Posts – Page 26 – The UncommonWealth

Archives Manuscripts & Special Collections Newspapers

Uncovering the Source: Waddy Family Genealogical Notes, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1914

Among my work projects, I correct Optical Character Recognition (OCR) newspaper text for the Virginia Chronicle website. One of the features of the Sunday editions…

Nathan VerillaApril 3, 2023

Archives Newspapers

Becoming Visible: Transgender History

Transgender Day of Visibility is a day of awareness. It is therefore, in the most literal sense, a call to be aware. Aware of the…

Mary Ann Mason, They/ThemMarch 31, 2023

Archives Digital Projects The Stacks

Time Well Spent: Indexing and reviewing the Free Register Collection from Virginia Untold

For this month’s blog post, I asked Callie Freed, Local Records Archivist, to reflect on her experience indexing and reviewing our “Free Negro Registers” collection…

Callie FreedMarch 29, 2023

Virginia Authors

New Books – March 2023

The Library of Virginia's first-floor lobby and Exhibition Gallery are open Monday-Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The second-floor Reading Rooms are open Tuesday-Friday, 9:00…

Donna PletcherMarch 27, 2023

Digital Projects

War, Remembrance, and the Power of Records: Digitization and Community Outreach Project to Provide Access to WWII Separation Notices

Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared in Broadside (2023 No. 1), the magazine of the Library of Virginia. The Library of Virginia…

Library of VirginiaMarch 22, 2023

Education & Programming Virginia Authors

Prisoners of America

Robert K. Sutton’s Nazis on the Potomac details the intelligence operations that took place in Virginia’s Fort Hunt during World War II, including the interrogation of…

Library of VirginiaMarch 20, 2023

Finding Princess Anne County’s Hidden Treasures

The Princess Anne County chancery causes cover an extensive period (1752-1913) and a wide range of topics. To discover and learn more about these treasures,…

Callie FreedMarch 15, 2023

Education & Programming Public Libraries

Coming soon to a library near you: LVA On the Go!

The Library of Virginia (LVA) is known for its remarkable collections and its outstanding support for anyone interested in exploring those collections. Many Virginians, though,…

Library of VirginiaMarch 13, 2023

Digital Projects Education & Programming Newspapers

History Unfolded: Crowdsourcing through the Pandemic and Beyond

The co-creation of knowledge, the joy of discovery, even the small failures and inevitable words – crowdsourcing has been an ongoing source of inspiration and…

Sonya ColemanMarch 8, 2023

Build a Better Mousetrap, They Say: A Patent Drawing Sparks Curiosity

Many times, in the course of our work processing local government records, we run across something interesting that sends us down the proverbial rabbit hole.…

Vince BrooksMarch 6, 2023

Archives The Stacks

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

Digital Projects Manuscripts & Special Collections

“So that later a history of the movement can be written”: Equal Suffrage League of Virginia Records Are Now Online

In celebration of Women's History Month, the Library of Virginia is excited to announce that the records of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia are…

Mari JulienneMarch 1, 2023

Virginia Authors

New Books – February 2023

James Madison: Liberty's Advocate / James Madison From Independence to the U.S. Constitution: Reconsidering the Critical Period of American History Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of…

Donna PletcherFebruary 27, 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

Education & Programming Manuscripts & Special Collections Newspapers Virginia Authors

Snakey Noodles

For March 2023, the Common Ground Virginia History Book Group is exploring the history of Southern baking with Rebecca Sharpless’s Grain and Fire. Sharpless explores…

Library of VirginiaFebruary 20, 2023