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Annual Reports: 2001: President's Message
Hanging in my office, just behind my desk, is a portrait of Patrick
Henry. Henry is wrapped in a bold, red coat, reflective no doubt
of his role as a fiery orator with a penchant—many would say
a passion—for challenging the status quo. His eyes are intense,
like Henry himself.
He looks to the left, across more than two centuries of history, toward
Duke of Gloucester Street, Williamsburg’s main colonial thoroughfare,
which looks much the way it did in Henry’s day. Just down the hall
are portraits of two other equally famous eighteenth-century Williamsburg
residents, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Symbolically reunited,
226 years after setting America on an irrevocable course for independence,
one wonders how these three men might view the events of 2001.
It was a year unlike any other, to be sure. Last September, we experienced
a rare phenomenon for Americans. Our centers of government and commerce
were shockingly attacked by people seeking to throw our nation into chaos.
Our democratic system of government and our country’s very ideals,
all of which took root here in Williamsburg more than two centuries ago
with help from leaders like Washington, Jefferson, and Henry, were tested
to the core. How would they think we did? Did our system—their system—work?
Interpreters show their patriotism
during the Foundation's Seventy-Fifth
Anniversary Kickoff Celebration
held in September 2001 on Palace Green
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In 2001, we celebrated the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary
of Williamsburg’s restoration and rededicated ourselves to the
Foundation’s educational mission, “that the future may
learn from the past.” We reflected on the values and ideals
born in Williamsburg two hundred years ago and, especially after September
11, we appreciated anew the timeless relevance of Colonial Williamsburg
and the lessons it teaches about America. We celebrated the accomplishments
of Washington, Jefferson, and Henry. We also celebrated the many accomplishments
of Williamsburg’s other eighteenth-century residents: tradespeople,
shopkeepers, mothers, wives, children, African-Americans. All are
part of our story.
With seventy-five years of history of our own, we also celebrated the
accomplishments of Colonial Williamsburg’s founders, the Rev. Dr.
W. A. R. Goodwin and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. What would these men say
about 2001? What would they say about Colonial Williamsburg, seven-and-a-half
decades after beginning what could arguably be called the most important
restoration in history? Have we honored the dream of Rev. Goodwin and
Mr. Rockefeller?
True to our role and responsibility as an educational institution and
steward of one of history’s most significant towns, we put great
emphasis on our educational endeavors in 2001 as we continued to strive
for excellence both on-site and off. In the Historic Area, we completed
our “Becoming Americans” storyline. Begun in 1996 with the
theme of “Choosing Revolution,” and running through 2001 with
“Buying Respectability,” the “Becoming Americans”
program established a six-year framework under which our educational programs
helped our visitors understand how an evolving community and its diverse
people participated in the challenge of creating a new nation. The success
of the “Becoming Americans” program encouraged us to renew
our commitment, at all levels, to ensuring that the important story of
Williamsburg’s role in this nation, then and now, remains always
at the heart of our educational programs.
Impressive increases in guest satisfaction scores suggested that visitors
responded well to efforts to improve Historic Area programs, sharpen the
focus on families and community, and strengthen the orientation experience.
New hands-on programs at the Rural Trades site and tours of the newly
reconstructed two-story kitchen behind the Peyton Randolph House were
particular attractions. Just down Duke of Gloucester Street, visitors
enjoyed a new experience at Wetherburn’s Tavern, restored and refurnished
in 2001 in more authentic eighteenth-century fashion.
Colonial Williamsburg’s museums remained in the
national spotlight in 2001, beginning last January when the Foundation’s
collections were the featured exhibition at the 2001 Winter Antiques
Show in New York City, the nation’s pre-eminent show for antique
collectors and dealers. In Williamsburg, an attractive offering of
new exhibitions drew legions of visitors. The popular holiday exhibitions
at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum last year included
The Hennage Collection of Antique Toys, a delightful assortment of
antique, primarily tin, toys lent by stalwart Colonial Williamsburg
supporters Joe and June Hennage, and James Hampton’s Throne
of the Third Heaven, an inspiring religious tribute made almost entirely
of scrap wood, cardboard, aluminum foil, and light bulbs, on loan
from the Smithsonian Institution.
