Browse Items (46 total)

During the 1920's, a dramatic change in communication and entertainment occurred. Radio allowed people to connect with others across the country and, eventually, across continents. The  development of new technology helped to increase production in…

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses. They serve as beacons for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark dangerous…

Silk has been produced and sold as a consumer good for thousands of years. The origin of silk production was in China and the earliest known examples date to 3000 B.C.E. For centuries, the trade routes known as the Silk Road stretched beween Europe…

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…

Waterways provided the people of the Eastern Shore and Hampton Roads regions with access to food, supplies, and transport long before English colonists arrived in 1607. As English settlements displaced and removed Indigenous people from the land near…

From the time the earliest English settlers arrived in 1607 to today, corn has remained a staple crop in Virginia. Farmers across Virginia grew vegetables like corn to eat and to feed their farm animals. This photograph depicts a corn field on a…

After John Rolfe's successful experimentation with the West Indies tobacco plant, Nicotaiana tabacum, the Virginia Company of London realized that it had found a profitable product to export from the colony. Tobacco cultivation spread widely through…

When the first English settlers arrived in 1607, the Church of England served as the official church of the Virginia Colony. Under the 1689 English Act of Toleration, Protestants who were not members of the Church of England were still required to…

Enslaved Virginians were often hired out by their owners throughout the course of their lives. The owner of the enslaved person would be paid, and terms would be outlined in the contract for service. Industries, such as the Tredegar Iron Works in…

In December 1833, a meeting of 60 abolitionists who were all men, both Black and white, was held in Philadelphia. It was at this meeting that the American Anti- Slavery Society was formed. The organization was dedicated to seeking the immediate…