Apprentice Historic Gardener

ROSCOW COLE HOUSE
Williamsburg, VA 23185, USA

Who We Are

Founded in 1926, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is a private, not-for-profit educational, historic, and cultural institution that owns and operates one of the largest and best-known museum complexes in the world. Our mission is “that the future may learn from the past” through preserving and restoring 18 th
-century Williamsburg, Virginia’s colonial capital. We engage, inform, and inspire people to learn about this historic capital, the events that occurred here, and the diverse peoples who helped shape a new nation.

Today, Colonial Williamsburg is the largest living history museum in the U.S. The Historic Area is the 301-acre restored colonial capital with 88 original buildings and 525 buildings reconstructed to how they appeared in the 18th century through extensive archaeological, architectural, and documentary research. The Historic Area is staffed by highly trained, historically dressed interpreters and expert tradespeople who bring the 18th century to life.

The Foundation also owns and operates two world-class museums, the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, and a renowned research library, the John D Rockefeller Jr Library.

Additionally, Colonial Williamsburg is home to five world class accommodations at the Williamsburg Inn, Williamsburg Lodge Autograph Collection, the Griffin Hotel, the Williamsburg Woodlands Hotels and Suites and the unique Colonial Houses in the Historical Area. Visitors may also indulge in food and drink at our many on site restaurants and taverns that blend a historically inspired dining experience with today’s evolved tastes.

Each year over 5 million people visit Williamsburg and another 20 million engage with us digitally.

About the Position

An apprentice gardener learns the plants, tools, and cultural techniques required to manage a colonial-period garden. This work is accomplished in a public venue that recreates the trade of a professional gardener and demonstrates the knowledge and materials of the colonial period. Progression through the apprenticeship is based on demonstrated growth in three core competencies:
Hand Skills, Research, and Interpretation. Apprentices advance by mastering increasingly complex techniques, conducting and applying historical research, and effectively communicating the history, significance, and practice of the trade through public interpretation, instruction, and leadership. Advancement is measured through the successful completion of progressively challenging object-based reproductions, scholarly research projects, interpretive presentations, and the demonstrated ability to mentor others while contributing to the mission of preserving, perpetuating, and presenting the historic trades of Colonial Williamsburg.

Responsibilities:

• Learns and develops proficiency in the skills of tending vegetable, fruit, and ornamental gardens with eighteenth-century methods and materials under the direction of the master/journeyman.
• Acquires a basic knowledge of all plants at the interpretive site as well as conspicuous plants throughout Colonial Williamsburg properties.
• Demonstrates a familiarity with and anticipates seasonal changes in work responsibilities Maintains tools and workspace under direction of master/journeyman.
• Assists with seminars, workshops, and lectures related to 18th century horticulture.

• Studies historical documents and information about the trade and its practitioners in North America and Europe to become proficient in the knowledge and understanding of the period and people.
• The progression of the apprenticeship is based on the successful demonstration of horticultural skills and knowledge represented by work in the garden and a research project as defined by the apprentice curriculum and overseen by the master/journeyman-supervisor.

• Provides historical information about gardening to include plant identification, exploration, introduction, and cultural techniques in Virginia and how the trade was influenced by European precedent.
• Provides biographical information about notable…