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Spoils of War, Symbols of Reunion to Showcase Items "Liberated" in Richmond during the Last Days of the Civil War
In April 1865, after four years at the heart of the Civil War, Richmond—the capital of the Confederacy—finally fell. The Confederate government evacuated and Union army units—including United States Colored Troops—entered the city and arrived at the Capitol. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, the Library of Virginia will offer a temporary exhibition, Spoils of War, Symbols of Reunion, April 1–18, featuring a selection of rare archival materials that Union soldiers plundered from the State Capitol's archives during the chaotic days following the fall of Richmond to federal forces. These "liberated" artifacts that continue to trickle back to the commonwealth include such iconic documents as the Ordinance of Secession and the last volume of the Journals of the House of Burgesses. Collecting "spoils of war" is a time-honored tradition of victorious armies, but the collecting of books, state papers, and other manuscripts by Union soldiers was not always simple souvenir hunting. The soldier who removed Virginia's Ordinance of Secession from the Capitol certainly understood its symbolic meaning as a rending... |
Poetic Principals to Feature Dexter Booth
 On April 13, Dexter L. Booth, author of Scratching the Ghost, will be the featured poet for Poetic Principals at the Library of Virginia. Poetic Principals is cosponsored by the Library and New Virginia Review. The program begins at 6:00 PM and is free and open to the public.
Scratching the Ghost explores childhood memories, lost loves, an absent father, ghosts of hometowns, and the legacies of family and religion. This debut collection of poems won... |
Changing Cartography in the Civil War Era Is Focus of Voorhees Lecture on April 18
Maps have fascinated us, guided us, and promoted business, exploration, and science—and now they are available on our smartphones. But for many, the most appealing examples are older maps with decorative flourishes and historic importance. The Fry-Jefferson Map Society at the Library of Virginia, whose mission is to develop, enhance, and promote the cartographic collections of the Library of Virginia, is pleased to announce the 12th annual Alan M. & Nathalie Voorhees Lecture on the History of Cartography on Saturday, April 18, 2015. The theme of this year's free lecture is "The Transformation of Cartography in the Civil War Era." A special exhibition of historic maps begins at 11:00 AM and the lectures start at 1:00 PM. Dr. Susan Schulten from the University of Denver and Cassandra Farrell, map specialist at the Library of Virginia, will discuss the effects of the sectional crisis on map production and uses. Experts from Old World Auctions will offer... |
Celebrate National Library Week, April 12–18
Celebrate National Library Week 2015 (April 12–18, 2015) with the theme "Unlimited possibilities @ your library®." Award-winning Virginia author David Baldacci is honorary chair of 2015 National Library Week. He has written 29 best-selling novels for adults, with more than 110 million copies sold. He is a three-time winner of the Library of Virginia's People's Choice Award in the fiction category.
Celebrations during National Library Week include: National Library Workers Day, Tuesday, April 14, a day for library staff, users, administrators, and Friends groups to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers; National Bookmobile Day, Wednesday, April 15, to recognize the contributions of our nation's bookmobiles and the dedicated professionals who make quality bookmobile outreach possible in their communities; and Celebrate... |
2015 Snapshot: A Day in the Life of Virginia's Libraries
Libraries all over Virginia will hold a "Snapshot Day" in April to collect information and photographs that illustrate the impact that Virginia libraries make in their communities on a typical day.
Snapshot Day is a Virginia Library Association and Library of Virginia project. The goal of Snapshot Day is to collect customer comments and photos to show how essential library services are. Virginia's libraries are busier than ever these days, with people coming in to check out books, use computers, look for jobs, download e-books, enhance their education, connect with their communities, and attend the many classes and events our libraries offer. All across the... |
Submissions Wanted for Art in Literature Award!
The Library of Virginia and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts are seeking nominations for the annual Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award, which they cosponsor. This award recognizes an outstanding book written about a work (or works) of art while also showing the highest literary quality as a creative or scholarly work.
Works eligible for submission for the 2015 award must have been published for the first time in English in the United States in 2014. Eligible works include fiction, journalism, poetry, history, biography, art history, social history of art, catalogs of qualified museum exhibitions, and young adult books that feature some aspect of the visual arts.
Nominations will be accepted through April 30, 2015. The nomination... |
VLA Paraprofessional Conference Set for May
On May 17 and 18 the 23rd Virginia Library Association's Professional Associates Forum Conference will take place in Richmond at the Hilton Koger South Conference Center. The VLAPAF conference enhances professional development by providing workshops, presentations, discussion groups, panels, and networking opportunities. This year's conference theme, "Who Moved My Library?," acknowledges the many changes libraries have made and the different ways that customers use and view libraries. The one-day conference will explore new ways to make everything work even more effectively and efficiently in our...
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Watch the April 19 Episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?"
