Jamestown Settlement & Yorktown Victory Center
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Managed by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation for the Commonwealth of Virginia, Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center highlight the beginnings, as well as the end of the English Colonial Period in America. Located on two ends of the Colonial Parkway, Jamestown Settlement looks at the beginnings of English settlement and government in the New World, The Yorktown Victory Center's focus, is of course, on The Siege of Yorktown which basically ended the six-year struggle of the Revolutionary War and led to a new government and nation.
JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT
Jamestown Settlement is a comprehensive museum that places visitors into the early 17th century time period of the original settlement. A new indoor museum explores the lifestyle of the settlers before they left England, the Native Americans before and after European settlement as well as the arrival and tracing the homelands of the first African Americans.
An introductory film puts the age in perspective, exploring the historical narrative from several viewpoints. Outdoors are full-size reconstructions of the palisade fort with updated revisions to structures as found at the new excavations on Jamestown Island. Replicas of the three ships that brought the first colonists, rest at their moorings and a Powhatan Indian settlement as well as a seasonal hands-on riverfront discovery area is open to explore the 17th century European, Powhatan and African economic activities.
Honoring Jamestown for it’s many firsts that led to the basis of our governmental beginnings based on English law, as well as a representative assembly of government, Jamestown’s 400th Anniversary was celebrated in the spring of 2007 by Queen Elizabeth II, President Bush and a host of dignitaries from all over the world. As America’s first permanent English Settlement, this is the place where our country really began, come celebrate the beginnings of US as a nation at Jamestown Settlement.
YORKTOWN VICTORY CENTER
Originally built by the Commonwealth of Virginia for the Bicentennial in 1976, the Yorktown Victory Center in Yorktown introduces their arriving guests to the 18th century through outdoor living-history exhibits. Showing how most of the colonial period inhabitants in the region lived during the Revolutionary period, visitors can experience life on a typical farm. Also on site are re-enactors who demonstrate how the Revolutionary soldiers fared as well, offering views of a tent encampment, weapons firings and a look at camp life from campfire dining to the field surgeons equipment.
Galleries inside the Museum focus on the reasons for the Revolution as well as the Revolution itself. The Road to Revolution gallery describes the events leading up to the decisions to break from England. Witness to Revolution gallery introduces visitors to ten individuals who, through their writings, tell what they experienced during the war. Converging on Yorktown gallery describes the Battle and Surrender at Yorktown and continues with a film about those same events. Most popular with museum visitors are Yorktown’s Sunken Fleet exhibit, about the English ship excavations in the York River, and a children’s Discovery Room, a hands-on exploratory space for children.
JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT & YORKTOWN VICTORY CENTER
phone: 757-253-4838
Jamestown Settlement Ticket - Adult (Ages 13 & Over) - One-time admission to Jamestown Settlement.
Jamestown Settlement Ticket - Youth (Ages 6-12) (discounted over Adult Admission) - One-time admission to Jamestown Settlement.
Yorktown Victory Center Ticket - Adult (Ages 13 & Over) - One-time admission to Yorktown Victory Center.
Yorktown Victory Center Ticket - Youth (Ages 6-12) (discounted over Adult Admission)- One-time admission to Yorktown Victory Center.
Combo tickets:
Jamestown Settlement & Yorktown Victory Center Combination Ticket - Adult (Ages 13 & Over)
Jamestown Settlement & Yorktown Victory Center Combination Ticket - Youth (Ages 6-12) (discounted over Adult Admission)
Save over 15% with the Combination Ticket! A combination ticket provides one-time admission to each museum and may be used on different days.
Museums closed Christmas and New Year’s days.
Images © and courtesy of the National Park Service and The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
