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A Beardless Boy of Seventeen Years
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Even before Aristophanes wrote of Lysistrata’s plan to end the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE) by convincing the women...
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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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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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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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Diary of William Gwathmey, 1859
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On October 16, 1859, John Brown led eighteen followers in a raid on the federal arsenal and armory at Harpers Ferry...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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The 1920 census revealed that, for the first time, more Americans were living in urban areas than rural ones. However...
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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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John Marshall Speculates on America’s Second Bank
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A question on the minds of politicians and voters in 1832 America was whether the Second Bank of the United States, the...
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John Marshall's Robe
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![John Marshall's Robe Painting of John Marshall](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/JohnMarshallsRobe_VHC_FW21_JohnMarshall.1988.jpeg.webp?itok=mRNB0pPr)
The only surviving judicial robe from John Marshall’s 34 years of service as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court...
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John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore
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John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore, was Virginia's last royal governor.
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John Randolph Dueling Pistols (c. 1820)
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![John Randolph Dueling Pistols John Randolph's Dueling Pistol](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/JohnRandolphDuelingPistols_DuelingPistols_1961.35_v1.jpeg.webp?itok=lHDss51V)
The death of former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton — resulting from his famous 1804 duel with Vice President...