Rediscover America’s Beginnings at Jamestown Settlement and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown
Jamestown Settlement and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, two Williamsburg area living-history museums, offer compelling year-round experiences through films, immersive gallery exhibits and interactive living history in outdoor settings that engage visitors in the story of America's beginnings.
Jamestown Settlement
Discover the story of the 1607 founding of America's first permanent English colony in the midst of Virginia's Powhatan chiefdom through films, expansive gallery exhibits and outdoor re-creations of a Paspahegh town, three 1607 ships and a 1610-14 fort.
The docudrama 1607: A Nation Takes Root offers an overview of the first two decades of the Virginia colony. Gallery exhibits, featuring more than 500 artifacts, dioramas and new interactive displays, chronicle the nation's 17th-century beginnings in Virginia in the context of its Powhatan Indian, English and West Central African cultures. Outdoors, board a re-creation of one of the three ships—Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery—try on armor in the fort and grind corn in the Paspahegh Town.
American Revolution Museum at Yorktown
Stories of citizens and soldiers of the Revolution unfold at this expansive history complex featuring films, immersive gallery exhibits and living-history experiences.
Catch the introductory film Liberty Fever and explore galleries with nearly 500 period artifacts, dioramas, interactive exhibits and short films, including an experiential theater that transports visitors to the Siege of Yorktown with wind, smoke and the thunder of cannon fire. Outdoors, interact with costumed historical interpreters in re-creations of a Continental Army encampment and Revolution-era farm and take part in hands-on activities, from military drills to processing plant fiber for cloth.
Both museums are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's days. Parking is free. Museum shops and café at each museum. Call 757.253.4838 or visit jyfmuseums.org.
Courtesy of Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.
Photo Courtesy of Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.
