Digital Collections

Digital Collections is the central repository for digitized and born-digital assets from the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library.  With a focus on supporting research and public engagement, this platform encourages users to virtually experience, explore, and access digitized materials that reflect the diversity of the library’s wide range of historical and cultural resources.

The history of newspaper printing in Virginia begins with William Parks. Parks, originally from England, moved from Maryland to Williamsburg in 1730 where he served as the public printer to the colony of Virginia. Six years later, he printed the first issue of The Virginia Gazette. For the next 30 years, the office founded by Parks and his successors, William Hunter and Joseph Royle, retained a monopoly on printing in Virginia. That monopoly ended when a faction of the General Assembly, upset with Joseph Royle’s refusal to print Patrick Henry’s Resolves against the Stamp Act, invited William Rind to establish a rival press in Williamsburg. Shortly thereafter, Rind began printing his own version of The Virginia Gazette. When Royle’s successors, Alexander Purdie and John Dixon, ended their partnership in 1774, Dixon continued printing the original Gazette and Purdie launched the third paper of that name in Williamsburg and the fourth in Virginia. In 1774, William Duncan and Company began printing The Virginia Gazette, or, Norfolk Intelligencer, ending Williamsburg’s printing monopoly in Virginia. In 1780, Richmond became the new capital of Virginia and by the end of that year, Williamsburg’s two remaining printers ceased publishing their newspapers there.  

A typical issue of The Virginia Gazette was printed on a single sheet of paper folded once to create a paper of four pages, although issues of two, six, and eight pages also exist. When paper shortages existed, as they did during the American Revolution, printers sometimes resorted to printing on half-sheets. Regardless of length, issues of The Virginia Gazette contain news accounts, official proclamations, advertisements, and literary, religious, and political opinion pieces. The latter pieces were a mixture of items reprinted from published works and submissions by local authors. Early news coverage emphasized events in Europe and the Caribbean, though with the approach of the Revolution, printers increased their coverage of events in Virginia and the other North American colonies. Advertisements were an important source of revenue to the printers of The Virginia Gazette and are an invaluable source of information to modern researchers. In addition to providing insights into the social and economic lives of Virginia’s elites, the advertisements record information about individuals who were less likely to leave behind written evidence of their lives, such as indentured servants and enslaved people.

The Rockefeller Library has partnered with Swem Library at William & Mary and the Library of Virginia to provide access here to the issues of The Virginia Gazette from each institution’s holdings.  Together with microfilm issues, researchers can access one of the most complete runs of the newspaper online.

Support for making The Virginia Gazette available on the Digital Collections platform is provided by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator Program.  This program supports leadership development and technological infrastructure investment that builds audiences, increases fundraising, drives revenue, delivers dynamic programming, and helps develop best practices to share across a network of non-profit cultural organizations.

Virginia Gazettes

Since The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation began its work to restore and interpret 18th-century Williamsburg in 1926, its historians, archaeologists, and curators have conducted extensive research to ensure that work is as historically accurate as possible. They have examined its existing structures, excavated sites, analyzed paint samples, collected artifacts, searched land records, and consulted 18th-century books, manuscripts, engravings, and maps, documenting their efforts along the way.

The Research Reports gathered here have been contributed by various CWF departments to the Rockefeller Library for the purpose of sharing this work with the public. Most of the reports relate directly to buildings in Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area; each generally has an archaeological, an architectural, and an historical report associated with it. But researchers will also find topical reports on areas of interest to 18th-century studies, as well as a few interpretive reports that outline the way in which buildings have been presented to visitors.

It's important to note that while reports are still being added as new research is completed, the majority date to the period of the initial Restoration: over 60% were written before 1959. Thus, while they present the most complete understanding available at the time of their composition, they may now be out of date due to the discovery of new evidence and advances in technology. Researchers may also encounter outmoded or disrespectful terminology or evidence of discriminatory views in these reports. Colonial Williamsburg continues to make this material available for research as part of our commitment to understanding our own history.

Support for making Colonial Williamsburg Research Reports available on the Digital Collections platform is provided by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator Program.  This program supports leadership development and technological infrastructure investment that builds audiences, increases fundraising, drives revenue, delivers dynamic programming, and helps develop best practices to share across a network of non-profit cultural organizations.

Please contact the Rockefeller Library with any questions about Colonial Williamsburg Research Reports: <a href="mailto:rocklibrary@cwf.org" target="_blank">rocklibrary@cwf.org</a>

Colonial Williamsburg Research Reports

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Bruton Heights School

The Williamsburg Bray School is the oldest extant building dedicated to the education of Black children in the United States, located in Williamsburg, Virginia.  The assets shown here represent highlights from the thousands of images, videos, and primary sources about the restoration of the Bray School.

Williamsburg Bray School

Teacher Resources