Posts – The UncommonWealth

There’s Blood in the Salad Part II: The Clean Up

Editor's Note: This is part two of a two-part series. You can read the first part here. This case was grueling. What started as a…

Mary Ann Mason, They/ThemMarch 25, 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 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

Peter Francisco, or “A Horse, A Horse, My Petition for A Horse”

I am a relatively new hire at the Library of Virginia, having joined in January of this year as the coordinator of a VA250-funded project,…

Eric JohnsonMarch 16, 2026

Newspapers

New News!: Virginia Chronicle Updates

As the page count on Virginia Chronicle approaches seven million, the already wide array of digitized newspapers available continues to grow. This month, over 310,000…

Kelley EwingMarch 11, 2026

Public Libraries

Reading Our Way Around the Library: A Library Staff Book Club

In my pre-librarian life as a Foreign Service spouse, I discovered that starting a book club when I arrived at a new post was a…

Guest ContributorMarch 9, 2026

The Stacks Virginia Authors

Cookbooks & Food-Related Volumes Hold Virginia Stories

Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared in Broadside, the magazine of the Library of Virginia, Issue No. 1, 2025. The Library of Virginia’s…

Annie HattonMarch 4, 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 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

The Stacks Virginia Authors

New Books – February 2026

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…

Annie HattonFebruary 23, 2026

Archives The Stacks

Newly-Available Archival Accessions, October 1-December 31, 2025

The Library of Virginia maintains the most comprehensive collection of information about Virginia’s history, culture, and government. We hold more than 200 million manuscript items,…

Trenton HizerFebruary 20, 2026

Unprocessed segregation correspondence boxes.

“Strife, Bitterness, Chaos and Confusion” : Desegregation in Virginia

In June 2024, we shared our experience processing correspondence related to segregation in the Governor Stanley papers. Thousands of letters were mailed to Stanley in…

Library of VirginiaFebruary 18, 2026

Archives Education & Programming Newspapers

Looking Back to Move Forward: Dr. Carter Woodson and the Commemoration of Black History

February 2026 marks the centennial of the first Negro History Week, established by Carter Godwin Woodson. The son of formerly enslaved parents, Woodson was born…

Library of VirginiaFebruary 11, 2026

Public Libraries

Infinite Possibilities for Math and Art at the Library

In November 2025, the J. Robert Jamerson Memorial Library received an email that stopped us in our tracks: “Congratulations! The ARSL Grant Review Team is…

Guest ContributorFebruary 9, 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