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
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/BeardlessBoy_burial-of-latane-blog-copy.jpeg.webp?itok=8TLjolKr)
Even before Aristophanes wrote of Lysistrata’s plan to end the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE) by convincing the women...
Article
A Life Rediscovered: The Story of Emily Winfree
Image
![Emily Winfree An oval portrait in black and white of Emily Winfree](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/2.3.22_Emily-Winfree.jpg.webp?itok=1I7yBJlq)
Emily Winfree, an African American woman who lived through slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow, never...
Article
Arming the Commonwealth
Image
![Exhibits_ArmingTheCommonwealth_CartridgeBox.1990.100.367.jpg Exhibits_ArmingTheCommonwealth_CartridgeBox.1990.100.367.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Exhibits_ArmingTheCommonwealth_CartridgeBox.1990.100.367.jpg.webp?itok=mGWliVR3)
From providing protection from enemy combatants to finding dinner for a family, weapons have played a significant role...
Article
Arthur Ashe Jr.’s Family Tree: Tracing the Blackwell Family to 1735
Image
![VHE_BlackwellFamilyTree_AsheDetail.jpg VHE_BlackwellFamilyTree_AsheDetail.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_BlackwellFamilyTree_AsheDetail.jpg.webp?itok=L_TH1RBs)
See a rare family tree, drawn by hand on canvas, tracing Arthur Ashe, Jr.’s family.
Article
Audubon's The Birds of America
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Audubon_2013-9-18-audubon_05e.jpg.webp?itok=S9aL5mJj)
In the VMHC collections are several rare editions of his work, including a first edition of Viviparous Quadrupeds and...
Article
Booker T. Washington
Image
![VHE_BookerTWashington_teaser.jpg VHE_BookerTWashington_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_BookerTWashington_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=mUm-Rb3Q)
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was born enslaved on April 5, 1856, in Franklin County, Virginia. After emancipation...
Article
Camp Greble: A Union encampment near Norfolk, Virginia
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/CampGreble_vhs00398.jpeg.webp?itok=naabTeKn)
This poignant, detailed plan was drafted in February 1862 by Private Frank Maynicke of the 99th New York State...
Article
Colored Knights of Pythias Helmet (c. 1890)
Image
![Colored Knights of Pythias Helmet Colored Knights of Pythias Helmet.2013.67.A-B.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Colored%20Knights%20of%20Pythias%20Helmet.2013.67.A-B.jpg.webp?itok=QwseuFor)
Race has been a divisive issue throughout American history, and this impressive helmet tells part of the story.
Article
Convict Leasing
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/CreatedEqual_bo-blog-mss1-b3483a_combo.jpeg.webp?itok=qJW4RIo_)
For much of the twentieth century, convicts worked on Virginia’s roads. This practice grew out of the convict lease...
Article
Elizabeth Keckley
Image
![Engraving of Elizabeth Keckley Engraving of Elizabeth Keckley](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/ElizabethKeckley_E457.15.K26.frontispiece_cropped_0_medium.jpg.webp?itok=OtJS2wQL)
Born a slave in Dinwiddie County, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818–1907) purchased her freedom in 1855 and supported...
Article
Freedmen's Schools
Image
![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...
Article
How Did Civilians Suffer?
Image
![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...
Article
How Did Enslaved People Support the Confederacy?
Image
![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...
Article
James Jones Archive (1870s-1960s)
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/James%20Jones_2010.0074_v1.jpg.webp?itok=d7JK34dK)
With a coat of faded red paint and a crude hand-forged hasp to secure its lid, the simple pine chest – once used to...
Article
Juneteenth
Image
![Juneteenth Flag Juneteenth Flag](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/PopCiv_Juneteenth_Flag.png.webp?itok=zFWtlf45)
Pop Civ is a series developed by the John Marshall Center for Constitutional History & Civics at the VMHC. By connecting...
Article
Love and War
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/LoveAndWar_mss1-n3381a34_front.jpeg.webp?itok=1qwfgOv_)
Though it has torn many asunder, war has also brought people together.
Article
Maggie Lena Walker
Image
![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...
Article
Mary-Cooke Branch Munford
Image
![VHE_MaryMunford_Teaser.jpg VHE_MaryMunford_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_MaryMunford_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=uoJNDhBf)
Learn how Mary-Cooke Branch Munford helped improve education in Virginia.
Article
Men of Color To Arms?
Image
![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...
Article
Murals Inspired by the Story of Virginia
Image
![Still Relevant by Ed Trask Ed Trask paints a mural of flowers](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/FreshPaint_StillRelevant_DSC0887_e1%20copy.jpg.webp?itok=vx9S_GnP)
Richmond is now home to more than 100 outdoor murals, and this popular form of artwork reflects the city’s modernity and...