Browse Items (23 total)

During World War II, the United States Army established a unit that enabled women to fill non-combat roles. Prior to the creation of this unit women mostly served as nurses supporting combat troops. In May 1941, Rep. Edith Nourse Rogers of…

During World War II the American government asked civilians to participate in the war effort. A common way for the government to communicate with civilians was through posters hung in public places. Inspirational, informative, and instructive, the…

Waterways provided the people of the Eastern Shore and Hampton Roads regions with access to food, supplies, and transport long before English colonists arrived in 1607. As English settlements displaced and removed Indigenous people from the land near…

Amid the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential election over Herbert Hoover making him the first Democratic president in 12 years. As President, FDR took quick action, through his New Deal initiative, to provide relief to…

In the 1930s, the Virginia State Commission on Conservation and Development’s Division of History and Archaeology received funds from the Works Progress Administration’s (later known as the Works Project Administration) Federal Art Project to…

In 1924, the federal government began looking for land in the southern Appalachian Mountains to create a large national park which would be easily accessible by individuals living in the eastern United States. The park opened in 1936 and was…

During World War II booklets were published to assist homemakers, who were mostly women at that time, provide for their families and meet the requirements of the wartime ration system created after the U.S. entered the war in December 1941. President…

The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins on June 1 and ends November 30, with the season’s peak occurring between August and October. During the very active hurricane season of 1933, the Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane hit coastal Virginia on…

During World War II the American government asked civilians to participate in the war effort in a variety of ways. A common means for the government to communicate with civilians was through posters hung in public places. The posters were often…

On June 6, 1944, soldiers of the Allied Expeditionary Force stormed the beaches of Normandy as part of Operation Overlord, often referred to as D-Day. Approximately 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile…