Browse Items (23 total)

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…

By the 17th century, England was becoming a leader in the intercontinental trade of goods. Wealthy merchants created joint-stock companies which would promote exploration and increase trade routes. Investors in these companies pooled their resources…

The first representative assembly in English North America met in the church at Jamestown on July 30, 1619.  Following instructions from the Virginia Company of London, the governor was empowered to call a general assembly to handle public matters…

Theodore de Bry (1528–1598) was born in Liege, Flanders (now part of the Netherlands), to a wealthy Protestant family and was trained as a goldsmith and engraver. As the Spanish and British began to explore North and South America, de Bry became…

The Fry- Jefferson map was first published in 1753. It was, at the time, the most comprehensive map of 18th Century Virginia. Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson were two of the most successful surveyors in the Virginia Colony. They collaborated 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…

Among his many skills, George Washington was a well-respected land surveyor. After the death of his father in 1743, eleven-year-old George Washington did not attend school in England like his older half-brothers, but had private tutors and may have…

This map is attributed to Captain John Smith (1580–1631) and is one of the earliest representations of Virginia. Smith began a three-month exploration of the Chesapeake Bay and its adjacent waterways in June 1608. He interacted with Indigenous…

Antonio Sansone was born in 1856 in Termini Imerese, Sicily. He immigrated to the United States in 1880.  By 1899, he had established Antonio Sansone & Company, a wholesale dealer of fruit located on East Main Street, near the city market, in…

As a young man Anthony Rosenstock (1833–1906) left his home in what is now Germany and sailed from Hamburg to New York City, arriving in November 1853. When he landed, he had three cents and a letter of introduction to a distant relation. He…