The search results below contain listings from our website. To search our library and museum collections catalogs, please visit the Collections page.
Time Period
16,000 BCE to 1622 CE
Image
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
1825 to 1860
Image
The decades following the presidency of Virginian James Monroe (1817–1825) saw populations shift, the economy expand, and attitudes about slavery harden. More and more families migrated from the soil-depleted Tidewater and Piedmont, while new and diverse peoples in the Shenandoah Valley prospered. The beginnings of the Industrial Revolution encouraged the growth of industry, urban centers, and “internal improvements” (transportation by road, rail, and canal). Those “improvements”––funded by taxes––became a subject of political debate. Slavery was as vehemently attacked by abolitionists as it was defended by proponents.
Time Period Chapter
Contact and Conflict
Image
The first settlers were welcomed by the Indians with ceremony. However, following Capt. John Smith’s return to England...
Exhibition
Determined
Image
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
Image
Initially, European nations were searching for a water route to the Far East, not a New World.
Exhibition
Oh, Shenandoah
Image
Time Period Chapter
Political Decline and Westward Migration
Image
The political stature of Virginia declined on the national stage when no successors of ability emerged to replace the...
Time Period Chapter
Slavery
Image
Virginia’s 550,000 slaves constituted one third of the state’s population in 1860.
Time Period Chapter
The Growth of Industry
Image
New industries were emerging in Virginia’s cities. Richmond, Norfolk, Petersburg, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, and...
Time Period Chapter
Wandering, Foraging, and Farming
Image
Over more than 16,000 years, Indians in Virginia transitioned from nomadic bands of hunter gatherers to sedentary...