CW Teams With Preservation Virginia

By Amber Lester Sunday, September 12, 2010

The foundation and organization announced Tuesday a plan for the new collaboration, which will “bring together the experts from Historic Jamestowne and Colonial Williamsburg to enhance public archaeology and create a broader, more cohesive guest experience…” One of the first items on the shared to-do list is getting the Historic Triangle designated as a World Heritage site, according to a press release.

“At the heart of this exciting collaboration is support for public archaeology,” said Colin Campbell, president and CEO of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. “The continuing practice of archaeology at Jamestown and Williamsburg demonstrates the outstanding historical resources and importance of these original sites.”

The partners envision their collaboration will build on a legacy of cooperation between the two organizations, which have worked together since CW’s inception in the 1920s. The organizations worked together in 2007 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Jamestown. Campbell had highlighted more efforts toward collaboration to boost tourism in a speech delivered at the May 25 Community Leaders Breakfast.

“Working collaboratively on shared educational and program objectives is one of the most effective tools we have to ensure that Virginia’s historic places are preserved and interpreted and provide community benefit for years to come,” said Elizabeth Kostelny, executive director of Preservation Virginia.

The collaboration will highlight early America’s development from the early colonists to the Revolutionary era through ongoing archaeological field work, museum collections and related interpretive programs at the sites and online. Colonial Williamsburg will assume responsibility for the programs and operations at Historic Jamestowne for Preservation Virginia.

The organizations will connect the themes of discovery, diversity and democracy at both locations to create a more memorable visitor experience. Part of that effort will be bringing archaeology efforts to the forefront to “put the visitor at the point of discovery,” according to Jim Horn, CW’s vice president for research and historical interpretation and director of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library.

William Kelso, director of archaeological research and interpretation for Preservation Virginia, said the organizations will make a greater effort to place Jamestown into a greater “birth of a nation” context by explaining how traditions that started at the colony evolved into the American struggle for independence.

Working together will also help the organizations leverage resources to strengthen educational missions, program development and marketing initiatives. CW will provide additional marketing and fundraising resources to drum up more support for Historic Jamestowne.

The organizations will also incorporate Yorktown in their effort to get the Historic Triangle designated as a World Heritage Site. The United States has 20 World Heritage Sites, but the organizations argue none of them boast as much impact as the Historic Triangle where English society was established, colonists first interacted with American Indians, Africans were brought to the country, democratic ideas were articulated in what would become a Declaration of Rights and the American Revolution was won.

The World Heritage Convention, adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1972, established the World Heritage List to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity, according to UNESCO’s website.

The Convention’s World Heritage Committee determines whether a site meets the following criteria: a cultural property that may be an outstanding example of a traditional way of life that represents a certain culture or a natural property that exemplifies major stages of earth’s history or ongoing ecological processes.

Many of the current U.S. sites to achieve World Heritage recognition are national parks, but the list does include Monticello and the University of Virginia, the Statue of Liberty and Independence Hall.