The search results below contain listings from our website. To search our library and museum collections catalogs, please visit the Collections page.
Article
A House Built of Virginia Stone
Image
![A House Built of Virginia Stone Photograph of the Government Island Quarry](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/AHouseBuiltOfVirginiaStone_Government%20Island%20Quarry.jpeg.webp?itok=aheORpaA)
Approximately forty miles south of Washington, D.C., the Aquia sandstone quarry on Government Island sits quietly in the...
Article
A Spoon That Got Around...
Image
![Silver Tablespoon with Custis Crest A silver spoon propped on a plastic block](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Spoon_2005.235.A-B_A_v1.jpg.webp?itok=y49Hm9he)
This silver serving spoon, labeled as “A Spoon That Got Around," was on view in The Story of Virginia exhibition in the...
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
Colonial Cookbooks
Image
![TX705.F5.1750.Rare_frontispiece.jpg TX705.F5.1750.Rare_frontispiece.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/TX705.F5.1750.Rare_frontispiece.jpg.webp?itok=I6BVm633)
Food and dining were integral to social life in the eighteenth century, particularly among the upper class. The gentry...
Article
Diderot's Encyclopédie
Image
![AE25.E53.Rare_.OS_.vol22.pl1_.Anatomie.jpg AE25.E53.Rare_.OS_.vol22.pl1_.Anatomie.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/AE25.E53.Rare_.OS_.vol22.pl1_.Anatomie.jpg.webp?itok=t1zhWSPF)
Housed within the library collections of the museum is a complete thirty-five volume set of Diderot's Encyclopédie.
Article
Dugout Canoe
Image
![VHE_DugoutCanoe_Teaser.jpg VHE_DugoutCanoe_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_DugoutCanoe_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=yEgfSazE)
The dugout canoe was an Indian concept but one so well suited to the Virginia rivers that Europeans and Africans also...
Article
Henkel Press
Image
![BV267.H4.1829.Rare_.jpg BV267.H4.1829.Rare_.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/BV267.H4.1829.Rare_.jpg.webp?itok=00xoBgRT)
In 1806, two young men, Ambrose Henkel and his brother Solomon, started one of the first German language presses in the...
Article
Murals Inspired by the Story of Virginia
Image
![Still Relevant by Ed Trask Ed Trask paints a mural of flowers](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/FreshPaint_StillRelevant_DSC0887_e1%20copy.jpg.webp?itok=vx9S_GnP)
Richmond is now home to more than 100 outdoor murals, and this popular form of artwork reflects the city’s modernity and...
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
The History of Virginia's Natural Bridge: "So Beautiful an Arch"
Image
![The History of Virginia's Natural Bridge Hand-colored Lithograph of Natural Bridge](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/TheHistoryOfVirginia%27sNaturalBridge_VHC_SU21_NaturalBridge.199.161.jpeg.webp?itok=EUIe6WK1)
In the late eighteenth century, when Thomas Jefferson “discovered” Natural Bridge and purchased it from the King of...
Article
The Peaceful Transfer of Power: Oaths and Inaugurations
Article
The Regions of Virginia
Image
![VHE_RegionsOfVirginia_Map_full.jpg VHE_RegionsOfVirginia_Map_full.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_RegionsOfVirginia_Map_full.jpg.webp?itok=-LWw7Gwu)
The geography of Virginia has shaped both the history and economy of the state.
Article
Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
Image
![VHE_ThomasJefferson_teaser.jpg VHE_ThomasJefferson_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_ThomasJefferson_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=EUHGdBq-)
Jefferson sent a paper to the Virginia Convention of 1774, later published as A Summary View of the Rights of British...
Article
Tiny Tomes
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/TinyTomes_z1033-m6-a7-rare_open.jpg.webp?itok=w5B2CpJX)
Defined as no more than three inches in height or width, miniature books were first produced with convenience in mind...
Article
Tom Molineaux
Image
![VHE_TomMolineaux_Teaser.jpg VHE_TomMolineaux_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_TomMolineaux_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=caFtfs2X)
Born into enslavement on a Virginia plantation, Tom Molineaux (1784–1818) fought fellow enslaved people while plantation...
Article
Virginia Landscapes: Sublime & Picturesque
Image
![Virginia Landscapes A painting titled "Near Harpers Ferry" by Andrew Melrose](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VirginiaLandscapes_SublimeLandscape_nearharpersferry-2013-86-5.jpeg.webp?itok=mg9wVGwu)
Thomas Jefferson wrote that Natural Bridge is “the most sublime of nature’s works”: “It is impossible for the emotions...
Article
Virginia’s Sweet History – Chocolate-Making in the Commonwealth
Image
![VHE_Chocolate_2019-12-14_Chocolate-Demo001.jpg VHE_Chocolate_2019-12-14_Chocolate-Demo001.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Chocolate_2019-12-14_Chocolate-Demo001.jpg.webp?itok=q1IV_d0S)
Production methods and flavorings have changed in the 4,000 years since chocolate was consumption began, but it remains...
Article
What Are the Five Physical Regions of Virginia’s Geography?
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VirginiaGeography_splash-screen-slide_blog.jpeg.webp?itok=1dNvzB4L)
The geography of Virginia has shaped both the history and economy of the state. It brought settlers and wars to the...
Article
Why We Need to Talk About James Armistead Lafayette
Image
![James Armistead Lafayette An 1824 engraving of James Armistead Lafayette, after a painting by John B. Martin. The print reproduces the handwritten text of a 1784 testimonial by the Marquis de Lafayette.](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/JamesLafayette_jamesalafayette-1993-215_crop.jpg.webp?itok=1yhFWQLq)
James Armistead Lafayette was an enslaved man who, during the American Revolution, volunteered to join the Continental...