More than 3,000 photographs representing twelve aspects of Virginia life: scenic tours; recreation; historic homes; culture; history; colonial archaeology; scenery and natural wonders; physiography; agriculture; education; government and the…
A collection of maps, donated to the Library of Virginia by Alan M. Voorhees, focusing on the exploration of the Chesapeake Bay area and the development of Virginia within the context of both European and American history.
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…
Works of Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820). Born in England, Latrobe worked as an engineer and surveyor before turning to architecture. Latrobe began his architectural career in the office of Samuel Pepys Cockerell, a leading neoclassical…
Virginia family Bible records are an important source for birth, death, and marriage dates and sometimes other personal and family information, including the births and deaths of enslaved persons. Centralized recording of vital records did not…
Virginia family Bible records are an important source for birth, death, and marriage dates and sometimes other personal and family information, including the births and deaths of enslaved persons. Centralized recording of vital records did not…
The records of the Board of Public Works are rich in the details of the development of Virginia's internal improvements during the nineteenth century. Digital manuscript and printed maps and surveys for canal, navigation, railroad, and…
Broadsides are ephemeral material, usually intended for one-time use and printed on one side of one sheet of paper. They often include a date and were used to advertise or illustrate an event, meeting, product, or sale. Wills, political…
The Library has extensive records of Virginia businesses in its Business Records Collection, including business correspondence, accounts, journals, ledgers, and legal transactions. A very small selection of items from the Business Records…
Manuscript plats and surveys and county maps (manuscript and published) of counties in Virginia and in other states.
The Doran S. Callahan collection of Eastern Shore photographs was donated to the Eastern Shore Public Library by Mrs. Doran S. Callahan (Ruby I.) on May 5, 1974. The photographs were collected by Doran Callahan's father, Griffin Clay Callahan,…
This collection preserves the web sites that document the 2004-2007 renovation of the Capitol building designed by Thomas Jefferson in 1785, and the associated Capitol Square complex in Richmond, Virginia.
The Carneal & Johnston digital collection consists of 215 images created from glass-plate negatives documenting some of the many designs created by the Richmond architectural firm, including interior and exterior views of various commercial…
A select collection of digitized cemetery records, Cemetery Records include interment records, which include names, birthdates (if available), gender, and plot location. Items may be digitized images of original records or compiled data available…
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…
Photographs from the Charles F. Gillette Papers, 1918-1969 (Accession 34472), depicting Virginia houses, estates, gardens, and other private and corporate landscape projects designed by landscape architect Charles Freeman Gillette (1886-1969).…
A selection of digitized church records from the Library of Virginia's Private Papers and Local Records collections. Church records found here that contain information related to enslaved and free Black congregants can also be found in Virginia…
A collection of manuscript and printed maps of cities, towns and their suburbs in Virginia and contiguous states.
City of Richmond (Va.) records pertaining to the events surrounding protests along Monument Avenue on 1 June 2020. The records came to the Library of Virginia as part of the settlement agreement between Jonathan Arthur, Ryan Tagg, Keenan Angel,…
A major collection of Civil War cartographic materials housed at the Library of Virginia. These maps were digitized in partnership with the Library of Congress' Civil War Map project. The Library of Virginia's contribution to the project includes…
These Virginia colonial papers are a collection of loose documents more closely connected by age than by any other single factor. They consist largely of records kept by the clerk of the colonial council, House of Burgesses, the governor and…
This collection consists of certificates submitted by injured veterans to the Virginia Board of Commissioners on Artificial Limbs. Injured soldiers submitted certificates from their county court stating that they were Virginia citizens, that they…
This collection consists of pension applications and amended applications filed by resident Virginians who served in the Confederate military and their widows, as well as more than 500 enslaved and free Blacks who labored as…
The Coroners' Inquisitions Digital Collection contains investigations into the deaths of individuals who died by a sudden, violent, suspicious manner, or died without medical attendance. Common causes of death found in these records include…
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) issued guidance to help school divisions execute plans to continue instruction. In order to capture the implementation of VDOEs changing guidance, this collection archives…
Papers, 1756-1863, of the Custis, Lee, and Mason families of Virginia, consisting of correspondence to and from members of these families. The collection includes the Custis Family Papers, 1756-1844; Lee Family Correspondence, 1832-1863; and, the…
The collection spans the years 1963-1973 and consists of court papers and legal files relating to the 1963 civil rights demonstrations in Danville, Virginia. These files include bills of particulars, bond records, correspondence, court dockets,…
This collection consists of materials scanned as part of the Family Reunion: African American descendants of the Underwood Convention Delegates and Reconstruction Legislators event sponsored by the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission…
At Virginia's Third Revolutionary Convention in July 1775, the delegates passed an ordinance appointing commissioners to pay the militia soldiers who had participated in Lord Dunmore's expedition against Native Americans of the Ohio Valley…
The Electoral College Digital Collection makes accessible the records of Virginia’s Electoral College from 1789 to the present. The collection contains the Journal of Electors of Virginia, 1804-1856, 1876 and 1889, election certificates, and…
Digitized portions of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia Records (Accession 22002), focusing on the materials created by members of the Equal Suffrage League, as well as some documents from the early years of the Virginia League of Women…
Evergreen Cemetery is a historic African-American cemetery located in the East End neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. Founded in 1891 as an African-American equivalent to Hollywood Cemetery, many notable African Americans are interred at…
The Executive Communications contain correspondence to the Speaker of the House of Delegates between 1776 and 1864. This collection should not be confused with the Executive Papers which contain incoming correspondence directly to the Governor’s…
Starting with Mark Warner, the Executive Orders from the administrations of Governors from 2002 to the most recently ended administration are available online.
