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General Content
Determined Traveling Exhibition
Learn how you can bring the "Determined: The 400-Year Struggle for Black Equality" exhibition to your venue!
Article
Freedmen's Schools
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In the antebellum South, African Americans were generally prevented from receiving education. After Appomattox...
Article
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”...
Media
Historic Disasters of Richmond
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On January 18 at 5:30 p.m., Walter S. Griggs, Jr. delivered a Banner Lecture entitled “Historic Disasters of Richmond.”
Richmond has had its share of...
Article
Indian Tribes of North America
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![E77.M13.RareFolio.Keokuk.jpg E77.M13.RareFolio.Keokuk.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/E77.M13.RareFolio.Keokuk.jpg.webp?itok=0Y7v4Q5k)
In the museum's rare book collection, a remarkable compilation of images exists in History of the Indian Tribes of North...
Article
Industrialization in Virginia
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The 1920 census revealed that, for the first time, more Americans were living in urban areas than rural ones. However...
Article Set - Chapter
Interpreting Historical Images
A historical image can be interpreted in a number of ways. Each approach brings a different set of considerations, or frame
Article
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...
Article
John Marshall Speculates on America’s Second Bank
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A question on the minds of politicians and voters in 1832 America was whether the Second Bank of the United States, the...
Article
John Randolph Dueling Pistols (c. 1820)
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The death of former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton — resulting from his famous 1804 duel with Vice President...
Article
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.
Article
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...
Article
Murals Inspired by the Story of Virginia
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![Still Relevant by Ed Trask Ed Trask paints a mural of flowers](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/FreshPaint_StillRelevant_DSC0887_e1%20copy.jpg.webp?itok=vx9S_GnP)
Richmond is now home to more than 100 outdoor murals, and this popular form of artwork reflects the city’s modernity and...
Media
Native Southerners: The Indigenous People Who Made and Remade the South
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On May 9, 2019, Gregory D. Smithers delivered the Banner Lecture, “Native Southerners: The Indigenous People Who Made and Remade the South.”
Long...
Article
Oysters in Virginia
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Learn about the history of oyster in Virginia's food culture, tourism, and economy.
Time Period Chapter
Political Decline and Westward Migration
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![ConestogaWagon.1993.48_side.jpg ConestogaWagon.1993.48_side.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/ConestogaWagon.1993.48_side.jpg.webp?itok=9bwRymof)
The political stature of Virginia declined on the national stage when no successors of ability emerged to replace the...
Media
Secrets & Symbols: Cooler by George Fulton
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Cooler for water or beer, 1856
George N. Fulton (1834–1894) for David Parr’s Pottery, Richmond, Virginia
On long-term loan from The Greenbrier, White...
Article
Silver in Virginia
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Colonial Virginians acquired much of their important silver from London. After the Revolution, population growth, a...
Time Period Chapter
Slavery
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Virginia’s 550,000 slaves constituted one third of the state’s population in 1860.
Article
The Brook Hill Collection
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![The Brook Hill Collection Books from the Brook Hill collection](/sites/default/files/styles/fp_landscape_768x576/public/BrookHillCollection_New-Book-Images-001_edited.jpeg.webp?itok=dOOK5X9w)
In 2018, the VMHC was gifted an extraordinary collection of books, documents, and art associated with the Stewart and...