Collections & Resources

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The Libary has a vast collection of books, journals, newspapers, photographs, manuscripts, maps, archives, and more. We also have resources that can help you make the most of your research, including databases and research guides that help explain our collections and the best way to use them.

Library Catalog

Your primary point of access to the majority of the Library's collections, including books and government publications, journal and newspaper titles, archives and manuscript collections, and select maps

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Digital Collections

The Library has over 100 digital collections, with more added frequently. Explore our photograph collections, supplement your house history research with the map collection, trace your family using Virginia Chronicle newspapers, Chancery Records court cases, or Virginia Untold African American resources, and more!

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Research Guides & Indexes

Finding the material you need is important. But knowing the history and context of the materials is our collections is often essential to truly understanding of Virginia culture, history, and society at any given time. Our Research Guides & Indexes will help you on your quest.

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Databases & eBooks

The Library offers access to a vast array of information from other institutions and publications through our subscription databases. These databases are available to all users in the Library's reading rooms. More information on databases that Virginia residents can access remotely is available on the Databases & eBooks page.

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ARVAS Finding Aids

Archival Resources of the Virginias (ARVAS) is a consolidated database which provides information about the vast array of manuscripts and archival materials housed in historical societies, libraries, museums, colleges and universities across Virginia and West Virginia.

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Featured Collections

The Library of Virginia regularly adds new digital collections, whether photographs, maps, archival records, or art work. Check back often to see what we've been up to!
Ancestry for Virginians
A wedding photograph featuring a man in the three-piece suit and a bride in sleeveless white dress to below her knees. She wears white stockings and shoes and a veil. She carries a bouquet of light colored roses.

The Library of Virginia partners with Ancestry.com to provide access to select digital collections, including births, deaths, marriages, and personal property tax records. This material is freely accessible to Virginians in their homes, as well…

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Chancery Records Index
Hand drawn plat dividing 229 acres of land in Albemarle County, Virginia, into five subdivisions

The Chancery Records Index (CRI) is a result of archival processing and indexing projects overseen by the Library of Virginia (LVA) and funded, in part, by the Virginia Circuit Court Records Preservation Program (CCRP). Each of Virginia's circuit…

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Virginia Chronicle
A front page of The Richmond Planet newspaper from January 19, 1929. The masthead shows a flexed arm surround by the words The Richmond Planet with a headline reading "Segregation Ordinance was blocked."

Virginia Chronicle is a historical archive of Virginia newspapers, providing free access to full text searching and digitized images of over 5 million newspaper pages.

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Virginia Land Office Patents and Grants
Image shows a survey of 330 acres of land in Augusta County drawn in 1749 by George Washington. There is a compass rose in the middle of the drawing and indications of "very mountainous ground" and "very hilly and piney" areas on either side of the property.

This collection consists of Virginia land patents (1623–1774) and land grants (1779–February 2000). It includes land grants within the Northern Neck Proprietary (1690–1874) along with survey plats and accompanying papers for the…

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Virginia Untold: the African American Narrative
Handwriting on a blue piece of paper.

Virginia Untold: the African American Narrative provides digital access to records that document some of the lived experiences of enslaved and free Black and multiracial people in the Library of Virginia’s collections. Traditional description,…

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Virginia Yearbooks Digital Collection
Image shows portraits of nine high school students, posing with their hands crossed on their laps or arms folded. The back drop is beige, with each image backed by a geometrical shape in pink, yellow or blue.

The Virginia Yearbooks Digital Collection is an ongoing project in partnership with Virginia's local public libraries, LYRASIS, and IMLS to make public high school yearbooks available online.

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Three women face the camera in a crowded room. They are sitting at a table, with a laptop in front of the middle person.

Making History

Participate in enhancing access to collections covering 400 years of Virginia history, people, and culture. From peace to wartime, wedding announcements to world—changing events, court records to letters home, there is something for everyone. Help us tell the story of all Virginians—the famous, the infamous and even the anonymous—and join us in Making History.

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The image is a sample from a school class picture. Three boys sit cross-legged in the front, holding a sign that says Fairfax Elementary 1971-72 Mrs. Pittman Principal" with a "3" in the bottom left, possibly indicating the students being in 3rd grade. There are 3 male students seated behind them, and there are more students standing behind that row.

Educator Resources

The Library of Virginia is dedicated to providing relevant and useful educational material on Virginia’s history, culture, and people to the commonwealth’s educators, students, and lifelong learners of any age. Explore our online resources that utilize the Library's collections to enhance learning and provide students the opportunity to experience Virginia's documentary heritage.

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Online Exhibitions