The search results below contain listings from our website. To search our library and museum collections catalogs, please visit the Collections page.
Article
"That part of America, now called Virginia"
Image
![Map.F221.1590.1.jpg Map.F221.1590.1.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Map.F221.1590.1.jpg.webp?itok=BG-CLSSJ)
In 1590, John White published the first separate map of “Virginia” and the first printed record of Sir Walter Raleigh’s...
Article
Affidavit, 1693
Image
![a10f6b49866028c13ab22264b04bf42c_medium.jpg a10f6b49866028c13ab22264b04bf42c_medium.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/a10f6b49866028c13ab22264b04bf42c_medium.jpg.webp?itok=qVEgwGTs)
This affidavit informs the governor that Frank, a man of African descent enslaved by Henry Gibbs, has been jailed on...
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
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
Céloron Plate
Image
![VHE_Celeron Plate_teaser.jpg VHE_Celeron Plate_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Celeron%20Plate_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=jgJOsCVL)
One of the most important artifacts to survive from Virginia’s colonial period, this lead plaque was placed at the...
Article
Christmas Cards
Image
![Mss1.W2296b.6645_6647.GoodWishes.jpg Mss1.W2296b.6645_6647.GoodWishes.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Mss1.W2296b.6645_6647.GoodWishes.jpg.webp?itok=IJRLlSRZ)
Christmas cards are ephemeral, and this essence is the very reason they can be of interest to researchers. Scholars...
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
George Washington Portrait by Charles Peale Polk
Image
![VHE_GeorgeWashington.1905.10_teaser.jpg VHE_GeorgeWashington.1905.10_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_GeorgeWashington.1905.10_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=zW_zU62S)
This depiction of George Washington (1732–1799) as commander of the Continental army was painted in the 1790s by Charles...
Article
George Washington, Land Surveyor
Image
![Survey for Richard Barnes for a tract of 400 acres in Culpeper County, George Washington, 1749 Survey for Richard Barnes for a tract of 400 acres in Culpeper County, George Washington, 1749](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Mss1.St824a1.GWPlat.jpg.webp?itok=PRfdFkGi)
George Washington’s surveying work spanned fifty years and enabled him to acquire vast tracts of land.
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
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
Mark Catesby
Image
![VHE_Catesby_QH41.C292.1754.Rare_.OS_.Bluejay.jpg VHE_Catesby_QH41.C292.1754.Rare_.OS_.Bluejay.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Catesby_QH41.C292.1754.Rare_.OS_.Bluejay.jpg.webp?itok=92Ar1teT)
The first accounts of the strange flora and fauna of the New World created a great demand among European scientists for...
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
Offense or Defense?
Image
![Offense or Defense? Captain William T. Haskell's Sash](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/OffenseOrDefense_VHE_ATP_sash.jpeg.webp?itok=Om7UC6ko)
To win the war, United States troops needed to invade and control an unfriendly South and subdue Confederate armies.
Article
Olaudah Equiano
Image
![VHE_OlaudahEquiano_Teaser.jpg VHE_OlaudahEquiano_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_OlaudahEquiano_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=pUL5Qd1M)
Snatched from his Ibo village in Nigeria at the age of eleven, Equiano (c. 1745-1797) was transported to Barbados...
Article
Oysters in Virginia
Image
![VHE_Oysters_OysterCan_Teaser.jpg VHE_Oysters_OysterCan_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Oysters_OysterCan_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=2BC7sR7V)
Learn about the history of oyster in Virginia's food culture, tourism, and economy.
Article
Richmond in the Midst of the Civil War
Image
![Mss1.J8586b225.007_cropped.jpg Mss1.J8586b225.007_cropped.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Mss1.J8586b225.007_cropped.jpg.webp?itok=WpzUMJso)
As the Confederate capital, Richmond experienced waves of change that saw the city lurch from the untidy influx of...
Article
Robert E. Lee after the War
Image
![RELLastPhoto_sm.jpg RELLastPhoto_sm.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/RELLastPhoto_sm.jpg.webp?itok=ZoeXnpSH)
After the Civil War, Robert E. Lee left his life in the military and accepted the position of president of Washington...