Browsing: Virginia

On a quiet stretch of water just outside Williamsburg, recipes, archives, and heirloom crops are revealing stories that conventional history has overlooked. Dating back to the late 18th century, Jolly’s Mill Pond has become an outdoor classroom where Black, Indigenous, agricultural, and culinary histories are explored together around a shared table.

Just a few miles from Jamestown, Chickahominy Riverfront Park sits at the edge of a tidal river that has changed remarkably little since English colonists first explored it in 1607. Bald cypress trees rise from dark water, great blue herons stalk the shallows, and marshes stretch into the distance. Remove the occasional fishing boat, and…

Unlike museums that focus on naval battles or famous ships, the Watermen’s Museum celebrates the ordinary people who built a culture around the Chesapeake Bay. Known as “watermen,” this group includes the generations of fishermen, crabbers, oystermen, boatbuilders, and commercial mariners whose livelihoods depended on understanding the tides, winds, and rhythms of the water.