Browse Items (37 total)

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses. They serve as beacons for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark dangerous…

Silk has been produced and sold as a consumer good for thousands of years. The origin of silk production was in China and the earliest known examples date to 3000 B.C.E. For centuries, the trade routes known as the Silk Road stretched beween Europe…

Second Baptist Church was built at the corner of Franklin and Adams Streets in 1906. The building was designed by Wiliam C. Noland, one of the best-known architects of the period and founder of the  firm Noland and Baskervill (still operating in…

In May 1861, the Union Army held control of Fort Monroe located long the Chesapeake Bay in Hampton, Virginia. Major General Benjamin Butler decreed that escaping enslaved people who reached Union lines would not be returned. Many enslaved people…

Late in the 19th century, some Virginians became interested in preserving historic buildings and landscapes that documented the state's illustrious past. White women led the effort to establish the Association for the Preservation of Virginia…

The New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NYSAOWS) was one of the most active anti-suffrage groups in the state of New York. There were several auxiliaries of the group throughout New York. NYSAOWS would receive requests for…

Circulated in Staunton, Virginia, the broadside dates to sometime between 1900 and 1919. In it, the women of Staunton asked the men in their community to vote in favor of prohibition or the legal elimination of alcohol consumption and sale. The…

For a significant portion of American history, women were not allowed to vote. Although they were considered citizens with rights equal to men, voting was considered a privilege and not a right and thus not extended to women. In the 1910s, women…

The Equal Suffrage League of Virginia (ESL) was founded in 1909 in Richmond when about twenty women met at the home of Anne Clay Crenshaw. The league sought to win women the right to vote. Although the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776…

Coal is amongst Virginia’s most valuable natural resources.  The first coal mines in Virginia were developed in the 1790’s as exploration of the land led to the discovery of coal in central Virginia.  Coal was carried from the mines along the…