General Stores – The UncommonWealth

Digital Projects Manuscripts & Special Collections

New Digital Collection: F. W. Woolworth Company from the Foster Studio Collection

This was the motto of Foster’s Photographic Gallery (later Foster Studio), opened by Walter Washington Foster in 1890, at 112 North Ninth Street in Richmond.…

Kimberly WolfeMay 17, 2023

Archives

Be Our Guest: French’s Tavern in Powhatan County

French’s Tavern, located in Powhatan County, was a prominent 19th century inn and ordinary that served travelers on the Old Buckingham Road, an important thoroughfare linking…

Catherine OBrionJune 8, 2016

Archives

Archives as art

Discovered in a box of election records from the Secretary of the Commonwealth by a member of the Library of Virginia’s State Records staff, this…

Jim GreveOctober 9, 2013

Archives

Bouldin and Crowder, together again

A reunion of sorts recently took place when the Library of Virginia received a generous gift of the papers of William D. Bouldin (1839-1917) from his…

Jim GreveFebruary 1, 2012

Archives

Building Furniture, Building Up the South

The Library of Virginia recently acquired business records of Ephraim Baker (1836-1919) of Mount Olive, Virginia (Accession 51052). Baker, born on 13 December 1836 in…

Chris KolbeOctober 26, 2011

Manuscripts & Special Collections

Reuse, recycle…

During the Civil War, the scarcity and high cost of writing paper often led people to reuse it. They wrote new letters across existing ones,…

Renee SavitsMay 19, 2010