Browse Items (38 total)

From September 1939 - December 1941, the United States was not officially at war with any of the Axis powers. While support was given to the Allies through programs such as Lend-Lease, there was a strong isolationist sentiment following World War I…

The power of the president to pardon those who commit offenses against the United States is enumerated in the Article Two of the U. S. Constitution. A presidential pardon is an executive order granting clemency for a conviction of a crime, with the…

Lynchburg native Desmond T. Doss (1919-2006) was the first conscientious objector to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. A conscientious objector is one who is opposed to serving in the armed forces and/or bearing arms on the grounds of moral…

Women served in many capacities during the American Revolution. Thousands of women traveled with their husbands when they served in the Continental Army. Known as "camp followers," they marched with the supply wagons, set up camps nearby, and cooked,…

This portrait of Mary Willing Byrd (1740–1814) was painted early in the 1770s by artist Matthew Pratt. Born in Philadelphia, she was the daughter of a wealthy merchant and a god-daughter of Benjamin Franklin. In 1761 she married William Byrd…

After the Battle of Great Bridge on December 9, 1775, Lord Dunmore and his fleet abandoned the city of Norfolk. Patriot soldiers from North Carolina and Virginia took control of the city. They refused to provide food and supplies to the British…

The American Civil War was fought between 1861 and 1865. The war began after eleven southern states, including Virginia, seceded from the United States in the months after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in November 1860. After four years of…

In 1906, Robert Baden-Powell presented this bust of John Smith to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Although best known as the founder of the Boy Scout movement, Baden-Powell was also an artist of considerable skill. The family of Baden-Powell's mother…

On June 6, 1944, soldiers of the Allied Expeditionary Force stormed the beaches of Normandy as part of Operation Overlord, often referred to as D-Day. Approximately 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile…

James Lafeyette was born enslaved about 1748. He lived on a plantation owned by William Armistead in New Kent County. Although he is sometimes identified as James Armistead, he never signed his name or self-identified as having the surname Armistead.…