Explore Colonial Williamsburg with Google Arts & Culture

Powering the world’s first AI arts museum

To celebrate America’s 250th birthday, a new digital hub showcases the history of daily life in 18th-century Virginia, from revolutionary American history to historic trades to key sites and figures of the colonial capital.

This year marks a monumental milestone: the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America.

To celebrate this moment, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Google Arts & Culture have partnered on a new project that pulls back the curtain on early American history. It makes the varied daily realities of the 18th-century colonial capital accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. By combining Google’s technology with Colonial Williamsburg’s peerless historical resources and research-based expertise, this project turns history into an active, living, layered story.

Here’s a look at what you can explore in the new interactive collection:

Travel back in time to explore early America

The collection features deep explorations into the individuals, objects and moments that shaped 18th-century America.

The revolutionary spirit: Trace the spark of the American Revolution through stories that examine a city divided, exploring how the foundational ideas of independence took root in and transformed Virginia’s colonial capital.
Historic trades: Go inside the workshops of the shoemakers, silversmiths, printers and other skilled tradespeople who powered the colonial economy.
Human histories: Explore different perspectives from a multifaceted capital city–follow in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson, discover the ideas and events that led to American independence, hear about the city’s enslaved inhabitants’ fights for freedom, and learn more about indigenous peoples in Williamsburg.
Behind the scenes: Discover the ongoing place-based archaeology, artifact conservation, and work on historic buildings that goes into preserving this history for the future. And encounter living history, with reconstructed gardens and rare animals.
Collection highlights: Learn from iconic objects like the Declaration of Independence, or everyday ones, like the city’s chamber pots. Using Google Arts & Culture’s large-scale data program, the hub hosts more than 3,500 assets, including more than 2,000 objects from Colonial Williamsburg’s museums.

Explore Colonial Williamsburg with Google Arts & Culture A photograph of a man in historical attire, examining a stack of large papers by a window in a dimly lit, colonial American room. A signed permit in handwritten ink on aged, beige paper, with a vertical crease down the middle. A photograph of a mature sheep standing between two smaller lambs in a grassy area between a white fence and a half barrel, looking towards the viewer. A copper-plate engraving depicting three rows of detailed illustrations, including historical public buildings and gardens in the top and middle rows, and various flora and fauna in the bottom row.

Explore Colonial Williamsburg

A grouping of six historical chamber pots of varying materials, colors, and designs, including silver, white ceramic, and blue-and-white porcelain.

Discover key moments, sites, and people of 18th-century Williamsburg, including Patrick Henry, one of America’s great Revolutionary figures.

Take a virtual stroll with Street View

Newly captured Street View images let you take a virtual stroll through the streets of the colonial city. You can go deeper with virtual guided tours, allowing you to explore historic spaces like the Raleigh Tavern, gathering place of founding fathers, the Williamsburg Bray School, an 18th-century school for both enslaved and free Black children, and the local courthouse where history was made. For an even closer look, eight highly detailed 3D models of historic sites and objects let you get close to the architecture from every angle.

Learn the stories behind America’s founding ideas with NotebookLM

Created in close collaboration with Colonial Williamsburg’s historians, this NotebookLM features more than 150 sources, including 18th-century documents and artifacts, articles from Trend & Tradition, and research written by Colonial Williamsburg’s subject matter experts. These sources explore the debates and discussions that led to the United States’ founding, and how and why the nation’s founding ideas were forged in Virginia. This AI-powered research tool lets you interact directly with the archives and experts, inviting you into an open conversation to learn about the revolution’s central concepts, discover who contributed to them, or analyze how early Americans thought about the government they overthrew and envisioned the democracy they chose to build.

Connect past and present

After exploring the digital collection and tools, it’s hard not to walk away with the impression that America has, from its earliest days, been the home of grand ideas that echoed across the globe.

By exploring the past through a digital experience that is interactive and accessible, you can discover and appreciate the historical events that led us to the incredible era of innovation we find ourselves in today.

Ready to step back in time? To celebrate America’s 250th birthday, visit The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s page on Google Arts & Culture, and download the free Google Arts & Culture app on iOS or Android to start your virtual journey into early America.

Explore Colonial Williamsburg with Google Arts & Culture

Explore Colonial Williamsburg

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Google Arts & Culture have launched a massive, interactive digital collection. Designed to mark the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States, this virtual hub features over 3,500 digital assets, 30+ virtual tours, and 3D models. It brings the daily realities, historic trade shops, and revolutionary spirit of 18th-century Virginia directly to global audiences. [1, 2, 3]

You can immerse yourself in early American history through the Colonial Williamsburg Hub on Google Arts & Culture via the following digital experiences: [1, 2]

🚶 Virtual Strolls and Street View Tours

Newly captured panoramic images allow you to virtually walk the pathways of the 301-acre living history museum. Key virtual tours include: [1, 4, 5]

The Raleigh Tavern: A famous 18th-century social and political hub where founding fathers gathered to debate liberty. [1, 6, 7]
The Williamsburg Bray School: An impactful space dedicated to the education of both free and enslaved Black children between 1760 and 1774. [1, 5]
Colonial Williamsburg Courthouse: A deeply educational tour detailing 18th-century law, community life, and the sobering history of slave courts. [1, 5, 8]

🛠️ Interactive Trade Shop Stories

The digital hub highlights 10 detailed stories focusing on the diverse workforce and historic trades that powered the colonial economy: [1, 2]

The Colonial Carpenter: Reveals how trained, enslaved Black men and white tradesmen built the city from raw lumber.
Other Interactive Shops: Peek inside the daily routines of the weaver, wheelwright, milliner, printer, and apothecary. [3, 9]

📐 3D Architectural Journeys

Architectural preservationists have created eight highly detailed 3D models. You can rotate, zoom, and inspect these structures from every angle to look inside: [1, 2]

A 3D Journey Into 18th-Century Williamsburg: Features interactive 3D models of the Capitol Building, the Secretary’s Office, the Millinery Shop, and Wetherburn’s Tavern. [10, 11]

📜 Rare Artifacts and Library Exhibits [12]

The platform grants unprecedented access to more than 2,000 physical objects from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, alongside treasures from the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library: [1, 13, 14]

The Bodleian Plate (c. 1740): A rare copper plate offering the most complete period view of the town’s public buildings, serving as the modern restoration blueprint. [1, 2]
Primary Documents: High-resolution scans of items like a rare 1771 travel permit for two enslaved individuals and Patrick Henry’s Stamp Act Resolves. [1, 15]
The American Revolution Story: A curated visual archive detailing the political friction, everyday hardships, and eventual armed conflicts of the era. [15]

🤖 AI-Powered Research Integration

NotebookLM Integration: The collection includes an AI-powered research assistant feature. This allows students, teachers, and history enthusiasts to interactively query document transcripts and parse complex historical narratives effortlessly. [1, 3]

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If you plan on exploring further, let me know:

Would you like direct links to a specific trade shop or historical figure’s story?
Are you planning an in-person trip to Williamsburg to see these sites live?
Do you need educational resources or lesson plans for a classroom?