Colonial Williamsburg. (Current and Coming).

Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia, is a wonderful place to visit in the winter, for this season provides a rare opportunity to see this restored town without hoards of tourists, schoolchildren, and other special interest groups. Collectors and others with an interest in antiques convene in Williamsburg during the first week in February for the well-known educational event called the Antiques Forum, which is now in its fifty-fifth year. This year the theme of the forum is "Antiques in America: Great Houses, Great Collections." Aside from a roster of more than twenty speakers, the curatorial staff at Williamsburg has been busy putting together special exhibitions, all drawn from the important permanent collections there.

Bassett Hall was built between 1753 and 1766 by Colonel Philip Johnson, and purchased about 1800 by Burwell Bassett, a nephew of Martha Washington. Today the property consists of 585 acres and three original outbuildings--a smokehouse, kitchen, and dairy. The house and its surrounding gardens have recently undergone a major renovation to capture the spirit of the house when John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, lived there from 1936 through the 1940s. John D. Rockefeller Jr. was the chief patron of Colonial Williamsburg, and his wife was a pioneering collector of Americana and modem art. Today the folk art museum at Williamsburg is named for her. ...