Bidding adieu to 2011

It seems that you can’t turn around at this time of year without encountering some annual wrap-up or another.  We learn picks for best books, best movies, most fascinating people, and so on.  Well, we at the VHS are in a reflective mode as well as 2011 comes hurtling to a close.  And as the calendar turns, there is much about which we are very proud.

Andrew Talkov installing an exhibit in "An American Turning Point."

Certainly a highlight of the year was the exhibition, An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia.  As regular readers of this blog know, ATP was our contribution to the sesquicentennial of the Civil War.   Five years in the making, it is our largest, most ambitious exhibition ever.  And though its run in Richmond ends on December 30, it will hit the road for the next four years, making seven other stops across Virginia.  I am proud that the incredibly hard work of many VHS staff members will be seen by thousands of Virginians between now and 2015.

It has been gratifying to see so many visitors—the most in a decade—pour through our doors over the past year.  Many of them came to see ATP, but others came for the host of other things the VHS offers.  Once again our lecture series was a huge success.  Seventeen Banner Lectures offered stimulating midday programs, and our roster of evening lectures grew by one with the inaugural Chauncey

Lecture in September.  If you didn’t make it to an exhibition or lecture in 2011, perhaps you took one of our new Behind-the-Scenes tours, brought your kids or grandkids to Stories at the Museum, attended an evening See You in Class session, stopped by our Family Open House in July, or went with us on a VHS bus trip to locations far from our Richmond headquarters.  Or maybe you simply spent the day using our rich collections to investigate your family’s history in our library.    If for any reason you found yourself at the VHS in 2011, my colleagues and I thank you.

And if you didn’t make it by to see us, I hope we can offer you some reason to do so in the new year.  We have a whole slate of exciting new programs on tap, from exhibitions and lectures to trips and classes.  And of course, there are things ongoing that you also might want to check out.  For example, you will be able to see conservators in action as they restore the grandeur of

One of the the conservators treating the murals

our Charles Hoffbauer Civil War murals.  But even if you can’t visit in person, I know that you’ll find VHS online offerings of great interest. Keep checking back as we add innovative video features and other cool things to our web site.  Or you might want to bookmark “Unknown No Longer,” our database of Virginia slave names, as new material will be added to it on a regular basis.

As you can see, we have a lot going on at the VHS as we tell Virginia’s peerless story.  I hope that 2012 is a wonderful year for this institution and for all of you.

From Paul A. Levengood, President and Chief Executive Officer

Blackbeard is Back with a History Lesson

Pirate Ship by ACR

This past July, I helped man the children’s activity tables at the VHS Family Open House.  A nine-year-old boy drew this picture and gave it to me.  I guess he didn’t want to color the supplied images of a cardinal, dogwood, and other things related to Virginia.

I was pleasantly surprised and asked him what was going on.  He told me it was a pirate ship and that one of the pirates was bad, so the others took his bandanna and threw him overboard to meet his fate with a hammer head shark and a mechanical shark.  What imagination!

I thought, “How am I going to relate this to Virginia’s history?”  As regular crew for sailboat racing in Hampton, I knew a little about Blackbeard.  I asked the boy if he knew of this famous pirate.  He did, and we talked about how Blackbeard was a menace to shipping merchants along the mid-Atlantic colonies, was eventually killed off the coast of North Carolina, and that his head was cut off and suspended from a stick and brought up the Hampton River in Virginia as a warning to others who might be tempted by piracy.

Since then, I’ve done a little digging and found that this notorious English pirate’s name was Edward Thatch (Teach).  He most likely was born in Bristol around 1680 and was killed during a fierce battle off Ocracoke Island on November 22, 1718.  The governor of Virginia, Alexander Spotswood, arranged—and personally financed—for a party of soldiers and sailors, led by Lt. Robert Maynard, to capture Blackbeard and his crew.  Blackbeard’s head was indeed brought back to Virginia, and suspended from the bowsprit of Lieutenant Maynard’s sloop, to collect the bounty.  Governor Spotswood had Blackbeard’s head hung from a pole at the mouth of the Hampton River, where it remained for many years.  The site continues to be known as Blackbeard’s Point today.

The VHS has quite a few items relating to Blackbeard in its collection, including this mid 20th century photographic print of an earlier engraving.

Photographic print of an engraving of Edward Teach, “Blackbeard” (d. 1718) (Virginia Historical Society, 2008.1.19)

Those of us in the field of public history, whether we teach, write, lecture, or even raise money, are challenged to make history relevant to the next generation.

A dramatic increase of recent pirate attacks off the east coast of Africa has made the news this year.  As in Blackbeard’s time, these modern-day pirates pose threats not only to shipping industries but also to recreational sailors.

