Vince Brooks

The Stacks

Richmond is an Archives Road to Travel: MARAC in the River City

The rumbling came from the north. A dull, repetitive thudding. Was it noise from the treads of a stolen armored military vehicle on a joy…

Vince BrooksMay 18, 2026

The Stacks

Free to View: The Virginia State Library Film Lending Service

Decades before Netflix mailed its first DVDs, and even before you could ride your Huffy down to the local Blockbuster or Hollywood Video for a…

Vince BrooksMarch 23, 2026

Archives Education & Programming Manuscripts & Special Collections

Never Built: Virginia’s Unrealized Architectural Legacy

In 2008, the Library of Virginia presented an exhibition titled Never Built Virginia to highlight examples of structures that never were and pose the question,…

Vince BrooksMarch 2, 2026

Archives Manuscripts & Special Collections Public Libraries

Virginia’s Coal Towns

In his diary on July 18, 1709, William Byrd of Westover remarked, "Tom returned from Falling Creek and brought me word all was well there…

Vince BrooksJanuary 21, 2026

Archives Conservation Digital Projects The Stacks

Looking Back, Moving Forward: The Chancery Records Index Turns 25!

Those words in the November/December 2000 issue of the Library of Virginia newsletter launched what would eventually evolve into one of the agency’s most-used digital…

Vince BrooksOctober 15, 2025

Archives Education & Programming Manuscripts & Special Collections Newspapers The Stacks

Happy Virginia Archives Month 2025!

Everyone knows that October is spooky season– a time for campfires, warm cider donuts, and Archives Month! This year, archives and special collections from around…

Vince BrooksOctober 1, 2025

Archives Newspapers

Banditti of Brothers: Irregulars and Plunderers During the Revolution

During armed conflicts, there are some participants who recognize the opportunities for ill-gotten gains. In the upheaval of the American Revolution, combatants from both sides…

Vince BrooksAugust 6, 2025

The Stacks

Copy That!: Reproducing Documents in the Pre-Digital Age

One of the little things that anyone born in the last 60 years has come to take for granted is the ease and convenience of…

Vince BrooksJuly 9, 2025

All Preparations for a Colony: The Saxon Colonization Project

So, a Bavarian immigrant, a Prussian nobleman, and a Revolutionary-War-hero-turned-debtor walk into a bar…. At least that’s probably the way this would start if it…

Vince BrooksMarch 10, 2025

Archives Manuscripts & Special Collections

Ride the Waves! Fight Pirates! In the Oyster Navy!

Virginia’s Tidewater region has long been associated with the U.S. Navy, but did you know that the Commonwealth also had an Oyster Navy? Better yet,…

Vince BrooksAugust 5, 2024

Archives Digital Projects

Clarke County Chancery Causes Now Online

The Clarke County chancery causes, 1838-1912, have now been indexed, conserved, and digitized. They are freely accessible to researchers via the Chancery Records Index (CRI).Clarke…

Vince BrooksJune 24, 2024