Smyth County – The UncommonWealth

One Year Later

"We’ll be back in two weeks,” we said. No one could have fathomed that almost one year later we’d still be battling COVID-19.I began working…

Reagen ThalackerMarch 8, 2021

Big Top or Crops?

Traveling circuses, with their daring performers and ferocious animals, drew considerable crowds in the 19th century. The incredible feats of courage exhilarated the minds of…

Sherri BagleyMay 15, 2019

Manuscripts & Special Collections

The Art of the Annual: The Virginia Yearbook Digitization Project

In 2015, I started the Library’s yearbook digitization project to scan yearbooks from all around Virginia on behalf of public libraries. Thanks to funds from…

Rose SchooffApril 18, 2018

Is There A Doctor in the (Court) House?: A Doctor’s Account Book as Public Record

Robert Davidson (R.D.) Hufford was born in Wythe County in 1850. He studied medicine at the Medical College of Virginia and established a practice in…

Greg CrawfordOctober 12, 2011

Local Editorial Contemplates Smyth County’s Cohabitation Register

Editor's Note: The following editorial is reprinted here courtesy of the Smyth County News & Messenger. It originally ran 28 July 2010. A team from…

Guest ContributorAugust 9, 2010

Archives Digital Projects

Solid Genealogical Gold

Genealogists researching enslaved African Americans face serious challenges. Records that exist for the free population do not exist for the enslaved since slaves were considered…

Sarah NerneyJune 23, 2010