Filters  

Article

A Beardless Boy of Seventeen Years

Image

Even before Aristophanes wrote of Lysistrata’s plan to end the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE) by convincing the women...

Article

A Life Rediscovered: The Story of Emily Winfree

Image

Emily Winfree, an African American woman who lived through slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow, never...

Article

Advice and Etiquette Books

Image

Studying etiquette books offers researchers a glimpse of how people interacted and how they adapted to their changing...

Article

Arthur Ashe Jr.’s Family Tree: Tracing the Blackwell Family to 1735

Image

See a rare family tree, drawn by hand on canvas, tracing Arthur Ashe, Jr.’s family.

Article

Audubon's The Birds of America

Image

In the VMHC collections are several rare editions of his work, including a first edition of Viviparous Quadrupeds and...

Article

Booker T. Washington

Image

Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was born enslaved on April 5, 1856, in Franklin County, Virginia. After emancipation...

Article

Bookplates

Image

The use of bookplates is almost as old as printing itself. They were used to record ownership and to reassure the owner...

Article

Children's Manuscripts

Image

Prominent Virginians are well represented in the many manuscripts housed at the VMHC. However, documents by individuals...

Article

Clarise Sears Ramsey

Image

Charlotte Clarise Sears Risley Harrold Ramsey (1867–1922), whose parents were Joseph Henry Risley and Mary Elizabeth...

Article

Colored Knights of Pythias Helmet (c. 1890)

Image

Race has been a divisive issue throughout American history, and this impressive helmet tells part of the story.

Article

Confederate Love Poems

Image

The most prominent Civil War poetry is poetry of the battlefield.

Article

Convict Leasing

Image

For much of the twentieth century, convicts worked on Virginia’s roads. This practice grew out of the convict lease...

Article

Elizabeth Keckley

Image

Born a slave in Dinwiddie County, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818–1907) purchased her freedom in 1855 and supported...

Article

Freedmen's Schools

Image

In the antebellum South, African Americans were generally prevented from receiving education. After Appomattox...

Article

Glee Clubs

Image

The VMHC has several glee club items in its collection. The earliest item, an 1848 broadside entitled “Rally Whigs”...

Article

How Did Enslaved People Support the Confederacy?

Image

Enslaved and free black people provided even more labor than usual for Virginia farms when 89 percent of eligible white...

Article

James Jones Archive (1870s-1960s)

Image

With a coat of faded red paint and a crude hand-forged hasp to secure its lid, the simple pine chest – once used to...

Article

Juneteenth

Image

Pop Civ is a series developed by the John Marshall Center for Constitutional History & Civics at the VMHC. By connecting...

Article

Letterhead

Image

Correspondence between individuals plays an important role in our understanding not only of how people communicated in...

Article

Love and War

Image

Though it has torn many asunder, war has also brought people together.