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On January 26 Librarian of Virginia Sandra G. Treadway and Robert C. Vaughan, III, president of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, participated in a ceremonial signing of the Library's agreement with the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities to publish historical content from the Dictionary of Virginia Biography and other Library collections on Encyclopedia Virginia (http://EncyclopediaVirginia.org). One of the first visible signs of this new endeavor is that the Library of Virginia's logo is now on the Encyclopedia Virginia's homepage. Over the last three years, the staff of Encyclopedia Virginia and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography have worked together informally to convert select print biographies for digital publication on EV. With the formal partnership, the Library and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities are leveraging the intellectual and technical expertise of both organizations to make all current and future Dictionary of Virginia Biography entriesand other items from Virginia Memory content more widely accessible through Encyclopedia Virginia and to enhance EV'splace as a unique and rich historical and cultural reference resource for Virginians, the nation, and the world This collaboration gives the Library an already recognized portal to Virginia history and culture through Encyclopedia Virginia. The agreement will allow the Library to maximize its resources to offer the best possible product for Virginia's citizens and anyone curious to learn about Virginia's rich heritage. Vaughan agreed that pooling resources is a logical use of time and expertise. "Simply stated, there is nothing comparable to the two resources within their respective publication mediums in existence," said Vaughan. "Considering that our mutual goals are to offer information seekers the most effective, authoritative, and comprehensive resources possible, consolidating our efforts to produce a single online resource rich in humanities content will be an effective and powerful way to exceed those goals." |
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The Library of Virginia is recognizing a World War II intelligence agent, a Bronze Star recipient from Operation Iraqi Freedom, a midwife, an award-winning composer, a colonial innkeeper, a historian, a principal in a civil rights case, and a business executive and philanthropist as the 2012 Virginia Women in History recipients. In celebration of Women's History Month, on March 29, 2012, starting at 6:00 PM, the Library will honor the eight outstanding women who are featured in the 2012 Virginia Women in History program at an awards ceremony. The evening's program, hosted by May-Lily Lee of public television's Virginia Currents, will be followed by a reception. Seating is limited, please call 804-692-3535 by March 23 for reservations. The women honored this year are:
The eight are also featured on a handsome poster and in the Library's 2012 Virginia Women in History panel exhibition, on display in the lobby of the Library of Virginia March 1-31. The exhibition will then travel to libraries, schools, and cultural institutions across the state. Copies of the 2012 poster and learning activities were distributed public and private schools and cultural institutions across Virginia. "The amazing women featured in the 2012 Virginia Women in History program succeeded or excelled in challenging circumstances," said Librarian of Virginia Sandra G. Treadway. "They are being recognized for being visionaries and pioneers, for their courage, creativity, and business acumen. Young people will be inspired by their stories and teachers will be able to plan classroom activities for Women's History Month using the poster and the learning activities available on our Web site." (www.lva.virginia.gov/public/vawomen) Biographies of the honorees follow. Susie May Ames (1888-1969) A native of Pungoteague, in Accomack County, Susie May Ames became an influential historian. After graduating from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in 1908 with a major in English and a minor in Latin, she taught in public schools in Virginia, Maryland, Indiana, and Kentucky until 1923, when she joined the Randolph-Macon Woman's College faculty. Like many other professional women of her generation, she never married. Ames continued her education while she worked. She received a master's degree from Columbia University in 1926 and a doctorate in history in 1940 with a published dissertation entitled Studies of the Virginia Eastern Shore in the Seventeenth Century. One of only a small number of women with a doctorate in history at that time, Ames taught at Randolph-Macon Woman's College until she retired in 1955. She published one of the first scholarly studies of the Eastern Shore during the Civil War, but her work concentrated on Virginia's early colonial period and its people. Ames edited and published two volumes of 17th-century Eastern Shore county court records, the first of them in 1954 in the prestigious American Legal Records series that the American Historical Association sponsored. Ames's five books and her scholarly articles in professional journals made major contributions to understanding the social and cultural life of men, women, and children in 17th-century Virginia. Ames was a founder of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Historical Society and in 1964 received a certificate of commendation from the American Association for State and Local History. Monica Beltran As a high school senior in Woodbridge, Monica Beltran (b. 1985) joined the Virginia National Guard as a way to help fund college tuition costs. She was assigned to the 1710th Transportation Company, but in 2004 she was called up to complete the 1173d Transportation Company when it was deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In Iraq she volunteered for gun turret duty, although she had been trained as a truck driver. She worked to overcome the unease that some platoon members voiced regarding her youth and gender. On October 26, 2005, Specialist Beltran was serving as a gunner for a