Campbell Archaeology Center Grand Opening Weekend

Colonial Williamsburg opened the Colin G. and Nancy N. Campbell Archaeology Center to the public on Saturday, April 25, with a 9 a.m. ribbon cutting in Williamsburg, Virginia. (colonialwilliamsburg.org) (pilotonline.com) The opening launched a free weekend program on April 25 and 26 with self-guided tours, lab access, archaeology talks at Hennage Auditorium, and family activities including a Discovery Lab. (williamsburgfamilies.com) (visitwilliamsburg.com) Colonial Williamsburg said the center contains 40,000 square feet of collection, research and education space built for archaeological work and public interpretation. (colonialwilliamsburg.org) (cwf20siteprodstg.blob.core.windows.net) The foundation said the building gives visitors a direct view into how archaeologists clean, catalog and study objects recovered from Williamsburg sites. Those finds are used to reconstruct daily life in the eighteenth century from broken ceramics, animal bones, tools and other discarded material. (williamsburgfamilies.com) (colonialwilliamsburg.org) Colonial Williamsburg has said its archaeology collection now totals about 60 million artifacts, and the new center was designed to support both research and public engagement around that archive. (williamsburgfamilies.com) (cwf20siteprodstg.blob.core.windows.net) After the opening weekend, the center moved to a regular public schedule of Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with admission listed as free. (williamsburgfamilies.com) The debut also fits into Colonial Williamsburg’s 2026 centennial calendar. Event listings describe the archaeology center weekend as one of the foundation’s 100th anniversary programs. (williamsburgfamilies.com) (colonialwilliamsburg.org) The center’s opening turned a long-planned project into a public-facing museum and lab space, with visitors now able to watch the work of uncovering Williamsburg’s past instead of only seeing its finished exhibits. (williamsburgfamilies.com) (wydaily.com)