Jamestown Celebrates 400
Years
QUEEN ELIZABETH II will
visit Virginia next month to celebrate ‘America’s 400th Anniversary’
— the quadricentennial of the founding of the Jamestown Settlement
on May 14, 1607.
Jamestown was the first
successful English community in the New World.
Eighteen earlier attempts had
failed, dating back to the reign of the Queen’s namesake, Elizabeth
I. She was the ‘Virgin Queen’ after whom the colony was called
Virginia.
The 104 English men and boys
named their first community Fort James in honour of Elizabeth I’s
successor, King James I.
It was he who had granted them
whatever land they could tame and run as a private enterprise paying
dividends to its well-heeled London stockholders.Go to
www.americas400thanniversary.com/ to order tickets to join
the 90,000 visitors expected to travel to the Virginia Tidewater for
a three-day celebration, May 11-13.
For each $30 one-day ticket
($15 for ages six-12; free up to age six), you may tour an
interactive ‘World in 1607’ exhibit and enjoy musical performances
by Bruce Hornsby, Chaka Khan or Ricky Skaggs, or the Virginia and
the Richmond Symphony Orchestras.
Admission to the 400th
Anniversary Weekend includes entry to Jamestown Settlement and
Historic Jamestowne.
Living History At State
Park
Fifty-year-old Jamestown
Settlement has received a $70m renovation of its galleries and
living-history exhibits. Its website is
www.historyisfun.org/.
The Settlement’s galleries and
a film tell the story of the English colonists and their creation of
America’s democratic form of government.
In equal measure, you will
learn about the cultures of the native Powhatan Indians as well as
the African slaves who arrived in later decades to tend the
plantations that sprang up after the discovery of the principal cash
crop – tobacco.
Outdoors you may board
replicas of the three ships that sailed from England to
Virginia in 1607, the Godspeed, the Discovery and the
Susan Constant.
And you may explore life-size
re-creations of the colonists’ fort and a Powhatan village,
encountering costumed historical interpreters who demonstrate daily
life in 1607.
Archaeology At National
Park
Half a mile from Jamestown
Settlement is the colony’s original site, Historic Jamestowne,
co-administered by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia
Antiquities and the National Park Service.
These organisations’ websites
are
www.historicjamestowne.org/ and
www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jamestwn/jamestown.htm.
APVA acquired the 22½-acre
archaeological site in 1893, and recently raised over $52 million to
upgrade its facilities.
NPS acquired the remaining
1,500 acres of Jamestown Island in 1934, as part of Colonial
National Historical Park.
Hundreds of thousands of
artefacts have been retrieved from the soil, with nearly half dating
to the critical 1607-1610 period.
Archaeologists have uncovered
over 250 feet of palisade wall lines from the triangular James Fort,
its east cannon bulwark and three filled-in cellars, and buildings
inside and outside the fort.
Historic Jamestowne includes a
new 7,500-square-foot Archaearium – an archaeological museum built
to house colonial artefacts unearthed onsite, including coins,
weapons, bones and cookware.
Win Trip To England
For information on Britain’s
commemoration of Jamestown’s founding, visit
www.beginyouradventure.co.uk/.
Prior to April 30 you may
enter a competition on this website to win a 10-day trip to England
for two people, including dinner with Her Grace the Duchess of
Rutland and one night’s accommodation on the exclusive Belvoir
Castle estate, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Rutland.
Besides offering this
competition, this British website provides a wealth of details about
the Powhatan princess Pocahontas, soldier-of-fortune Captain John
Smith and the Jamestown settlers, including his original superior
officer, Bartholomew Gosnold, captain of the original Godspeed.
Gosnold, the prime mover of
the colonisation of Virginia and the founding of Jamestown, would
surely be much better known if he hadn’t died just four months
later, when he was succeeded by the self-promoting Captain Smith.
Queen’s Itinerary
Buckingham Palace has
announced that Queen Elizabeth II will visit America sometime next
month but will not attend the May 11-13 celebration, citing security
concerns.
As reported by The Times
of London, the Queen will visit the US May 3-9. Her itinerary
includes a stay in Williamsburg, Virginia, a visit to Jamestown, and
trip to the Kentucky Derby.
The White House has announced
a state dinner in the Queen’s honour during the first week of May.
Dr Richard Tracey is
an educational publisher based in New Hampshire. His email address
is mailto:rtrac3y@hotmail.com. The Union Jack’s email address
is ujnews@ujnews.com; and our website is
www.ujnews.com,
where this column is reprinted with active links to all the websites
discussed here. |
