Explore Time Periods
Collections Spotlight
Across Time: Robinson House, Its Land and People
Project curator and author Elizabeth O’Leary shares the multilayered story of this unique architectural structure over centuries, including its individual inhabitants and significant history, science, and art institutions.
Four Centuries of Virginia Women's History
Historian Cynthia A. Kierner explores the impacts of Virginia women as historical actors and how what we’ve learned about their experiences can transform our understanding of Virginia's ever-evolving story.
Native Southerners: The Indigenous People Who Made and Remade the South
Historian Gregory D. Smithers brings the world of Native southerners to life in this sweeping narrative of American Indian history in the Southeast from the time before European colonialism to the Trail of Tears and beyond.
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.
![Silver medal inscribed on obverse, " The King of" and on the reverse "Machotick," [Machodoc], with both sides engraved with flowers and cornucopia.](/sites/default/files/styles/col_4_fp_landscape_480x360_/public/Collection%20Item_IndianBadge_Machotick.1965.12_front_H3.jpg.webp?itok=CSNA-w91 "Medal, Indian badge")
Medal, Indian Badge
A 1661 act of the Virginia General Assembly forced the Chief of the Machodoc—and all the leaders and warriors of Virginia’s Indegenous people-to wear these badges while in English settlements.