The search results below contain listings from our website. To search our library and museum collections catalogs, please visit the Collections page.
Article Set - Intro
Virginia's Colonial Dynasties
Image
![VHE_Dynasties_MaryWillingByrd.1996.174.1.jpg VHE_Dynasties_MaryWillingByrd.1996.174.1.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Dynasties_MaryWillingByrd.1996.174.1.jpg.webp?itok=azbFZvpP)
In the colonial period, portraiture proved to be a particularly useful tool in establishing and preserving family status. This exhibit presents twenty-four portraits from the Virginia Historical Society's collection. Early Virginia portraits reveal much about the families that commissioned them, as well as how these Virginians valued how they were perceived by others.
Article
Virginia’s Sweet History – Chocolate-Making in the Commonwealth
Image
![VHE_Chocolate_2019-12-14_Chocolate-Demo001.jpg VHE_Chocolate_2019-12-14_Chocolate-Demo001.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/VHE_Chocolate_2019-12-14_Chocolate-Demo001.jpg.webp?itok=q1IV_d0S)
Production methods and flavorings have changed in the 4,000 years since chocolate was consumption began, but it remains...
Media
War and Pieces: Quilts through America's War Years
![](/sites/default/files/oembed_thumbnails/M-dkygNz7iHLxEFAYS47SEKe_0dDHZkqFBfFiQc2OXU.jpg)
On Thursday, August 22, Neva Hart delivered a banner lecture entitled "War and Pieces: Quilts through America's War Years."
For soldiers in the field...
Media
We Cannot be Tame Spectators: Four Centuries of Virginia Women's History
![](/sites/default/files/oembed_thumbnails/PFNmf-PawyqKghU-ibwkBoytUW1vCxkTa9N6OmmwV34.jpg)
From before Jamestown to our own new millennium, women have been central figures in the families and communities of the Old Dominion. In recent...
Media
What Caused the Civil War
![](/sites/default/files/oembed_thumbnails/qf9Ev14I8X58UOEUwzoED-pc-LUhGjgk3Sg2ERSEBxg.jpg)
This video looks at the question "What Caused the Civil War." The video specifically looks at differences between the North and South and the outbreak...
Article
Why We Need to Talk About James Armistead Lafayette
Image
![James Armistead Lafayette An 1824 engraving of James Armistead Lafayette, after a painting by John B. Martin. The print reproduces the handwritten text of a 1784 testimonial by the Marquis de Lafayette.](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/JamesLafayette_jamesalafayette-1993-215_crop.jpg.webp?itok=1yhFWQLq)
James Armistead Lafayette was an enslaved man who, during the American Revolution, volunteered to join the Continental...