Welcoming a New Era for The Story of Virginia

• 10,500 square feet
• 1,589 days
• 725 objects, books, maps, and manuscripts
• 628 light bulbs
• 453 graphics
• 390 custom-made object mounts
• 16 lending institutions and individuals
• 13 audiovisual programs
• 29 days to go

It’s funny how things seem to snowball. Four years ago, I started having conversations with our board and staff about how we could update and expand our fifteen-year-old signature exhibition, The Story of Virginia. This eventually led to other discussions about how we might better engage our audiences, both online and onsite, and today we’re nearing the end of a $38-million Story of Virginia Campaign.

Work began on that first idea—updating The Story of Virginia exhibition—almost immediately. There were brainstorming sessions with noted historians and public focus groups followed by thousands of hours of research, object selection, conservation, design, digitization, and writing. Until about three weeks ago, I was still having a difficult time imagining how all of that effort was going to fill the vast and empty space we had prepared for the exhibition. Then the construction crews arrived, and things got exciting.

We’ve had a lot of excellent partners along the way. The VHS has been working with designers since March 2013 to create the experience. Together we developed a new Story of Virginia that features some of our most significant collections pieces, eliminates visual clutter, and helps our guests to focus on the objects and the stories they tell. The designers also helped us use objects to define spaces as opposed to walls, and the result is a much more engaging and open space. They also held our feet to the fire and encouraged us to convey our story in bite-sized blocks of text. The longest labels in the exhibition are seventy words, which makes the content so much more accessible to all viewers and, surprisingly, improves the quality of the storytelling.

On June 22, 2015, the fabricators arrived to install casework and other elements. The entire exhibition was built in their Buffalo, New York, warehouse and then shipped by truck to the VHS in pieces to be reassembled onsite. As soon as each case is complete, the mount-makers, who have actually been here since January custom building the intricate devices that will hold the objects, begin placing the objects artistically in each case.

As I write this, work is underway to turn all of that planning into a physical environment for us all to engage in, and with four weeks to go, I’m looking forward to seeing the completed Story of Virginia exhibition when we open it on August 8.

This Richmond streetcar offers an opportunity to discuss the impact of electrification on Virginians. The unfinished wall at left will eventually discuss the final months of the Civil War in Virginia.

This hearse used by A.D. Price Funeral Home of Richmond, is the centerpiece of a display about Virginians of African descent following the Civil War.

Glass cases offer much improved viewing of objects. Here is a display featuring the role of Virginians in early 19th century global affairs.

Collections staff have carefully organized hundreds of objects waiting to be installed in the exhibition.

Installation of a Spencer carbine into custom-made mounts.

An unfinished display about antebellum slavery (foreground) and exhibit fabricators installing a display focusing on late-19th century railroads (background).

The smokehouse that appeared in the previous version of The Story of Virginia is now the centerpiece of displays related to slavery and the Civil War.

This case will feature the struggle for women’s suffrage in Virginia.

This casework will feature items related to the struggle for civil rights in Virginia.

Objects on loan from the Department of Historic Resources are mounted on a panel that will be installed in The Story of Virginia. Hundreds of empty custom-made mounts wait on the tables at left.

Mount-makers install the first of more than 500 artifacts in The Story of Virginia.

After the exhibit is installed and all the artifacts are in place these lights will be hung to illuminate Virginia’s rich history.

Patterns made for three aircraft drop models on loan from NASA Langley.

Artifacts waiting patiently to be installed in their proper places for opening day.

A mount-maker carefully prepares a custom-made mount.

Parts of the exhibition that were built by exhibit fabricators in Buffalo, New York, were shipped to Richmond to be reassembled at the VHS.

The society’s Conestoga wagon will anchor one arm of the “Crossroads,” an X-shaped display surface that spans all three galleries and demonstrates Virginia’s role at the crossroads of American history.

This is not modern art, but the cut-outs in these wall panels allow them to be reassembled at the VHS after initially being constructed in Buffalo, New York.

Building walls in front of existing walls allowed us to use internally lit cases that will enhance the display of some of our finest collection pieces.

Native American stone points on loan from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and their custom-made mounts.

A mount-maker solders together pieces for one of the hundreds of custom-made object mounts used in The Story of Virginia.

Mounts for a gorget, hoe, spoon, jug, and sherds of pottery.

A beautifully mounted Civil War medical kit. In the background, forms await the uniforms of a surgeon and J.E.B. Stuart.

This platform will support a dugout canoe. It’s part of the “Crossroads,”an X-shaped display surface that spans all three galleries and demonstrates Virginia’s role at the crossroads of American history.

Installing “Made in Virginia,” a collage of objects illustrating Virginia industries of the 20th and 21st centuries. The ship nameboards are on loan from the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia.

This platform will support a dugout canoe. It’s part of the “Crossroads,”an X-shaped display surface that spans all three galleries and demonstrates Virginia’s role at the crossroads of American history.