A two-handled Staffordshire,
England, cup
(1697) from Colonial Williamsburg's collections
that served as the symbol of the
2001 Winter Antiques Show
special exhibition in New York,
Seventy-Five Years of Collecting
at Colonial Williamsburg. |
Among the most popular 2001 shows at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts
Museum were At the Edge of the World: Mapping Scotland, a fascinating collection
of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century images of Scotland, on loan from an
anonymous donor, and PEEP SHOW! Panoramas of the Past, an entertaining collection
of eighteenth-century landscape perspective prints, early precursors of
televisions and VCRs.
Underpinning many of our programs and related initiatives over the last
year was the invaluable work done by Colonial Williamsburg’s archaeology,
architecture, history, and research staff. Our historians collaborated
with the venerable British architect Quinlan Terry, who helped design
a new building in Merchants Square at College Corner, near William and
Mary’s Wren Building. They also provided training and program planning
to support a reorganized Historic Area and continued to collaborate with
colleagues in the Historic Area and the Foundation’s maintenance
staff on a wide range of planned preservation projects to keep our grounds
and buildings in superior shape.
Throughout 2001, we made enormous progress in the use of educational
outreach vehicles to share with audiences of all ages Williamsburg’s
story and the Foundation’s educational mission, in the process helping
them better understand our nation’s history. In late September at
our Seventy-Fifth Anniversary celebration on Palace Green, the audience
participated in an inspiring evening that spanned Williamsburg’s
history and emphasized a message of freedom and liberty. The program was
written and produced by our own Colonial Williamsburg Productions team.
Although planned during the summer, this was an especially meaningful
experience in light of the horrific events earlier that month.
At the new Learning Resource Center in the renovated Visitor Center,
people of all ages can travel through time using several state-of-the
art computers to find out about eighteenth- and twenty-first-century Williamsburg.
For those who prefer virtual visits, our website, www.history.org, www.colonialwilliamsburg.com
or www.colonialwilliamsburg.org, was more popular than ever in 2001, registering
188 million “hits” and 4.5 million users, compared with 79
million “hits” and 2.8 million users in 2000.
Colonial Williamsburg’s award-winning Electronic Field Trips,
our state-of-the-art interactive distance learning initiative, take Colonial
Williamsburg programs into schoolrooms nationwide. Relying on PBS stations,
educational broadcasters and the Internet, we were able to reach one million
registered students in the 2000–2001 academic year. In 2001, the
AT&T Foundation awarded Colonial Williamsburg a $200,000 grant to
enhance the website component of the Electronic Field Trip program, making
it available to all schools registered as field trip participants.
Colonial Williamsburg
President and
Chairman Colin Campbell presents twenty-
five-year-employee Dolores Coleman with
her Silver Bowl. The bowl is presented to
long-term employees for their dedicated
service to the Foundation. |
We continued to put great emphasis in 2001
on Colonial Williamsburg’s people—employees, visitors,
and guests—knowing they represent the core of all we do. I had
the pleasure of awarding silver bowls to forty-nine employees last
year, in honor of their twenty-five years of service to the Foundation.
Their dedication to the Foundation and commitment to its mission are
truly impressive. Six employees received the Order of the Pineapple,
Colonial Williamsburg’s highest award for hospitality and courtesy,
a subject of special importance to me. Ten employees received Lighting
the Way awards for going beyond the call of duty to assist guests
in need.
The Foundation completed a special three-year initiative,
begun in 1999, to improve salaries and wages for its workers, particularly
long-service employees in the education and support areas. For the almost
thirteen hundred individuals who have been employees of the Foundation
since January 1, 1999, the average increase in annual salaries and hourly
wages over the period was substantially above increases in the cost of
living and in the relevant employment markets. This reflects a determination
to attract and retain a dedicated work force of high quality.
Colonial Williamsburg welcomed several new, or in some cases returning,
officers to our ranks during 2001.
 EDWARD
S. (NED) DUNN JR., former president of Harris Teeter Inc., was
named senior vice president of the Foundation and president and chief
executive officer of Colonial Williamsburg Company (CWC), the Foundation’s
subsidiary that oversees the organization’s principal business
activities, including marketing, ticket sales and admissions, hospitality,
products, and commercial real estate.