I hope that my nine-year-old friend, even through his somewhat gruesome artwork, was able to distinguish real versus fantasy, and connect, if only for a moment, today’s current events to the history we all share.

Catherine A. Boe is the Senior Gifts Officer at the Virginia Historical Society.

History on the Road… Again

Next week is Thanksgiving, and once the leftover turkey is safely packed away in the fridge and we all awake from our tryptophan-induced comas, we’ll need to figure out how to entertain our friends and family over the long weekend.

I’m sure many of you are already planning on coming in to town to see Mummy: Secret of the Tomb at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. If you’re in the neighborhood on Saturday (November 26) you should also stop by the Virginia Historical Society (VHS) to see the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission’s Civil War 150th HistoryMobile (HM)—an interactive “museum on wheels” housed in a 53-foot expandable tractor-trailer.

Because “Civil War” is in my job title I had the opportunity to play a small part in the HM’s creation, and I came away with five song-inspired observations about the HM (and museum exhibitions in general) that I thought I’d share.

1. LOSE YOURSELF (Eminem, 2002)

Although I didn’t think it was possible, you actually forget you’re inside an iron box that, in another life, could have been in an episode of Ice Road Truckers. The three recreated environments inside the HM may only be suggestive of a battlefield, a planter’s home, and a slave quarter, but they do stir real emotions.

2. CAN’T TOUCH THIS (MC Hammer, 1990)

I sometimes forget that “interactive” isn’t always synonymous with “computer.” Although the HM features quite a bit of digital technology, I’m gratified to see that people still like to learn and explore by turning, flipping, and twisting things.

3. EVERYDAY PEOPLE (Sly and the Family Stone, 1968)

The last room of the HM, entitled Loss, Gain, & Legacy, features the stories of forty people whose lives were affected by the war in Virginia. Although history is frequently said to offer a window to the past, my work on the HM and on the gallery exhibition, An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia, suggests that we want history to be a mirror as well. We want to see ourselves reflected in the story. Although we look nothing alike, I’m drawn to the story of “Jack.”

4. THE WAY WE WERE (Barbara Streisand, 1973)

The stories in the HM may contradict what you thought you knew about the Civil War. That’s because the narrative of the war is constantly changing. Born of an incomplete historical record and often contradicting accounts, our history is a complex jumble of fact and fiction. The daily discovery of new information, however, allows our understanding of the past to become more complete with each generation of historians.

5. WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN (The Carpenters, 1970)

The story of Virginia’s Civil War is huge, and you wouldn’t think it could all fit in a 53-foot-long trailer. Guess what? You’re right! The HM is not intended to be the last word on the American Civil War, but we hope that for some people it may be the first of many.

Don’t take my word for it. Come and see it for yourself and then let me know what you thought of your experience by leaving a comment.

Stories at the Museum is fun for the entire family!

Children listen to the story of When Marian Sang

Are you looking for something fun and educational to do with your family? Then visit the Virginia Historical Society for Stories at the Museum!

In February, the VHS started a free family program called Stories at the Museum. This fall, Target is helping to sponsor the series. Every Wednesday at 4 p.m., museum staff members read a children’s story to families in a different location in the museum galleries. After the story, we walk to the education classroom and create a craft related to the book. We crafted Styrofoam mice when we read Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale during National Hispanic Heritage month, we created our own newspapers when we read Amelia and Eleanor during Women’s History month, and we even made tea cups out of model magic when we read Chachaji’s Cup during Asian Pacific American Heritage month!

Families create crafts in the education classroom.

Each month, the books we read revolve around a different theme. In October, we read stories about Dolley Madison, Arthur Ashe, George Washington Carver, and Eleanor Roosevelt. How cool is it that children can learn about all of these great historical figures and have fun at the same time? All of the books we choose to read have an SOL connection and can be found in your local library or bookstore.

I think this is a fantastic program! Wednesday is now my favorite day of the week! I love knowing that Stories at the Museum is helping children learn about history and giving them a passion for reading and that I get to be part of that process!

Children gather around a museum educator to listen to a story about Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Don’t just take my word for it, read some of the feedback we have been receiving from parents and children.

 “Thank you so much! My kids loved this! It was their favorite thing to do all week!”

“I liked reading the books and doing the crafts!”

“I loved the stories being read in the museum gallery space. It feels like an old time experience!”

“Story reading at different spots in the museum was an awesome way to explore the VHS. The crafts were wonderful!”

“So delightful in our crazy and fast paced world!”

From now until December 14, stop by the Virginia Historical Society at 4 pm for Stories at the Museum. I hope to see you next Wednesday!

