[1957 Jamestown Festival]

Celebrating America’s colonial history at Jamestown.

[From the Encyclopedia of Virginia] “In 1957, Virginia hosted an eight-month-long celebration known as the “Jamestown Festival” to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the founding of the colony at Jamestown. Organized through the efforts of the Virginia 350th Anniversary Commission the festival emphasized the key role that Jamestown, as the first permanent English settlement in North America, played in American history.

The event drew national and international attention to the state, and brought more than a million visitors to the Jamestown area, including then-U.S. vice president Richard Nixon and Queen Elizabeth II of England. It also suffered from the limitations of its day, namely the failure to take into account more fully the perspectives of Virginia Indians and African Americans.”

This collection of five different items provides a comprehensive overview of the event. It includes a fifty-page official program, a calendar of events from October, and three separate maps. The first measures approximately 32″ x 21.5″ and was issued by the Virginia State Highway Department. It shows primary transportation routes across the state and includes inset maps of the major urban centers.

A second sheet, 23.25″ x 13″ shows the grounds of Colonial Williamsburg. It was created by the General Drafting Company and distributed by Esso. The final map was designed and distributed by the same. Two sides show a pictorial map depicting life in Colonial America and a pantheon of early American cartography on the opposite.