Browse Items (19 total)

In 1716, by order from Lord Fairfax, Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood led an expedition over the Blue Ridge Mountains into the Shenandoah Valley. Spotswood traveled with a group of gentlemen, servants, American Indians, and rangers over the Blue…

Alexander Spotswood served as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 1710-1722. During his tenure as governor, Spotswood hoped to improve security, Virginia's economy, and relations with American Indians. Spotswood passed many acts, including the…

In 1924, Virginia passed the Racial Integrity Act, which was designed to stop the “intermixture” of whites and African Americans. This banned interracial marriage by requiring marriage applicants to identify their race as white, colored, or mixed.…

After Virginia created its first statewide system of free public schools in 1870, many of the state's Indians were left out. The Pamunkey and Mattaponi who resided on ancient tribal reservations in King William County had been exempt from taxation…

This is an oil painting of Sir William Berkeley by Hariotte L.T. Montague. This painting was based on the work of England's Sir Peter Lely, a prominent portraitist in the seventeenth-century court who painted King Charles II, Oliver Cromwell, and…

This engraving, attributed to Harry C. Mann, depicts the burning of Jamestown during Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676.Bacon’s Rebellion was named after its leader, Nathaniel Bacon, who was an outspoken opponent of Governor Sir William Berkeley. While the…

Pocahontas (also known as Matoaka, Amonute, and Rebecca) was an Indian and one of the daughters of Indian chief Powhatan. She is known for a historical anecdote where she reportedly saved the life of the English explorer John Smith in 1607, during…

White English colonists and Natives were openly viiolent to each other for much of the early seventeenth century. A few months prior to the passing of this act, the Third Anglo-Powhatan War started, resulting in many deaths and injuries on both…

In 1907, Virginia honored the 300th anniversary of the English settlement at Jamestown with an exposition. Modeled after many national fairs of the era, the Jamestown Ter-centennial Exhibition contained exhibits, representative buildings of the…

Touted as the largest and most magnificent exposition of all time, the New York World’s Fair opened at Flushing Meadows in April 1939. In the Court of States, one exhibition was strikingly different from the rest: the Virginia Room, “an island of…