Please tune to TLC at 10 PM on Sunday night, April 19, for "Who Do You Think You Are," the TV program that features famous people getting educated and dramatic about their genealogy. This episode will feature actor Bill Paxton and a Virginia connection as well as scenes of people and places that Library of Virginia followers will be sure to...
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Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Digital Scholarship: Re-creating Richmond's Slave District
Time: Noon-1:00 PM
Place: Lecture Hall
University of Richmond's Digital Scholarship Lab staff present an overview of a recent project to develop a 3D map overview of Richmond and its antebellum slave district. This program complements To Be Sold: Virginia and the American Slave Trade. |
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Living in the Aftermath of Slavery & Apartheid: Reflections from the US and South Africa
Time: 8:00-9:30 PM
Place: Lecture Hall
The program features Dr. Edward Ayers, American history scholar and president of the University of Richmond; Cassandra L. Newby-Alexander, professor of history at Norfolk State University; the Very Rev. Michael Weeder, dean of St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town, and public historian of South African slavery; and Bonita Bennett, director of Cape Town's District Six Museum, which documents the story of forced removal of residents under apartheid. This is one of three forums that are free and open to the public at the "Healing History: Memory, Legacy, and Social Change" conference taking place in Richmond, April 6–9 (http://us.iofc.org/HH2015). Please register for this event at http://conta.cc/1DqWUL0. |
Monday, April 13, 2015
Poetic Principals featuring Dexter Booth
Time: 6:00-7:30 PM
Place: Conference Rooms
Dexter L. Booth is the author of Scratching the Ghost, which won the 2012 Cave Canem Poetry Prize (selected by Major Jackson), and was a finalist for the 2014 New Mexico–Arizona Book Award in Poetry, as well as a finalist for the 2014 Leimert Park Book Fair's Jessie Redmon Fauset Award. His poems appear in Blackbird, the Southeast Review, Ostrich Review, Grist, Willow Springs, Virginia Quarterly, and other publications. Booth has been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes and was a finalist for the 2014 Joy Harjo Poetry Contest. He received his undergraduate degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MFA from Arizona State University, and he is currently a PhD candidate and Provost Fellow at the University of Southern California. |
Through Saturday April 18, 2015
Exhibition: Spoils of War, Symbols of Reunion
Time: 9:00 AM-5:00 PM Monday
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, the Library of Virginia will exhibit a selection of rare archival materials that Union soldiers plundered from the State Capitol's archives during the chaotic days following the fall of Richmond to federal forces. |
Friday, April 24, 2015
Online Genealogy Resources
Time: 10:00 AM–Noon
While not everything is available online, you can still get a start on your genealogy research by using the internet. Join Library of Virginia Archivists to explore the online world of genealogy research. Your experience will be enhanced if you have already signed up for a Library of Virginia card, which you can do at the Library circulation desk the morning before the class.
Pre-registration required. For registration and more information, go to http://www.eventbrite.com/o/adrienne-robertson-6504598681?s=31424249. |
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
The Library of Virginia's African American Database Project
Time: Noon-1:00 PM
Place: Conference Rooms
Library archivist Greg Crawford provides an update on the massive effort to collect the names and stories of enslaved Virginians from the Library's archives. This program complements To Be Sold: Virginia and the American Slave Trade.(Presented as part of Preservation Week) |
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
BOOK LAUNCH BY TED MARIS-WOLF Family Bonds: Free Blacks and Re-enslavement Law in Antebellum Virginia
Time: Noon-1:00 PM
Place: Conference Rooms
Between 1854 and 1864, more than a hundred free African Americans in Virginia proposed to enslave themselves and, in some cases, their children. Author Ted Maris-Wolf, Interim Vice President of Research and Historical Interpretation and Abby and George O'Neill Director of the John D. Rockefeller Jr Library at Colonial Williamsburg, explains this phenomenon as a response to state legislation that forced free African Americans to make a terrible choice: leave enslaved loved ones behind for freedom elsewhere or seek a way to remain in their communities, even by renouncing legal freedom. Maris-Wolf paints an intimate portrait of these people whose lives, liberty, and use of Virginia law offer new understandings of race and place in the upper South. A book signing follows the talk. |
Through Saturday, May 30, 2015
To Be Sold: Virginia and the American Slave Trade
Time: 9:00 AM–5:00 PM, Monday–Saturday
Place: Lobby and Exhibition Hall, Free
This groundbreaking exhibition explores the pivotal role that Richmond played in the domestic slave trade. Curated by University of Virginia professor Maurie McInnis, To Be Sold draws from her book, Waiting to Be Sold: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade, and is anchored by a series of paintings and engravings by Eyre Crowe, a British artist who witnessed the slave trade as he traveled across the United States in 1853. Virginia was the largest mass exporter of enslaved people through the Richmond market, making the trade the most important economic activity in antebellum Virginia. This exhibition is not merely a story of numbers and economic impact, but also one that focuses on individuals and the impact that the trade had on enslaved people. |
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