Foster Studio images of F. W. Woolworth Company stores in Richmond, Virginia. Most depict the Broad Street location, and largely center on the newly renovated International Style building that opened to the public in 1954. The collection contains…
A sampling of photographs from the Virginia Room at the Fairfax County Public Library, this collection includes digitized images depicting everyday life in the county over a good portion of the late 19th and most of the 20th centuries. The…
A selection of genealogical notes collections compiled by family historians. This collection comprises only a small number of genealogical notes collections available for research at the Library of Virginia. Researchers are encouraged to search…
Papers, 1775-1789, of George Mason (1725-1792) consisting of correspondence, drafts of amendments, bills, declarations, and petitions. Papers concern the work of Mason during the Virginia Conventions and his time in the Virginia House of…
Records, 1877-1929, of the Gloucester Agricultural and Industrial School in Gloucester County, Virginia, founded in 1888 by William B. Weaver (1852-1929) and Thomas Calhoun Walker (1862-1953) to educate African Americans. Included are articles on…
This collection preserves the Web sites that document the 1998-2002 administration of Virginia's 68th governor, James S. Gilmore. Included in the collection are the Web sites for the Governor, Lt. Governor and cabinet secretaries.
The…
This collection preserves the websites that document the 2018-2022 administration of Virginia's 73rd governor, Ralph Northam. Included in the collection are the websites for the governor, his cabinet secretaries and issues and initiatives. Also…
This collection preserves the web sites that document the 2010-2014 administration of Virginia's 71st governor, Bob McDonnell. Included in the collection are the web sites for the governor, his cabinet secretaries and issues and initiatives. Also…
This collection preserves the web sites that document the 2014-2018 administration of Virginia's 72nd governor, Terry McAuliffe. Included in the collection are the web sites for the governor, his cabinet secretaries and issues and initiatives.…
The Web archive of the Administration of Governor Tim Kaine (2006-2010) contains archived versions of Web sites for the Governor’s Office, his initiative sites, and the sites of his cabinet secretaries. Also included are the related sites for the…
A collection of letters and other documents received in the Governor’s Office from 1776 to 1784, providing a detailed picture of Virginia government during and immediately after the Revolutionary War. The collections includes correspondence from…
This collection contains 1,365 images and includes numerous studio portraits commissioned by local residents, as well as photographs of sports teams; fraternal organizations; and musical, school, and church groups. There are also images of public…
This collection contains nearly 1,400 photographs from the Christopher E. Cheyne collection held in the local history room at the Hampton (Virginia) Public Library. The photos depict businesses, the seafood industry, the hotel and resort industry…
A Norfolk, Virginia, commercial photographer, Harry C. Mann (1866-1926) specialized in landscape and industrial views and in portrait photography. His work was often featured in National Geographic and his "nature portraits" taken in and around…
Spanning nearly three decades, this collection includes candid images documenting the growth of an industrial city. In 1912, the DuPont Company selected the Hopewell area as the site of its explosive powder production operations. Completion of…
In 2007, the Commonwealth of Virginia commemorated the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. This collection documents the web presence of this commemoration across and beyond…
The L. H. Freeman, Jr. Photograph Collection contains more than 30,000 negatives created during the 1940s-1970s. Louis Hyme Freeman Jr. (1914-1982) was a Black freelance photographer who lived in Richmond's Jackson Ward neighborhood. His…
Petitions to the General Assembly were the primary catalyst for legislation in the Commonwealth from 1776 until 1865. Public improvements, military claims, divorce, manumission of enslaved people, division of counties, incorporation of towns,…
The Lost Records Localities Digital Collection consists of copies of records from counties or incorporated cities that suffered significant record loss due to a variety of reasons. The collection is divided into subcollections related to the…
This collection contains documents related to lynchings in Virginia between 1866 and 1932, specifically commonwealth causes and coroner's inquisitions housed at the Library of Virginia. Lynchings were extralegal executions of individuals who have…
Maps of vast early America and Virginia to 1783 are represented in this collection.
