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Céloron Plate
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One of the most important artifacts to survive from Virginia’s colonial period, this lead plaque was placed at the...
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Changing the Commonwealth with Crayons
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![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...
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Children's Manuscripts
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Prominent Virginians are well represented in the many manuscripts housed at the VMHC. However, documents by individuals...
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Clarise Sears Ramsey
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Charlotte Clarise Sears Risley Harrold Ramsey (1867–1922), whose parents were Joseph Henry Risley and Mary Elizabeth...
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Clemenceau Givings Scrapbook (c. 1944)
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![Embroidered felt patch, "SPIT FIRE." Embroidered felt patch, "SPIT FIRE." Circular patch features a black, fire-breathing panther in the center embroidered on a yellow felt field. Blue emboidery is above and below the panther with "SPIT FIRE" embroidered in black on an orange embroidered field at the bottom.](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Clemenceau_Givings_%20Unit%20Patch_1992.251.1.34.A-I_G_v1.jpg.webp?itok=NE5RF1Z6)
In 1943, Clemenceau “Clem” Givings became the first Richmonder to earn his wings as a Tuskegee Airman, the popular name...
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Colonial Cookbooks
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![TX705.F5.1750.Rare_frontispiece.jpg TX705.F5.1750.Rare_frontispiece.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/TX705.F5.1750.Rare_frontispiece.jpg.webp?itok=I6BVm633)
Food and dining were integral to social life in the eighteenth century, particularly among the upper class. The gentry...
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Colored Knights of Pythias Helmet (c. 1890)
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![Colored Knights of Pythias Helmet Colored Knights of Pythias Helmet.2013.67.A-B.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Colored%20Knights%20of%20Pythias%20Helmet.2013.67.A-B.jpg.webp?itok=QwseuFor)
Race has been a divisive issue throughout American history, and this impressive helmet tells part of the story.
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Confederate Love Poems
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![Mss2-F2462-b-14-(CMLS)-_1 CROP.jpg Mss2-F2462-b-14-(CMLS)-_1 CROP.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Mss2-F2462-b-14-%28CMLS%29-_1%20CROP.jpg.webp?itok=jHqndxP8)
The most prominent Civil War poetry is poetry of the battlefield.
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Connecticut sculpture
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![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.
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Convict Leasing
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For much of the twentieth century, convicts worked on Virginia’s roads. This practice grew out of the convict lease...
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Diaries
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Do you remember the first time you swam in the ocean? What about the first movie you watched? Moments like those and...
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Diary of William Gwathmey, 1859
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On October 16, 1859, John Brown led eighteen followers in a raid on the federal arsenal and armory at Harpers Ferry...
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Double Take
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Daguerreotypes are the earliest form of permanent photographic imagery. They are made by capturing an image on a...
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Dugout Canoe
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![VHE_DugoutCanoe_Teaser.jpg VHE_DugoutCanoe_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_DugoutCanoe_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=yEgfSazE)
The dugout canoe was an Indian concept but one so well suited to the Virginia rivers that Europeans and Africans also...
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Duke Ellington at the Mosque
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Late in his career, jazz great Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899–1974) composed three "Sacred Concerts," longer...
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Education in Virginia
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![VHE_Education_PossumHollowSchoolhouse.2001.230.308.jpg VHE_Education_PossumHollowSchoolhouse.2001.230.308.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Education_PossumHollowSchoolhouse.2001.230.308.jpg.webp?itok=DO8SpKJr)
The Virginia Constitution of 1869, passed during Reconstruction, established a statewide system of free public schools...
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Elizabeth Keckley
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![Engraving of Elizabeth Keckley Engraving of Elizabeth Keckley](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/ElizabethKeckley_E457.15.K26.frontispiece_cropped_0_medium.jpg.webp?itok=OtJS2wQL)
Born a slave in Dinwiddie County, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818–1907) purchased her freedom in 1855 and supported...
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Ella Fitzgerald's False Eyelashes
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![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...
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Ellen Glasgow’s Broken Heart
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Valentine’s Day cards and the celebrations around the holiday began to escalate during the early twentieth century.
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Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity poster
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![VHE_EpiscopalSociety_Teaser.jpg VHE_EpiscopalSociety_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_EpiscopalSociety_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=WBKWgpq8)
The Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity promoted understanding among groups during the tensions of the civil...