The search results below contain listings from our website. To search our library and museum collections catalogs, please visit the Collections page.
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
Booker T. Washington
Image
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was born enslaved on April 5, 1856, in Franklin County, Virginia. After emancipation...
Article
Christmas Cards
Image
Christmas cards are ephemeral, and this essence is the very reason they can be of interest to researchers. Scholars...
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 Imprints
Image
Before secession, most of the established publishers of booking, broadsides, and sheet music were located in such large...
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
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
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
Let Us Commence: Graduating At A Distance
Image
Learn about the history of commencement ceremonies and traditions in Virginia.
Article
Letterhead
Image
Correspondence between individuals plays an important role in our understanding not only of how people communicated in...
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...