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Can’t make it to Richmond to check out the Library of Virginia in person? Take a look at our digital collections! You’ll find six of the most recent additions to our online portfolio below, and keep an eye on the “What’s New” page on Virginia Memory for future releases.

Accessible through our digital asset management system, DigiTool, these collections are searchable by keywords, creator, and title. We also now have thumbnails, making these collections more browseable. We include born digital content, such as publications from state agencies, as well as photographic, art, manuscript, and print collections. We’d love to have your feedback on our new offerings and encourage you to come back often to see What’s New!

For more than a century, Virginia tourism brochures have enticed potential travelers with handsome graphics and tantalizing text. Generally consisting of a single large sheet, printed on both sides, and folded into a pocket-sized format, travel brochures were created not only to advertise the attractions but also to provide information on how to get there, nearby accommodations, seasonal events, and more. The Library of Virginia’s collections are rich in travel-related ephemera from the 1930s through the 1950s, a period that saw a substantial increase in both the number of visitors and in the number and type of tourist destinations promoted throughout the commonwealth. Offered here are digital versions of more than a hundred eye-catching brochure covers from the collection.

Willis McGlascoe Carter was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, to Samuel Carter and Rhoda Brown Carter. Born into slavery the first of eleven children, Carter was educated at Wayland Seminary in Washington D.C., became a teacher, a newspaper editor, and a statesman and political activist respected for his work to promote African American political rights and educational opportunities. This digital collection contains a sample of items from the larger, print collection held in the Private Papers Collection at the Library of Virginia.

In his debut novel, Forsaken, Ross Howell Jr. tells the story of an uneducated African American servant, Virginia Christian, who was tried and executed for killing her white employer in 1912. This digital bibliography spotlights the documents and images found in the Library of Virginia’s collections that Howell used in his research.

Works of Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820). Born in England, Latrobe worked as an engineer and surveyor, before turning to architecture. Latrobe began his architectural career in the office of Samuel Pepys Cockerell, a leading neoclassical architect. In 1796, Latrobe immigrated to Virginia, where he quickly secured architectural commissions for both residences and public buildings, including the Virginia State Penitentiary (constructed from 1797-1806). Following the planning for that structure, Latrobe spent the next two years working on his Essay on Landscape sketchbooks (1798-1799). Latrobe became a skilled architect, designing many important public buildings, public works, residences and churches throughout the nation.

This collection consists of materials scanned as part of the Family Reunion: African American descendants of the Underwood Convention Delegates and Reconstruction Legislators event sponsored by the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Commission on 6 July 2015. Collections relate to the descendants of James F. Lipscomb (1830–1893) and Peter G. Morgan (1817–1890), two of the first African Americans elected to the Virginia General Assembly. Lipscomb represented Cumberland County in the House of Delegates from 1869 to 1877. Morgan represented Petersburg in the Underwood Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868 and in the House of Delegates from 1869 to 1871.

Virginia Untold provides access points to the individual stories of African Americans who lived in Virginia from the establishment of slavery in the 1600s until its demise in 1865. Taken as a whole, these individual stories help to shed light on the narrative of a people that has not been fully told.

Claire Radcliffe

Former State Records Archivist

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