August 2020 Newsletter

We're Now a FamilySearch Affiliate Library

The Library of Virginia has become an affiliate library of FamilySearch, which offers the largest collection of digitized genealogical records in the world. Our onsite visitors now have access to roughly 400 million digitized records that would otherwise require a visit to a family history center of the LDS Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) in order to view. While visiting the Library, users can access the FamilySearch database from one of our eight public computers or from their own devices using our Wi-Fi. Set up your free FamilySearch account while at the Library to access these resources from the reading rooms.

The Library is currently open to researchers by advance appointment only, Tuesday–Friday, 10:00 AM–4:00 PM. To make an appointment, please call 804.692.3800. Appointments are scheduled for the morning, the afternoon, or all day. Walk-ins are welcome if the appointment register isn't full for the day.

2020 Voorhees Virtual Lecture Series Begins August 19

Join us for the 17th Annual Voorhees Lecture Series, presented in three free virtual events beginning on August 19, 2020. Hosted by the Fry-Jefferson Map Society, this year's theme is English Impressions of "Virginia" & Its Inhabitants before Jamestown: English Mapping & Iconography of the New World. Explorations of the Albemarle Sound region and the first English settlements of the Roanoke Islands in the 1580s are the focus of the 17th Annual Alan M. and Nathalie P. Voorhees Lecture on the History of Cartography—featuring speakers Dr. Larry Tise, journalist Andrew Lawler, and Library of Virginia senior map archivist Cassandra Britt Farrell.

Join us for one or all three. Participants will receive an email closer to the event date from "Education and Outreach" with a link to join the virtual event through GoToWebinar. Events are free with registration and begin at 7:00 PM. Registration is required for each separate virtual event. To register, click on the links below.

Wednesday, August 19, 2020
LARRY TISE | The First American Coloring Books: Theodore de Bry's Grand Voyages, 1590–1602
https://bit.ly/2WHlMgg

Wednesday, September 23, 2020
ANDREW LAWLER | Uncharted Territory: How Maps Launched—And Nearly Sank—English Colonization of the New World
https://bit.ly/2BkmqZF

Thursday, October 22, 2020
CASSANDRA BRITT FARRELL | 17th-Century Maps of Virginia, Maryland & the Southeast, 1590–1720
https://bit.ly/2OHgSeP

For more information contact Dawn Greggs at 804.692.3813 or dawn.greggs@lva.virginia.gov.

Celebrate the Centennial of the 19th Amendment!

August 18, 2020, is the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote. We Demand: Women's Suffrage in Virginia, the Library's main exhibition, celebrates this important centennial. We are happy to announce that our Exhibition Gallery will reopen to visitors beginning Tuesday, September 1, 2020. There will be a limit of 10 people allowed in the space at one time in order to maintain safe physical distancing. Until that date, we hope you will check out our related online resources, explore this sneak peek video series, and read the book The Campaign for Woman Suffrage in Virginia by the exhibition's curators, Brent Tarter, Marianne E. Julienne, and Barbara Batson. Shop online for the book at the Virginia Shop.

Voting Runs Through August 31 for the People's Choice Awards

Cast your vote for the Library of Virginia's 17th Annual People's Choice Awards, part of our annual Literary Awards Celebration. Winners will be announced at the Literary Awards Virtual Celebration on Saturday, October 17, 2020. For more information, visit our Literary Awards web page.

This year's fiction finalists for the People's Choice Awards are:
MARTIN CLARK | The Substitution Order
BRUCE HOLSINGER | The Gifted School
ANGIE KIM | Miracle Creek
TOSCA LEE | The Line Between
SONJA YOERG | True Places

This year's nonfiction finalists for the People's Choice Awards are:
TRESSIE MCMILLAN COTTOM | Thick: And Other Essays
DAVID L. ROLL | George Marshall: Defender of the Republic
CRAIG SHIRLEY | Mary Ball Washington
ALAN TAYLOR | Thomas Jefferson's Education
KATHERINE WINTSCH | Slay Like a Mother

People's Choice books are available for purchase on the Virginia's Shop's website. Visit here to order your favorites.

Member Spotlight: Anna Moser & Peter Schwartz
William Waller Hening Society

Inspired by the Library of Virginia's mission and values, Anna Moser and Peter Schwartz of Fauquier County, Virginia, joined the William Waller Hening Society—the planned giving society of the Library of Virginia Foundation—over a decade ago by including the organization in their estate planning.

"We have always seen the Library of Virginia as a primary institution of cultural and historical literacy for all Virginians," said Schwartz. Added Moser, "The Library truly promotes the literary values we want our community and our children to embrace, and it cannot fulfill this role without help from all of us."

When the couple last revised their wills, they included a simple paragraph describing a bequest to the Library. "It was easy enough," said Schwartz. "We just instructed our attorney to add it in. This is a way to make a meaningful gift without affecting one's current lifestyle or retirement security, and it really matters. If everyone who loves the Library of Virginia were to do this, even modest bequests would add up over time and substantially increase the Library's endowment and its ability to carry on its mission."

You too can leave your own indelible mark on Virginia history and culture by joining the Hening Society. William Waller Hening's research work in the early 1800s was instrumental in establishing financial support for the Library of Virginia. We hope that his commitment to the Library will inspire others to leave their own legacy of support for the institution and its work.

There are many planned giving options for you and your family, all of which help to preserve some of the commonwealth's most treasured resources. If you have already included the Library of Virginia in your will or living trust, we encourage you to let us know so that we may properly recognize you. To learn more, visit our Hening Society page.