The formal system of training by apprenticeship first developed in the Middle Ages, and came to be supervised by craft guilds and town governments. A master craftsman was entitled to employ young people as an inexpensive form of labor in exchange for providing food, lodging, and formal training in the craft. Colonial Williamsburg's tradespeople carry on the system of traditional apprenticeship, undergoing all the rigors of craftly discipline in a museum setting. Please join apprentice weaver Ellie Bain, apprentice cabinetmaker John Peeler, and master blacksmith Ken Schwarz for a discussion about apprenticeships in the 18th century and today HERE.