VA Highlands Festival Juried Antiques Market & Vintage Show
July 25 - August 3, 2025

Anyone who has visited Colonial Williamsburg has seen what appear to be time travelers – dozens of people who evoke the 18th Century in attire, speech and manners.

What’s it like to interpret a figure from history? Have you ever wanted to share stories about your ancestors in the first person?

Bill Barker and Kurt Smith have over 40 years of experience portraying Thomas Jefferson. Barker is considered by many to be one of the earliest historical interpreters, first in Philadelphia, then at Colonial Williamsburg and today at Jefferson’s Monticello. Smith now portrays the younger Jefferson as he would have appeared in Virginia’s colonial era.

They will appear together in a rare opportunity to share tips and answer questions from the public. The free workshop, sponsored by the Historical Society of Washington County, will take place at the Higher Education Center

Most people have antiques textiles, handed down for several generations: clothing, quilts, coverlets, cutwork, crocheted pieces, etc. How should they be cared for? Should they be kept in cedar chests, kept in plastic bags, washed occasionally?

This lecture and workshop, in conjunction with the William King Museum of Art, will answer these questions. The expert leading the workshop is Colleen Callahan, a textile historian and curator with experience in conservation. For many years she was the curator of textiles at the Valentine Richmond History Center, managing the 30,000-piece costume and textile collection. Since 2003, she has had her own consulting business, where she has helped with conserving and exhibiting many presidential family garments, including those of Martha Washington at Mt. Vernon and Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. She has been the WKMA textile consultant since 1994 through its Cultural Heritage Project.

If you have a textile that you have questions about, bring it, and there will be documentation available as time permits.

Led by Joshua Huffman, Curator of Southwest Virginia & Northeast Tennessee Decorative Arts and Material Culture, William King Museum of Art.

In the 19th century, the production of earthenware and stoneware pottery along the branches of the Holston River, was one of the important early industries in Washington County, Virginia.   Areas of high pottery concentration were along rivers, with proximity to clay, transportation, and markets. The earliest earthenware pottery soon gave way to more durable stoneware that began to dominate the market. Learn about the potters (Barlow, Magee, Davis, Vestal, Keys) as well as the potteries in the Osceola community on the Middle Fork and Alum Wells on the North Fork. This illustrated lecture is a preview of a major exhibition “Potters along the Holson” beginning in September at the William King Museum of Art.

So you are thinking of buying an Old House? Come to this illustrated lecture by Daniel Shew, the Old House Agent in the Tri-Cities area.  Shew and his wife Monica believe in the personal and community rewards for preserving old homes and restoring them.  They have bought and restored three properties in the Solar Hill Historic District of Bristol, Virgina, especially the King-Mitchell House, built in 1816, where they currently live. It was the main house for the plantation that existed in the valley, long before Bristol’s inception. Learn about all of the challenges—as well as the considerable rewards—to restoring old houses.

You inherited some 19th century handmade furniture from your grandparents: a corner cupboard, a pie safe, or a bed and chest of drawers. Or you bought some pieces from an estate sale, at an auction, or at an antique shop. You love their history and their solid, hand-made quality but don’t quite see how they fit in with the modern furniture that dominates contemporary decorating.

Martha McGlothlin Bowman will give an illustrated lecture on how you can stylishly incorporate antique furniture with modern design.