Saturday, July 4, 2026, the United States of America will celebrate its 250th anniversary. To Williamsburg, however, preparations for the celebration started several years ago with the launch of the “For 2026” conference series. The series was designed to consist of five conferences on various aspects of underappreciated or understudied revolutionary history, beginning with “Revolutionary Legacies” in 2022, and culminating next year with the semiquincentennial.
The purpose of the “For 2026” conference series is to uncover and learn from Williamsburg’s complex legacy, presenting the results to the community and the nation next July. Panels, workshops and site visits have allowed conference-goers to dive deep into the history of Williamsburg — and, by extension, America.
Colonial Williamsburg has also had the opportunity to host an annual event titled “A Common Cause To All.” Beginning in 2023, the program has occurred three times every mid-March since then. Aiming to mirror the “Committees of Correspondence” of the Revolutionary War, responsible for coordinating the nation’s plan to gain freedom from the British, the conference has brought together historians from around the country to commemorate America’s little-known bits of history and advocate on behalf of a common sense of unity moving forward.
Robert Currie, the program lead for CW’s events, spoke on the unique nature of Williamsburg’s relationship with the semiquincentennial.
“We think it’s a tremendous opportunity to highlight Williamsburg’s central role in the early American story,” Currie said. “Unlike a lot of other cities that are important in the early American story, you can actually walk through this immersive setting and be in the place where it happened.”
Currie explained how the long-term process of discussing and celebrating events allows for a more complete picture of the American Revolution — one that neither begins nor ends in 1776. Currie highlighted a new program called “Promise of Freedom,” which deals with the implications of Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation of 1775 — a somewhat overlooked yet important historical event for understanding the Revolution.
Also featured in the 250th anniversary initiatives is adjunct professor of history Holly White, one of seven fellows working under the College of William and Mary’s Office of Strategic Cultural Partnerships. White aims to broaden understanding of the event and democratize untold stories by launching the Children of the American Revolution Project.
An important facet of CARP is creating resources for K–6 education that highlight the roles that children played during the Revolutionary War. This includes identifying those children, their family lineages and their upbringings, and incorporating their stories into educational materials to be presented in the months prior to July 2026.
White emphasized that children were not merely observers but active participants in the revolutionary era, pointing to politically motivated actions taken by children during the lead-up to the Revolutionary War. Some expressed resistance symbolically, through explicitly pro-revolutionary needlework, while others voiced their revolutionary ideas publicly.
“The history of childhood and youth is an important field,” she said. “[We are] thinking about children as having agency in their own right and removing children in the past from our modern assumptions about what children are capable of.”
White shared the story of a young teenager incensed over British oppression who began throwing rocks at British soldiers in Boston. This event, which precipitated the bloody confrontation that would come to be known as the Boston Massacre, was a pivotal moment for colonial resistance.
White emphasized that such actions are cause for a reevaluation of the traditional historical narrative. Often, historians and spectators alike rely on an adult-centered view of history, sometimes discounting or entirely missing the experiences of children during historical events.
“Being able to see these stories and narratives of children participating in major political milestones for our country will be of extra interest to kids,” White said.
Currie echoed similar sentiments, remarking that visitors to CW sometimes felt dissatisfied with how much certain issues were or were not covered in their museums, guided tours and online educational materials.
“Invariably, people will say, ‘I was disappointed not to see more about the story of the enslaved,’” Currie said.
Currie noted that such a divide on issues of race, gender and age complicates the semiquincentennial but that the actions of those running local conferences and of researchers at the College, including White, have created a welcoming space for celebration and a fuller representation of our nation’s origin story.
History Ph.D. student Kirsten A. Smitherman, M.A. ’25 commented on the celebration, which she sees as essential for maintaining national identity, especially in light of the tense political climate.
“I think celebrating the anniversary is really wonderful,” Smitherman said.
Smitherman expanded on research she has conducted regarding overlooked parties during the Revolution, especially women, whom these research projects are focusing on bringing to the forefront.
“We get so caught up specifically with celebrating the Revolution, we can tend to overlook the women, especially women of color,” she said. “I think if we can find moments where we can still celebrate and bring these people to the forefront, some people have no clue what these women were doing, or these children, these men who weren’t in Washington.”
