Browse Items (28 total)

The second quarter of the nineteenth century was dominated by reform movements:  the Second Great Awakening, abolition, women’s suffrage, utopian societies, free public schools, and reforms of prisons, hospitals, and mental institutions. All strived…

CONTENT WARNING: Materials in the Library of Virginia’s collections contain historical terms, phrases, and images that are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved…

Along with the abolition of slavery, women's rights were also a topic for reformers. The woman suffrage movement began in 1848 at the first woman's rights convention, which was held in Seneca Falls, New York, with the participants calling for…

Following American Independence, key political leaders in Virginia pursued the disestablishment the Church of England as the state church of the young state. Initially introduced in 1776 by George Mason in the Virginia Declaration of Rights,…

This piece titled “Adoption of the Virginia Declaration of Rights” was painted in 1974 by Jack Clifton. Clifton, who was commissioned by the Jamestown Foundation to paint a depiction of the first legislative assembly at Jamestown, painted the…

This broadside was circulated in Staunton, Virginia, sometime between 1900 and 1919. In it, the women of Staunton asked the men in their community to vote in favor of prohibition, or the legal elimination of alcohol consumption and sale. The women…

CONTENT WARNING: Materials in the Library of Virginia's collections contain historical terms, phrases, and images that are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethinicity, and nationality; enslaved…

Richmond native Lila Meade Valentine was born in 1865 and devoted much of her life to advocating education and health-care reform and woman suffrage. In 1909, Valentine cofounded the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia (ESL) and was elected the…

In the summer of 1963, violence erupted in Danville, Virginia, as Danville policemen led by police chief Eugene G. McCain aggressively arrested and dispersed protestors during a series of civil rights demonstrations led by local and national black…

This photograph depicts a marble statue of George Washington, our nation’s first President. The statue was created by Jean-Antoine Houdon and is located in the Virginia State Capitol. Washington was born in 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia to a…