Historic Christ Church & Museum was proud to be part of American Evolution 2019, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s commemoration of the 400th anniversary of several significant historical events that took place in Virginia in 1619 that continue to influence America today. These include the first representative legislative assembly in the New World, the arrival of the first recorded Africans to English North America, the recruitment of women to the Virginia colony in significant numbers, the first official English Thanksgiving in North America, and the development of the colony’s entrepreneurial and innovative spirit.
In 2019, HCC&M hosted several programs related to the commemoration, including a Sunday Speaker Series The Bones of Our Past: Jamestown and the Making of America and a Rappahannock Institute for Lifelong Learning (RILL) class on "Virginia in 1619." HCC&M also hosted two traveling exhibitions, one from the Hampton History Museum on the arrival of the first Africans to Virginia and the other from American Evolution 2019 and the Library of Virginia on the Great Charter of 1618. That June HCC&M welcomed renowned curator Bly Straube for a reception and presentation followed by a visit to Historic Jamestown and Jamestown Settlement the next day. Our Public Reading of the Declaration of Independence returned July 3 in a patriotic celebration for the community. In September the Wren Masters, a baroque quartet from Williamsburg, performed "Jamestown 1619: Music from the New World and the Old."
Of 305 organizations to participate in American Evolution, HCC&M was one of only five to receive the Statewide Partner Award. The award recognizes HCC&M’s 2019 programs that supported American Evolution.
