Jessi Bennett – The UncommonWealth

School Spirits

October is full of spooky spirits, good-natured yelling and creepy costumes - but it’s not all Halloween-related. There is also school spirit haunting the stands…

Jessi BennettOctober 20, 2025

Virginia Authors

New Books – July 2025

The Library of Virginia's first-floor lobby and Exhibition Gallery are open Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The second-floor Reading Rooms are open Tuesday-Friday, 9:00…

Jessi BennettJuly 28, 2025

Newspapers

Oh Say, Can You Sing?

"Difficult, impossible, and beautiful” is how The Star-Spangled Banner, our national anthem, was described in a 1986 USA Today Opinion piece.1 It is a long-held…

Jessi BennettJuly 2, 2025

The Stacks Virginia Authors

New Books – June 2025

The Library of Virginia's first-floor lobby and Exhibition Gallery are open Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The second-floor Reading Rooms are open Tuesday-Friday, 9:00…

Jessi BennettJune 30, 2025

Digital Projects

The Denim Decade

In early 1971 students in Nansemond County petitioned the school board to change the dress code, specifically that "the female students be allowed to wear…

Jessi BennettJune 4, 2025

Archives Education & Programming Newspapers

“One of the Most Unique Papers”: Documenting Chinese American Citizenship in Virginia

On a Monday morning in May of 1903, six men waited in the Richmond federal courthouse to learn whether they would remain in Virginia or…

Jessi BennettMay 28, 2025

The Stacks Virginia Authors

New Books – May 2025

The Library of Virginia's first-floor lobby and Exhibition Gallery are open Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The second-floor Reading Rooms are open Tuesday-Friday, 9:00…

Jessi BennettMay 26, 2025

Digital Projects The Stacks

Chatting With AI About History

Throughout the ten plus years of our crowdsourcing project, Making History: Transcribe, we have had many conversations with our volunteers about emerging technologies and whether…

Jessi BennettMarch 19, 2025

Archives Newspapers

“Ew James, Is That You?”: Water in the River City

In October 1981, many Virginian cities along the James River opened their taps to find water with a “rusty, swampy, generally unpleasant odor.”1 After closing…

Jessi BennettFebruary 3, 2025

Archives Digital Projects

Winter Magic: Snow Day Photos in Yearbooks

While yearbooks might conjure up thoughts of graduation, summer, and the end of the school year - snow days are a very common topic. The…

Jessi BennettJanuary 13, 2025

Faxtual Information

Archives are full of old examples of different methods of storing and sharing information whether these be frakturs, index cards or poll books. Each present…

Jessi BennettJanuary 17, 2024

Manuscripts & Special Collections

“Easy to observe, difficult to explain and next to impossible to do”: The Locker Writing Method

On December 25, 1955, the Richmond Times-Dispatch ran an article titled “Decline of Penmanship.” An Associated Press piece by Arthur Edson, the article bemoaned “this…

Jessi BennettDecember 18, 2023

Archives Manuscripts & Special Collections

The End is Nigh

As another year winds down many of us may be thinking not only of endings, but also of new beginnings. New Year’s imagery usually includes…

Jessi BennettDecember 4, 2023

Newspapers

Vox Poppers: The Twitter Wars of the 1930s

It was November 1932 and Richmond resident John O’Flaherty had a complaint. It was not an earth-shattering complaint, nor an urgent one, not big enough…

Jessi BennettJuly 17, 2023

Digital Projects Manuscripts & Special Collections Public Libraries

After-School Hangouts

Each fall, high school students search for a “room of their own.” They seek out places away from teachers and parents where they can process…

Jessi BennettOctober 17, 2022