US Airways - November 2012 - (Page 44)

T he man who dismounts with a flourish wears a red wool coat and white linen breeches. His shoes are made by the on-site shoemaker. He strides to his counterpart and bows. She stands stiffly straight in a starched white cap and fetching hat trimmed with blue ribbon, and layer upon layer of clothing — shift and stays, hoops and petticoat, gown and stomacher. Children in bonnets and three-cornered hats stare, ignoring their parents, who are burdened with shopping bags of pewter mugs, wooden toys, and souvenir quill pens bought in the shops along Duke of Gloucester Street. Some visitors call the place a souvenir treadmill — a Disney park without the rides — but the dedication of the people at Colonial Williamsburg to re-creating an authentic 18th-century experience falls cleanly into the category of obsessive. Every candlestick, every nod of the head, every bayoneted musket is endlessly studied, in books and paintings, in libraries and museums around the world. The wool for the rider’s clothing is imported from Britain — even though a synthetic would be cheaper and more comfortable in the Virginia heat — because that’s where the colonists got theirs. The woman’s stays are made using a pattern drawn from an antique at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, although steel replaces the strips of boiled whale baleen that would have been shoved into the narrow stitched channels in the 18th century. All of the costumed interpreters in the houses and on the streets take classes and immerse themselves in the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s library, studying the period’s characters and events, both the big and obvious — like the founding of our country — and those decidedly less so, like cleaning clothing and churning butter. The men learn to sit a horse, the women to nod to those socially beneath them and pay courtesies to those above. But most of the obsession is unseen by tourists’ eyes. In a conservation lab away from the historic area, a pianoforte too fragile to be played is reproduced, the felt from the keys analyzed for thread count, the wires twisted and hammers carved by hand. Next door a chair is scrutinized. What type of chisels did the furniture maker use? What was boiled down to make the glue? How can we repair it without ruining its historic integrity? In another building a zooarchaeologist — an expert in bones — sifts through soil from a recent dig, separating 44 november 2012 usairwaysmag.com http://www.usairwaysmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of US Airways - November 2012

US Airways - November 2012
Table of Contents
CEO Letter
From the Editor
Did You Know?
Making It Happen
Hot Spots: Best Holiday Getaways
Hub Crawl: Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
Wine & Dine: Mendoza, Argentina Wines
Wine & Dine: Barbecoa Restaurant, London
Adventure: Thrifty in San Francisco
Adventure: Skiing Mt. Baker, Washington
Great Escapes: Red Horse Inn, South Carolina
Gear Up: Bar Ware
Making It Real: America's Historic Sites
Best of Education: Miller School of Albemarle
Silent Heroes: Honor Flight Network
Crossing Borders: Charlotte, North Carolina
Best of Health: Lankenau Medical Center
University Spotlight: University of Dayton
Celebrate Richmond, Virginia
Special Section: Chateau on Central
Must Read: Heisman — The Man Behind the Trophy
Puzzles
Readers Resource Index
Your US Airways Guide
Video Entertainment
Audio Entertainment
U.S. and Caribbean Service Map
International Service Map
Airport Terminal Maps
US Airways Fleet/Customs & Immigration
Passenger Info/Contact US Airways
US Airways MarketPlace®
Giving: Miles for Good
Window or Aisle?

US Airways - November 2012

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