gun truck on a combat logistics patrol. Responsible for providing security for equipment and 55 soldiers and contractors being transported to Forward Operating Base Suse, she was on the convoy's right flank. During an enemy attack, Beltran returned maximum suppressive fire while taking heavy fire from multiple rounds of small arms, heavy-caliber machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades. Despite suffering a wound to her left hand, she continued returning fire to ensure that the rear element of the convoy could pass safely through the mile-long kill zone. For her heroic service in the line of duty under hostile fire and adverse conditions, Beltran was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Valor on December 30, 2005, the first woman in the Virginia National Guard to receive the honor. Promoted to sergeant in 2006, Beltran remains a member of the Virginia National Guard. Christina Burdett Campbell (ca. 1723-1792) Christiana Burdett Campbell was the daughter of a Williamsburg innkeeper and the wife of an apothecary who died in Blandford, near Petersburg, early in the 1750s. Returning to Williamsburg, she began operating an inn, or tavern, about 1755. One of the most prominent taverns in the capital, it provided rooms and food for those who had business to conduct with government officials or in the General Court or who attended the regular meetings of the colony's chief merchants. When the General Assembly was in session, Campbell's tavern was one of the principal places where members of the House of Burgesses lodged. Among the legislators who stayed in Campbell's tavern were Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Campbell advertised her tavern as providing "genteel Accommodations, and the very best Entertainment." Several women operated taverns in colonial Virginia, some of them continuing a business after their tavern-keeping husbands had died. Campbell, however, began her own business and conducted it with success for more than 30 years. She owned as many as a dozen enslaved laborers who probably worked in the tavern. She allowed them to attend a local school for African Americans and assisted them in being baptized at Bruton Parish Church. Campbell finally closed her tavern in 1787, after the state's capital had moved to Richmond and all of the government offices had left Williamsburg. She retired to live with her daughter in Fredericksburg. Her Waller Street tavern burned about 1859, but in 1956 the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation opened a reconstructed Christiana Campbell's Tavern as a working restaurant and thus preserved her name and reputation. Betty Sams Christian (1922-2006) Born in Staunton, Betty Lee Sams Christian received a bachelor's degree in physics from Hollins College and a master's degree in social work from Columbia University. After World War II, Christian's husband joined her family's Coca-Cola bottling operation, headquartered in Richmond. During the 1950s the Sams-Christian family operated 13 plants in Virginia. Following her father's death in 1965, Christian's husband took over the business and in 1980 merged it with other bottling franchises in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia to form the Central Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Incorporated. After her husband retired in 1982, Christian took over as president and chief executive officer. She worked during the next two decades to improve the company's accounting, sales, and distribution methods. By the time she retired in 2003, Central Coca-Cola Bottling had become the 9th-largest independent Coke bottler in the country. Active in civic organizations, Christian sat on the board of the Frontier Culture Museum, in Staunton, and the council of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, in Richmond. In 1991 she established the Burford Leimenstoll Foundation to support charitable causes, including the Massey Cancer Center, the Boy Scouts of America, the Virginia Home for Boys and Girls, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The Child Health Advocacy Program at the University of Virginia is named for Betty Sams Christian. Betty Peet McIntosh Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Hawaii, Elizabeth "Betty" Peet (b. 1915) was working as a correspondent for the Scripps Howard news service near Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked the naval base on December 7, 1941. After the United States entered World War II, she returned to Washington, where she covered Eleanor Roosevelt and government activities. Fluent in Japanese, Peet was recruited in January 1943 to join the Office of Strategic Services, the country's wartime intelligence agency whose ranks included actress Marlene Dietrich and chef Julia Child. Operating in Burma, China, and India, Peet was one of the few women assigned to Morale Operations, where she helped produce false news reports, postcards, documents, and radio messages designed to spread disinformation that would undermine Japanese morale. After the war McIntosh wrote a memoir of her OSS experiences, published in 1947 as Undercover Girl. She also wrote two children's books, Inki and Palace under the Sea. McIntosh continued in public service and worked on assignments for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Voice of America, the State Department, and the United Nations. In 1958 she joined the Central Intelligence Agency, successor to the OSS, where she worked until her retirement in 1973. Her book Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS (1998) describes the adventures of the brave women who served in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Orleana Hawks Puckett (ca. 1844-1939) Born in North Carolina, Orleana Hawks received little formal education before she married John Puckett at about age 16. They settled close to his family near Groundhog Mountain in Patrick County. Her first child was born in 1862 but died a few months later of diphtheria. Of her 23 subsequent pregnancies, none of the children born living survived more than a few days, possibly as a result of Rh hemolytic disease. Orleana Puckett and her husband moved in 1875 to a nearby farm