Gregg Kimball – The UncommonWealth

Archives Manuscripts & Special Collections

Making Music with Sunshine Sue

The Library of Virginia, one of the oldest state libraries and archives in the nation, is marking its bicentennial in 2023 with a free exhibition—200…

Gregg KimballOctober 11, 2023

Manuscripts & Special Collections

The Musical Million: The Ruebush-Kieffer Company, Singing Schools, and the Birth of Southern Gospel

The close of the American Civil War brought two young men back to a devastated Shenandoah Valley and an uncertain future. Aldine Silliman Kieffer had…

Gregg KimballDecember 3, 2018

Archives Education & Programming

The Murder of John R. Moffett: Race, Politics, and Local Control

On the evening of 11 November 1892, attorney and Democratic Party operative John T. Clark shot and fatally wounded Reverend John R. Moffett on the…

Gregg KimballNovember 17, 2017

Archives Education & Programming

"There is yet enough left of the old barbarism of slavery": Violence in Post-Emancipation Virginia

This is the first in a series of four blog posts concerning post-Civil War Virginia and the lives of freedpeople after Emancipation. The posts precede…

Gregg KimballJune 10, 2015

Archives The Stacks

A Day in the Archives with Who Do You Think You Are?

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I was called to a meeting in the Library’s Special Collections reading room on a busy day in…

Gregg KimballApril 20, 2015

Archives Education & Programming The Stacks

Why Research Family History?

Those born in Virginia (or those who have lived here for any length of time) will either nod approvingly or roll their eyes at this…

Gregg KimballApril 17, 2015