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
VIRTUAL LECTURE - Escape to the City: Fugitive Slaves in Antebellum Richmond
![](/sites/default/files/oembed_thumbnails/rGhDabkL0pXr4VJd_IaQ6U6azxNDN0_WNusGYJ424-0.jpg)
On September 21, 2023, Viola Franziska Müller gave a virtual-only lecture about her book, Escape to the City: Fugitive Slaves in the Antebellum Urban...
Media
Washington at the Plow: The Founding Farmer and the Question of Slavery
![](/sites/default/files/oembed_thumbnails/nWOIfkY5fpJLp-w8cTrWVExeHX2xvvCI2_Agfp0Hdh4.jpg)
On December 9, 2021, historian Bruce A. Ragsdale presented a lecture about his book, Washington at the Plow: The Founding Farmer and the Question of...
Media
What's Wrong with Black Beard?
![](/sites/default/files/oembed_thumbnails/jN3TV9fWpnN8nyrlE3peeNauT4IczTuWhWqYkkc4s5s.jpg)
On March 19 at noon, Kevin P. Duffus delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "What's Wrong with Black Beard?"
The traditional historical interpretation...
Article
Why is there a West Virginia?
Image
![Why is there a West Virginia? A drawing of Confederates gathering in the Shenandoah Valley.](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/WhyIsThereAWestVirginia_VHE_ATP_IrregularTroops.2000.165.3.jpeg.webp?itok=9uWgE1j1)
Secession from Virginia was the hope of some western Virginians as early as 1829. Many western Virginians felt...