Tidewater Spirit

—a book, photographed and written by Bryan Hatchett, published in 2021 by The History Press. Tidewater Spirit, matches Hatchett’s photographs of eastern Virginia with quotes from the celebrated writings by three early Virginians—Captain John Smith, William Byrd II, and Thomas Jefferson.

The Virginia of Smith, Byrd and Jefferson remains, in part, our Virginia. Geography and place names are largely the same. Their accounts of what they saw, where they traveled, what's in bloom and what's ready for harvest will sound very familiar. Hatchett’s photographs are of historic Tidewater buildings as well as scenes of modern nautical commerce and farmland where ships have sailed and crops have grown for centuries.

“Through his photos, Hatchett carries the reader through the good time of peace and bad times of war in the Tidewater region. He misses hardly anything as agriculture, working the water, architecture, education, and more are all highlighted in the book.”

—Larry Chowning, Southside Sentinel, Urbanna

“Just sit back and enjoy this presentation. It’s not a guidebook. Rather, it is a delightful combination of pictures and words that form an historical continuity bridging the centuries.”

—Wilford Kale,Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg

"A beautifully photographed and well-written book for anyone interested in the history, natural history, and culture of Tidewater Virginia.”

—Stephen Conrad Ausband, author of Byrd’s Line, which matches William Byrd II’s account of surveying the North Carolina-Virginia border in 1728 with the line’s current wildlife, vegetation, and man-made features.