Historic Trades

For nearly a century, Colonial Williamsburg has preserved and revitalized trades that are increasingly at risk of being lost, such as shoemaking, wheelwrighting, gunsmithing and cabinetmaking. Our tradesmen and women initially serve as apprentices, working side by side with a master to learn their craft, then move on to become journeymen—and eventually masters—fulfilling the Historic Trades department’s mission to research, preserve and practice those vanishing skills.