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Exhibition
A Better Life for Their Children
Image
![Elroy & Sophia Williams – Sophia Williams’s Grandparents, Former Slaves, Acquired and Donated Land for a Rosenwald School. Photo by Andrew Feiler. Two people hold an ornately frame painted portrait of two people in early 1900s dress](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/19%20Elroy%20%26%20Sophia%20Williams%20%E2%80%93%20Sophia%20Williams%E2%80%99s%20Grandparents%2C%20Former%20Slaves%2C%20Acquired%20and%20Donated%20Land%20for%20a%20Rosenwald%20School.jpg.webp?itok=njqvitgO)
From 1912-37, the Rosenwald schools program built thousands of schools, shops, and teacher’s homes across 15 Southern...
Exhibition
Agents of Change
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![AgentsofChange_HeaderImage.jpg AgentsofChange_HeaderImage.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/AgentsofChange_HeaderImage.jpg.webp?itok=g-ZiTR3t)
Organized in conjunction with the statewide Women’s Suffrage Centennial, this exhibition featured artifacts from the...
Exhibition
Artists4ERA
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![Logo for Artists4ERA Logo for Artists4ERA features multicolored words in a spray painted font](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/artist4era-rainbow-795x250-_SEARCH-IMAGE.jpg.webp?itok=gC7nabFP)
Artists4ERA is part of ongoing efforts to ensure that the ERA becomes the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution...
Exhibition
Coming Out, Affecting Change
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![ComingOutAffectingChange_ExhibitionTeaserImage.jpg ComingOutAffectingChange_ExhibitionTeaserImage.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/ComingOutAffectingChange_ExhibitionTeaserImage.jpg.webp?itok=7q9WtDqr)
For centuries, social and legal discrimination forced most lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+)...
Time Period Chapter
Contact and Conflict
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![10.12.22_Student webinar Pocahontas Drawing](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/2.%20Pocahontas.1993.192_2.jpg.webp?itok=ORUh11No)
The first settlers were welcomed by the Indians with ceremony. However, following Capt. John Smith’s return to England...
Exhibition
Determined
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![Two Black students protest school closures in Farmville, Virginia Two Black female students protesting school closures by marching with posters](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Farmville%2BProtest%20%28002%29_1920x1440.jpg.webp?itok=4gqp-b6Y)
This exhibition examined the long history of black Americans in North America as they have fought for freedom, equal...
Time Period Chapter
Exploration of the New World
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![elizabeth_teaser.jpg elizabeth_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/elizabeth_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=HEsHcfyb)
Initially, European nations were searching for a water route to the Far East, not a New World.
Exhibition
Fresh Paint
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![VMHC_FreshPaint_Nico_small.jpg VMHC_FreshPaint_Nico_small.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VMHC_FreshPaint_Nico_small.jpg.webp?itok=HH9emF76)
This unprecedented exhibition explored the power of murals to encourage reflection on Virginia’s past by inviting...
Exhibition
Inside Looking Out
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![Event-BTS-Stovall-teaser.jpg Event-BTS-Stovall-teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Event-BTS-Stovall-teaser.jpg.webp?itok=x5x6a5CW)
The first exhibition of its kind in that it displays nearly all of artist Queena Stovall’s work in one place, this...
Exhibition
Mending Walls RVA
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![Mending Walls RVA logo.jpg Mending Walls RVA logo.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Mending%20Walls%20RVA%20logo.jpg.webp?itok=LXP9_lQ1)
This pop-up exhibition and community collaboration featured a diverse group of artists creating public artwork as a tool...
Exhibition
Partners in History
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![A photo of an exhibition with a painting and photographs on the gallery walls, and a marching band uniform in a display case](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Partners-in-History_0010.jpg.webp?itok=M51Ozemx)
In 2019, the VMHC and the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia (BHMVA) began a long-term partnership to...
Time Period Chapter
Political Decline and Westward Migration
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![ConestogaWagon.1993.48_side.jpg ConestogaWagon.1993.48_side.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/ConestogaWagon.1993.48_side.jpg.webp?itok=9bwRymof)
The political stature of Virginia declined on the national stage when no successors of ability emerged to replace the...
Exhibition
PRAISE YOUR MOTHER / AMA A LA MAMÁ – InLight 2020
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![PRAISE YOUR MOTHER / AMA A LA MAMÁ installation The VMHC building at night with PRAISE YOUR MOTHER / AMA A LA MAMÁ neon sign installation](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/2020-inLight-VMHC_002.jpg.webp?itok=BskM8hO0)
The VMHC was excited to be a host location in November 2020 for the art installation, PRAISE YOUR MOTHER / AMA A LA MAMÁ...
Time Period Chapter
Racial Inequality
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![BookerTWashington.2006.200.jpg BookerTWashington.2006.200.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/BookerTWashington.2006.200.jpg.webp?itok=Kfqz7j1l)
Confederate defeat threatened to change white southern identity. Suddenly African Americans were free to determine the...
Time Period Chapter
Reconstruction
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![Flag.1992.189_sil.jpg Flag.1992.189_sil.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Flag.1992.189_sil.jpg.webp?itok=7-EcTTNs)
During the decade following the Civil War, former Confederate states were required to “reconstruct” their state...
Time Period Chapter
Slavery
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![VAGazette.PurdieDixon.1769Sept14_TJSlaveAd.jpg VAGazette.PurdieDixon.1769Sept14_TJSlaveAd.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VAGazette.PurdieDixon.1769Sept14_TJSlaveAd.jpg.webp?itok=h4pjmUQT)
Virginia’s 550,000 slaves constituted one third of the state’s population in 1860.
Time Period Chapter
The French and Indian War
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![Letter from George Washington to Governor Robert Dinwiddie (Front) Letter from George Washington to Governor Robert Dinwiddie (Front)](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Mss3.V8194.D6194a7.001.jpg.webp?itok=KLtJrDVT)
To shield against Indian attacks and French expansion, and to deter runaway slaves from establishing colonies in the...
Exhibition
The League of Wives
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![POW152_Scan.jpg POW152_Scan.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/POW152_Scan.jpg.webp?itok=BW9_Wuds)
Featuring artifacts, photographs, and oral histories, this exhibition illustrated the dramatic story of how the spouses...
Time Period Chapter
The Struggle for Equality
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![hill_teaser.jpg hill_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/hill_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=NPQ9uZMj)
The American concept that all people are equal and all have unalienable rights was introduced by Virginians George Mason...
Exhibition
Toys of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s
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![Gumby and Pokey Gumby and Pokey figurines](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/229_MHC-TOYS_2014_EDIT_1920x1440.jpg.webp?itok=G_y_-hVh)
Through this exhibition, visitors experienced the toys and their stories through three imagined living rooms that...