Browse Items (112 total)

On the morning of September 11, 2001 four flights were hijacked by members of the Islamic extremist group, al- Qaeda, in coordinated attack against the United States. All four hijacked planes were scheduled to be cross-country flights from the East…

Sir Walter Raleigh (ca. 1552–1618) was an English explorer, soldier, writer, and a favorite at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, who granted him a charter to explore North America. Although he sponsored the attempts in the 1580s to colonize Roanoke…

James I (1566–1625) was the king of Great Britain from 1603 until his death in 1625. The first English ruler from the House of Stuart, he succeeded Queen Elizabeth I after her death. He was the first British monarch to rule both England and…

In 1906, Robert Baden-Powell presented this bust of John Smith to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Although best known as the founder of the Boy Scout movement, Baden-Powell was also an artist of considerable skill. The family of Baden-Powell's mother…

This photograph shows a deerskin mantle that was believed to have been presented by Paramount Chief Powhatan (whose given name was Wahunsonacock) to Captain Christopher Newport of the Virginia Company in 1608. The mantle is embroidered with shells…

Thomas West (1576–1618), the twelfth Baron De La Warr, was appointed by King James I in 1606 to be part of the royal council that oversaw the Virginia Company of London. He monitored the situation in the Virginia colony from England and may have…

After John Rolfe's successful experimentation with the West Indies tobacco plant, Nicotaiana tabacum, the Virginia Company of London realized that it had found a profitable product to export from the colony. Tobacco cultivation spread widely through…

William Berkeley (1605–1677) was the longest-serving royal governor of Virginia. He served as a Crown governor (an appointee of the King) between 1642 until 1652 and again from 1660 until his death in 1677. In his late twenties, Berkeley was a part…

In the 17th Century, Anthony Johnson of Northampton County, was one of only a few documented Black landowners in the Virginia Colony. Anthony arrived in the Virginia Colony in 1621. He was likely from Angola and was renamed “Antonio” after he was…

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…