New archaeology exhibition sheds light on Williamsburg’s history as global community

A new exhibition coming in September to Colonial Williamsburg’s DeWitt Wallace Decorative Art Museums illuminates Williamsburg’s history as a global community in the 18th century.

Worlds Collide: Archaeology and Global Trade in Williamsburg reveals that the colonial capital of Virginia was a thriving, urban center abounding with people and goods from around the world. 

• The story of that part of Williamsburg’s past will be told through approximately 225 archaeological artifacts curated by Colonial Williamsburg’s team of renowned archaeologists.

Among the featured items in the exhibition are Spanish coins, Chinese porcelain, punch bowls with political slogans, printer’s type, a dog’s tag, botanicals and glass.

• “Written documents, works of art, and other sources of information about the past invariably carry the biases of their creators,” said Ron Hurst, the Foundation’s chief mission officer, “but archaeological deposits offer a largely unbiased view of past civilizations. This exhibition illustrates clearly that worldwide commerce is nothing new and touched most parts of the north Atlantic world in the eighteenth century, even in a place as small as Williamsburg, Virginia.”

In the 18th century, Williamsburg attracted a wide range of people. Customs, styles and tastes blended, clashed and evolved overtime. To showcase the diversity of everyday life at the time, Worlds Collide is organized around five main themes: material goods, food, ideas, landscape and people.

• “Archaeology provides a tangible connection to the past through the materials we find,” said Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg’s executive director of archaeology. “These aren’t abstract ideas but materials that we can all look at together and that can spark discussions about our shared past. Guests will likely see themselves and the modern world in many of these themes.”

Want to go? The Worlds Collide archaeology exhibition will open on September 7, 2024. It will remain on view through January 2, 2027. Tickets are available online at colonialwilliamsburg.org or by phone at (855) 296-6627.