When the Colonial Williamsburg museum opened a map exhibit, More than Meets the Eye: Maps and Prints of Early America, I knew we had to visit.
On Wednesday afternoon the kids and I drove down to CW on a cold and dreary rainy day to be in place as extras for the Electronic Field Trip, Colonial Idol, the next day.
Cold and rainy weather drove us to the museum to see the maps!
LAFAYETTE’S VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN MAP
When we first walked up to the display, my kids said it was too bad that the maps wouldn’t be in our time frame of history that we were studying, which was the late 16th century.
Surprise…the first map we looked at was of Sir Walter Raleigh, whom we would study in two weeks, so that was perfect.
However, our favorite map in the exhibit featured Lafayette! No surprise there!
Arriving in America with Lafayette in 1777, Michel Capitaine du Chesnoy was a military engineer who served as Lafayette’s aide de camp and cartographer.
Documenting Lafayette’s 1781 Virginia Campaign, this map details the camps and marches, with dates, of Lafayette and Cornwallis…leading to the Battle of Yorktown that ended the war.
Then we stumbled upon a few other special items of interest that helped to create Colonial Williamsburg.
IDEA OF COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG
Meeting John D. Rockefeller in 1924, Reverend W.A.R. Goodwin told him of his vision to restore a small town in Virginia to its 18th century appearance, to help America remember its past.
In 1926, Rockefeller famously shook hands with Goodwin, promising to finance the vision of Colonial Williamsburg.
Along the way, they sought as much historical accuracy as possible, although much of that was buried under the ground, in attics, behind walls…and in museums.
BODLEIAN PLATE
Journeying in 1929 to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, Mary Goodwin (cousin of Rev. Goodwin) discovered an 18th century copper plate that showed clear imagery of the College of William and Mary, the Governor’s Palace, and the Capitol.
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. described the discovery as: the foundation upon which we have based the restoration of the Wren Building and the reconstruction of the Governor’s Palace and the Capitol. Without it, we would have been acting in the dark; with it, we have gone forward with absolute certainty and conviction.
In 1938, Bodleian Library curators gifted this important Bodleian Plate to John D. Rockefeller.
Currently in the Colonial Williamsburg collection, the Bodleian Plate and print were displayed before our eyes.
FRENCHMAN’S MAP
Also important to the reconstruction of Colonial Williamsburg is the Frenchman’s Map, which my kids and I viewed next.
This is a 1782 map, presumably made by a mysterious French officer who created this map months after the victory at Yorktown.
Defining locations of basic streets and primary structures, including a few trees like Catalpa trees on the Palace Green, this map was key to the beginnings of restoration.