in Carroll County, where he built a two-story log house. She first served as a midwife in 1889, when no doctor or other midwife could be found for a neighbor. Puckett soon began traveling around the region, sometimes up to 20 miles distant, to deliver babies. She never charged for her services and became known throughout the area for her compassion and skill, having never lost a mother or baby during the more than 1,000 deliveries she attended. Forced to move from her home by the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway in 1939, she died shortly afterward. A small cabin on her property was preserved by the National Park Service and incorrectly interpreted as Puckett's house. Continuing her legacy of care, the Hawks Puckett Institute, in Asheville, North Carolina, works to promote and strengthen child, parent, and family development. Judith Shatin As founder and director of the Virginia Center for Computer Music, Judith Shatin (b. 1949) combines her musical training and her fascination with sounds, natural and built, to create works that expand the traditional definitions of music and composer. For Shatin, there is no distinction between acoustic and digital music. She uses combinations of instruments, electronic media, and even wild animal sounds. In an interview, Shatin said that she is "interested in creating perceptible rhythmic frameworks and in developing musical structures that invite both physical and intellectual response." Shatin, a student of piano and flute, received degrees from Douglass College, The Juilliard School, and Princeton University. While at Princeton she studied under composer Milton Babbitt, a pioneer in using computers to write music. In 1979 Shatin joined the faculty of the University of Virginia, where she is William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Music and where in 1987 she established the Center for Computer Music. In addition to her tenure as president of American Women Composers, Inc. (1989-1993), she has served on the boards of the International Alliance for Women in Music, the American Composers Alliance, and the League of Composers/ISCM. Shatin has received four fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as awards from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She is married to Michael Kubovy, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. Alice Jackson Stuart (1913-2001) In 1934 Richmonder Alice Carlotta Jackson received a bachelor's degree in English from Virginia Union University, where she was a charter member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She then attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. In August 1935 Jackson became the first African American on record to apply to a Virginia graduate or professional school when she sought admission to the University of Virginia in order to pursue a master's degree in French, a program not offered at any of the black colleges in the state. The University of Virginia's board of visitors flatly rejected her application, citing Virginia law that required black and white students to attend separate schools and "for other good and sufficient reasons" that the board refused to explain. After the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People threatened legal action, the Virginia General Assembly established a tuition supplement fund to compensate Jackson and other qualified African American students for the difference in cost to attend an out-of-state school. Until Gregory Swanson finally broke the color barrier at the University of Virginia Law School in 1950, the fund enabled thousands of Virginia African American students to continue their professional and graduate education. Jackson used her tuition supplement to study at Columbia University in New York City, where she received a graduate degree in English and comparative literature. She taught for about 50 years at several black colleges, including Howard University, as well as in public schools. She retired in 1983 as a professor of English at Middlesex County College. After Alice Jackson Houston Stuart died in 2001, her son, Julian Towns Houston, a Massachusetts Superior Court justice, presented her papers, including those documenting her courageous action in 1935, to the University of Virginia. |
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Fading black-and-white photographs and yellowing handwritten letters in a safe deposit box. The records of a historic African American business found in a dumpster. The conscious decision to destroy private papers. The destruction of archives by chance and nature. All illustrate what we collect and value in our cultural landscape. Lost and Found, a new exhibition opening at the Library of Virginia on February 27, examines the constantly changing fabric of our world. Things disappear, sometimes almost without notice-signs, buildings, even towns-and others go into attics, basements, and landfills. Some are saved and carefully stored and preserved; others intentionally destroyed, sometimes dramatically. Visitors can explore the various layers of the world of Lost and Found, from the spectacular destruction of archives by chance and nature to the intentional destruction of personal papers, from the deliberate preservation of family items to the careful assemblage of materials in a bank safe deposit box. You will be asked: "What do I collect and value?" and to consider what is ephemeral. The experience of the exhibition can be contemplative or interactive. The Library of Virginia holds the most comprehensive collection of materials related to Virginia's history and culture. Yet these materials are only a fraction of what once existed. Fire, war, flood, decay, and digital "data rot" have obliterated pieces of our individual and collective past. Lost and Found explores examples of this destruction-from the fires during Bacon's Rebellion to Martha Washington's burning of her correspondence with George Washington to the floods and fires that destroyed records kept in courthouses around the state-and doesn't neglect the story of mundane losses from deteriorating acetate negatives and floppy disks. The exhibition also examines how people collect and order the