Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum - Thursday Oct 14th

        Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, wife of Colonial Williamsburg founder John D Rockefeller, Jr., bought her first piece of American folk art in 1929 when few others understood the appeal of such material. Her collection quickly grew in size and significance and in 1935 she placed a portion of it on loan to Colonial Williamsburg. Mrs Rockefeller's collection was displayed in the Ludwell-Paradise House on Duke of Gloucester Street for more than twenty years. In time some 424 of her pieces were presented to Colonial Williamsburg through the generosity of her son David Rockefeller. Following her death in 1948, John D Rockefeller, Jr,. agreed that  a new  specifically designed museum building situated near the Historic area would better serve the folk art collection. It also would be a fitting tribute to his beloved late wife. Mr. Rockefeller funded the new structure and the conservation of the collection and endowed it's operation. TheAbby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum Folk Art Museum opened to the public on March 15, 1957. Soon after the museum debuted, curators began adding to the fork art collection through gifts and purchases. Today the collection encompasses several thousand works dating from the 1720's to the present. In 2007 the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum moved to more conveniently located quarters in a new structure adjacent to the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum. Today the Fork Art Museum presents regularly changing exhibitions in a variety of media,including painting, quilts, ceramics, weathervanes, sculptures and more. It was exciting to go through and see things that were once collected and owned by someone who is one of my ancestors. I bought some postcards prints of some of those items. I also got a small print in a frame entitled "Baby inRed Chair"  The original was pictured in Abby's home in 1931.   




     

Williamsburg Winery - Thursday October 14th

 

As the day was forecasted for rain, we decided to spend the day going to indoor places. Since we had never been on a tour of a winery  and there was one in Williamsburg, that was one of our stops today. It began to rain not long after we got on the road and rained pretty hard at times.

The Williamsburg Winery is Virginia's largest winery, producing over 60,000 cases of wine annually. It was established in 1985 by the Duffeler family. But when we got to the Williamsburg Winery, we found we were not the only brave souls. Our tour consisted of ourselves and 3 other couples. One from Canada, one from North Carolina, and one from South Carolina. First we watched a short film on the grape growing and winemaking.  Then a gentleman named Jack took us on our tour. We saw the barrel cellar where they have the wines that are aging in White Oak Wine Barrels. Depending on the wine, they may be in here for three months to 12 months to a few years. We saw the area production area where they do the bottling, corking, and labels. The family that started this winery believe in using real cork stoppers, not the screw off kinds or plastic corks. We also saw the wine cellar where they keep their reserve wines, and a display of wine bottles including ones that go back to colonial times. We were also shown the more modern way of making wine in large metal wine vats. The entire wine making process for both the wine barrels and the wine vats was explained to us. Then we were taken into the wine wasting room. We were to try seven different wines in all; three white,three reds (one of which was a Reserved Wine, and a dessert wine. We were given a listing off all the wines they make where we would mark the ones we were trying and rate them. We decided to purchase the reserved one we tasted, Gabriel Archer Reserved; we also purchased two we did not try .  Our wine tasting goblets were given to us as a souvenir. Kevin went to put them in the car while I shopped, in juggling while opening the door, Kevin accidentally dropped one, The tour guide was gracious in giving us another one. In addition the the three bottles of wine, we got a cork cage made of metal wire in the shape of an oak barrel.

   

  

   

 

   

Dinner at Shields Tavern - Wednesday, October 13

Tonight we ate at Shields Tavern, We had Welsh Rarebit with a Slasher of Virginia Ham, and Crayfish Chowder and Beef Pasty for our appetizers.  Kevin had the BBQ Rib Dinner and I had the Roasted Fowl.  This Building has two floors above ground and two below. We were seated on the top floor and wouldn't you know it the Necessities (as they call the Restroom) was on the lowest floor.