This collection includes maps of Virginia and the United States, and its territories created after 1783.
Correspondence related to the Co-ordinate College League, from Series I, Subseries 1 of the Mary-Cooke Branch Munford Papers (LVA Acc. 28142). Concerns Munford's and the League's attempts to convince the University of Virginia to admit women by…
Michael Miley (1841–1918), probably most famous for his portraits of Robert E. Lee, was a Rockbridge County native who contributed greatly to the burgeoning field of photography. In 1866, Miley partnered with businessman John C. Boude to open a…
This is a collection of policies (declarations) and revaluations issued by the Mutual Assurance Society between 1796 and 1867 for buildings in Richmond and Henrico County, Virginia. Policies include the name of the insured, place…
Naturalization records typically include affidavits, reports for naturalization, declarations of intent to become United States citizens, and notices of application for admission of citizenship. The reports are narrative accounts made by…
This collection consists of 273 images. The majority of the photographs depict Hilton Village during its construction in 1918 and 1919. The Hilton Village project was the first wartime government housing project of its kind and the prototype for…
A collection of nautical and oyster charts from the 17th century through the 20th century representing the Atlantic Coast and Virginia's waterways.
A small selection of personal papers collections are available digitally. These materials document the every day lives of individuals throughout Virginia history and often includes correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, and other items of personal…
The Portsmouth Public Library Photograph Collection consists of two digitized photograph collections housed at the Portsmouth Public Library: Portsmouth Olde Towne Photograph Collection, which consists of approximately 800 photographs of homes,…
The Profiles of Honor Digital Collection commemorates the service of Virginians in World War I and World War II by preserving digital copies of images and records donated by veterans and their families. Many images were digitized during the…
The Public Buildings and Grounds Digital Collection consists of selected images from the Public Buildings and Grounds series of local government records. This series often includes reports, financial, contractual, and architectural documents…
This collection consists of over 2,800 applications of Confederate veterans who were admitted to the R.E. Lee Camp Confederate Soldiers' Home in Richmond, a benevolent society that operated from 1883 to 1941. Applications include…
The collection contains 221 digitized photographs from the Radford Record Album, a 1915 album that Wise Worrell, editor of the Radford Record, collected and presented to Dr. John Preston McConnell, president of Radford State Normal School (now…
This selection of texts and images from the Rare Book Collection features entire works, as well as selected title pages, frontispieces, illustrations, plats, maps, and designs. These works, including some early Virginia imprints, are…
A collection of posters related to reading and libraries. Some posters were produced by the American Library Association.
Following a 1779 legislative act, the state offered bounty lands for Revolutionary War military service. To qualify, a Virginia soldier or sailor had to serve at least three years continuously in the Continental or state forces. No bounty land…
Between 1777 and 1785, the Virginia General Assembly passed several laws authorizing pensions for disabled soldiers and for widows of soldiers who died while on active duty. This collection of 646 pension files provides digital images of the…
This collection digitizes over 1500 photographs and survey reports associated with the Richmond Esthetic Survey and Historic Building Survey. This survey dates to 1965 and inventories buildings and locations in the central part of…
The School Buildings Service Photographs Collection (Accession 31032) is a visual record of elementary and secondary school buildings across Virginia from a photographic survey commissioned by the Department of Education beginning in the 1920s as…
Representing a sampling of the Library of Virginia's large Sheet Music Collection, these scanned works in large part pertain to Virginia and the region during the Civil War era. The collection includes single sheets, bound volumes of scores, and…
Stereoscopic views were a popular 19th-century recreational pastime that enabled photographs to be viewed in three dimensions. What appear to be two identical images adjacent to each other on a cardboard support are actually slightly different.…
The Tantilla Gardens poster collection consists of unique pieces of promotional art from a variety of musical performances that took place at this Richmond venue between 1933 and 1969. From soul to the psychedelia, orchestral to country and…
The Tazewell County Public Library Photograph Collection consists of 3,890 images, depicting the personal, civic, agricultural, commercial, educational, recreational, and religious life of the Tazewell County community. The earliest image is a…
The Tobacco Labels Collection contains 92 original color lithographs. The labels were created to adorn the wooden boxes used to ship tobacco from the various tobacco factories in Richmond and Petersburg during the years of 1876 to 1899. The…
This collection captures Virginia Government Web sites related to the shooting at Virginia Tech on Monday, April 16, 2007. This collection includes audio excerpts from press conferences held on Tuesday, April 17, audio excerpts from the…
For more than a century, Virginia tourism brochures have enticed potential travelers with handsome graphics and tantalizing text. Generally consisting of a single large sheet, printed on both sides, and folded into a pocket-sized format, travel…
Photographs from the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation series, 1942-1946, taken by Army Signal Corps photographers assigned to the port historian's office. The nearly 3,500 photographs depict the arrival and departure of U.S. military personnel…
This collection consists of over 6,000 digitized photographs from a group of 31,599 photographic negatives dating to the first fifty years of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. The photographs cover the period 1922–1972 and are primarily the work…
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.
