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Dolley Madison
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Dolley (Payne) Todd Madison (1768–1849) lived through three wars, knew eleven presidents, and was a gracious and...
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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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Fore-edge Painting
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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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This exhibition examined how critically important relationships between Alexander Hamilton and three Virginians shaped...
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Freedmen's Schools
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In the antebellum South, African Americans were generally prevented from receiving education. After Appomattox...
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George Washington Portrait by Charles Peale Polk
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This depiction of George Washington (1732–1799) as commander of the Continental army was painted in the 1790s by Charles...
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Glee Clubs
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The VMHC has several glee club items in its collection. The earliest item, an 1848 broadside entitled “Rally Whigs”...
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How Did Enslaved People Support the Confederacy?
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Enslaved and free black people provided even more labor than usual for Virginia farms when 89 percent of eligible white...
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James Jones Archive (1870s-1960s)
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With a coat of faded red paint and a crude hand-forged hasp to secure its lid, the simple pine chest – once used to...
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Jefferson’s Desk
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There are many reproductions of the desk on which Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Some have even...
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Juneteenth
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Pop Civ is a series developed by the John Marshall Center for Constitutional History & Civics at the VMHC. By connecting...
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Love and War
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Though it has torn many asunder, war has also brought people together.
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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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Mark Catesby
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The first accounts of the strange flora and fauna of the New World created a great demand among European scientists for...
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Martha (Dandridge) Custis Washington
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This portrait of Martha Washington (1731–1802) is the work of Charles Willson Peale, who also painted the sitter several...
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Men of Color To Arms?
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When the war began, many black Americans—North and South—volunteered to serve as soldiers. United by a belief in black...
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Murals Inspired by the Story of Virginia
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Richmond is now home to more than 100 outdoor murals, and this popular form of artwork reflects the city’s modernity and...
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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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On Dueling
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In the United States and elsewhere, traditional and patriarchal conceptions of honor prescribed that men could respond...
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Opiate Addiction in the Civil War's Aftermath
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In the Civil War’s wake, thousands of veterans became addicted to morphine and opium, medicines used to treat painful...