Visit www.vahistorical.org/education/stories.htm for more information! No reservations required!

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Celebrate Virginia Archives Month!

Archives Month celebrates those institutions and individuals that help preserve and make accessible records of our actions as citizens, businesses, religious groups, governments, and society.

To honor Archives Month, the Virginia Historical Society will be participating in the Archives Fair at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The theme for 2011 is “Celebrating Advocacy for Archives.” VHS archivists will be educating participants about the society’s manuscript and archival holdings and answering any questions about archives and preservation. The Virginia Archives Fair gathers archival institutions in central Virginia to illustrate the wide breadth of primary source materials available to researchers and interested parties.

In addition to the VHS, participating institutions include: Catholic Diocese of Richmond, Library of Virginia, Museum of the Confederacy, Newport News Library, Norfolk Southern Archives, Old Dominion University, Randolph-Macon College, Rockefeller Library at Colonial Williamsburg, UVA Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, Valentine Richmond History Center, VCU James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Tompkins-McCaw Library, Virginia State University, and Virginia Union University.

The event will take place on the first floor of the VCU James Cabell Library on Friday, October 28 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Join us!

Give to Live, Live to Give

In less than a week, the Virginia Historical Society (VHS) and more than 300 nonprofits     across the Tri-Cities and Greater Richmond region will be taking part in the Amazing Raise 2011. Starting at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday, October 5th, and ending at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 6th, this 36-hour online give-a-thon via GiveRichmond.org is an opportunity for donors to help turn their donations into a grand prize of $10,000 for their favorite nonprofit.

Whether it is in making a gift of $50 during this event or in sharing this link, this 36-hour Amazing Raise challenge reminds all of us that we can make a difference.

While preparing for this event here at the VHS, I did some digging in our online catalog and found some inspirational materials, both manuscript collections and articles that document philanthropists from Virginia’s past and present. Some of these examples include:

•  A 1907 monetary donation from Andrew Carnegie in honor of Mary Custis Lee to the Home For Needy Confederate Women. (Mss1 L5144 a 1873-2138)

• The Sydney and Frances Lewis collection, which documents the couples’ interest in theater, dance, and the arts and their various philanthropic activities (Mss1 L5888 b FA2)
• A more recent nonprofit organization is the Central Virginia Fallen Biker Committee, Inc. This organization was founded in 2009 to provide assistance and support to bikers suffering illness, injury, or death. (Mss4 C3337 a 1)
• And the manuscript collection of the Virginia Home for Boys. (Mss3 V81954 a)

After looking at these collections, I realized a few things. Without philanthropy, communities cannot thrive. Philanthropy is not a profession, but a way of life that makes living better for others.  The results of philanthropy are beyond calculation.

I invite you to join our VHS team for this challenge. There are no benchwarmers!

Elaine Hagy is the senior grants officer at the Virginia Historical Society

Vulgar Fractions

Asya Simons, digitization intern, Summer 2011

The following blog was written by Asya Simons who just completed her summer internship with the web and digital resources department at the VHS.  This is the last in a series of entries that she has written about her internship and specifically on her experience working on Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave Names, which launches on September 15, 2011.

Enjoy! 

~Meg M. Eastman, digital collections manager

Periodically the Virginia Historical Society will post content created by guest writers. The opinions expressed are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Virginia Historical Society, its members, or its staff. The Virginia Historical Society encourages discussion; however, we reserve the right to remove posts that are offensive, threatening, or insulting.

I’ve never liked math. It can easily be called my worst subject; one I avoided at all costs until my high school graduation. Even when it came to college, I think I subconsciously chose a school with lax math requirements. That’s why I was amazed when I became fascinated with an arithmetic book in the collections of the Virginia Historical Society.

I first came across the book as a document that needed to be photographed for Unknown No Longer, the society’s slave name database. On the very last page was a deed containing a slave’s name, and for the project, that’s all I was interested in. I couldn’t help flipping through the book, however, as I passed the time in between photographs, and I realized I had never thought about math books existing in any form other than traditional textbooks. Sure, the book contained multiplication and division, and each section began with instructions, but it seemed to be geared toward farmers to assist with their business transactions.

Addition of Apothocary Weight, Cloth Measure, Dry Measure and Liquid Measure (Virginia Historical Society, Mss5:4 H3835:1, pages 4-5)

One of the first pages offers ways to add apothecary weights, cloth lengths, dry measurements and liquid measurements, followed by respective subtraction methods. The reader is given an opportunity to practice their new skills with word problems. The last word problem before learning multiplication employs history as well as arithmetic; it asks, “Gen. Washington died in 1799 how long has he been dead.” I wish my textbooks were that straightforward!

