The search results below contain listings from our website. To search our library and museum collections catalogs, please visit the Collections page.
Time Period Chapter
The Growth of Industry
Image
![Broadside.18__.81.jpg Broadside.18__.81.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Broadside.18__.81.jpg.webp?itok=S8xE2Yrz)
New industries were emerging in Virginia’s cities. Richmond, Norfolk, Petersburg, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, and...
Article Set - Intro
The Portent: John Brown's Raid in American Memory
Image
![PIPPIN_John Brown Going to His Hanging.jpg PIPPIN_John Brown Going to His Hanging.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/PIPPIN_John%20Brown%20Going%20to%20His%20Hanging.jpg.webp?itok=ZyxhIwHl)
John Brown remains one of the most controversial figures in our history. To destroy the institution of slavery, he firmly believed there was only one possible course of action. He saw what he thought was the ultimate wrong and tried in the only way he could imagine to right it. Which John Brown should we remember? The crusader for abolition or the bloodthirsty terrorist? Is it possible to list him among the great pantheon of American heroes, or do we still recoil from the image of his attack on an American military installation, an action that can be described by no term other than treason?
Time Period Chapter
The Revolutionary Era in Virginia
Image
![DanielMorganSword.1935.9.A.jpg DanielMorganSword.1935.9.A.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/DanielMorganSword.1935.9.A.jpg.webp?itok=oTt9KzVW)
Virginia—the largest and most populous colony—played a major role in winning independence and determining the values and...
Time Period Chapter
The Struggle for Equality
Image
![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...
Time Period Chapter
Virginia and the Planter Class
Image
![LucyRandolphBurwell.1951.35.jpg LucyRandolphBurwell.1951.35.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/LucyRandolphBurwell.1951.35.jpg.webp?itok=vtU35bjy)
Governor William Berkeley set out to imitate the society of inequality of wealth and education that he knew in England.
Time Period Chapter
Virginia and Women’s Suffrage
Image
![LetWomenVote.2005.444.15.jpg LetWomenVote.2005.444.15.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/LetWomenVote.2005.444.15.jpg.webp?itok=JCoTTShJ)
Despite the socio-political changes that occurred during Reconstruction, women at the dawn of the twentieth century...
Article Set - Intro
Virginia's Colonial Dynasties
Image
![VHE_Dynasties_MaryWillingByrd.1996.174.1.jpg VHE_Dynasties_MaryWillingByrd.1996.174.1.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Dynasties_MaryWillingByrd.1996.174.1.jpg.webp?itok=azbFZvpP)
In the colonial period, portraiture proved to be a particularly useful tool in establishing and preserving family status. This exhibit presents twenty-four portraits from the Virginia Historical Society's collection. Early Virginia portraits reveal much about the families that commissioned them, as well as how these Virginians valued how they were perceived by others.
Time Period Chapter
Virginia’s Traffic in the Atlantic World
Image
![SlaveShackles.1997.89.jpg SlaveShackles.1997.89.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/SlaveShackles.1997.89.jpg.webp?itok=VQYbsOGc)
Tobacco proved to be good as gold for Virginians. Wealth from its sale and easy navigation of the colony’s rivers...
Time Period Chapter
War on the Home Front
Image
![0.50Confederate.2010.40.23.jpg 0.50Confederate.2010.40.23.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/0.50Confederate.2010.40.23.jpg.webp?itok=kzi4PlXz)
For some, the war brought deprivation, horror, and loss right to their very doorsteps.