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The history of the founding of Jamestown in 1607 has had centuries of bad press, much of it deserved. The exhibitions celebrating the 400th anniversary this year, however, have benefited from a good deal of new research, a changing historical approach, and scientific findings as well.

Archaeology has made major strides at Jamestown. For example, in 1994 the actual site of the fort there was discovered, and archaeologists began (and are still) uncovering a wealth of artifacts that help to show how the colonists lived and belie the previous assumption that they were an unproductive and helpless lot. Beyond this, evidence has been unearthed that the Susquehannock tribe, who were known to have been interested in trading with Captain John Smith and the colonists, had some years earlier moved south out of small scattered villages to build a fortified center at the head of the Chesapeake Bay, where they could more easily carry on trade with other Indian tribes as well as with European seafarers decades before the arrival of the English colonists.

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The study of global weather and the history of climate change have also fostered a better understanding of the circumstances under which the early colonies in North America were founded. Information derived from studying such things as the core of glaciers, ocean beds, and coral tells scientists that North America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was extremely cold. Moreover, there was widespread drought in the Americas, especially in the Southwest. Both the colony on Roanoke Island, which did not survive, and Jamestown, which did, were founded during a period of severe drought on the East Coast.

The unfortunate history of slavery in America also began at Jamestown, when Africans were brought over to support the new tobacco industry. Ongoing studies are uncovering more information about when and where in Africa these early enslaved people were captured and more about who they were to begin with.

The central event of the four hundredth anniversary celebration of Jamestown takes place at the Jamestown Settlement near Williamsburg, Virginia. Entitled The World of 1607, it aims to place the settlement in a global context. In the spring of 1606 James I of England granted a charter that founded the Virginia Company and allowed it to establish an English settlement in the Chesapeake region of North America. In December of that year some 108 men and a crew of about 39 set sail, with orders from the company's entrepreneurs, to find gold and a water route to the Far East. They landed on May 13, 1607, on the peninsula soon to be called Jamestown. It was not the first attempt of Englishmen to settle on this coast--the earlier attempt on Roanoke Island had mysteriously failed as had one in New England in 1602--and the members of the Jamestown group, and those who followed them, had a long hard struggle for many years.

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The signature event is being presented in four cycles, each about three months long. The first, running until mid-July, contains more than one hundred artifacts covering seven subject areas: "Power and Identity," "Diplomatic Gifts," "War and Peace," "The Marketplace," "America in European Consciousness," "The Classical World Reinterpreted," and "The Rise of Great Britain." Among the historical objects on view are a fifteenth-century copy of the Magna Carta, the document that is the basis of English common law, on which the American legal system was modeled; a silver-gilt steeple cup from the period (shown on p. 16); a fowling piece that was a diplomatic gift from James I to Philip III of Spain marking a 1604 treaty that allowed the English to establish a colony in North America; examples of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century armor; English gifts presented to Russian and Persian rulers in this period; Spanish paintings; and American Indian wampum beads collected before 1656.

The second-cycle exhibition will explore such topics as "London and Jamestown in 1607," "China under the Emperor Wanli," "Century of Genius," and "Cultural Encounters: Artistic Hybridization and the Catholic Missions in Asia and Latin America." The third cycle will cover topics such as "A Cabinet of Wonder," "Image of the Other: England and North Africa in 1607," and "Transmitting Knowledge." The fourth cycle will feature still other themes, including "Eastern Borderlands of Europe: The Ottomans as a World Power," "Trouble in Russia," "Science in and from the World of Islam," and "The Age of Expansion: Treasures Saved from the Sea." All four exhibitions and the accompanying limited-edition catalogue are the work of twenty-eight international scholars. For exact dates for each cycle, call 888-593-4682.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning