Browse Items (29 total)

On October 16, 1957, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited Virginia during the commonwealth’s 350th anniversary celebration of the founding of Jamestown. Then, as now, the Queen’s visit prompted intense interest from the state’s people and the…

John Glenn was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. In 1957, he set a new speed record for traveling from Los Angeles to New York. It was his involvement in the U.S. Space Program, however, that earned him the most fame and a place in…

On September 11, 2001, terrorists intentionally crashed two passenger airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York City, and one jetliner into the Pentagon in Arlington. A fourth airliner crashed in Pennsylvania when passengers and crew…

This World War II–era booklet is one in a series produced by the Kelvinator appliance company as part of a “wartime idea exchange for home economists [known today as a homemaker or stay-at-home parent].”  Kelvinator held a national contest  and…

Tobacco has been a major part of Virginia commerce for three and a half centuries. The brands of early tobacco art usually took the form of the planters' brand that makers used to distinguish their crop. Most planters used a form of their initials to…

A champion of human dignity around the world, Arthur Robert Ashe overcame the discrimination he faced growing up in Richmond to become a top-ranked tennis player and acclaimed author. Ashe learned tennis from coaches in Richmond and Lynchburg. In…

During World War II the American government asked civilians to participate in the war effort. A common way for the government to communicate with civilians was through posters hung in public places. Inspirational, informative, instructive,…

During the 1920s in America, a dramatic change in communication and entertainment occurred. Radio allowed people to connect with others across the country and eventually the world. The cover of the November 1924 issue of Wireless Age shows how new…

The Planters Peanut Company opened its first mass-processing plant in Suffolk, Virginia, in 1913. Having gained popularity after the Civil War, peanuts became a major cash crop for the state. By the turn of the twentieth century, economic emphasis…