Claire Radcliffe – The UncommonWealth

Unfinished Business: The Fate of the Equal Rights Amendment

Although woman suffrage became part of the Constitution with the passage of the 19th Amendment, thousands of men and women in the United States were…

Claire RadcliffeOctober 28, 2020

Archives

Oh Doctor! : Flu and Whiskey in 1918

Cover to sheet music for “Oh Doctor” by Billy Joyce and Rubey Cowan. (Mack Stark & Rubey Cowan Inc. Music Publishers, 1920. LVA Special Collections,…

Claire RadcliffeApril 3, 2020

Digital Projects

Welcome to the UncommonWealth

Welcome to the new blog of the Library of Virginia, The UncommonWealth! As the Library of Virginia approaches its 200th birthday in 2023, it seemed…

Claire RadcliffeSeptember 25, 2019

Manuscripts & Special Collections

“These are the Men Who Took the Cliffs”: Virginians on D-Day

Seventy-five years ago today, Allied forces landed on the Normandy beaches of France, launching the invasion that would push the Nazis out of France and…

Claire RadcliffeJune 6, 2019

Manuscripts & Special Collections

Ich Liebe Dich! Vintage Valentines

Happy Valentine’s Day to our Out of the Box readers! Valentine’s Day is perhaps the most critiqued of any holiday for being “made-up,” but as…

Claire RadcliffeFebruary 14, 2019

Archives

"We Will Remember Them": Eleven Virginians in the Great War

One hundred years ago, on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month,” representatives of Germany and the Allied forces met in…

Claire RadcliffeNovember 11, 2018

The Stacks

Once Upon a Midnight Dreary…

Happy Halloween! And what would Halloween be without Virginia's very own master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe? Check out these illustration from different editions…

Claire RadcliffeOctober 31, 2018

Archives

"If My Name You Want to See Look on Page 33"

This Service Song Book, which was “Prepared for the Men of the Army and Navy,” was used by the YMCA at Camp Lee during World…

Claire RadcliffeApril 4, 2018

Archives

"To Pass Without Delay or Hindrance": Passports in the Unclaimed Property Collection

A passport is both a highly practical and importantly symbolic item. It provides not only identification but also identity, allowing the bearer to travel to…

Claire RadcliffeMarch 7, 2018

Archives

Oh, You Classy Skirt: Valentine Cards in a Norfolk County Divorce Case

Happy Valentine’s Day from Out of the Box! Although today is meant to be a celebration of love and romance, not all valentine cards have…

Claire RadcliffeFebruary 14, 2018

Archives Education & Programming

True Son of Freedom: The World War I Experience of James Preston Spencer

True Sons of Freedom, a photographic exhibition at the Library of Virginia, explores the stories of Virginia's African American World War I soldiers. More than…

Claire RadcliffeJanuary 17, 2018

Archives

Wartime Christmas at Camp Lee

The holidays are an excellent time to eat, drink, and be merry. The soldiers training at Camp Lee (now Fort Lee) during World War I…

Claire RadcliffeDecember 20, 2017

Archives

Last Call: Women and the Repeal of Prohibition

National prohibition was officially repealed with the ratification of the 21st Amendment on 5 December 1933. Prohibition of the production and sale of alcoholic beverages…

Claire RadcliffeNovember 29, 2017

Archives

"Breeding Places of Drunkenness:" Prohibition Crackdowns and UVA Football

College students have never been known for their avoidance of alcohol, and it was no different in the 1930s, despite the fact that alcohol was…

Claire RadcliffeAugust 30, 2017

Archives

Drink Wet and Vote Dry

One of the hallmarks of the age of Prohibition is a certain level of contradiction. After all, the country was supposed to be entirely dry;…

Claire RadcliffeJuly 26, 2017