Browse Items (222 total)
Edmund Bradford Seeks a Pardon, 1865
The power of the president to pardon those who commit offenses against the United States is enumerated in the Article Two of the U. S. Constitution. A presidential pardon is an executive order granting clemency for a conviction of a crime, with the…
Letter Notifying the Governor that Virginia Representatives were Readmitted to Congress, 1870
The American Civil War was fought between 1861 and 1865. The war began after eleven southern states, including Virginia, seceded from the United States in the months after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in November 1860. After four years of…
President Andrew Johnson Pardons Confederate John C. Shelton, 1866
The power of the president to pardon those who commit offenses against the United States is enumerated in the Article Two of the U. S. Constitution. A presidential pardon is an executive order granting clemency for a conviction of a crime, with the…
Confederate Parole Pass, 1865
On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. The surrender effectively ended the American Civil War in Virginia, although fighting continued in…
Pocahontas Colliery Store, Photograph, 1883
In rural communities across the state, local stores were often the centers of commerce and provided gathering places for local residents. In the 19th century stores, such as the Pocahontas Colliery Store in Tazewell County, were frequently found in…
War of 1812 Caricatures
After the American Revolution, relations between the United States and Great Britain remained strained. In its long war with France, Britain imposed a blockade on neutral countries, including the United States, that disrupted shipping and trade.…
Mary Willing Byrd, Portrait, circa 1773
This portrait of Mary Willing Byrd (1740–1814) was painted early in the 1770s by artist Matthew Pratt. Born in Philadelphia, she was the daughter of a wealthy merchant and a god-daughter of Benjamin Franklin. In 1761 she married William Byrd…
An Act Freeing Enslaved People Who Served as Soldiers, 1783
By 1775, approximately half a million enslaved Americans were living in the thirteen colonies. Thousands of Black Americans participated in the American Revolution. Some joined the British while others fought with the Americans, depending on whom…
Seaboard Air Line Railway, Enamel Lapel Pin, n.d.
The Seaboard Air Line (SAL) Railway was chartered from April 14, 1900 and ran until July 1, 1967, when it merged with another railroad line, Atlantic Coast Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. The SAL Railway originated from several…
Bicycle Cartoon and Advertisements, Puck Magazine, 1897
By the 1870s, bicycles and tricycles using wire-spoked wheels were common, particularly in England. Albert A. Pope became the first American bicycle manufacturer under the trade name “Columbia” in Connecticut in 1878.The popularity of bicycles in the…