These are a few of my favorite things…

If you haven’t heard the news, October is Virginia Archives Month! The Virginia Historical Society has so many items in its vast collection that it is difficult to focus on just one. So for Virginia Archives Month, I thought I would share a poem about a few of my favorite things at the VHS. Please feel free to connect with your inner Julie Andrews.

Rare books on shelves and postcards in scrapbooks
Civil War uniforms and holiday placards
Diaries and journals and “hairloom” rings
These are a few of my favorite things

Best Products records and Lane Company ads
Letters of Governor Dinwiddie and a smallpox scab*
Broadsides and sheet music and genealogies by George Harrison Sanford King
These are a few of my favorite things

Black and white photographs and a George Washington survey
Mary Custis Lee’s trunks and Governor Spotswood’s diaries
Colonial portraits and maps of Virginia springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When my archival spatula breaks
When I can’t find the linen tape
When my mechanical pencil jams
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad

*Please note that the smallpox scab does not contain any virus and has been cleared by the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) and the Virginia Department of Health (VDH).

Paige Newman is an Assistant Archivist at the Virginia Historical Society and a celebrator of Virginia Archives Month all year long.