 REX
M. ELLIS, former chairman of the division of cultural history
and curator of African-American history at the Smithsonian Institution’s
National Museum of American History, was named vice president of the
Historic Area, overseeing all aspects of interpretation, presentation,
and planning in this mission-critical area. Some of you may remember
Rex from his earlier career with the Foundation, when he helped establish
Colonial Williamsburg as a national leader in the interpretation of
African-American history.
 JOHN
T. HALLOWELL, a senior executive with the Walt Disney World Co.
in Orlando, Florida, and former hotel vice president at Colonial Williamsburg,
returned as president of hospitality for the Colonial Williamsburg Company.
John oversees all of Colonial Williamsburg’s hotel, restaurant,
and recreation facilities and operations.
 RICHARD
L. MCCLUNEY JR., was promoted to the newly created position of
vice president of productions, publications, and learning ventures,
overseeing the creation and distribution of educational media for home
and school use, including our award-winning Electronic Field Trips.
Richard also manages the Foundation’s presence on the Internet.
 ROBERT
B. TAYLOR, former vice president and treasurer of Wesleyan University
in Middletown, Connecticut, was named senior vice president for finance
and administration and chief financial officer of the Foundation, responsible
for the Foundation’s financial affairs, operations, human resources,
information technology, and special projects functions.
Throughout 2001, from the Historic Area to our education departments,
from our hotels and restaurants to our golf courses, from our product
and retail division to facilities and administration ranks, each of Colonial
Williamsburg’s more than three thousand employees was united in
supporting a common goal: the pursuit of excellence to provide the best
possible experience for our visitors and guests. We feel positive about
our initiatives and accomplishments in 2001. People responded well, generating
encouraging ticket sales and record giving levels, which is very gratifying.
Even though the events of September 11 led to a significant drop in
travel for two months, the Foundation finished its Seventy-Fifth Anniversary
year ahead of 2000 in visitation, with 931,000 ticketed admissions as
compared to 929,000 in the prior year. This development reflects, in our
view, the renewed relevance to Americans of the message of Colonial Williamsburg
and, we surmise, our convenience as a drive destination for many travelers.
Central to our Seventy-Fifth Anniversary year was the official kick-off,
in September, of Colonial Williamsburg’s first comprehensive fund-raising
campaign, the Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg, with a goal to raise
$500 million by December 2005. The campaign is intended to ensure the
Foundation fulfills its educational mission—“that the future
may learn from the past”—for generations to come.
More than 650 friends and supporters attended that memorable Seventy-Fifth
Anniversary weekend and far more, nearly 100,000, generously supported
the campaign through the Colonial Williamsburg Fund, a core component
of the Foundation’s fund-raising efforts.
During the kick-off weekend, Abby and George O’Neill of Oyster Bay,
New York, who served for many years on the Foundation Board of Trustees
and have generously supported the Foundation in the past, announced a
$2.7 million gift to restore Bassett Hall, the Williamsburg home of Colonial
Williamsburg founder John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and his wife Abby Aldrich
Rockefeller. Abby O’Neill is the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller.
Together with longtime friends William and Gretchen Kimball of Belvedere,
California, the O’Neills serve as Honorary Co-Chairs of the Campaign
for Colonial Williamsburg.
Trustee Estelle Tanner of New York, New York, and Senior Trustee Robert
Wilson of Los Angeles have agreed to co-chair the Campaign and lead the
Campaign Cabinet, a group of Trustee and National Council members that
includes chairman emeritus George Beitzel of Chappaqua, New York, Marilyn
Brown of Englewood, Colorado, Marshall Carter of Boston, Joshua Darden,
Jr., of Norfolk, Virginia, John Donnell, Jr., of Atlanta, chairman emeritus
Charles Longsworth of Royalston, Massachusetts, Richard Roberts of Virginia
Beach, Virginia, Richard Tilghman of Richmond, Virginia, Randall Tobias
of Indianapolis, Richard Vieser of Keene, New Hampshire, and Richard Worley
of Philadelphia.
Sparks fly as Steve Mankowski,
journeyman blacksmith, forms a piece
of iron at the James Anderson
Blacksmith Shop. |
One of the year’s several major gifts that
will help ensure Colonial Williamsburg’s place as one of the
nation’s leading museums came from internationally known collectors
Henry and “Jimmy” Weldon of Amagansett and New York,
New York. They donated their collection of more than 725 examples
of English stoneware and earthenware, dating from the mid-seventeenth
century to the early nineteenth century. It is widely regarded as
the finest private collection of its kind in the world and has an
appraised value in excess of $5 million. Colonial Williamsburg now
has a collection of English pottery of the period without peer.