records of their lives through scrapbooks, time capsules, private libraries, family papers, and collections of advertising cards-all reflecting how we see the world through the selection and ordering of such material. Some objects that we collect have deep personal and governmental meaning. One item on display in the exhibition poignantly highlights the difference a piece of paper can make. Lucy Jarvis Pearman Scott registered in the Hustings Court of Henrico County on June 19, 1848, as a Free Person of Color. She turned in her "free papers" from York County that she had carried on her body every day, so that she could receive a new registration in the county where she now lived. The difference between quasi-freedom and jail-even re-enslavement-for Lucy Scott was a mere scrap of paper. If challenged, she would need to produce her papers or be arrested. This document had a meaning for Lucy Scott that we can barely understand, and the vital item is a key piece of Lost and Found. Most of us collect something-baseball cards or autographs, books or family mementos. Many of us create scrapbooks that reflect our personal interests. Lost and Found showcases the personal and the professional, the ephemeral and the profound, examples of personal collections, scrapbooks, and time capsules. It tells large stories and small ones. The exhibition highlights items in the Library's vast collections that offer intriguing glimpses into our past and show the promise of new endeavors such as the Civil War 150 Legacy Project in garnering greater insight into our shared history. Lost and Found runs through August 25, 2012, and is free and open to the public Monday through Saturday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, excluding state holidays. |
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Library Board Member Named 2012 YWCA Outstanding Woman Community leader and Library Board member Carole Weinstein has been recognized for a 2012 Outstanding Women Award by the YWCA in the education category. Weinstein's background in education ranges from teaching at St. Catherine's School in Richmond, to serving as a member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Richmond, to serving as a trustee at Davidson College. Appointed to the Library Board by Governor Tim Kaine in 2006, Weinstein was reappointed for a second term on the Board by Governor Bob McDonnell. In 2005 Weinstein established the Weinstein Poetry Prize, given to a poet with strong ties to central Virginia. The winner is recognized at the Library of Virginia's annual literary awards celebration. Weinstein is also a supporter of the prizes for the winners of those awards. She is the founder of the Carole Weinstein International Center at the University of Richmond, which is dedicated to promoting cultural understanding and cooperation, and the Weinstein-Rosenthal Forum on Faith, Ethics, and Global Society, which promotes religious and faith dialogues. "I can think of no one who has done more to support the education and cultural community of Richmond than Carole Weinstein," said Librarian of Virginia Sandra G. Treadway. "Carole is an innovative thinker whose commitment to education and the good of the community is apparent to all who know her." Since 1980 the YWCA has been honoring women in the greater Richmond area who have made significant contributions to the community through their leadership qualities, as well as for excellence, achievements, and dedication in their careers and society. The nine women recognized this year will be honored at a luncheon in May that raises money for the YWCA's programs for domestic violence, sexual abuse, and child development. |
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The Virginia State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB) has been awarded a $12,688 State and National Archival Partnership (SNAP) grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), a part of the National Archives and Records Administration. The grant will help support Archives Month activities throughout the commonwealth in October, allow SHRAB to hold two board planning meetings, and enable the Library of Virginia to sponsor a full-day conference for Virginia's historical and genealogical societies. The conference will provide an avenue for the exchange of ideas and help promote statewide records preservation planning and collaboration among Virginia records repositories. State Librarian and Archivist Sandra Treadway serves as state coordinator of the Virginia SHRAB. Additional information on the work of the board can be found at: http://www.lva.virginia.gov/about/staff/shra_board.asp -submitted by Carl Childs, Collection Management Services |
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In celebration of the written word, the Virginia Shop is offering online shoppers a 30 percent discount on all paper goods in February. Sale items include notepads, sushi-themed stationary, writing sets, knitter's notepads, and eco-friendly journals. To take advantage of the sale, visit www.thevirginiashop.org. If you're in town visiting your state senator or delegate, remember to stop by our other location. The Virginia Shop in the Capitol Building offers unique gifts related to Virginia and political history, U.S. geography, and items specific to the Virginia Capitol and the state seal. All proceeds from the Virginia Shop support the programming and preservation efforts of the Library of Virginia. |
