The search results below contain listings from our website. To search our library and museum collections catalogs, please visit the Collections page.
Article
A Beardless Boy of Seventeen Years
Image
Even before Aristophanes wrote of Lysistrata’s plan to end the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE) by convincing the women...
Article
A Connected Legacy: John Marshall and George Washington
Image
Both the first object acquired by the Virginia Historical Society and arguably one of the best objects in the VMHC...
Article
Audubon's The Birds of America
Image
In the VMHC collections are several rare editions of his work, including a first edition of Viviparous Quadrupeds and...
Article
Audubon's Viviparous Quadrapeds
Image
Following the success of his Birds of America, John James Audubon began to gather material for an equally ambitious...
Article
Bookplates
Image
The use of bookplates is almost as old as printing itself. They were used to record ownership and to reassure the owner...
Article
Christmas Cards
Image
Christmas cards are ephemeral, and this essence is the very reason they can be of interest to researchers. Scholars...
Article
Clarise Sears Ramsey
Image
Charlotte Clarise Sears Risley Harrold Ramsey (1867–1922), whose parents were Joseph Henry Risley and Mary Elizabeth...
Article
Convict Leasing
Image
For much of the twentieth century, convicts worked on Virginia’s roads. This practice grew out of the convict lease...
Article
Diary of William Gwathmey, 1859
Image
On October 16, 1859, John Brown led eighteen followers in a raid on the federal arsenal and armory at Harpers Ferry...
Article
Dolley Madison
Image
Dolley (Payne) Todd Madison (1768–1849) lived through three wars, knew eleven presidents, and was a gracious and...
Article
Double Take
Image
Daguerreotypes are the earliest form of permanent photographic imagery. They are made by capturing an image on a...
Article
Freedmen's Schools
Image
In the antebellum South, African Americans were generally prevented from receiving education. After Appomattox...
Article
Indian Tribes of North America
Image
In the museum's rare book collection, a remarkable compilation of images exists in History of the Indian Tribes of North...
Article
Industrialization in Virginia
Image
The 1920 census revealed that, for the first time, more Americans were living in urban areas than rural ones. However...
Article
Jefferson’s Desk
Image
There are many reproductions of the desk on which Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Some have even...
Article
John Marshall Speculates on America’s Second Bank
Image
A question on the minds of politicians and voters in 1832 America was whether the Second Bank of the United States, the...
Article
John Marshall's Robe
Image
The only surviving judicial robe from John Marshall’s 34 years of service as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court...
Article
John Randolph Dueling Pistols (c. 1820)
Image
The death of former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton — resulting from his famous 1804 duel with Vice President...
Article
Letterhead
Image
Correspondence between individuals plays an important role in our understanding not only of how people communicated in...
Article
Mexican-American War: 175 Years Later
Image
Of the five Americans who were most involved in the War with Mexico, four were Virginians. They were politicians and...