“I Just Told Them Like It Was”: Performance and History at Colonial Williamsburg

Abstract

Since its organization in the mid-twentieth century, Colonial Williamsburg (CW) has been an important site for the consolidation of powerful narratives of American exceptionalism, patriotism, and the so-called consensus history of the American Revolution. This article looks at the role that music and performance has played in this historiography, taking as its primary texts two films produced by CW: The Story of a Patriot (1957) and The Music of Williamsburg (1960). With musical contributions by Bernard Herrmann and Alan Lomax, respectively, these films offer an opportunity to analyze the relationship between history and politics in the early Cold War era. Although The Story of a Patriot reflects a static and essentially conservative portrayal of American exceptionalism, the more liberal inclusiveness of The Music of Williamsburg showcases the fraught power dynamics of attempting to showcase historical Black music making in a patriotic context.