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Last year, in conjunction with a book talk on War Shots: Norm Hatch and the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Cameramen of World War II, the Library of Virginia put out a call for donations of primary source materials reflecting the World War II experiences of everyday Virginians. As word spread across the country by means of USA Today and Associated Press articles, the Library was gratified by the strong response. Many of those who contacted us expressed surprise that the Library collected items such as personal letters and photographs from ordinary individuals. Events such as Archives Month (held every year in October) are designed to promote awareness of the existence and mission of archives. At every opportunity, we want to let the public know of one key way that people can help preserve the history of the commonwealth-donating archival collections. Do you have letters, photographs, or journals that cast light on a critical period in Virginia history such as the civil rights movement or World War I or II? Perhaps a 19th-century ledger has been passed down through generations of your family, showing the day-to-day operations of your great-great-great-grandfather's general store? Or maybe your church is interested in making its records-such as baptism, marriage, and burial registers-available for genealogical research? These are just a few of the many items that the Library collects, with the goal of preserving and sharing an ever-more inclusive record of Virginia's past. We would love your help in this ongoing effort. If you would like to discuss a possible donation of archival materials, please contact accessioning archivist Jessica Tyree at jessica.tyree@lva.virginia.gov or 804-692-3795. |
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For those with an interest in the American Civil War (1861-1865), the Library of Virginia library card offers instant access to the American Civil War Research and Proquest Civil War-Era databases. Together these resources provide a wealth of information including military records, newspaper articles, photographs, statistics, and much more. Just visit the Library's Using the Collections page to start your research today! The American Civil War Research database includes indexed, searchable information on more than four million soldiers, as well as 16,000 photographs. It provides battle descriptions, multi-page battle orders, and reports for significant battles such as Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg. In addition to rosters published by the state Adjutants General, the database includes military records for every soldier in the collection as well as other official records, pension index records, 1860 census records, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) records, Roll of Honor records, Medal of Honor records, and regimental histories. The database allows users to trace the war effort using critical statistics including average age, method of entry into and exit from the military, war engagements, and associated loss and prisoner statistics. Researchers can go beyond the big picture to analyze the details of specific regiments such as casualty statistics and the effects of disease. Census information can also be used to decipher the impact of the war on a particular soldier's hometown. The Analysis Chart tools enable users to identify a large-scale trend and then focus in on a particular regiment or individual soldier. For example, users can view a chart analyzing death by disease and then explore the Regimental Casualty Analysis and the Regimental Assignment charts to research this subject further. The database is updated bimonthly with new information and photographs. In the near future, content regarding the medical and surgical history of the Civil War and records from Confederate Veteran magazine will be added. The Proquest Civil War-Era (1840-1865) database provides complete runs of eight regional newspaper titles, including the Richmond Daily Dispatch from January 14, 1852, through December 30, 1865, as well as nearly 2,000 pamphlets. It is a deep set of primary sources, with documents that encompass the buildup to and evolution of the war that shaped the nation's identity, all in original article and page-image format. Content focuses on the era from Manifest Destiny through the end of the Civil War, allowing users to investigate not just the battles, but also the rising tensions that led the country to war. The pamphlets, which include campaign literature, presidential addresses, sermons, speeches, and pro- and anti-slavery documents, provide insight into the issues and attitudes that led to the war as well as its impact on American society. The newspapers are an excellent complement to these sources, offering insights on a broader range of events. Newspaper coverage includes:
These databases offer users a detailed view of the major issues and battles of the Civil War as well as photographs and information on individual soldiers who fought and died in the conflict. Both databases can be accessed with a Library of Virginia library card. -submitted by Lisa Wehrmann, Public Services and Outreach |
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During the months of October and November, Library of Virginia Local Records archivists delivered presentations on chancery suits to the Tazewell County Public Library, the Scott County Rotary Club, the Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society, and a group called the Beautiful Older People in Dinwiddie County. They explained what chancery causes are and how the records are useful not only for genealogy research but for shedding light on local history as well. The archivists offered numerous chancery suits as examples, such as a Dinwiddie County case that involved the descendants of a free African American doctor who also owned slaves, Tazewell County suits that referenced conflicts between the first settlers of Tazewell County and Native Americans, post-Civil War-era Scott County suits that brought to light lingering bitterness between pro-Union and anti-Confederacy residents, and Middlesex County suits that showed slaves suing for their freedom. The archivists showed attendees how they could access their locality's chancery causes through the Chancery Records Index. Response to the presentations was very positive. "You gave our audience an appreciation of the reflection of our social history we can find in this treasure trove of material and inspired us to delve into the records," commented Laurie Roberts, the director of the Tazewell County Public Library. If you are interested in scheduling a presentation by one of the Library's Local Records archivists, please contact Greg Crawford at gregory.crawford@lva.virginia.gov or 804-692-3505. -submitted by Greg Crawford, Collection Management Services |
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