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A Life Rediscovered: The Story of Emily Winfree
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![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...
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Abolitionist Pitcher
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![VHE_UncleTomsCabin_Pitcher_teaser.jpg VHE_UncleTomsCabin_Pitcher_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_UncleTomsCabin_Pitcher_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=Di90YTDM)
Learn about how this pitcher based on Uncle Tom's Cabin was used as propoganda in the mid-1800s.
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Affidavit, 1693
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This affidavit informs the governor that Frank, a man of African descent enslaved by Henry Gibbs, has been jailed on...
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Ambler and the Jeannette
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![Ambler_Watch_1983.44.jpg Ambler_Watch_1983.44.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Ambler_Watch_1983.44.jpg.webp?itok=x4RX3Gbv)
On July 8, 1879, the steamer the Jeannette set sail. It's goal: to be the first expedition to reach the North Pole.
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Arthur Ashe Jr.’s Family Tree: Tracing the Blackwell Family to 1735
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![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.
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Audubon's Viviparous Quadrapeds
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![QL715.A916.1845.RareFolio.Deer_.jpg QL715.A916.1845.RareFolio.Deer_.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/QL715.A916.1845.RareFolio.Deer_.jpg.webp?itok=TlOTK0Dk)
Following the success of his Birds of America, John James Audubon began to gather material for an equally ambitious...
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Booker T. Washington
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![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...
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Brochure, Remember May 17th
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![VHE_RememberMay17th_Teaser.jpg VHE_RememberMay17th_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_RememberMay17th_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=6eB-Jq9N)
Learn the importance of May 17th in history.
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Care Beyond National and Color Lines: Filipino Nurses in Virginia Across the 20th Century
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![Care Beyond National and Color Lines Photograph of Araceli Marcial and her cohort during the Chinese General Hospital School of Nursing graduation march](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/CareBeyondNationalAndColorLines_VHC_FW21_Philippines_AraceliMarcial1.jpeg.webp?itok=B9DrCz6_)
As of Winter 2021, Virginia remains among the top ten states for largest Filipino American populations, and by no...
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Changing the Commonwealth with Crayons
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![Changing the Commonwealth with Crayons A photograph of Bellen Woodard and her More Than Peach Project.](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/ChangingTheCommonwealthWithCrayons_Crayons__DSC2231_cc_0.jpeg.webp?itok=GKtbS91p)
When she was in the third grade, a classmate asked her to pass the “skin-colored” crayon—a familiar request heard at her...
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Clemenceau Givings Scrapbook (c. 1944)
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![Embroidered felt patch, "SPIT FIRE." Embroidered felt patch, "SPIT FIRE." Circular patch features a black, fire-breathing panther in the center embroidered on a yellow felt field. Blue emboidery is above and below the panther with "SPIT FIRE" embroidered in black on an orange embroidered field at the bottom.](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Clemenceau_Givings_%20Unit%20Patch_1992.251.1.34.A-I_G_v1.jpg.webp?itok=NE5RF1Z6)
In 1943, Clemenceau “Clem” Givings became the first Richmonder to earn his wings as a Tuskegee Airman, the popular name...
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Colored Knights of Pythias Helmet (c. 1890)
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![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.
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Convict Leasing
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For much of the twentieth century, convicts worked on Virginia’s roads. This practice grew out of the convict lease...
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Diderot's Encyclopédie
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Housed within the library collections of the museum is a complete thirty-five volume set of Diderot's Encyclopédie.
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Duke Ellington at the Mosque
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Late in his career, jazz great Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899–1974) composed three "Sacred Concerts," longer...
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Education in Virginia
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![VHE_Education_PossumHollowSchoolhouse.2001.230.308.jpg VHE_Education_PossumHollowSchoolhouse.2001.230.308.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Education_PossumHollowSchoolhouse.2001.230.308.jpg.webp?itok=DO8SpKJr)
The Virginia Constitution of 1869, passed during Reconstruction, established a statewide system of free public schools...
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Elizabeth Keckley
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![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...
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Ella Fitzgerald's False Eyelashes
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![Ella Fitzgerald's Eyelashes](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Ella%20Fitzgeralds%20Eyelashes_1997.82.3_v1.jpg.webp?itok=8WbRCt82)
Legendary singer and Virginia native Ella Fitzgerald, dubbed “The First Lady of Song,” exhilarated audiences with her...
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Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity poster
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![VHE_EpiscopalSociety_Teaser.jpg VHE_EpiscopalSociety_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_EpiscopalSociety_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=WBKWgpq8)
The Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity promoted understanding among groups during the tensions of the civil...
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Equal Suffrage League of Virginia
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![VHE_EqualSuffrageLeague_Broadside-1916-2_Teaser.jpg VHE_EqualSuffrageLeague_Broadside-1916-2_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_EqualSuffrageLeague_Broadside-1916-2_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=n8MNY1wY)
Learn about how the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia helped women gain the right to vote.