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Time Period
16,000 BCE to 1622 CE
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At the time of the great northern glaciers, Native Americans followed the game they hunted to Virginia. Ten thousand years later, as the cold of the Ice Age gave way to a warmer, drier climate, they relied also on foraging and farming. After about 900 CE they settled into villages that united into chiefdoms. In 1607, in pursuit of opportunity in a new world, English settlers intruded into an eastern Virginia chiefdom of thirty-two tribes (15,000 to 20,000 people). Its leader then was Wahunsenacawh, whom the new settlers called by his title, Powhatan.
Time Period
1623 to 1763
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The colony prospered. Tobacco—grown by indentured servants and enslaved Africans—sustained the economy. The first popularly elected legislative body in the New World was established. Following the failed Indian uprising in 1622 and on orders from London, the native peoples were “removed” and reduced in number to 3,000 by a “War of Extermination.” During the next hundred years, the remainder of Virginia’s population expanded a hundred fold. Social inequalities, however, and frontier conflicts with the French and with Indians made this distant dominion increasingly difficult to govern from London.
Time Period
1877 to 1924
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After the Civil War, Virginia remained largely rural, but Virginians embraced economic development and the new technologies that were revolutionizing everyday life. At the same time, however, they resisted political and social change––especially racial and gender equality. Living standards improved and income rose, but the political system became less democratic and society was rigidly segregated by race. “The New South” brought economic renewal but little reform. The Virginia legislature rejected a woman’s right to vote in 1919, and it passed a regressive Racial Integrity Act in 1924.
Exhibition
A Better Life for Their Children
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From 1912-37, the Rosenwald schools program built thousands of schools, shops, and teacher’s homes across 15 Southern...
Time Period Chapter
A New Virginia
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In the early twentieth century, the nation’s economy was becoming more industrialized and its population more urbanized.
Exhibition
Agents of Change
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Organized in conjunction with the statewide Women’s Suffrage Centennial, this exhibition featured artifacts from the...
Time Period Chapter
Contact and Conflict
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The first settlers were welcomed by the Indians with ceremony. However, following Capt. John Smith’s return to England...
Exhibition
Determined
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This exhibition examined the long history of black Americans in North America as they have fought for freedom, equal...
Time Period Chapter
Exploration of the New World
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Initially, European nations were searching for a water route to the Far East, not a New World.
Exhibition
Founding Frenemies
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This exhibition explored Alexander Hamilton’s relationships with the founding generation of Virginians through rare...
Exhibition
Inside Looking Out
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The first exhibition of its kind in that it displays nearly all of artist Queena Stovall’s work in one place, this...
Exhibition
John Marshall
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Highlighting objects like his Law Commonplace Notebook, spectacles and inkwell, writing desk, and even his hair, this...
Exhibition
Mending Walls RVA
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This pop-up exhibition and community collaboration featured a diverse group of artists creating public artwork as a tool...
Exhibition
Oh, Shenandoah
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Time Period Chapter
Racial Inequality
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Confederate defeat threatened to change white southern identity. Suddenly African Americans were free to determine the...
Exhibition
The Commonwealth and the Great War
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This exhibition explored the role Virginians played in World War I and highlighted the stories of individual Virginians...
Time Period Chapter
The French and Indian War
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To shield against Indian attacks and French expansion, and to deter runaway slaves from establishing colonies in the...
Time Period Chapter
Virginia and the Planter Class
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Governor William Berkeley set out to imitate the society of inequality of wealth and education that he knew in England.
Time Period Chapter
Virginia and Women’s Suffrage
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Despite the socio-political changes that occurred during Reconstruction, women at the dawn of the twentieth century...
Time Period Chapter
Virginia’s Traffic in the Atlantic World
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Tobacco proved to be good as gold for Virginians. Wealth from its sale and easy navigation of the colony’s rivers...