Browse Items (62 total)

Edna Lewis created nationwide interest in southern cuisine and demonstrated that food could be more than just nourishment, but also a celebration of life.

Orange County

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

Norfolk

Seamstress Elizabeth Keckly bought her freedom and later served as dressmaker for Mary Todd Lincoln at the White House.

Dinwiddie County

Seamstress and confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln, former slave Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly wrote a book detailing her life and experiences in the White House.

Dinwiddie County

As an intelligence agent with the Office of Strategic Services, Elizabeth Peet worked in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II.

Woodbridge

A best-selling novelist, Ellen Glasgow challenged southern social and cultural conventions through her writing and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1942.

Richmond

A native of Iran,Farideh Goldinis the author of Leaving Iran: Between Migration and Exile and Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman.

Norfolk

Born into slavery, Fields Cook became a prominent African American leader in Richmond and Alexandria in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Richmond and Alexandria

Florence Saunders Farley has fought against racism and bias to open doors in science and politics for African American women in Virginia.

Roanoke and Petersburg

A highly successful photographer, Frances Benjamin Johnston's many accomplishments included documenting historic buildings of Virginia and the southeastern United States.

Fredericksburg