Before the United States of America was even a country, when Virginia was part of the original 13 Colonies, an English-made, sterling silver mace took up residence in Williamsburg where the House of Burgesses (the predecessor of the House of Delegates) met.
More than 200 years later, the golden mace displayed in the House chamber has quite the storied history — as an icon of the oldest legislative body in the “New World.”
Much like the Imperial State Crown in London’s Parliament, the mace was “a habitual fixture of honor and authority,” according to Mark Greenough, a historian with Capitol Guided Tours at the Virginia State Capitol…