The search results below contain listings from our website. To search our library and museum collections catalogs, please visit the Collections page.
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Freedmen's Schools
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![VHE_Freedmen_Harpers Weekley cropped.jpg VHE_Freedmen_Harpers Weekley cropped.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Freedmen_Harpers%20Weekley%20cropped.jpg.webp?itok=TmJCMsl0)
In the antebellum South, African Americans were generally prevented from receiving education. After Appomattox...
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Henkel Press
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![BV267.H4.1829.Rare_.jpg BV267.H4.1829.Rare_.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/BV267.H4.1829.Rare_.jpg.webp?itok=00xoBgRT)
In 1806, two young men, Ambrose Henkel and his brother Solomon, started one of the first German language presses in the...
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How Did Civilians Suffer?
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![How Did Civilians Suffer? A drawing of the flight of the refugees](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/HowDidCiviliansSuffer_VHE_ATP_FamilyofVirginians.2000.165.3.jpeg.webp?itok=SDtHN186)
White women and children were left to fend for themselves, and many became widows and orphans when one in five...
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How Did Enslaved People Support the Confederacy?
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![How Did Slaves Support the Confederacy? The Burial of Latane by A.G. Campbell](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/HowDidSlavesSupportTheConfederacy_VHE_ATP_BurialofLatane.2010.1.jpeg.webp?itok=_ImXE1TN)
Enslaved and free black people provided even more labor than usual for Virginia farms when 89 percent of eligible white...
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Indian Tribes of North America
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![E77.M13.RareFolio.Keokuk.jpg E77.M13.RareFolio.Keokuk.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/E77.M13.RareFolio.Keokuk.jpg.webp?itok=0Y7v4Q5k)
In the museum's rare book collection, a remarkable compilation of images exists in History of the Indian Tribes of North...
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Jim Crow to Civil Rights in Virginia
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![Bury Jim Crow Bury Jim Crow](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_JimCrow_BuryJimCrow.jpg.webp?itok=bLk6kSKS)
Following the Civil War, black Virginians struggled to assert their independence and make freedom meaningful. In the...
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L. Douglas Wilder
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![VHE_DouglasWilder_teaser.jpg VHE_DouglasWilder_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_DouglasWilder_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=7vI7a4fh)
Learn about L. Douglas Wilder, the first elected African American governor in United States history.
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Letters to Santa
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![Mss1.R5495b6810_Letter.jpg Mss1.R5495b6810_Letter.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Mss1.R5495b6810_Letter.jpg.webp?itok=Z4eDM9zk)
Take a closer look at letters to Santa in the VMHC's collections.
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Liberated Books
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![VB360.A2.1826.Rare_.TitlePage.jpg VB360.A2.1826.Rare_.TitlePage.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VB360.A2.1826.Rare_.TitlePage.jpg.webp?itok=m_z7X3le)
During the Civil War, looting by soldiers was a common practice. The hungry soldier usually confiscated food and...
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Life Portrait of Pocahontas
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![VHE_PocahontasEngraving_Teaser.jpg VHE_PocahontasEngraving_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_PocahontasEngraving_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=weL_dH2x)
The only life portrait of Pocahontas (1595–1617) and the only credible image of her, was engraved by Simon Van de Passe...
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Maggie Lena Walker
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![VHE_MaggieLWalker_Teaser.jpg VHE_MaggieLWalker_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_MaggieLWalker_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=LGIwISLy)
Maggie Lena Walker (1864–1934) was the daughter of Elizabeth Draper, a former kitchen slave and then cook in the Civil...
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Men of Color To Arms?
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![Gold Soldier Identification Disc Gold Soldier Identification Disc](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Men%20of%20Color%20To%20Arms_VHE_ATP_TurnerIDdisk.PHP_.verso_silhouette.jpg.webp?itok=-Gmic8kn)
When the war began, many black Americans—North and South—volunteered to serve as soldiers. United by a belief in black...
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Offense or Defense?
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![Offense or Defense? Captain William T. Haskell's Sash](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/OffenseOrDefense_VHE_ATP_sash.jpeg.webp?itok=Om7UC6ko)
To win the war, United States troops needed to invade and control an unfriendly South and subdue Confederate armies.
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Olaudah Equiano
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![VHE_OlaudahEquiano_Teaser.jpg VHE_OlaudahEquiano_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_OlaudahEquiano_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=pUL5Qd1M)
Snatched from his Ibo village in Nigeria at the age of eleven, Equiano (c. 1745-1797) was transported to Barbados...
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Oysters in Virginia
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![VHE_Oysters_OysterCan_Teaser.jpg VHE_Oysters_OysterCan_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Oysters_OysterCan_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=2BC7sR7V)
Learn about the history of oyster in Virginia's food culture, tourism, and economy.
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Proud American Day program
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![VHE_NegroHistoryWeek_Teaser.jpg VHE_NegroHistoryWeek_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_NegroHistoryWeek_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=AfDcfCor)
Learn about the beginning of Black History Month.
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Richmond in the Midst of the Civil War
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As the Confederate capital, Richmond experienced waves of change that saw the city lurch from the untidy influx of...
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Robert E. Lee after the War
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After the Civil War, Robert E. Lee left his life in the military and accepted the position of president of Washington...
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Robert Edward Lee
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![Robert E. Lee A painting of Robert E. Lee in military dress](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_RobertELee.1957.29_medium-CROP.jpg.webp?itok=qb8IWjkJ)
Robert Edward Lee (1807–1870) was born at Stratford in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1807, the son of Revolutionary...
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Robert Knox Sneden's Dispatch Case
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![2017.117_v1_med.jpg 2017.117_v1_med.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/2017.117_v1_med.jpg.webp?itok=4wCQz8ui)
Learn about the dispatch case of Civil War artist and mapmaker Robert Knox Sneden that was acquired in 2017 by the...