Browse Items (37 total)

On April 2, 1917, after pledging to keep the country out of the European conflict, President Woodrow Wilson stood before Congress and issued a declaration of war against Germany. "The world must be made safe for democracy," he stated, framing the war…

The broadside image is that of Equal Suffrage League of Virginia (ESL) which was founded in 1909 in Richmond. The ESL became one of the most influential suffrage organizations in the country. Among the twenty founding women, co-founder, women’s…

As Americans prepared to send soldiers overseas during the First World War, the government reorganized the economy to better supply and equip its troops. Peacetime industries shifted towards producing needed military goods (like uniforms and…

In 1924, Virginia's General Assembly passed the Racial Integrity Act, which was designed to stop the “intermixture” of white and Black people. The act banned interracial marriage by requiring marriage applicants to identify their race as "white,"…

For a significant portion of American history, women were not allowed to vote. Although they were considered citizens with rights equal to men, voting was considered a privilege and not a right and thus not extended to women. In the 1910s, women…

"Agitate – Educate – Legislate” was the slogan of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which advocated the prohibition of alcohol. Established in 1874 in Ohio, the union became a national movement and Virginia women established a state chapter in…

At the turn of the twentieth century, the call for the  prohibition of alcohol had become a national issue, advocated by many politicians and pushed by several strong organizations. The American Temperance Society, started in 1826, acted as a support…

In May 1861, the Union Army held control of Fort Monroe located long the Chesapeake Bay in Hampton, Virginia. Major General Benjamin Butler decreed that escaping enslaved people who reached Union lines would not be returned. Many enslaved people…

Second Baptist Church was built at the corner of Franklin and Adams Streets in 1906. The building was designed by Wiliam C. Noland, one of the best-known architects of the period and founder of the  firm Noland and Baskervill (still operating in…

The Federal Reserve System, sponsored by Virginia State Senator Carter Glass, was signed into law on December 23, 1913 by President Woodrow Wilson. In 1914, the city of Richmond was selected to be the home to one of 12 central bank locations and was…