An exhibition tracing Bermuda's 400-year history will go on display at the Jamestown Settlement Museum in Virginia from March until October next year.

'Jamestown and Bermuda: Virginia Company Colonies' will examine the shared history and links between England's first two permanent colonies in the New World.

A series of lectures linked to the exhibition are also planned, including presentations from local filmmaker Lucinda Spurling and Masterworks founder Tom Butterfield.

The exhibition, funded by grants from James City County, the Bank of Bermuda and other donors, will trace how the English settled in Bermuda in 1609 when the Sea Venture, the flagship of a fleet en route to Jamestown in Virginia, was shipwrecked.

It ties in with the Island's 400th anniversary celebrations next year, two years after the Jamestown quadricentennial.

Visitors can expect to learn more about the wreck of the Sea Venture, upon which Shakespeare's play The Tempest is thought to be based, the importance of Bermuda as a strategic location, and its emergence as a popular travel destination in the 20th century.

More than two dozen artefacts from the Sea Venture underwater archaeological site will go on display, alongside objects associated with early government and the Church of England in Virginia and Bermuda.

A dozen 19th and 20th century paintings by leading American, Canadian and British artists depicting Bermudian scenes will also be exhibited, as well as posters and other promotional materials illustrating the popularity of Virginia and Bermuda as holiday resorts.

Lectures will take place on Saturdays at 7 p.m. as follows:

• April 25 – 'The Lion and the Mouse … the Story of America and Bermuda', Lucinda Spurling, Bermuda filmmaker

• June 13 – 'The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America', Lorri Glover, author and University of Tennessee professor of History

• July 11 – 'Sister Colonies: Virginia, Bermuda and the Beginnings of English America', Michael Jarvis, University of Rochester assistant professor of History

• August 8 – 'Somewhere Beyond the Sea: Art, Artists, and Bermuda', Tom Butterfield, founding and creative director of The Masterworks Foundation

To find out more about the exhibition and lecture series visit http://www.historyisfun.org/jamestown-and-bermuda.htm and www.historyisfun.org/bermuda-exhibition.htm.