Archives – Page 12 – The UncommonWealth

200 Years, 122 Localities

Shortly after the end of the Civil War, which had a devastating impact on the commonwealth’s records, the Virginia State Library (now Library of Virginia)…

Library of VirginiaMarch 3, 2023

Archives Education & Programming Manuscripts & Special Collections

The First Civil Rights: Black Political Activism After Claiming Freedom

It is often assumed that after Congressional Reconstruction in Virginia ended in 1870, no Black men won election to political office in the state until…

Library of VirginiaFebruary 22, 2023

Jane Connelly: A Story from the City of Richmond Hustings Court Exhibit

In last month’s Virginia Untold blog post, we shared about the exhibition currently on display in our pre-function hall to celebrate Black History Month: “I…

Lydia NeurothFebruary 15, 2023

Archives Newspapers

Dr. Ware’s War on Kissing

December 26, 1902 was, by all appearances, a slow news day for the Staunton Spectator and Vindicator. The Virginia newspaper featured such prosaic headlines as…

Rebecca SchneiderFebruary 6, 2023

Archives Conservation

Announcing the 2023 Circuit Court Records Preservation Program Grants

The Circuit Court Records Preservation Program (CCRP) Grant Review Board met on January 6, 2023 at the Library of Virginia to consider records preservation grant requests…

Greg CrawfordJanuary 27, 2023

Archives Education & Programming

“I have this day committed to jail…”: An exhibition from Virginia Untold

On February 1, in celebration of Black History Month, a new exhibit from Virginia Untold will open to the public. This exhibition represents a small…

Lydia NeurothJanuary 25, 2023

Archives Newspapers

Connecting pervading beliefs about disabilities to the policies that affect disabled people

This is the third (and final) in a series of blog posts Jenna Gabriel wrote as part of her work as an extern in State…

Jenna GabrielJanuary 11, 2023

Archives Digital Projects

New Year, New Website for Virginia Untold!

It's a new year, and Virginia Untold has a new look!Starting today, when you go to www.virginiamemory.com/collections/aan, you’ll see our new landing page, which offers…

Lydia NeurothJanuary 4, 2023

Growing Up with Paternalistic Language: Conversations about Disability in Virginia

This is the second in a series of blog posts I am writing as part of my work as an extern in State Records. In…

Jenna GabrielDecember 28, 2022

Archives The Stacks

A Story About a Rabbit Hole: Externship Adventures

Hello! I’m Jenna (she/her) and I’m currently working as a doctoral extern on the State Records team at the Library of Virginia. During my externship,…

Jenna GabrielDecember 7, 2022

Archives Digital Projects

“[His] claim to be free is clear & unquestionable” : Free Black Virginians at Large

We continue to process more records from the Richmond City Hustings Court as a part of our NHPRC grant for Virginia Untold. As we do…

Lydia NeurothNovember 30, 2022

“…to the encouragement of learning”: Virginia’s Literary Fund

In 1811, the Commonwealth of Virginia decided to set aside money for public education for the first time in its history. Various previous attempts to…

Alan ArellanoNovember 23, 2022

Archives The Stacks

A model of collaboration: The Northam administration records transfer

It started with an email. Four days before the inauguration of Governor-elect Ralph Northam on 13 January 2018, Jae K. Davenport, deputy counsel to outgoing…

Roger ChristmanNovember 9, 2022

Archives Conservation The Stacks

What Do CCRP Archivists Do?

When Circuit Court Records Preservation Program (CCRP) archivists from the Library of Virginia travel to circuit court clerks’ offices to examine items as potential candidates…

Library of VirginiaNovember 2, 2022

Archives Digital Projects

Project Updates from Virginia Untold

The past few months have seen some great progress on our NHPRC grant for our Virginia Untold project so we thought we’d share a few…

Lydia NeurothOctober 26, 2022