Browse Items (69 total)
Steering a Bateau, Watercolor, 1798
Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764–1820) was born in England, where he worked for an engineer and an architect before immigrating to the United States. He became one of the young nation's most significant architects and designed the U.S. Capitol. While…
Robert Kennedy, Visit to Prince Edward County Schools, May 11, 1964
On May 17, 1954, after nearly two decades of legal challenges against racial segregation in public schools and higher education, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that school segregation was…
Roanoke County Cohabitation Register, 1866
Prior to the Civil War, enslaved men and women were not legally allowed to marry. However, during slavery many men and women did consider themselves to be married despite the lack of legal protection and recognition, which meant that husbands and…
Resolution against the Fourteenth Amendment by Lee-Jackson Camp, 1958
In 1958, the members of the Lee- Jackson Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans drafted a resolution in which they suggested the Fourteenth Amendment was illegal as it, in their opinion, had not been properly ratified. The justification they used…
Phillis, Commonwealth Cause, Accomack County, 1824
Commonwealth causes are criminal cases filed by a county's prosecuting attorney (commonwealth's attorney) against individuals who violate Virginia law. Prior to the abolition of slavery in Virginia in 1865, criminal offenders and victims included…
Phillip Gowen, Petition for Release from Servitude, 1675
Phillip Gowen (whose surname sometimes appears as Cowen or Corven) was the son of a freed African servant. He was bound out as an indentured servant late in the 17th century. He was, like all indentured servants at that time, required to serve a…
Petition from the Citizens of Halifax County, 1955
On May 17, 1954, after nearly two decades of legal challenges against racial segregation in public schools and higher education, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that school segregation was…
Petition from Students at Lane High School to Reopen Schools, Charlottesville, September 1958
On May 17, 1954, after nearly two decades of legal challenges against racial segregation in public schools and higher education, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that school segregation was…
Parade Celebrating the Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation in Hampton Roads, 1944
The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, declared freedom to enslaved people within states that were in rebellion against the United States. All enslaved people in Virginia were to be free, but this could…
Old City Hall, Glass Plate Negative, Richmond, 1931
Richmond's former city hall building, known as Old City Hall, is located on Broad Steet with one side facing Capitol Square and another facing the current city hall building. The building stands out as a remnant of the Gothic Revival style popular…