerman placed an advertisement in the Virginia Gazette.
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Josiah and the Whimsical, Farcical, All Good, Very Fun Troupe
Company embraces the ‘spirit of 18th-century theater’ on the Playbooth stage
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Inside Capitol Training
Our orientation interpreters help our guests make the most out of their visit. Learn about the training received by interpreters at Colonial Williamsburg.
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Five Things You Should Know About 18th-Century Medical History
Eighteenth-century professional medicine was heavily influenced by the science of the Enlightenment. While superstitious beliefs were not promoted in the professional textbooks, practitioners occasionally mention details when they encountered them.In 1735, John Atkins comments about fetishes in his book, “A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies.” He notes that …
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A Family Calling
How the Galts contributed to the history of Williamsburg’s Public Hospital
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Making 18th-Century Dolls
In the 18th-century, fabric dolls were a constant companion for enslaved children of all ages. Sew your own handmade doll from socks, cotton balls, and more.
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Wrapping Up Excavations at the First Baptist Church Archaeology Site
On a recent Friday, under a leaden and turbulent sky, our drone made a final pass over the excavation site of the First Baptist Church on Nassau Street, capturing closing images of the archaeological fieldwork. Two and a half years earlier, on a hot September Sunday, First Baptist’s descendants launched …
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A Routine Day in Williamsburg
Encampment gives American Indians the more visible role they played in the 18th century