The search results below contain listings from our website. To search our library and museum collections catalogs, please visit the Collections page.
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Ambler and the Jeannette
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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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See a rare family tree, drawn by hand on canvas, tracing Arthur Ashe, Jr.’s family.
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Booker T. Washington
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Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was born enslaved on April 5, 1856, in Franklin County, Virginia. After emancipation...
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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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Dugout Canoe
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The dugout canoe was an Indian concept but one so well suited to the Virginia rivers that Europeans and Africans also...
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Education in Virginia
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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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Born a slave in Dinwiddie County, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818–1907) purchased her freedom in 1855 and supported...
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Equal Suffrage League of Virginia
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Learn about how the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia helped women gain the right to vote.
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Henkel Press
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In 1806, two young men, Ambrose Henkel and his brother Solomon, started one of the first German language presses in the...
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Jim Crow to Civil Rights in Virginia
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Following the Civil War, black Virginians struggled to assert their independence and make freedom meaningful. In the...
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Maggie Lena Walker
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Maggie Lena Walker (1864–1934) was the daughter of Elizabeth Draper, a former kitchen slave and then cook in the Civil...
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Olaudah Equiano
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Snatched from his Ibo village in Nigeria at the age of eleven, Equiano (c. 1745-1797) was transported to Barbados...
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Oysters in Virginia
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Learn about the history of oyster in Virginia's food culture, tourism, and economy.
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Proud American Day program
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Learn about the beginning of Black History Month.
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Surviving the Titanic
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On the starry night of April 15, 1912, halfway through its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, RMS Titanic...
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The Regions of Virginia
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The geography of Virginia has shaped both the history and economy of the state.
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Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
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Jefferson sent a paper to the Virginia Convention of 1774, later published as A Summary View of the Rights of British...
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Tom Molineaux
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Born into enslavement on a Virginia plantation, Tom Molineaux (1784–1818) fought fellow enslaved people while plantation...
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Transportation in Virginia
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Transportation began to change early in the nineteenth century with the introduction of steam power and the development...
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Urbanization in Virginia
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Learn about the process of urbanization in Virginia.