Virginia Archives Month October 2012

Governor McDonnell's Certificate of Recognition

“Stern accuracy in inquiring, bold imagination in describing, these are the cogs on which history soars or flutters and wobbles.” -Thomas Carlyle

 

October is Archives Month in Virginia, and we'd like to invite you to join in the celebration, "Boxes to Bandwidth: Reconstructing the Past for the Future." Please enjoy and share the Archives Month poster, created from images submitted from nineteen archival repositories across the state. The poster highlights Virginians' rich history of service, innovation, creativity, and artistry, with images from Virginia archives and manuscript collections. (See Downloads to download a pdf of the poster or bookmark).

We also welcome you to explore your Virginia history by delving into an archives collection near you during the month of October. Numerous programs and lectures are slated to take place at institutions around the Commonwealth, so keep track of new events on this web page or on the Archives Month Facebook page.



Virginia Archives Month Events:

College of William & Mary Swem Library - https://swem.wm.edu/

Behind the Scenes Tours
Special Collections Research Center

Friday, September 28, 2:00-3:45 PM
Saturday, September 29, 10:00-10:45 AM
Friday, October 26, 2:00-3:00 PM
Saturday, October 27, 11:00 AM - 12 NOON

Tour the stacks area of Special Collections and see some of Swem's rare treasures! Space is limited and requires an RSVP to (757) 221-3094 or acschi@wm.edu

Swem Library's Archives Month Top 10 Contest


Grand Lodge of Virginia (Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons)


Library and Museum Open House
Masonic Lane and Nine Mile Road, Henrico, Virginia
Featuring archival exhibits on the 225th Anniversary of Mason's Hall (Richmond), the 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812 and Masons involved, and the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War and Freemasonry's Role.
Open 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, with presentations daily from 9:30-9:45 AM.
Contact Marie Barnett at (804) 222-3110.


Library of Virginia - http://www.lva.virginia.gov/

Where History Begins: Celebrating Our Successes
Monday, October 01, 2012
Place: Conference Rooms,  Fee, $25 includes lunch To register, visit: libva.com/sch

The Library of Virginia will host Where History Begins: Celebrating Our Successes, a workshop for local historical and genealogical societies. Participants will learn strategies for planning and completing successful projects, evaluating and working effectively with their collections, identifying grant opportunities and partnerships, and building support for their organizations. The workshop is sponsored by the Virginia State Historical Advisory Board and made possible by a generous State and National Archival Partnership (SNAP) grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The day-long workshop will feature concurrent sessions in the morning and afternoon, a presentation on a successful collaborative local history preservation project, and tours of Virginia's storied archives. Among the session topics will be: Stories of Virginia Found in the Chancery Records, the Civil War 150 Legacy Project, What Is a Public Record?, Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave Names, and Care and Preservation of Photographs.


Come Tour the Archives of the Commonwealth at the Library of Virginia
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Time: 10:00 AM–11:00 AM,  FREE, Space is limited. Call 804-692-3605.

The Library of Virginia is celebrating Archives Month with behind-the-scenes tours of the Archives Stacks, Conservation Lab, and Special Collections. Guests will see unique paper items being conserved and learn about the Mutual Assurance Society Collection, legislative petitions, “murder” maps from court records, and election records. The tours will conclude in the Special Collections reading room where the surrender papers of Lord Cornwallis, Stonewall Jackson's last communication to General Robert E. Lee, the Virginia Ordinance of Secession, an 1818 engraved script on parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence, and other treasures of Virginia's history will be on display.


Book talk: David Howard, author of Lost Rights: The Misadventures of a Lost American Relic
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Time: 12:00 PM–1:00 PM,  FREE, Space is limited.
Place: Lecture Hall

In 1865, an unknown infantryman rifled through the North Carolina Statehouse, hunting for Confederate mementos--but what he found was no ordinary souvenir. He returned home with a touchstone of our Republic: one of the fourteen original copies of the Bill of Rights.
Lost Rights follows that document's epic passage over the course of 138 years, from the Indiana businessman who purchases the looted parchment for five dollars to the antiques dealer who tries to peddle it more than a century later for $5 million. The parchment drifts from the living-room wall of a middle-class Midwestern family into the corruptible world of high-end antiquities before its journey ends with a dramatic FBI sting on the 32nd floor of a Philadelphia office tower. Part history, part detective story, part true-crime yarn, Lost Rights is a page-turner populated by unforgettable characters--the outrageous New England antique-furniture dealer, the real estate magnate seeking his next financial conquest, the folk-art expert who stows the iconic document under his bed, and the little-known historian who divines the parchment's most important secret from a faded, barely legible, 200-year-old notation, among many others.

 

Come Tour the Archives of the Commonwealth at the Library of Virginia
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Time: 10:00 AM–11:00 AM,  Space is limited. RSVP by calling 804-692-3605.

The Library of Virginia is celebrating Archives Month with behind-the-scenes tours of the Archives Stacks, Conservation Lab, and Special Collections. Guests will see unique paper items being conserved and learn about the Mutual Assurance Society Collection, legislative petitions, “murder” maps from court records, and election records. The tours will conclude in the Special Collections reading room where the surrender papers of Lord Cornwallis, Stonewall Jackson's last communication to General Robert E. Lee, the Virginia Ordinance of Secession, an 1818 engraved script on parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence, and other treasures of Virginia's history will be on display.


