Browse Items (373 total)

Born into slavery, Lucy Francis Simms was a highly respected elementary school teacher in Harrisonburg for more then fifty years.

Harrisonburg

After his family was suddenly sold out of the state in 1848, he shipped himself in a wooden crate to freedom in 1849.

Richmond

Kate Mason Rowland is best known for her biography of her great-great-granduncle George Mason.

Richmond

Jean Miller Skipwith, Lady Skipwith, assembled one of the largest libraries owned by a Virginia woman early in the nineteenth century.

Mecklenburg County

Ethel Bailey Furman was one of the earliest African American women to work as an architect in Virginia.

Richmond

Marian A. Van Landingham founded a one-of-a-kind art center in Alexandria.

Alexandria

Known as the "Female Elvis," Janis Martin was a pioneer rockabilly star.

Danville

Edythe C. Harrison's love of music led her to help found the Virginia Opera Association.

Norfolk

Mollie Holmes Adams helped preserve the Upper Mattaponi heritage by passing on the almost-lost art of feather weaving and recording her herbal remedies.

King William County

Taking up painting early in her sixties, Queena Stovall created works that recalled her life in rural Virginia and earned her the title the "Grandma Moses of Virginia."

Lynchburg and Amherst County