A Madman’s Will: John Randolph, Four Hundred Slaves, and the Mirage of Freedom

Submitted by MarketingIntern on

On September 14, 2023, Greg May discussed his eye-opening new book, A Madman's Will: John Randolph, Four Hundred Slaves, and the Mirage of Freedom, about a sensational antebellum Virginia will that freed almost 400 people from slavery. John Randolph of Roanoke—one of Virginia’s best-known statesmen—was a relentless defender of the slave states’ rights, so his deathbed declaration that he wanted to free the people he enslaved took nearly everyone by surprise. But it soon emerged that Randolph had left inconsistently written wills.

Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture

Submitted by MarketingIntern on

On September 7, 2023, historians Lindsay Chervinsky, Matthew Costello, and Jeffrey Engel gave a lecture about how different generations and communities have eulogized and remembered U.S. presidents since 1799. The death of a chief executive, regardless of the circumstances—sudden or expected, still in office or decades later—is always a moment of reckoning and reflection. Mourning the Presidents brings together renowned and emerging scholars to examine how different generations and communities of Americans have eulogized and remembered U.S.

Traveling Bricks

As the LEGO Group opens its first and only U.S. manufacturing plant in the Virginia, VMHC guests can embark an exciting journey through transportation history with more than 100 models of iconic land, air, sea, and space vehicles constructed from nearly 1 million LEGO® bricks. 

We The People

This exhibition will explore the many people who, over centuries, have made Virginia the unique place it is in America and in the world, and the dramatic impact of the immigrant experience throughout Virginia’s history as people arrived from the four corners of the globe.

Give Me Liberty

This exhibition will inspire a deep appreciation for the continental and global forces as well as the individual actions by both iconic and ordinary people that brought about a model of democratic government that would change the world.

Give Me Liberty: Virginia & the Forging of a Nation is the signature exhibition of Virginia's 250th Commission. 

A photo of Christian Bale
Virtual Program

The Pale Blue Eye

Event Date(s)
2023-10-17T19:00:00 - 2023-10-17T20:00:00
Read more
Photo of a man in blue civil war uniform and large mustache
In-Person Event

On Great Fields

Event Date(s)
2023-10-18T17:30:00 - 2023-10-18T18:30:00
Read more
In-Person Event

American Visions with Ed Ayers

Event Date(s)
2023-11-08T18:00:00 - 2023-11-08T19:00:00
Read more
Leland Melvin and Robert Satcher wear blue astronaut uniforms and walk on an airfield with a stationed plane behind them
In-Person Event

Legacy of Black Astronauts

Event Date(s)
2023-10-25T18:00:00 - 2023-10-25T20:00:00
Read more
Subscribe to