Another leadership gift came from longtime Colonial Williamsburg
friends Royce R. and Kathryn M. Baker of Rancho Santa Fe, California.
The Bakers were unable to attend our Seventy-Fifth Anniversary weekend
but sent their regrets in an eloquent letter containing an extraordinary
surprise. They wrote:
In light of the horrific terrorist attacks against our country,
the essence of what Williamsburg stands for is multiplied ten fold.
We all have a responsibility to ensure that young people of today
and future generations learn the meaning of freedom and strength that
is demonstrated every day at Williamsburg. . . . We want to support
the Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg so we are enclosing our check
for $1,000,000 for that purpose.
The old adage holds that actions speak louder than words. In this case,
both actions and words spoke loudly. And clearly. We are grateful indeed
to the Bakers and to the many others who supported us in 2001. They included
generous supporters Ann Lee and Charles L. Brown, Marilyn L. Brown and
Douglas N. Morton, Estelle and Harold Tanner, Marion and Robert Wilson,
and Leslie Miller and Richard Worley, all of whom demonstrated their commitment
to Colonial Williamsburg through pacesetting campaign gifts. In the years
ahead, the Foundation will encourage individuals, foundations, and corporations
throughout the country to be part of the Campaign for Colonial Williamsburg.
At the end of 2001, the Campaign total stood at $275 million, 55 percent
of its $5oo million goal. The annual fund finished the year with a record
$10.7 million in cash gifts and ninety-seven thousand donors, an 11 percent
increase in both gifts and total donors over 2000. Total gifts and grants
to the Foundation were $39 million in 2001, our second-highest yearly
total ever.
Visitors, guests, and donors were not the only ones to recognize Colonial
Williamsburg in 2001. The Foundation and its initiatives received a number
of important accolades from industry peers and the media during the year,
valuable third-party endorsements that served to underscore the strength
and relevance of the institution. Colonial Williamsburg’s educational
outreach programs earned worldwide recognition in 2001 when the Foundation
won the prestigious Japan Prize, an international award for educational
television programming, for its Electronic Field Trip series that integrates
television programs with Internet technologies.
Other awards recognizing Colonial Williamsburg in 2001 came from:
- The Newcomen Society of the United States, which presented Colonial
Williamsburg with the “Newcomen Award,” in recognition of
seventy-five years of historic preservation, restoration, and education.
- Readers of Southern Living magazine, who named Colonial Williamsburg
the “Best Historic Site” for the sixth consecutive year.
- Condé Nast Traveler magazine, which named the Williamsburg
Inn to its “2001 Gold List” for the seventh straight time.
- Americans around the country learned about Colonial Williamsburg
through editorial coverage of the Foundation and its various activities
in 2001. Exposure ranged from live July 4 Historic Area broadcasts on
CNN and a multipage feature on Colonial Williamsburg’s Seventy-Fifth
Anniversary in the New York Times to a nine-page color feature in Architectural
Digest and a twenty-one-page feature in Good Housekeeping: Do It Yourself,
one of the largest articles ever devoted to Colonial Williamsburg.
Many of the most exciting enhancements at Colonial Williamsburg,
as those of you who visited in 2001 would attest, occurred in our
hotels and visitor facilities. In conjunction with the Seventy-Fifth
Anniversary, we re-opened the historic Williamsburg Inn after a
one-year renovation that remained faithful to John D. Rockefeller,
Jr.’s, vision of the Inn as a place of unparalleled comfort
and hospitality while adapting to the needs of today’s traveler.
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The world-class Williamsburg
Inn completed an
extensive, yearlong renovation in 2001 that
honors Colonial Williamsburg benefactor
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s original vision
of providing the highest quality of hospitality,
recreational facilities and services to our guests.
|
Through the generosity of Bill
and Gretchen Kimball,
the former Williamsburg Theatre underwent an extensive
renovation in 2001. The dedication of the renamed
Kimball Theatre was held in September 2001
during the 75th Anniversary Kickoff Celebration.
