Posts – Page 39 – The UncommonWealth

Celebrating National Poetry Month 2021: Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley

Poetry. Heart music, soul song. There is something about this particular arrangement of words that digs a deeper meaning out of a word, a phrase.…

Nan CarmackApril 9, 2021

Kidnapped into Slavery: The Freedom Suit of Francis Jackson

The 2013 film 12 Years a Slave adapted the historical memoirs of Solomon Northup, a free African American from New York who was kidnapped and…

McKenzie LongApril 7, 2021

Public Libraries

Random Reference: Advertising the Public Library

In honor of National Library Week, I took a whirl through the Library of Virginia’s published holdings related to librarianship and library services. As the…

Rebecca SchneiderApril 5, 2021

Digital Projects

A New View of History: Introducing the Virginia Open Data Portal

In case you missed it, 14-20 March 2021 was Sunshine Week, the annual celebration of open and transparent government and citizen engagement in government decision-making.…

Kathy JordanMarch 31, 2021

Virginia Authors

New Books – March 2021

The Library of Virginia is now open by appointment only. During this initial reopening phase, researchers will be able to use the collections by appointment…

Donna PletcherMarch 29, 2021

Digital Projects

“She was, before her marriage, an accomplished teacher.”

Sometimes after a long day of looking at archival documents on my computer screen, I go home and relax by looking at archival documents on…

Jessi BennettMarch 24, 2021

Newspapers

Spanning (and Scanning) the Commonwealth: New to Virginia Chronicle

Virginia Chronicle, the Library of Virginia’s digital newspaper database, has added an impressive array of new titles in recent months.Formed by a merger of the…

Kelley EwingMarch 22, 2021

Annie Missed the Mark…Just Once

Occasionally, we ask guest writers to share information or stories about researching in our collections, public library programming or activities, and other topics which Library…

Guest ContributorMarch 17, 2021

The Stacks

Look Your Best and Reach Your Audience: 7 Questions with Cindy Marks

"7 Questions" is a series introducing LVA employees and exploring what they do day-to-day. If you are interested in what goes on behind the scenes…

Vince BrooksMarch 15, 2021

Education & Programming The Stacks

Finding the Unexpected

As a Library of Virginia volunteer, researching the Dictionary of Virginia Biography (DVB) has taken me into the lives of worthy but heretofore relatively unremarked,…

Leila ChristenburyMarch 10, 2021

Public Libraries

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

Archives Education & Programming

“Her prospects of election”: Virginia Women Run for Office

"The political woman will be a menace," warned anti-suffragists during the campaign for women's voting rights. Not only would women in politics threaten the family…

Mari JulienneMarch 3, 2021

Random Reference: Scrapbooking Anyone?

A few years ago, my mother and I were cleaning out some closets and I ran across a scrapbook she made as a college freshman.…

Ginny DunnMarch 1, 2021

Education & Programming

Celebration of Black Joy in the Richmond Planet

In 1882, the newspaper Richmond Planet was born. Founded by 13 formerly enslaved Richmonders, the Planet was first edited by Edwin Archer Randolph, the first…

Emma ItoFebruary 24, 2021

Virginia Authors

New Books – February 2021

The Library of Virginia is now open by appointment only. During this initial reopening phase, researchers will be able to use the collections by appointment…

Donna PletcherFebruary 22, 2021