The search results below contain listings from our website. To search our library and museum collections catalogs, please visit the Collections page.
Article
A Beardless Boy of Seventeen Years
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/BeardlessBoy_burial-of-latane-blog-copy.jpeg.webp?itok=8TLjolKr)
Even before Aristophanes wrote of Lysistrata’s plan to end the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE) by convincing the women...
Article
A House Built of Virginia Stone
Image
![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...
Article
A Post-WWII Mother's Day Card
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Mother_mss1-l4895a285-inside.jpeg.webp?itok=TMHLQfJE)
On June 25, 1944, from an Army Air Force base in Cerignola, Italy, 2d Lt. Harold Leazer penned a letter to his mother in...
Article
Advice and Etiquette Books
Image
![BJ1838.O8.Cover_.jpg BJ1838.O8.Cover_.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/BJ1838.O8.Cover_.jpg.webp?itok=z6Xl4K7b)
Studying etiquette books offers researchers a glimpse of how people interacted and how they adapted to their changing...
Article
Alexander & Virginia Weddell: A Love Story
Image
![VaHouse_AlexanderWeddell.1948.jpg VaHouse_AlexanderWeddell.1948.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VaHouse_AlexanderWeddell.1948.jpg.webp?itok=HhilNSB0)
Many years ago, a love story was ignited between the future residents of Virginia House, Alexander and Virginia Weddell.
Article
Audubon's The Birds of America
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Audubon_2013-9-18-audubon_05e.jpg.webp?itok=S9aL5mJj)
In the VMHC collections are several rare editions of his work, including a first edition of Viviparous Quadrupeds and...
Article
Audubon's Viviparous Quadrapeds
Image
![QL715.A916.1845.RareFolio.Deer_.jpg QL715.A916.1845.RareFolio.Deer_.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/QL715.A916.1845.RareFolio.Deer_.jpg.webp?itok=TlOTK0Dk)
Following the success of his Birds of America, John James Audubon began to gather material for an equally ambitious...
Article
Birthday Songs for George Washington
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Birthday_mss5-5-un3-15_bicentennialparade1932.jpeg.webp?itok=YiBulrrn)
Though you might not expect it, 1932 was a big year for George Washington. It marked the 200th anniversary of Washington...
Article
Bookplates
Image
![Bookplate.2012.1.5.jpg Bookplate.2012.1.5.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Bookplate.2012.1.5.jpg.webp?itok=W4-zqjnX)
The use of bookplates is almost as old as printing itself. They were used to record ownership and to reassure the owner...
Article
Changing the Commonwealth with Crayons
Image
![Changing the Commonwealth with Crayons A photograph of Bellen Woodard and her More Than Peach Project.](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/ChangingTheCommonwealthWithCrayons_Crayons__DSC2231_cc_0.jpeg.webp?itok=GKtbS91p)
When she was in the third grade, a classmate asked her to pass the “skin-colored” crayon—a familiar request heard at her...
Article
Children's Manuscripts
Image
![VHE_Children_gilkersondiary.jpg VHE_Children_gilkersondiary.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Children_gilkersondiary.jpg.webp?itok=3R1VyWG8)
Prominent Virginians are well represented in the many manuscripts housed at the VMHC. However, documents by individuals...
Article
Christmas Cards
Image
![Mss1.W2296b.6645_6647.GoodWishes.jpg Mss1.W2296b.6645_6647.GoodWishes.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Mss1.W2296b.6645_6647.GoodWishes.jpg.webp?itok=IJRLlSRZ)
Christmas cards are ephemeral, and this essence is the very reason they can be of interest to researchers. Scholars...
Article
Christmas in the Trenches
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/ChristmasTrenches_mss2-b5415b7_003_0.jpeg.webp?itok=HftrNOW3)
Read excerpts from soldiers' letters home about their Christmas meals while stationed away from home.
Article
Clarise Sears Ramsey
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Plantation_clarisesearsramsey-1992-117-10_0.jpeg.webp?itok=939GFhww)
Charlotte Clarise Sears Risley Harrold Ramsey (1867–1922), whose parents were Joseph Henry Risley and Mary Elizabeth...
Article
Connecticut sculpture
Image
![VHE_Connecticut_Teaser.jpg VHE_Connecticut_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Connecticut_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=Iy3-K8r8)
Records of the Best Products Company provide interesting insights into the history of this iconic sculpture.
Article
Diary of William Gwathmey, 1859
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Abolitionists_mss1-g9957c-fa2_diary_1859-12-2.jpeg.webp?itok=O_SBeMh0)
On October 16, 1859, John Brown led eighteen followers in a raid on the federal arsenal and armory at Harpers Ferry...
Article
Double Take
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/DoubleTake_lucygoodetuckerchambers-1974-15-12.jpeg.webp?itok=8UHrFHyF)
Daguerreotypes are the earliest form of permanent photographic imagery. They are made by capturing an image on a...
Article
Duke Ellington at the Mosque
Image
![ML410.E44.D86.1968.Cover__0.jpg ML410.E44.D86.1968.Cover__0.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/ML410.E44.D86.1968.Cover__0.jpg.webp?itok=m1taoFgC)
Late in his career, jazz great Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899–1974) composed three "Sacred Concerts," longer...
Article
Ella Fitzgerald's False Eyelashes
Image
![Ella Fitzgerald's Eyelashes](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Ella%20Fitzgeralds%20Eyelashes_1997.82.3_v1.jpg.webp?itok=8WbRCt82)
Legendary singer and Virginia native Ella Fitzgerald, dubbed “The First Lady of Song,” exhilarated audiences with her...
Article
Ellen Glasgow’s Broken Heart
Image
![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Glasgow_ellenglasgow-1946-30.jpeg.webp?itok=t3uj_8R-)
Valentine’s Day cards and the celebrations around the holiday began to escalate during the early twentieth century.