Word problem (Virginia Historical Society, Mss5:4 H3835:1, page 12)

The book then goes on to teach multiplication, division, simple and compounded interest, geometry, and “vulgar fractions.” Since I had never heard a math teacher refer to fractions as “vulgar” before, I was interested to find out what that term meant. I was slightly disappointed to find out that they were no more than fractions expressed as ¾, rather than in decimal form.

Vulgar Fractions (Virginia Historical Society, Mss5:4 H3835:1, page 142)

As the summer comes to a close and I prepare to head back to school, I know I still won’t be voluntarily taking a math course, and I’ll still cringe a little bit when I come across “vulgar” fractions from day to day. However, from now on, every arithmetic book I see will remind me that years ago those numbers represented a person’s livelihood. I am reminded that, even today, there has to be a practical application for all those formulas somewhere out there. Maybe math isn’t completely pointless after all.

The arithmetic book discussed here was kept by John Henderson (b. 1802) in Spotsylvania County, Va from 1817-1824 (Virginia Historical Society, Mss5:4 H3835:1).

My summer internship at the VHS

Asya Simons, digitization intern, Summer 2011

The following blog was written by Asya Simons who just completed her summer internship with the web and digital resources department at the VHS.  This is the second in a series of entries that she has written about her internship and specifically on her experience working on Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave Names, which launches in September 2011.  The VHS is always looking for good volunteers.  If you are interested in serving as a docent, gardener, behind-the-scenes assistant or student intern, please contact our volunteer coordinator, Dana Fariss, at 804.342.9643.

Enjoy! 

~Meg M. Eastman, digital collections manager

Periodically the Virginia Historical Society will post content created by guest writers. The opinions expressed are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Virginia Historical Society, its members, or its staff. The Virginia Historical Society encourages discussion; however, we reserve the right to remove posts that are offensive, threatening, or insulting.

When I first interviewed for an internship position at the Virginia Historical Society, I had no idea what experiences the summer would hold for me. All I wanted was something unique to put on my résumé, a chance to meet individuals I could learn from, and something to fill those long hours of inevitable summer boredom. I could never have imagined the impact those three months would have on me.

I showed up the first day not quite sure what to expect, but it didn’t take long to figure out that there is no average day-to-day work at the VHS. Although my internship revolved around editing content for the new Unknown No Longer database, I worked with images from two other large collections, and I helped my supervisor, Meg Eastman, photograph documents that had nothing to do with the UNL project—including a medical book signed by Queen Elizabeth I’s general surgeon! More than once, we paused in the middle of photographing documents to complete other urgent projects for departments around the building, and it was always exciting to find out how our work would be used.

Asya placing a manuscript under the camera for the Unknown No Longer slave name database project

As for working on the UNL web site, I was amazed to see just how much work went into every name we added to the database. Each document went through at least four people, with stages ranging from reading the document to photography to data entry, before it could be declared “ready for launch.” And just when I thought we were starting to make a dent in our pile of things to do, a new stack would arrive. Some days it didn’t feel like I had accomplished anything at all.

Now, looking at everything I’ve done this summer—all the progress that has been made toward UNL’s launch—I am overwhelmed with how far everything has come. The group goal was to have 1,000 slave names ready for the September launch; we have almost reached 1,500. Personally, my goal was to photograph 250 documents for the web site before my internship was over, and although it was difficult, my final number stands at 252. The one thing I am most proud of is my ability to say that every day I worked on the project, I learned something new. Most importantly, I gained an appreciation for behind-the-scenes work. So much effort goes into every resource maintained by the VHS, and I am honored to be able to say that I helped with a small portion of that work.

One of the 252 documents that Asya helped make "ready for launch" this summer. (Virginia Historical Society, Mss1 L3295 a 6, a letter from James William Shirley to his uncle John Billups Larue concerning a request that Larue approve of a marriage between Shirley's slave Harrison and Larue's slave Mary.)

Unknown No Longer Documents

Asya Simons, digitization intern, Summer 2011

The following blog was written by Asya Simons who has been interning with the web and digital resources department at the VHS this summer.  This is the first of several entries that she has written about her experience working on Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave Names, which launches in September 2011. 

Enjoy! 

~Meg M. Eastman, digital collections manager

Periodically the Virginia Historical Society will post content created by guest writers. The opinions expressed are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Virginia Historical Society, its members, or its staff. The Virginia Historical Society encourages discussion; however, we reserve the right to remove posts that are offensive, threatening, or insulting.

