The search results below contain listings from our website. To search our library and museum collections catalogs, please visit the Collections page.
Article
Arthur Ashe Jr.’s Family Tree: Tracing the Blackwell Family to 1735
Image
See a rare family tree, drawn by hand on canvas, tracing Arthur Ashe, Jr.’s family.
Article
Booker T. Washington
Image
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was born enslaved on April 5, 1856, in Franklin County, Virginia. After emancipation...
Article
Clementina Rind
Image
Clementina Rind was Virginia’s first female printer and newspaper publisher, publishing important official documents for...
Article
Dolley Madison
Image
Dolley (Payne) Todd Madison (1768–1849) lived through three wars, knew eleven presidents, and was a gracious and...
Article
Education in Virginia
Image
The Virginia Constitution of 1869, passed during Reconstruction, established a statewide system of free public schools...
Article
Elizabeth Keckley
Image
Born a slave in Dinwiddie County, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818–1907) purchased her freedom in 1855 and supported...
Article
Equal Suffrage League of Virginia
Image
Learn about how the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia helped women gain the right to vote.
Article
Jim Crow to Civil Rights in Virginia
Image
Following the Civil War, black Virginians struggled to assert their independence and make freedom meaningful. In the...
Article
John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore
Image
John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore, was Virginia's last royal governor.
Article
Maggie Lena Walker
Image
Maggie Lena Walker (1864–1934) was the daughter of Elizabeth Draper, a former kitchen slave and then cook in the Civil...
Article
Martha (Dandridge) Custis Washington
Image
This portrait of Martha Washington (1731–1802) is the work of Charles Willson Peale, who also painted the sitter several...
Article
Nancy Langhorne Shaw Astor
Image
Viscountess Astor (1879–1964) was the first woman to take a seat in the British House of Commons. Nancy was born in...
Article
Olaudah Equiano
Image
Snatched from his Ibo village in Nigeria at the age of eleven, Equiano (c. 1745-1797) was transported to Barbados...
Article
Political Sheet Music
Image
Politicians have long appreciated the value of a campaign song during an election year. A popular tune can rally the...
Article
Proud American Day program
Image
Learn about the beginning of Black History Month.
Article
Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
Image
Jefferson sent a paper to the Virginia Convention of 1774, later published as A Summary View of the Rights of British...
Article
Tom Molineaux
Image
Born into enslavement on a Virginia plantation, Tom Molineaux (1784–1818) fought fellow enslaved people while plantation...
Article
Urbanization in Virginia
Image
Learn about the process of urbanization in Virginia.
Article
Victory Gardens
Image
First promoted during World War I, war gardening, or victory gardens, provided American citizens an opportunity to...
Article
Virginia's Constitution
Image
The delegates who gathered in convention in Richmond in 1901 to rewrite Virginia’s Constitution had no doubt about why...