Our Commonwealth
This signature exhibition provides an in-depth, multi-sensory journey through the five major regions of Virginia and features stories and artifacts from across the state to reveal that place is not only about geography, but also the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.
Featured Events
Featuring award-winning speakers, tours, and family activities for all ages and interest levels. To browse all upcoming events, please click through to our calendar.
Virginia Distilled
Lecture: Making the Presidency
Becoming Citizens
Member Mondays
Documentary Premiere: Monuments with Blackboards
First Fridays at VMHC
J. Harvie Wilkinson, Jr. Lecture: The Light of Battle
Lecture: Virginia Cider
Collections Up Close: Tales of Murder and Mayhem
Collections Up Close: Tales of Murder and Mayhem
Fall Homeschool Open House
Trick or Treat at VMHC
Virginia Vines
First Fridays at VMHC
Build Workshop with LEGO® Bricks
Lecture: Strong-Arm Politics in Virginia’s Capital City
Build Workshop with LEGO® Bricks
First Fridays at VMHC
Lecture: Career in Crime
Lecture: You’ll Do: A Southern History of Marrying for Reasons other Than Love
Featured Collections Items
The VMHC has a collection of more than 9 million items. Here are just a few them (please note that not all of them may be on display to the public). Search the Library or Museum Objects Collections databases to learn more.
Tennis Items, Arthur Ashe
Tennis racquet,bag, and wrist band, all belonged to Arthur Ashe.
Drawing, Natural Bridge
Pastel drawing depicting Natural Bridge in Snow by George Brewerton in 1872.
Painting, George Washington
Portrait in oils of George Washington by Charles Peale Polk, nephew of Charles Willson Peale, whose 1787 portrait of the general was the basis for this image.
Bowie Knife
Bowie knife taken from John Brown at Harper's Ferry in 1859 by J.E.B. Stuart.
Desk circa 1780-1805
Chippenale slant-front desk with bracket feet, Eastern Virginia, probably Richmond, based on Williamsburg prototype.
U.S. Navy WAVES Uniform
Complete WAVES uniform from World War II worn by Nancy E. Bailey (Bon Cogsdale).
Equal Suffrage League of Richmond Photograph
1915 Photograph show a group of women gathered in Capitol Square holding large banners which read "Equal Suffrage League and Richmond, Virginia" and "Votes for Women."
Program, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1962
Program from the Virginia State Unit of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference meeting, includes a black and white photograph of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and five signatures (clockwise from
Photographic print, No. 3, Pocahontas [train], barrels by Shawsville on its night run to Cincinnati, 1955
Image depicting Norfolk and Western Train No. 3, the Pocahontas, in a shroud of exhaust with 13 cars of Christmas mail and passengers.
Tintype Portrait of Robert Thaxton
Tintype portrait of Pvt. Robert Thaxton, a Confederate soldier killed at the battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, in May 1863.