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A Welcome from the President
![Colin Campbell](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20090116223448im_/http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/images/cambell.jpg)
Colin Campbell
Welcome to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Web site, a rich collection of resources and attractions provided for Internet guests of the world’s largest living-history museum. I’m Colin Campbell, and I have the privilege to be Colonial Williamsburg’s president.
On the eve of American Independence, Williamsburg was the capital of England’s oldest, wealthiest, and most populous North American colony. It was a community of freemen and slaves, of educators and innkeepers, of merchants and politicians, of tradesmen and lawyers. Here American patriots and British loyalists struggled with the questions of independence, liberty and self-government. Their ultimate answer was revolution.
Visit Colonial Williamsburg, restored to 18th-century authenticity, and walk in the paths of the people whose journeys led to the idea of America. You’ll meet, in the persons of gifted character interpreters, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Gowan Pamphlet, and scores of others, who bequeathed to us a country. You’ll walk on the ground where independence was proposed. You’ll participate in the debate in the city’s streets and shops. And you will stand in the room where the victory at Yorktown was planned.
Colonial Williamsburg is a family vacation destination, a resort, and an interactive education in 18th-century life and culture. It’s dining in the colonial taverns, watching trades people at their crafts, and marching with the Fifes and Drums Corps. It’s a carriage ride, a day on the golf course, a stroll through the gardens, a visit to the folk and decorative arts museums, and an afternoon in the Revolutionary City. Colonial Williamsburg is a seamless adventure in educational recreation in a setting where subjects became citizens and a revolution changed the world.
Use the wealth of the Web site to explore Colonial Williamsburg, to meet the people, tour the town, download a podcast, sample a museum exhibit, read a story, research a subject, shop, purchase a ticket, make hotel reservations, and prepare your visit to a place where the future may learn from the past.
![Colin Campbell](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20090116223448im_/http://www.history.org/Foundation/images/cgc-sig.jpg)
Colin G. Campbell
Chairman and President