“We Shall Carry On”: Colonial Williamsburg’s Participation in the War Effort, 1940-1945 (WL)

World War II brought many changes to Williamsburg including a new focus for Colonial Williamsburg’s educational and hospitality objectives. Numerous military units toured Colonial Williamsburg and attended lectures and films at the Williamsburg Theater as part of the Soldier Sailor Training Program funded by the Rockefellers. Colonial Williamsburg hotels, guest houses, and restaurants boosted morale by housing and feeding thousands of soldiers and their families, while Colonial Williamsburg staff contributed to the war effort through many avenues, such as cultivating victory gardens, entertaining the troops, conducting war bond drives, and serving as airplane lookouts. All these efforts underscored the wartime motto adopted by Colonial Williamsburg, “We Shall Carry On.”