Digital Projects – The UncommonWealth

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

Archives Digital Projects

Joseph Jenkins Roberts: Norfolk to Liberia to Norfolk

In the 1940s, as shipyards and military installations swelled with new workers and service members, the city rushed to construct housing developments to accommodate them.…

Lauren CaravatiMarch 18, 2026

Archives Digital Projects Education & Programming

A Moment of Reflection for Black History Month

One hundred years ago this month, Dr. Carter G. Woodson established Negro History Week which, decades later, became Black History Month. Since 1968, February has…

Lydia NeurothFebruary 25, 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

Archives Digital Projects Manuscripts & Special Collections

25 Years of Connecting Users with Archival Collections

The Library of Virginia’s archival collections can be discovered online at the Archival Resources of the Virginias (ARVAS). ARVAS is a finding aid aggregator. Virginia…

Karen KingFebruary 2, 2026

Archives Digital Projects

“Inquiring of a family by the name of King”: Seeking Family after the Civil War

On June 18th, 1882, a woman from wrote from Corinth, Mississippi to the sheriff in Mecklenburg County, Virginia requesting the man’s “kined atenchen ” to…

Lydia NeurothJanuary 7, 2026

Digital Projects Newspapers

“Radford is Boomingest Town in Virginia”

In 1940, the U.S. government contracted the Hercules Powder Company to build a massive manufacturing plant in the New River Valley, just outside Radford, Virginia.…

Lauren CaravatiDecember 3, 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

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 Digital Projects Education & Programming

Grappling With Your Digital Records: How To Preserve Them

When you have digital records, it’s important to carefully consider where and how to store them. Celebrate Electronic Records Day by using this article as…

Emily JohnsonOctober 10, 2025

Digital Projects Newspapers

6,000,000 Pages and Counting: New Titles on Virginia Chronicle

October 5-11 is National Newspaper Week, the perfect time to highlight new titles available on Virginia Chronicle, the Library of Virginia’s freely accessible, fully searchable…

Kelley EwingOctober 6, 2025

Archives Digital Projects

Do You Want to Join the Gallon Club?

It was well understood during World War II that blood transfusions saved lives. However, prior to the 1930s, one of the only ways to provide…

Lauren CaravatiSeptember 22, 2025

Archives Digital Projects

A Virginia Untold Update

In today’s blog post, I want to share some new material available in Virginia Untold, the Library’s digital project featuring records of enslaved and free…

Lydia NeurothAugust 27, 2025

Digital Projects Education & Programming

Fugitive Data Portraits: Self-Emancipation in Virginia

Richard Slaughter was born on January 9, 1849, on Eppes Island in City Point, Virginia. He and his family were enslaved by Richard Eppes until…

Tev'n PowersAugust 20, 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