Posts – Page 41 – The UncommonWealth

The Stacks

“Bertha Weighed Over 800 Pounds”: 7 Questions with Dale Neighbors

This is the latest blog entry in a series introducing LVA employees and exploring what they do on a day-to-day basis. If you are interested…

Dale NeighborsAugust 17, 2020

Checking in on Virginia clerks

The Commonwealth of Virginia, the Library of Virginia, and the 120 circuit court clerks’ offices across the state can document the history of their collaborative…

Eddie WoodwardAugust 12, 2020

Public Libraries

Managing in a Pandemic

Editor’s Note: The Commonwealth of Virginia’s library systems differ dramatically both in the size of their facilities and the amount of people they serve. The…

Guest ContributorAugust 10, 2020

Archives Conservation

Untying an Archival Knot: Determining Dates in an 18th-century Minute Book

Archivists enjoy creating order out of apparent disorder. Much like untying a stubborn knot, the process itself can be very satisfying. Archivists are familiar with…

Tracy HarterAugust 5, 2020

Newspapers

“Big Rock Candy Mountains Discovered Near Clintwood”

While searching for an unrelated newspaper article for a library patron, I stumbled upon a unique piece of local news reporting in the 28 October…

Rebecca SchneiderAugust 3, 2020

Archives The Stacks

Hunger Amidst Plenty: Congress, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Transformation of the Food Stamp Program

Editor's Note: The Library of Virginia, in partnership with Virginia Humanities, sponsors residential fellows during the academic year to conduct in-depth research in the Library's…

Tracy RoofJuly 29, 2020

Virginia Authors

New Books – July 2020

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 PletcherJuly 27, 2020

Manuscripts & Special Collections

“Shoulder to Shoulder on the Picket Line”: Virginia Women Fight for Voting Rights

"I have been kept from the privilege of incoming or outgoing mail for over the past week and am now locked in a small cell…

Mari JulienneJuly 22, 2020

The Stacks

“I got hooked on archives!”: 7 Questions with Sonya Coleman

In this series we introduce LVA employees and explore what they do day-to-day. If you are interested in what goes on behind the scenes entries…

Vince BrooksJuly 20, 2020

Black Businesses in Antebellum Virginia

During the antebellum period in Virginia, enslaved men and women who gained their freedom did have the potential to enter into their own business and…

Robert HinesJuly 15, 2020

Public Libraries

The Pandemic Pivot

Public libraries are nothing if not resourceful. We’ve done it for centuries, moving from a space which required a membership to being a place for…

Reagen ThalackerJuly 13, 2020

Digital Projects The Stacks

Transferring Knowledge: An Audio-Visual Digitization Internship

In the fall semester of 2019, which seems like years ago these days, I was lucky enough to wrap up my MLIS program with an…

Ben SteckJuly 8, 2020

Finding Family in Transcribe

This is an entry in our “Random Reference” series, which features interesting discoveries made and reference questions answered by our Archives & Library Reference Services…

Bill BynumJuly 6, 2020

Education & Programming

What’d I Miss?: Diving Deeper into the History Behind Hamilton

While Lin Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster musical hit Hamilton takes some artistic liberties with our American Colonial past, there is a lot of history packed into…

Library of VirginiaJuly 1, 2020

Education & Programming

A Book List on Racism and Resistance in Virginia History

Evidence of the past appears in many forms. We find history in manuscript records, old newspapers, artifacts in a plowed field. But history is also…

Rebecca SchneiderJune 29, 2020