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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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Fraud! Controversy! And neat properties in Virginia: Things you never knew about title insurance
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Did you know that title insurance is almost exclusively an American business? In most industrialized countries...
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Freedmen's Schools
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![VHE_Freedmen_Harpers Weekley cropped.jpg VHE_Freedmen_Harpers Weekley cropped.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Freedmen_Harpers%20Weekley%20cropped.jpg.webp?itok=TmJCMsl0)
In the antebellum South, African Americans were generally prevented from receiving education. After Appomattox...
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From Horse-Driven to Gas-Fueled Transportation
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![From Horse-Driven to Gas-Fueled Photograph of the Progress Manufacturing Company](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/FromHorseDrivenToGasFueled_Gas%20Pump_1996.178_v1.jpeg.webp?itok=DosrvziL)
This gravity-flow pump (c. 1927), used near Petersburg, Virginia, is evidence of the state’s transition from horse...
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George Washington, Land Surveyor
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![Survey for Richard Barnes for a tract of 400 acres in Culpeper County, George Washington, 1749 Survey for Richard Barnes for a tract of 400 acres in Culpeper County, George Washington, 1749](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Mss1.St824a1.GWPlat.jpg.webp?itok=PRfdFkGi)
George Washington’s surveying work spanned fifty years and enabled him to acquire vast tracts of land.
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Glee Clubs
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The VMHC has several glee club items in its collection. The earliest item, an 1848 broadside entitled “Rally Whigs”...
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Henkel Press
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![BV267.H4.1829.Rare_.jpg BV267.H4.1829.Rare_.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/BV267.H4.1829.Rare_.jpg.webp?itok=00xoBgRT)
In 1806, two young men, Ambrose Henkel and his brother Solomon, started one of the first German language presses in the...
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Industrialization in Virginia
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![TWP_Industrialization_TomsCreek.2000.186.343.jpg TWP_Industrialization_TomsCreek.2000.186.343.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/TWP_Industrialization_TomsCreek.2000.186.343.jpg.webp?itok=DDx6K4cG)
The 1920 census revealed that, for the first time, more Americans were living in urban areas than rural ones. However...
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Jacob L. "JL" Morewitz
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![](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/JLMorewitz.1991.1.19739.jpg.webp?itok=95X7aBKU)
Jacob L. “JL” Morewitz was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1896 but raised in Norfolk, Virginia. In 1916, at the age of...
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Jefferson’s Desk
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![Jefferson's Writing Desk A rectangular wooden desk, with writing surface propped at an angle and drawer opened](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Desk.1956.1_Open_SLIDE.jpg.webp?itok=TN1yHIPN)
There are many reproductions of the desk on which Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. Some have even...
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John Marshall Speculates on America’s Second Bank
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![John Marshall letters Two sepia toned handwritten letter pages](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/John%20Marshall%20letter%20to%20son%20about%20bank.JPG.webp?itok=mi5rOD9Q)
A question on the minds of politicians and voters in 1832 America was whether the Second Bank of the United States, the...
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Joy to the World: The Christmas Story by Visionary Painter Linda Bruton
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![The Nativity Interior scene with Jesus in manger in center surrounded by Mary and three men. Mixed media, including magic marker and glitter.](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Linda%20Bruton_BHM.0008_v1_0.jpg.webp?itok=p17SffZI)
The depiction of events prior to, during, and following the birth of Christ has been a favorite topic among Western...
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Juneteenth
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![Juneteenth Flag Juneteenth Flag](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/PopCiv_Juneteenth_Flag.png.webp?itok=zFWtlf45)
Pop Civ is a series developed by the John Marshall Center for Constitutional History & Civics at the VMHC. By connecting...
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Lane Cedar Chest
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![Lane furniture ad.jpg Lane furniture ad.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Lane%20furniture%20ad.jpg.webp?itok=Y18Md4XP)
Few Virginia-manufactured items were as well known as the Lane Cedar Chest. When the Lane Company closed its Altavista...
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Larus & Brother Advertisements
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![Mss3.L3297a.FA1_.Box15.Poles_.jpg Mss3.L3297a.FA1_.Box15.Poles_.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Mss3.L3297a.FA1_.Box15.Poles_.jpg.webp?itok=bK5_t5e-)
In 1877 a partnership between Charles D. Larus and Herbert C. Larus formed the Larus & Brother Company. This small...
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Let Us Commence: Graduating At A Distance
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![Let Us Commence: Graduating At A Distance Samantha Hukeless’s diploma from Van de Vyver Institute.](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/LetUsCommence_Screen%20Shot%202020-05-19%20at%2012.53.58%20PM.jpeg.webp?itok=MbIdG0xM)
Learn about the history of commencement ceremonies and traditions in Virginia.
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Letterhead
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![Letterhead engraving, c. 1860, of Richmond, Va., by Louis A. Ramm Letterhead engraving, c. 1860, of Richmond, Va., by Louis A. Ramm](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Letterhead_Mss1.R7243a29.jpg.webp?itok=t1eWtOzZ)
Correspondence between individuals plays an important role in our understanding not only of how people communicated in...
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Letters to Santa
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![Mss1.R5495b6810_Letter.jpg Mss1.R5495b6810_Letter.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/Mss1.R5495b6810_Letter.jpg.webp?itok=Z4eDM9zk)
Take a closer look at letters to Santa in the VMHC's collections.
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Maggie Lena Walker
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![VHE_MaggieLWalker_Teaser.jpg VHE_MaggieLWalker_Teaser.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_MaggieLWalker_Teaser.jpg.webp?itok=LGIwISLy)
Maggie Lena Walker (1864–1934) was the daughter of Elizabeth Draper, a former kitchen slave and then cook in the Civil...
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Mark Catesby
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![VHE_Catesby_QH41.C292.1754.Rare_.OS_.Bluejay.jpg VHE_Catesby_QH41.C292.1754.Rare_.OS_.Bluejay.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Catesby_QH41.C292.1754.Rare_.OS_.Bluejay.jpg.webp?itok=92Ar1teT)
The first accounts of the strange flora and fauna of the New World created a great demand among European scientists for...