Jamestown 2007

Jamestown 2007 is the name of the organization which planned the events commemorating the 400th anniversary (quadricentennial) of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, the first permanent English-speaking settlement in what is now the United States of America. America's 400th Anniversary was an 18-month-long commemoration including 10 Signature Events, hundreds of community programs and dozens of partner and programs and events. Activities took place throughout Virginia, in major cities along the East Coast, and in the United Kingdom.

The 400th anniversary commemoration helped redefine Jamestown's role in American history. Long regarded by many Americans as a failed settlement or a historical footnote, Jamestown's contributions were brought into sharper focus. Jamestown's legacies of democracy, free enterprise and cultural diversity linked the nation's earliest days to contemporary American life. Claims to these legacies were supported by new archeological discoveries by Bill Kelso at Historic Jamestowne and new scholarly research by respected historians such as James Horn of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

One of the commemoration's greatest achievements was active participation by the three Jamestown cultures - the Europeans, American Africans and Virginia Indians. While major Jamestown observances have been held every 50 years since 1807, America's 400th Anniversary marked the first time representatives of all three cultures developed their own events and messages.

The Discovery, one of Jamestown Settlement's re-created ships, was replaced in early 2007 with a more historically accurate version. The older ship was then transported to the London Docklands, where she has been moored outside the Museum in Docklands in conjunction with the "Journey to the New World: London 1606 to Virginia 1607" temporary exhibition. This exhibition focussed on connections between London and the Virginia settlement, and ran from 23 November 2006 to 13 May 2007.[1] Another major special exhibition in the UK for the anniversary has been "A New World: England’s first view of America", running from 15 March to 17 June 2007 at the British Museum and focussing on the drawings of John White. [2]

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