Archives – Page 27 – The UncommonWealth

Jacket of Application for Pardon of James Gibson, Charles Tosh

Archives

“A Frolicsome Freak of Boyhood”

Editor’s Note: The Library of Virginia, in partnership with the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, sponsored four residential fellows for the 2016-2017 academic year to…

Guest ContributorJune 7, 2017

The Official War Atlas of the 1st Division, American Expeditionary Force.

Archives

Mapping No-Man’s-Land: The Official War Atlas of the 1st Division, A. E. F.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in slightly altered form in the Summer 2001 issue of “Virginia Cavalcade.” Between 1928 and 1930, the federal government…

Vince BrooksMay 31, 2017

Photo of Order Books in the Prince Edward Co. courthouse, ca. 1916.

Archives

The Courthouse Adventures of Morgan P. Robinson

In 1915, Richmond native Morgan P. Robinson became the chief of the Archives Department at the Virginia State Library (now the Library of Virginia); three…

Eddie WoodwardMay 10, 2017

Archives

Time in a Box: the Kaine Administration “Time Capsule”

Every box of records that arrives at the Library of Virginia is full of possibilities. We never know what we are going to find in…

Roger ChristmanMay 3, 2017

Governor E. Lee Trinkle Executive Papers, 1923.

Archives

Pardon Me

Within the records of Governor E. Lee Trinkle (1922-1926) are several boxes relating to extraditions and pardons of prisoners. I came across one letter from Leroy…

Renee SavitsApril 26, 2017

The Lincoln Legion, Governor Henry C. Stuart Executive Papers, 1916.

Archives

Drying Out Dixieland: The Confederacy and Prohibition

What do prohibition and the American Civil War have in common? More than you may think. The debate over prohibition in Virginia, which culminated in…

Claire RadcliffeApril 19, 2017

Photograph of Clarence A. Bryce, Jr. (1889-1918), Bryce Questionnaire.

Archives

Virginians in the Great War: Clarence A. Bryce, Jr. (1889-1918)

This is the first entry in a series of blog posts spotlighting stories and records of Virginia’s involvement in World War I. United States Marine…

Roger ChristmanApril 11, 2017

Archives

Over There and Over Here: Virginia, World War I, and the Records of the War History Commission

Editor’s note: This post was adapted from a talk given by Roger Christman, state records archivist. A hundred years ago, on 6 April 1917, the…

Claire RadcliffeApril 5, 2017

Archives

Ibby Jane Smith: U.S. Pensioner

Ibby Jane Smith was born in January 1864 in Northampton County, Virginia, the daughter of Leah Smith, also called Leah Jacob, and Seth Smith, also…

Louise JonesMarch 29, 2017

Archives

A Few of Our Favorite Things: Even More Letterhead in the Archive

Editor's note: As promised in a previous post, here’s another look at some of the plethora of letterheads and stationery found in our archives. The…

Vince BrooksMarch 15, 2017

Archives

"To the land of their fathers": Emancipation and the Virginia Colonization Board

The American Colonization Society was founded in 1817 to promote the voluntary return of free African Americans in the United States to Africa. In 1822,…

Paige NealMarch 8, 2017

Archives Conservation The Stacks

Virginia’s CCRP Program Provides Preservation Grants

The Circuit Court Records Preservation Program (CCRP) Grant Review Board met on 18 January 2017 at the Library of Virginia to consider records preservation grant requests…

Greg CrawfordMarch 1, 2017

Archives

“Down in the shadow of the penitentiary:” the Closing of the Virginia Penitentiary

On Friday, 24 February, a new historical highway marker will be unveiled at the site of the former Virginia Penitentiary at the intersection of Belvidere…

Roger ChristmanFebruary 22, 2017

Archives

Virginia Untold: Petitions to Remain

As told in an earlier blog, James Dunlop of Petersburg emancipated his slave, John Brown, in April 1822 through a deed of manumission. One would…

Greg CrawfordFebruary 15, 2017

Archives

It’s A Virginia Thing: Helping One Native Colleague at a Time

Back in 2010 when I was processing the Nelson County chancery suits, I found a remarkable genealogical chart of the prominent Carter family. From that…

Callie FreedFebruary 8, 2017