The Virginia Historical Society is home to an extensive collection of strange and unique documents. Throughout my internship this past summer, I had the opportunity to work hands-on with many documents as part of the Unknown No Longer database project. Often, days would pass in which I would photograph only a series of letters or wills or bonds, with nothing to distinguish one from the next. However, every once in a while I would come across a document that made me stop to examine it closer.

Detail of Joseph Carter signature and wax seal (Virginia Historical Society, Mss2 C2457 a 1)

One of the oldest documents I worked with was a 1739 deed from Spotsylvania County, Virginia, which records the sale of “one Negro Woman” to James Davis. What interested me about this document was not the information about the slave or her owners but the seal accompanying the signature on the deed. When I first handled the document, I pointed it out to my supervisor, who told me that such seals often crumbled away long before coming to the VHS, making it a rare find, especially after more than 250 years. The seal, made by pressing an item into melted wax, depicts what appears to be a lion over the initials J. C. [Joseph Carter]. I had heard about such seals before—even seen packages at Williamsburg and Jamestown with which you could make your own—but it had never really interested me. I guess I never thought about what they were for, or what they represented, but now I can’t wait to buy one of those kits. I can only imagine what my cousins will think when their birthday cards have a seal on the inside instead of my signature!

Copy of Thomas Jefferson deed (Virginia Historical Society, Mss2 J3595 a 48)

I had always known that Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s founding fathers, was a slaveowner. During my internship, I worked with photocopies of documents from Jefferson’s personal collection at Monticello, which pertained to his slaves. The first of these, an 1814 deed, left four of Jefferson’s slaves to his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph. The slaves in this deed were identified by their first name and the name of their mother. Reading this, I realized that although the document holds no information on the ages of these slaves, they were likely eighteen years old or younger. This was not uncommon in the documents I saw; parents and children were often separated without regard to age. I just finished my first year of college and had a hard time being away from my mom at eighteen. The idea of being forced to leave my parents while knowing I would probably never see them again is almost more than I can handle.

Enlistment form for Addison Cravens (Virginia Historical Society, Mss2 C8557 a 1)

On December 15, 1863, in the middle of the American Civil War, Addison Cravens enlisted in the United States Army, bound to service for a maximum of three years at the discretion of his superiors. The enlistment form was filled out and

signed on Cravens’s behalf by Dr. John Hayes, Jr., who also conducted the medical examination. The only description of Cravens identifies him as a soldier with “Black eyes, Black hair, Dark complexion.” Because he was born in Tazewell County, Virginia, around 1819, there is a good chance that Cravens spent a good chunk of his life up to this point enslaved, and I can only guess at his motivations for joining the army.

These documents offer a picture of a time I can hardly imagine. Although the lives of millions of slaves are now reduced to a passing mention in a letter or a will, the documents that stood out help remind me that each name represents an entire life full of pain and joy, nightmares and dreams. I can’t even imagine how many other documents just like these have disappeared. At the time, they probably weren’t unique at all. Now, however, they are invaluable. They are the documents I tell my friends about, the ones I re-read in my free time, and they are the ones that make history come alive.

Come beat the heat at the VHS’s August Afternoons!

As much as I love living in Richmond, August can be a tough month to survive in the River City. Having already seen several 100-plus degree days even before August began, it seems like everyone is ready for relief from this hot, hazy weather.

Learn about the past and have fun at the same time during August Afternoons!

Although I can’t promise you a cold snap, I can guarantee that you’ll find a cool solution to your summer stickiness at the Virginia Historical Society. This month, the VHS is offering FREE activities during its second annual August Afternoons program, which is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Richmond. Every day from 2:30 to 4:30, we’ll throw open the doors of our education classroom to all visitors and provide a variety of crafts for children of all ages.

Create paper dolls and learn about two important Civil War women!

You can spend your time cutting and coloring paper dolls of Elizabeth Van Lew and Sally Tompkins, two of the most famous Civil War–era ladies from Richmond. You could make a model of the crate that carried Henry “Box” Brown to freedom and read a picture book about his story. You can even try on a real coonskin cap or think up captions for photographs from the 1900s.

Even older children can participate in the August Afternoons fun—in addition to craft activities in the Marcus and Carole M. Weinstein Classroom, scavenger hunts for the VHS’s award-winning Story of Virginia exhibition can be used by any visitor, age five to ninety-five.

Best of all, while little ones’ fingers are busy, their minds will be buzzing too. Children will have the chance to learn about several important themes in Virginia and American history through playful, fun activities.

I’m sure that, like me, you’re dreaming of fall and chilly weather. To keep cool while waiting for this long summer to end, drop by and see us at the VHS—August Afternoons fun is waiting for you!

Caroline Legros is the school program coordinator at the Virginia Historical Society.

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