Kristen Spivey, a program manager in public history development at Colonial Williamsburg, talks about the roles and rights of women in the colonies, looking at legal rights, fashion and dress, and participation in the trades.
Emily James, an interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg, discusses the place of music in slaves' lives, looking at the double meanings of many of the songs' lyrics.
To listen to this podcast, select "All 2006 Podcasts," and scroll to the June fifth program.
Bryan Simpers and Bereni New, of Colonial Williamsburg, interpret the married couple Alexander and Barbry Hoy. As Alexander and Barbry, they discuss their struggles as a middling family adjusting to the changes brought by the Revolution.
Note: this podcast is no longer available. To view a transcript of the original podcast, click here.
Colonial Williamsburg actor-interpreter James Ingram details the life of Matthew Ashby, a free black man who purchased his wife and two children in order to set them free.
Colonial Williamsburg museum educator Anne Willis discusses the youths and marriage of Edmund Randolph and Elizabeth Nicholas, a colonial couple, married in 1776, whose families stood on opposites sides of political and religious ideology.
Note: this podcast is no longer available. To view a transcript of the original podcast, click here.
Lady Dunmore, wife of Lord Dunmore (royal governor of Virginia from 1771 to 1776), was beloved by the colonists. Interpreter Corrine Dame reflects on Lady Dunmore's life.
The park's location is historically significant since it is in the heart of the former President's home country. The area has been influenced by three major cultures: Native Americans, Spanish, and German. Indians roamed the Hill Country first, leaving behind artifacts which tell of their nomadic life. The Spanish conquistadors followed, bringing a culture which was to endure to the present. German immigrants settled the Hill Country in the early 1800s and their descendants still call it home. Their culture has had a major impact on the development of the region and the park itself. All of these cultures are represented at the park. The Visitor Center contains memorabilia from President Johnson's presidency and interactive displays about the land and people that shaped a president. Attached to the Visitors Center is the Behrens Cabin, a two-room dogtrot cabin built by German immigrant H. C. Behrens during the 1870s. The furnishings are typical of such homes in that period. Visitors can further explore the history of these immigrants by viewing the 1860s Danz family log cabin located just west of the Visitor Center. Also located in the park is the Sauer-Beckmann Farm, a living history farm. Life on the farmstead is presented as it was in 1918. Park interpreters wear period clothing, do the farm and household chores as they were done at that time, and also conduct tours for the visitors.
The site offers exhibits, tours, demonstrations, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).
Woodrow Wilson spent his childhood in Augusta Georgia in this house. Today, the house functions as a museum dedicated to Wilson's early life.
School tours of the house were developed with Georgia teaching standards in mind. Teacher resources have also been developed for the site.
According to BackStory:
"To mark the rebirth of BackStory as a weekly program, the History Guys set out to explore the earliest stages of life in America. They begin with a few of the basic assumptions we have about birth in America today, and spend the hour exploring how those assumptions came into being. How is it that hospital doctors moved in on what had been midwife’s exclusive territory? Why did Puritans think their newborns were damned from the outset? When did courts start ruling that fetuses had legal rights? Why have generations of Americans resisted the notion of birthright citizenship?"
This site offers a large archive of selected documents, reports, records, maps, photographs, newspapers, artifacts, and oral history interviews. Items are searchable by ethnic group, keyword, archive, type of material, date, or subject. Brief historical overviews and bibliographies for each ethnic group profiled are also available in the archive section. Another section has lessons plans for teachers on African Americans, immigration and settlement, migration, and ethnic culture and identity, 1850-1950. It also offers tutorials on using the archive, using history databases on the web, interpreting photographs, interpreting documents, and interpreting oral history. Historical overviews are provided on the various ethnic groups that settled the Columbia River Basin.
A discussion forum offers a place to talk about discoveries in the archive or questions. Topics currently include ethnic groups, ethnicity and race, work and labor, immigration and migration, family life, religion, social conditions, discrimination, and civil rights. A very useful site for researching or teaching the social and cultural history of the Columbia River Basin.