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
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
Arming the Commonwealth
Image
From providing protection from enemy combatants to finding dinner for a family, weapons have played a significant role...
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
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
Camp Greble: A Union encampment near Norfolk, Virginia
Image
This poignant, detailed plan was drafted in February 1862 by Private Frank Maynicke of the 99th New York State...
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
Elizabeth Keckley
Image
Born a slave in Dinwiddie County, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818–1907) purchased her freedom in 1855 and supported...
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 Civilians Suffer?
Image
White women and children were left to fend for themselves, and many became widows and orphans when one in five...
Article
Industrialization in Virginia
Image
The 1920 census revealed that, for the first time, more Americans were living in urban areas than rural ones. However...
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.
Article
Maggie Lena Walker
Image
Maggie Lena Walker (1864–1934) was the daughter of Elizabeth Draper, a former kitchen slave and then cook in the Civil...
Article
Mary-Cooke Branch Munford
Image
Learn how Mary-Cooke Branch Munford helped improve education in Virginia.
Article
Men of Color To Arms?
Image
When the war began, many black Americans—North and South—volunteered to serve as soldiers. United by a belief in black...