Posts – The UncommonWealth

“A Fashionable Suit of Tar and Feathers”

One August day in 1775, Anthony Warwick found himself surrounded by a group of patriots angered by his refusal to stop importing and selling British…

Mari JulienneAugust 13, 2025

Public Libraries

Samuels Public Library’s Party of the Year

What can I say about A Taste for Books? At Samuels Public Library in Warren County, Virginia, it's more than a fundraiser — it’s the…

Guest ContributorAugust 11, 2025

Archives Newspapers

Banditti of Brothers: Irregulars and Plunderers During the Revolution

During armed conflicts, there are some participants who recognize the opportunities for ill-gotten gains. In the upheaval of the American Revolution, combatants from both sides…

Vince BrooksAugust 6, 2025

Newspapers

The Ginter Park Citizen: Community-Building at the Community Building

Every word committed to stone or paper is temporary. A small newspaper printed by and for a neighborhood community association in 1923 has a bleak…

Billy BeardenAugust 4, 2025

The Legality Around a Remarkably Painful Societal Issue

On November 21, 1910, Roxie Annie Bauers (née Bumgarner) lost her life in a tragic murder-suicide at the Lewis Hotel in Detroit (now known as…

Callie FreedJuly 30, 2025

Virginia Authors

New Books – July 2025

The Library of Virginia's first-floor lobby and Exhibition Gallery are open Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The second-floor Reading Rooms are open Tuesday-Friday, 9:00…

Jessi BennettJuly 28, 2025

Manuscripts & Special Collections Newspapers

Of ‘Maters and Mayo: Hot Tomato Summer and the History of Duke’s

It’s that special time of year, when it’s too dang hot to do anything but sit back and enjoy a tomato sandwich. And what’s a…

Sonya ColemanJuly 25, 2025

How to Become a Lawyer in Virginia

Practicing law in Virginia has not always been a straightforward process. The Virginia Board of Bar Examiners was established by an act of the General…

Renee SavitsJuly 23, 2025

Newspapers

How the Bicycle Boom of the 1970s Prepared the Way for the Bikecentennial

Fifty years ago, a front page photograph in the February 28, 1974 issue of Southwest Times, published in Pulaski, Virginia, showed Dr. David Stanley, a…

Guest ContributorJuly 16, 2025

Public Libraries

Hikers’ Corner at the Waynesboro Public Library

The Waynesboro Public Library is located just three miles from the Appalachian Trail, placing us in a unique position to support thru-hikers traveling the nearly…

Guest ContributorJuly 14, 2025

The Stacks

Copy That!: Reproducing Documents in the Pre-Digital Age

One of the little things that anyone born in the last 60 years has come to take for granted is the ease and convenience of…

Vince BrooksJuly 9, 2025

Newspapers

Oh Say, Can You Sing?

"Difficult, impossible, and beautiful” is how The Star-Spangled Banner, our national anthem, was described in a 1986 USA Today Opinion piece.1 It is a long-held…

Jessi BennettJuly 2, 2025

The Stacks Virginia Authors

New Books – June 2025

The Library of Virginia's first-floor lobby and Exhibition Gallery are open Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The second-floor Reading Rooms are open Tuesday-Friday, 9:00…

Jessi BennettJune 30, 2025

Freed From the Archives: The Life of Emanuel Jones of Surry

In January 2025, Mr. Thomas Baxter reached out to Virginia Untold Project Manager Lydia Neuroth to share about research he had conducted on an enslaved…

Guest ContributorJune 25, 2025

Newspapers

Rolling into Richmond

When you work with old newspapers, to say you stumble across a lot of bizarre stories is an understatement. Headlines like “Dog Shoots Man,” and…

Kelley EwingJune 18, 2025