New exhibits are now completed and open to the public in the Archaearium on Jamestown Island, commemorating critical historical events in 1619.
Last week, Jamestown Rediscovery opened new exhibits in a wing of the Archaearium and in the Memorial Church, the 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution nonprofit wrote in a news release.
The exhibits are called “From Fort to Port: Legacies of 1619” and “A Foundation for Success,” and detail key transformative moments in Jamestown’s history, including archaeological evidence on how the site transitioned from a English colony to an English town site, and foodways illuminating the impact of martial law.
RELATED STORY: Jamestown archaeologists fill in church site, plan exhibits for 2019 commemoration
This year, various organizations are highlighting the events in 1619 — 400 years ago — that shaped the New World, including the arrival of the first Africans and the formation of the first representative assembly.
“The new exhibits at Historic Jamestowne provide a glimpse into the struggles, accomplishments and everyday life of the colonists who influenced the path of America,” said Kathy Spangler, executive director of the 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution. “Through these legacy projects we encourage visitors to explore the foundation of Virginia and American history and develop an understanding of events that shaped our nation over the course of 400 years.”
Exhibits will also “explore difficult themes such as the ‘othering’ and exploitation of Africans, Virginia Indians, and indentured servants; the genesis of an English system of race-based slavery; and the establishment of a plantation society reliant on tobacco,” the news release said.
Alongside the new Archaearium exhibits, an archaeological dig site in the Memorial Church has been filled in and the church floor laid down to replicate the site of the first representative assembly in 1619.
The programming and exhibit inside the Memorial Church is called “In the Footsteps of Democracy.”
“Visitors will have the opportunity to sit in the very spot where Sir George Yeardley, the governor who presided over that historic meeting, his four councilors, and 22 elected burgesses met 400 years ago,” the nonprofit wrote in the news release.
