The UncommonWealth is off today. We hope you are enjoying time with family and friends, or perhaps a good book. See you soon!
Jessica BurgessDecember 25, 2019
The Library of Virginia began accessioning maps in 1911. Today its collection has grown to encompass several types of maps, including town plans. One of…
Jessica BurgessFebruary 20, 2015
In cataloging the papers of Grayson B. Boyer (1915-1970) of Grayson County, Virginia, one cannot help but notice the dramatically-titled and cheekily-illustrated “Certificate of Survival”…
Jessica BurgessJanuary 28, 2015
Here on Out of the Box we like to take the occasional Friday to let patrons of the Library of Virginia tell our readers of…
Jessica BurgessDecember 12, 2014
The Runkle family of Greene County, Virginia, had seven children, among them three sons who all served in the Confederate army. The Civil War 150…
Jessica BurgessDecember 3, 2014
The papers of Earl Hamner, Jr., creator and writer of the popular television series The Waltons, are now available for research at the Library of…
Jessica BurgessNovember 12, 2014
Robert Cromwell (1838-1918) was a Union soldier serving in the 10th Illinois Infantry Regiment, Company A. For several months during the spring and summer of…
Jessica BurgessNovember 4, 2014
Recently I stumbled upon one of the more interestingly-worded government documents that I have ever encountered. Housed in the papers of Confederate soldier G.B. Lamar,…
Jessica BurgessSeptember 24, 2014
Today we bring you another installment of our Big Find Friday series. While we love those “Eureka!” moments where a patron finds the exact, obscure…
Jessica BurgessSeptember 5, 2014
In my work for the Civil War 150 Legacy Project, I recently came across the diary of Aquilla Peyton (1837-1875). A private in the Confederate…
Jessica BurgessAugust 27, 2014
"I send you two patients to the mad stone. They are natives of this place and had their children bitten today."-J. Reuben Richerson to R. L.…
Jessica BurgessAugust 20, 2014
Here at the Library of Virginia, we love seeing patrons locate records that answer a long-held question, fill in branches of the family tree, or otherwise connect the…
Jessica BurgessMay 30, 2014
The Civil War 150 Legacy Project has been travelling around Virginia and scanning privately held Civil War-related manuscript documents for the past four years. Recently,…
Jessica BurgessMay 21, 2014
When John Hager Randolph Jr. wrote to his parents in Richmond near the end of his Virginia Military Institute career in the spring of 1942,…
Jessica BurgessApril 2, 2014
