Jessi Bennett – The UncommonWealth

“The American Style of Life”

The contiguous 48 states have always been in awe of the Hawaiian Islands. Virginia yearbooks are full of prom themes like “Hawaiian Sunset,” “Island Paradise,”…

Jessi BennettMay 20, 2026

Digital Projects

Founding Fathers Fan Fiction

In 1976, America celebrated the Bicentennial, its 200th birthday. Patriotic imagery was everywhere, including Virginia yearbooks. What counts as patriotic imagery? Plenty of red, white,…

Jessi BennettApril 20, 2026

Digital Projects Manuscripts & Special Collections

Ambition: To Be A Success

Ambition: To Be Successful In the 1950s and 1960s it was fashionable to ask high school seniors what their life's ambition was and to place…

Jessi BennettFebruary 4, 2026

The Stacks

Season’s Readings!

The Vaster Wilds Lauren Groff A harrowing and thrilling tale of a young servant girl who escapes the hardships, disease, and social caste system of…

Jessi BennettDecember 17, 2025

Digital Projects

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