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We expanded and renovated Colonial Williamsburg’s main welcome
area, the Visitor Center, nearly doubling the size of the original 1957
structure and in the process added a twenty-first-century learning resource
center, two attractive retail stores, a coffee shop, and an expanded ticket
area with a state-of-the art admissions system. Nearby, we opened the
new three-hundred-room Woodlands Hotel & Suites, a spacious, moderately-priced
hotel appealing to families.
At the other end of town, in Merchants Square, we opened the Kimball Theatre
during our Seventy-Fifth Anniversary weekend and honored William and Gretchen
Kimball, who donated $3.5 million for the theater’s restoration. The
Kimballs, whose $15 million Young Patriots Fund endowment established in
2000 is perhaps the nation’s largest gift for youth history education,
are among the Foundation’s leading benefactors. A top-to-bottom renovation
of the original Williamsburg Theatre, the new Kimball Theatre already has
proven itself to be a popular spot for enjoying Colonial Williamsburg performances,
community events, William and Mary productions, and quality films. Offerings
have included the William and Mary Improvisational Theatre and the Japanese
Noh Theatre. In addition, the theater is the new home of the Williamsburg
Symphonia. Elsewhere in Merchants Square, we have been working with local,
regional, and national businesses to enhance the mix of stores and restaurants,
reinforcing Merchants Square as a vibrant city center for Williamsburg,
with appealing shopping and dining opportunities for visitors, residents,
and students alike.
Financially, Colonial Williamsburg faced considerable, but anticipated,
challenges in 2001 as a result of major construction projects, urgently
needed compensation initiatives, and important planned preservation work
in the Historic Area. When the Board of Trustees approved these initiatives
several years ago, it was well aware that the initiatives would put pressure
on our budgets. Our 2001 deficit of $37 million was slightly better than
planned but this imbalance is obviously unsustainable over time. Our determination
to proceed with these investments was based on a careful assessment of
institutional needs and the long-term costs of not meeting those needs
on a timely basis. We anticipate an operating deficit over the next several
years as we undertake the work necessary to renovate, restore, and advance
Colonial Williamsburg’s properties and programs. Our five-year objective
is to reach a condition of financial equilibrium in which:
• revenues and expenditures are balanced,
• funding to maintain and preserve our facilities and collections
is sustained,
• the purchasing power of our endowment is maintained, and
• staffing levels are sufficient, with employees compensated fairly
and competitively.
As we look to the future, Colonial Williamsburg, like organizations and
institutions everywhere, will experience the challenges and opportunities
presented by a modern world changing with lightning speed. We will continue
to sharpen our educational programs, improve the visitor experience, enhance
our facilities, embrace new technology, and strengthen our balance sheet.
No matter how fast the world moves, how dramatically things may change,
one attribute of Colonial Williamsburg will remain constant. We will be
unwavering in our mission to preserve and present the past for future
generations, for the lessons of yesterday provide the blueprints, or at
least the beacons, for tomorrow.
William (Bill) Barker, Colonial
Williamsburg's resident
Thomas Jefferson, has dedicated more than twenty years
to research on our nation's third president. Barker has
portrayed the Foundation's Jefferson since 1993. |
At Colonial Williamsburg, the story of America’s
past and future is linked with the people who led us this far—Washington,
Jefferson, Henry, Goodwin, Rockefeller, and many others. Earlier I
asked, what would these men say today about 2001? No one knows, of
course, but I believe that in spite of September 11—or perhaps
because of September 11—Washington, Jefferson, and Henry would
say that the system of government they helped create, and the country
built upon it, worked as they had envisioned. America was injured
and saddened, yes. But our nation stood the test. Our freedoms remained
intact.
As for Rev. Goodwin and Mr. Rockefeller, was their dream fulfilled? Did
we tell the story well? If Rev. Goodwin and Mr. Rockefeller were alive
today, I think they would be pleased, even proud, with what Colonial Williamsburg
has accomplished in seventy-five years. I hope you share that pride, for
it is you who have helped make it possible.
At a time when so many are rediscovering what it means to be an American,
Colonial Williamsburg stands as an emblem of our national resolve, a place
whose history over more than two centuries reminds one and all that our
democracy is ultimately invincible. This repository of America’s
first principles has never been more alive, more vital, more ready to
reach and teach and discover. For your support in so many ways, all of
us at Colonial Williamsburg thank you.
Colin G. Campbell
Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Historic Triangle