Jamestown at 400: Natives and Newcomers in Early Virginia
CALIFORNIA
San Marino - Early Jamestown, Va., was the place where John Smith met Pocahontas, where the settlers discovered how to grow tobacco, and where the English allowed their colonists to practice self-government. But the fact that the colony survived long enough to achieve any of those distinctions, much less to have an anniversary worth celebrating 400 years later, is something of an accomplishment in itself.
Perched on the edge of a swamp, Jamestown lost a large population of settlers each year to typhoid fever and famine, and in a little more than a decade the Europeans and Indians were at war. To mark the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the first permanent English colony in America, The Huntington is presenting a special exhibition that explores how the English settlement came to play a central role—against substantial odds—in the early development of the nation.
The show draws on The Huntington’s unsurpassed collection of rare materials relating to early Virginia, including a rare medicinal book from 1596 describing the therapeutic properties of tobacco, and an early map of Virginia published by John Smith in 1624. Library, West Hall
Through Jan. 14, 2008 at The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino California. Use this link for more info on-line