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Article
Separate and Unequal: The Breakdown of Segregation in Virginia Schools
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![Teenagers protesting school closings Historic photograph of two black teenage girls protesting school closings](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Farmville%2BProtest%20%28002%29%20v2.jpg.webp?itok=vR6ip63v)
The Virginia Constitution of 1869 established a statewide system of free public schools. The schools evolved in the...
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The First Modern War?
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![The First Modern War? Painting of the Battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/TheFirstModernWar_VHE_ATP_MonitorMerrimac.1998.53_2.jpeg.webp?itok=ESsQ1wUE)
The technology of the industrial revolution applied to the science of killing made the Civil War a turning point between...
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The History of Virginia's Natural Bridge: "So Beautiful an Arch"
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![The History of Virginia's Natural Bridge Hand-colored Lithograph of Natural Bridge](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/TheHistoryOfVirginia%27sNaturalBridge_VHC_SU21_NaturalBridge.199.161.jpeg.webp?itok=EUIe6WK1)
In the late eighteenth century, when Thomas Jefferson “discovered” Natural Bridge and purchased it from the King of...
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The Twentieth Century: Cities, Cars, and Civil Rights
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Technological revolutions, increased urbanization, and advances in civil rights created the commonwealth we know today.
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United States Colored Troops Muster Rolls
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![United States Colored Troops Muster Rolls Photograph of Company E 4th U.S. Colored Infantry](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/UnitedStatesColoredTroopsMusterRolls_P8_Collections_Soldiers_Gray.jpeg.webp?itok=A0KOVc6x)
Organized at Camp Stanton in Benedict, Maryland, in February 1864, the 30th USCT served in spring campaigns in Virginia...
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Urbanization in Virginia
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![VHE_Urbanization_BroadSt.Richmond.2002.266.41.jpg VHE_Urbanization_BroadSt.Richmond.2002.266.41.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Urbanization_BroadSt.Richmond.2002.266.41.jpg.webp?itok=kl_JlMML)
Learn about the process of urbanization in Virginia.
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Virginia Landscapes: Sublime & Picturesque
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![Virginia Landscapes A painting titled "Near Harpers Ferry" by Andrew Melrose](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VirginiaLandscapes_SublimeLandscape_nearharpersferry-2013-86-5.jpeg.webp?itok=mg9wVGwu)
Thomas Jefferson wrote that Natural Bridge is “the most sublime of nature’s works”: “It is impossible for the emotions...
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Walter Washington Foster Glass Plate Negatives Collection
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![KirksmithSisters.1991.1.28574.jpg KirksmithSisters.1991.1.28574.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/KirksmithSisters.1991.1.28574.jpg.webp?itok=aRIS1GdJ)
Originally from Norfolk, Walter Washington Foster relocated to Richmond, where he worked in partnership with other...
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What's For Breakfast?
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![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Breakfast_toaster-1996-153-9_closed_sil.jpeg.webp?itok=uV6PJk1d)
This toaster was made possible by the invention of a wire made of nickel and chromium that could be heated quickly to a...
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Who Freed the Enslaved People?
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![Who Freed the Enslaved People? Painting of President Lincoln writing the Proclamation of Freedom by David Gilmore Blythe](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/WhoFreedTheEnslavedPeople_VHE_ATP_LC-DIG-ppmsca-18444.jpeg.webp?itok=zYcrzehk)
Two years of fighting changed what the war was about. Beginning in 1863, the North no longer fought only to save the...
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Who was Oliver Hill?
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The VMHC has a group of items that belonged to Oliver W. Hill, Sr., a prominent Richmond civil rights attorney, donated...
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Why is there a West Virginia?
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![Why is there a West Virginia? A drawing of Confederates gathering in the Shenandoah Valley.](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/WhyIsThereAWestVirginia_VHE_ATP_IrregularTroops.2000.165.3.jpeg.webp?itok=9uWgE1j1)
Secession from Virginia was the hope of some western Virginians as early as 1829. Many western Virginians felt...
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Women in Virginia
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![VHE_Women_EqualSuffrageLeague.2002.226.1.jpg VHE_Women_EqualSuffrageLeague.2002.226.1.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Women_EqualSuffrageLeague.2002.226.1.jpg.webp?itok=o6r2OyVN)
Learn about how women in the early 20th century lived in Virginia.