Norfolk Southern Archives

October 1
The Norfolk Southern Archives, in collaboration with WiNS, Norfolk Southern�s women�s network, is hosting tours of the Norfolk Southern Museum for Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts in Hampton Roads. The Girl Scouts will explore the Museum, talk to archivist Jennifer Davis McDaid, see items from the Archives, lunch with women who work for the railroad, and start earning their �Explore Norfolk Southern� patch. Requirements for the patch include a variety of activities that help scouts learn about railroad safety, the environmental benefits of rail transportation, and the role railroads have played in the development of the nation and its economy. Girl Scout Troop 5455 and Cub Scout Pack 48 will visit on October 1 to kick off Archives Month.

The Museum is open Monday through Friday, 10:00-4:00, and is located on the first floor of the Norfolk Southern building at 3 Commercial Place in downtown Norfolk. For guided tours, call 757/823-5325, or email jennifer.mcdaid@nscorp.com.


Preschool Transportation Days at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke - http://www.vmt.org/education/
Tuesdays and Wednesdays, October 2 through May 29, 2012
10:00-11:00 AM

Preschool Transportation Days engage preschoolers in hands-on learning, experimentation, and creativity. Designed for children 3 to 5 years old and their caregivers, the program will teach children about the types of transportation on display at the Museum. On October 9-10, and October 30-31, Norfolk Southern archivist Jennifer Davis McDaid will join the group for history, learning, and fun, and bring items from the collections. Members: $5 per child; Non-Members: $10 per child. Caregivers are not charged for the program. Email Courtney Plaster, cplaster@vmt.org, Education Coordinator at the VMT, for details.


Virginia Historical Society - https://www.virginiahistory.org/

Banner lectures
Reservations are not required. Admission is $6/adults, $5/seniors, $4/children and students, free/members (please present card) and to Richmond Times-Dispatch readers with a PressPass coupon. Parking is free.

October 4
Planter Oligarchy on Virginia's Northern Neck
By John C. Coombs
Time: 12 Noon, Reservations are not required. Admission is $6/adults, $5/seniors, $4/children and students, free/members (please present card) and to Richmond Times-Dispatch readers with a PressPass coupon. Parking is free.

The rise of a distinct class of affluent families to economic, social, and political dominance in Virginia during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries is without doubt one of the most important developments in the Old Dominion's early history. As a group, however, the "gentry" were far from homogenous. John C. Coombs will draw on research for his forthcoming book The Rise of Virginia Slavery to discuss the foundations of power that were common across all ranks of the elite, as well as the circumstances that allowed the Carters, Lees, and Tayloes to achieve distinction as the colony's "first families." Dr. Coombs is a professor of history at Hampden-SydneyCollege and coeditor of Early Modern Virginia: Reconsidering the Old Dominion. This lecture is cosponsored by The Menokin Foundation, which owns and operates the RichmondCounty plantation home of Francis Lightfoot Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his wife Rebecca Tayloe Lee. This lecture is cosponsored with The Menokin Foundation.

October 25
Unlocking Menokin's Secrets: Archaeological and Landscape Research at a Northern Neck Plantation
By David Brown
Time: 12 Noon

One of the great houses to survive from colonial Virginia, Menokin was the result of a unique collaboration between John Tayloe II of MountAiry and Francis Lightfoot Lee, the husband of his daughter Rebecca. Tayloe gave Lee a life interest in 1,000 acres of his vast RichmondCounty estate and, as a wedding present, built the plantation house and surrounding structures. Though scant written records remain, other clues offer insight into this adaptation of European design to the environment of eastern Virginia. David Brown with DATA Investigations will discuss recent archaeological and landscape research conducted at the site. Brown is a consulting archaeologist for the Menokin Foundation. This lecture is cosponsored by the foundation, which owns and operates the home of Francis Lightfoot Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his wife Rebecca Tayloe Lee. This lecture is cosponsored with The Menokin Foundation.

Gallery Walks

Gallery walks take place in the galleries of the Virginia Historical Society. All walks begin at noon unless otherwise indicated.
Admission is $6/adults, $5/seniors, $4/children & students, and free to members (please present card). Parking is free. Reservations are not required.

October 10
Virginia�s Presidents: Monroe, Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, and Wilson
Time: 12 Noon

William Rasmussen
Lead Curator and Lora M. Robins Curator
Learn more about this exhibition

October 25
What Remains of Edward Beyer�s Blue Ridge: Landscapes of Salem and Liberty
Time: 6:00 PM

Drew Gladwell
Exhibit Designer
Learn more about this exhibition

Behind the Scenes Tour

Snapped! Tales of Murder and Mayhem
October 9, 2012
Time: 10:30 AM�12 Noon.
$10/VHS members; $17/nonmembers, reservations are required.
To register for tours online, click here.
For more information, call 804.342.9676, or email lfrazho@VirginiaHistory.org.

What dark secrets hide in the collection of the VHS? Find out on this behind-the-scenes tour as we look at 400 years of murder and mayhem in Virginia. Tour will be led by Andrew H. Talkov, Head of Program Development.


Archives Month is a collaborative effort to celebrate the commonwealth’s archival and special collections repositories and the rich cultural record they protect. It is a project of the Library of Virginia, in conjunction with the Virginia State Historical Records Advisory Board, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference.


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