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"That part of America, now called Virginia"
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![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...
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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 Life Rediscovered: The Story of Emily Winfree
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![Emily Winfree An oval portrait in black and white of Emily Winfree](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/2.3.22_Emily-Winfree.jpg.webp?itok=1I7yBJlq)
Emily Winfree, an African American woman who lived through slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow, never...
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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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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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Audubon's The Birds of America
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In the VMHC collections are several rare editions of his work, including a first edition of Viviparous Quadrupeds and...
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Clarise Sears Ramsey
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Charlotte Clarise Sears Risley Harrold Ramsey (1867–1922), whose parents were Joseph Henry Risley and Mary Elizabeth...
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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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Elizabeth Keckley
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![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...
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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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Grace Sherwood: The "Witch of Pungo"
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![sherwoodtrial.jpg sherwoodtrial.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/sherwoodtrial.jpg.webp?itok=Ufkjl5Om)
On July 10, 1706, a forty-six-year-old Princess Anne County woman named Grace Sherwood faced an unusual legal procedure...
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How Did Civilians Suffer?
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![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...
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Maggie Lena Walker
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![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...
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Mark Catesby
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![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...
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Martha (Dandridge) Custis Washington
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![VHE_MarthaWashington.1857.3_teaser.jpg VHE_MarthaWashington.1857.3_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_MarthaWashington.1857.3_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=MvRERM1q)
This portrait of Martha Washington (1731–1802) is the work of Charles Willson Peale, who also painted the sitter several...
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Mary-Cooke Branch Munford
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![VHE_MaryMunford_Teaser.jpg VHE_MaryMunford_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_MaryMunford_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=uoJNDhBf)
Learn how Mary-Cooke Branch Munford helped improve education in Virginia.
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Murals Inspired by the Story of Virginia
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![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...
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Oysters in Virginia
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![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.
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Silver in Virginia
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![SilverService.2003.390.57.A_C.jpg SilverService.2003.390.57.A_C.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/SilverService.2003.390.57.A_C.jpg.webp?itok=3h2z90ki)
Colonial Virginians acquired much of their important silver from London. After the Revolution, population growth, a...