Posts – Page 53 – The UncommonWealth

Digital Projects Newspapers

Extra, Extra! Virginia Chronicle Reaches 1,000,000 Pages!

Virginia Chronicle has surpassed a major milestone: 1,000,000 pages! Thanks to grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, agreements with publishers, cooperative projects, generous…

Kelley EwingJuly 9, 2018

Manuscripts & Special Collections

Bessie Miller’s Sad Summer Composition

The Library of Virginia recently acquired a family photograph collection identified as belonging to the Brooks/Ellis families. A composition book labeled “Bessie Miller December 1902”…

Vince BrooksJuly 4, 2018

Archives

"The Body of an Infant There and Then Laying Dead”: Infanticide in Coroner’s Inquisitions At The Library of Virginia

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…

Kristen GreenJune 27, 2018

Newspapers

Virginia’s Lost Papers

As part of an ongoing effort to give voice to nineteenth-century African Americans through digital projects like Virginia Untold and Virginia Chronicle, the Virginia Newspaper…

Kyle RogersJune 26, 2018

Archives

A Will without a Way: An Amherst County Freedom Suit

Sometimes a will is not worth the paper it’s written on. Too often, people go through the trouble of creating a formal last will and…

Sherri BagleyJune 20, 2018

Newspapers

The Idle Hour: The Eccentric Life of Capt. John Cussons

Captain John Cussons, Jr., is one of Glen Allen’s most fascinating historical figures. A nineteenth-century English immigrant with an entrepreneurial spirit and an insatiable wanderlust,…

Kyle RogersJune 13, 2018

Archives

A Few of Our Favorite Things: Letterheads in the Archive, WWI Edition

As promised in previous posts, here’s another look at some of the plethora of letterheads and stationery found in our archives. In honor of the centennial…

Vince BrooksJune 13, 2018

Education & Programming

New Displays for June

If you have visited the Library of Virginia in recent months, you may have noticed several new exhibit cases on the building’s second floor. These…

Mary Dean CarterJune 8, 2018

Archives Newspapers

Please Direct your Attention to Out of the Box and the Legacy of John Henry James

Fit to Print invites you to read yesterday's Out of the Box blog which tells the tragic story of Albemarle County native, John Henry James.…

Kelley EwingJune 7, 2018

Archives

The Legacy of John Henry James

On 12 July 1898, an Albemarle County grand jury met to hear evidence against an African American man named John Henry James accused of assaulting…

Greg CrawfordJune 6, 2018

Archives

More Than an Entry in a Register: Local Government Convict Registers

For access purposes, archivists sort local government records held by the Library of Virginia into twenty-three categories, as well as numerous sub-categories encompassing the alphabet…

Callie FreedMay 24, 2018

Newspapers The Stacks

Into the Woods: VNP Visits the CCC

Looking for something fun to do this summer? Well, look no further. Recently, the staff of the Virginia Newspaper Project returned newspapers to the Civilian…

Kelley EwingMay 17, 2018

Archives

"Soon, the grievance will cease to exist": Chief Inspector of Vessels Reports

On 17 March 1856, the General Assembly adopted a law entitled, “An Act providing additional protection for the slave property of citizens of this commonwealth.”…

Tom CrewMay 16, 2018

Archives

It’s a Tram Shame: A Spotsylvania County Petition

In 1906, Thomas M. Henry of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, had a grand idea. He would build a road to carry an electric tram from Fredericksburg to…

Joanne PorterMay 9, 2018

Newspapers

Virginia Chronicle and Chronicling America

If you read this blog, you might know that the Virginia Newspaper Project (VNP) contributes digitized newspapers to two websites, Chronicling America and Virginia Chronicle.…

Olin JohnsonMay 7, 2018