THIS MONTH'S COVER

For 70 years the Governor's Palace at Williamsburg stood as the symbol of royal authority in colonial Virginia. Begun in 1705 under an appropriation by the House of Burgesses and completed in 1720, it served as the official residence of a succession of brilliant British governors: Alexander Spotswood, Hugh Drysdale, William Gooch, Robert Dinwiddie, Francis Fauquier, Norborne Berkeley, and John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore. During the Revolution the Palace became the executive mansion of the first two governors of the Virginia Commonwealth, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. It was destroyed by fire in December, 1781.

The rebuilding of the palace with its gardens and outbuildings, undertaken in 1930 by Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated, has been called one of the most extensive single colonial restorations performed in this country. Essentially English "Georgian" in design the palace undoubtedly influenced the architecture of many of the great houses which were erected on the more prosperous Virginia plantations in the middle of the 18th century. Likewise the life and manners of the palace made a lasting imprint on Virginia culture.

The successful reconstruction of this important colonial estate has been made possible through the wealth of material pertaining to it which has survived. The new palace rests on the foundations of the original building, which were discovered in excavating the site. As a guide to the accurate restoration there were extant a copperplate engraving, from the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, England, which showed the principal front of the building as it appeared between 1732 and 1747, a floor plan drawn by Thomas Jefferson in 1779, and the so-called Frenchman's Map of 1782, which showed the arrangement of the main buildings. In addition there were other maps, extensive inventories of three colonial governors, the Journals of the House of Burgesses, and other colonial records.

The cover is reproduced from a pen and ink drawing by William A. Youngblood who was formerly connected with the Regional Office of the National Park Service.