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Archives Education & Programming Manuscripts & Special Collections

The Kids Are Alright: Volunteer Transcription Projects Flourish at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School

Since 2017, the Library of Virginia has partnered with Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School (MLWGS) to offer the Making History crowdsourced transcription project to students…

Sonya ColemanMay 3, 2023

Archives

Governor L. Douglas Wilder and The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO): “Greater Opportunities”

Virginia has pursued trade with Japan in earnest since the first state trade mission to Japan in 1972. Since then, every governor except one has…

Cara GriggsMay 1, 2023

Archives

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

The U.S. Census Bureau defines Asian as “A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the…

Cara GriggsApril 28, 2023

Archives Digital Projects

“Compelled to emigrate to & reside in the state of Ohio”

About a year ago, we learned about a project from the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board (OHRAB) to document free people of color in Ohio.…

Lydia NeurothApril 26, 2023

Archives Virginia Authors

Migration of Paperwork

For many entering the United States, bureaucratic paperwork is one of their first encounters with the United States government. Deepak Singh, author of How May…

Library of VirginiaApril 19, 2023

Archives

Thomas/in Hall: Subverting the Gender Binary in Colonial Virginia

Among Virginia’s earliest records is a court case describing the first known intersex person in British North America. In 1629, a servant known as Thomas…

Rebecca SchneiderApril 17, 2023

Archives Digital Projects

Sites of Past Campaigns: Virginia Public Access Project Website Archive

According to the Virginia Public Access Project, twenty-eight members of the Virginia General Assembly (10 Senators and 18 Delegates) have announced they will not seek…

Roger ChristmanApril 12, 2023

Archives Manuscripts & Special Collections Newspapers

Uncovering the Source: Waddy Family Genealogical Notes, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1914

Among my work projects, I correct Optical Character Recognition (OCR) newspaper text for the Virginia Chronicle website. One of the features of the Sunday editions…

Nathan VerillaApril 3, 2023

Archives Newspapers

Becoming Visible: Transgender History

Transgender Day of Visibility is a day of awareness. It is therefore, in the most literal sense, a call to be aware. Aware of the…

Mary Ann Mason, They/ThemMarch 31, 2023

Archives Digital Projects The Stacks

Time Well Spent: Indexing and reviewing the Free Register Collection from Virginia Untold

For this month’s blog post, I asked Callie Freed, Local Records Archivist, to reflect on her experience indexing and reviewing our “Free Negro Registers” collection…

Callie FreedMarch 29, 2023

Archives

Finding Princess Anne County’s Hidden Treasures

The Princess Anne County chancery causes cover an extensive period (1752-1913) and a wide range of topics. To discover and learn more about these treasures,…

Callie FreedMarch 15, 2023

Archives

Build a Better Mousetrap, They Say: A Patent Drawing Sparks Curiosity

Many times, in the course of our work processing local government records, we run across something interesting that sends us down the proverbial rabbit hole.…

Vince BrooksMarch 6, 2023

Archives The Stacks

200 Years, 122 Localities

Shortly after the end of the Civil War, which had a devastating impact on the commonwealth’s records, the Virginia State Library (now Library of Virginia)…

Library of VirginiaMarch 3, 2023

Archives Education & Programming Manuscripts & Special Collections

The First Civil Rights: Black Political Activism After Claiming Freedom

It is often assumed that after Congressional Reconstruction in Virginia ended in 1870, no Black men won election to political office in the state until…

Library of VirginiaFebruary 22, 2023

Archives

Jane Connelly: A Story from the City of Richmond Hustings Court Exhibit

In last month’s Virginia Untold blog post, we shared about the exhibition currently on display in our pre-function hall to celebrate Black History Month: “I…

Lydia NeurothFebruary 15, 2023