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A Connected Legacy: John Marshall and George Washington
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![A Connected Legacy John Marshall’s inscription inside The Life of George Washington book](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/AConnectedLegacy_P6_Inscription_CMYK.jpeg.webp?itok=Exbxqt1h)
Both the first object acquired by the Virginia Historical Society and arguably one of the best objects in the VMHC...
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A House Built of Virginia Stone
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![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...
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A Spoon That Got Around...
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![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...
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Affidavit, 1693
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This affidavit informs the governor that Frank, a man of African descent enslaved by Henry Gibbs, has been jailed on...
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Arming the Commonwealth
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![Exhibits_ArmingTheCommonwealth_CartridgeBox.1990.100.367.jpg Exhibits_ArmingTheCommonwealth_CartridgeBox.1990.100.367.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Exhibits_ArmingTheCommonwealth_CartridgeBox.1990.100.367.jpg.webp?itok=mGWliVR3)
From providing protection from enemy combatants to finding dinner for a family, weapons have played a significant role...
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Arthur Ashe Jr.’s Family Tree: Tracing the Blackwell Family to 1735
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![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.
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Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia in the years 1675 & 1676
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![Mss2.M4218a1_v5.jpg Mss2.M4218a1_v5.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Mss2.M4218a1_v5.jpg.webp?itok=cj-v6Ley)
Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia was the first popular uprising in the American colonies. It was long viewed as an early...
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Bacon's Epitaph
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![VHE_Bacons-Epitaph_teaser.jpg VHE_Bacons-Epitaph_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Bacons-Epitaph_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=fKHmNmlZ)
Learn about the first American poem.
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Birthday Songs for George Washington
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Though you might not expect it, 1932 was a big year for George Washington. It marked the 200th anniversary of Washington...
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Céloron Plate
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![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...
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Clementina Rind
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![Rind letter.jpg Rind letter.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Rind%20letter.jpg.webp?itok=EZH_y0Zb)
Clementina Rind was Virginia’s first female printer and newspaper publisher, publishing important official documents for...
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Colonial Cookbooks
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![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...
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Dolley Madison
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![VHE_DolleyMadison_teaser.jpg VHE_DolleyMadison_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_DolleyMadison_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=xaCfI-nH)
Dolley (Payne) Todd Madison (1768–1849) lived through three wars, knew eleven presidents, and was a gracious and...
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Flag Day
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Although it is not a national holiday, in 1916 President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially...
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Fore-edge Painting
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![The poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed / with a memoir by the Rev. Derwent Coleridge. Pages ruffled farther apart show a painted landscape and city](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Foreedge%20Painting_Rare%20Books%20ND%202370%20.P8_v1_DSC3145_0.jpg.webp?itok=ARBwm3xq)
Rarely are books prized as objects of art; often the content of the text, or the plates accompanying the text, are...
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Founding Frenemies: Hamilton and The Virginians
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![Founding Frenemies Note issued by the National Bank in 1793](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/FoundingFrenemies_P6_Hamilton_BankNote_CMYK.jpeg.webp?itok=zH3BK0Gb)
This exhibition examined how critically important relationships between Alexander Hamilton and three Virginians shaped...
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George Washington Portrait by Charles Peale Polk
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![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...
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George Washington's Farewell Address
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![George Washington's Farewell Address Painting of George Washington](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/GeorgeWashingtonsFarewellAddress_VHC_FW21_GeorgeWashington.1857.2_2.jpeg.webp?itok=j_d7NXj1)
George Washington’s Farewell Address to the people of the United States appeared in newspapers across the nation; then...
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Henkel Press
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![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...
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Industrialization in Virginia
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![TWP_Industrialization_TomsCreek.2000.186.343.jpg TWP_Industrialization_TomsCreek.2000.186.343.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/TWP_Industrialization_TomsCreek.2000.186.343.jpg.webp?itok=DDx6K4cG)
The 1920 census revealed that, for the first time, more Americans were living in urban areas than rural ones. However...