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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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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Abolitionist Pitcher
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![VHE_UncleTomsCabin_Pitcher_teaser.jpg VHE_UncleTomsCabin_Pitcher_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_UncleTomsCabin_Pitcher_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=Di90YTDM)
Learn about how this pitcher based on Uncle Tom's Cabin was used as propoganda in the mid-1800s.
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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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Booker T. Washington
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![VHE_BookerTWashington_teaser.jpg VHE_BookerTWashington_teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_BookerTWashington_teaser.jpg.webp?itok=mUm-Rb3Q)
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was born enslaved on April 5, 1856, in Franklin County, Virginia. After emancipation...
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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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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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Convict Leasing
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For much of the twentieth century, convicts worked on Virginia’s roads. This practice grew out of the convict lease...
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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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Freedmen's Schools
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![VHE_Freedmen_Harpers Weekley cropped.jpg VHE_Freedmen_Harpers Weekley cropped.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Freedmen_Harpers%20Weekley%20cropped.jpg.webp?itok=TmJCMsl0)
In the antebellum South, African Americans were generally prevented from receiving education. After Appomattox...
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Indian Tribes of North America
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![E77.M13.RareFolio.Keokuk.jpg E77.M13.RareFolio.Keokuk.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/E77.M13.RareFolio.Keokuk.jpg.webp?itok=0Y7v4Q5k)
In the museum's rare book collection, a remarkable compilation of images exists in History of the Indian Tribes of North...
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Jefferson’s Desk
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![Jefferson's Writing Desk A rectangular wooden desk, with writing surface propped at an angle and drawer opened](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Desk.1956.1_Open_SLIDE.jpg.webp?itok=TN1yHIPN)
There are many reproductions of the desk on which Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Some have even...
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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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Olaudah Equiano
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![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...
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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...
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The Resurrection of Henry "Box" Brown
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![VHE_HenryBoxBrown_Teaser.jpg VHE_HenryBoxBrown_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_HenryBoxBrown_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=Md-vto04)
Learn about Henry "Box" Brown and one of the most memorable escapes from enslavement.
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Thomas Sully's Portrait of Pocahontas
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![VHE_PocahontasSully_Teaser.jpg VHE_PocahontasSully_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_PocahontasSully_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=RPSI9Zc7)
Learn about the life of Pocahontas.
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Tom Molineaux
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![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...