This is a fully-searchable index to almost 15,000 reports that survey and describe documents relating to colonial Virginia history that are housed in repositories in Great Britain and other European countries. Survey report images are available…
Virginia adopted its first Constitution on June 29, 1776, declaring the total dissolution of the rule of Great Britain and its monarch over the citizens of the commonwealth. Virginia also led the nation by adopting the Virginia Declaration of…
The first annual Virginia Czech and Slovak Folklife Festival, sponsored by the Virginia Czech/Slovak Heritage Society, took place on 19 October 2013 at the Prince George County Regional Heritage Center. The Library of Virginia, in partnership…
This collection consists of more than 200 posters, created by artists Dick Poythress (Richard B. Poythress) and Boyd Leffler, which were published by the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Labor and Industry between 1953 and 1975. The posters…
The Virginia Historical Inventory (VHI) is a collection of more than 25,000 survey reports, photographs, and annotated maps documenting Virginia's cultural resources. Strengths of this collection include architectural history, genealogy, African…
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…
The 1776 Virginia Constitution confirmed a bicameral legislature, consisting of the House of Delegates and Senate of Virginia. The present state Constitution provides that the House of Delegates shall consist of 90 to 100 members and the Senate…
In addition to the papers of individuals, families, businesses, churches, and other entities, the Private Papers section of the Library of Virginia also collects materials from Virginia organizations. Hoping to capture the online presence as well…
This collection includes documents related to the five revolutionary conventions that provided Virginians with an alternative government between August 1, 1774, and July 5, 1776. The dates of the conventions were: first, August 1-6, 1774; second…
This collection preserves the web sites of Virginia state agencies.
This collection was created to capture the websites of candidates for the Virginia race for U.S. Senate 2006 November. Included are the websites for George Allen (Republican Party), Gail Parker (Independent Green Party), and Jim Webb (Democratic…
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,…
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.
This collection preserves the websites that document Virginia's 2018 General Assembly. Included are websites and social media sites (Twitter and Instagram) for each member of the House of Delegates and Senate, the House and Senate caucus sites,…
This collection preserves the websites that document Virginia's 2019 General Assembly. Included are websites and social media sites for each member of the House of Delegates and State Senate, the House and Senate caucus sites, and the state…
This collection preserves the websites that document Virginia's 2019-2020 Congressional delegation and the 2020 Congressional elections. Included for Virginia's 11 Congressmen and 2 Senators and candidates are: official sites, political sites,…
This collection preserves the websites that document Virginia's 2020-2021 General Assembly. Included are websites and social media sites for each member of the House of Delegates and State Senate, the House and Senate caucus sites, and the state…
This collection preserves the websites that document Virginia's 2022-2023 General Assembly. Included are websites and Twitter feeds for each member of the House of Delegates and State Senate, the House and Senate caucus sites, the state…
This collection, the first the Library collected using Archive-It, preserves the web sites that document Virginia's November 2005 state-wide election. Included are former governor Mark Warner's web site, the first lady's web site, the Virginia…
The Waynesboro Public Library Photograph Collection consists of approximately 1,500 photographs and 380 postcards. About half of the collection is black-and-white prints, with the remainder being color, hand-tinted, or sepia-toned. All images are…
Willis McGlascoe Carter was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, to Samuel Carter and Rhoda Brown Carter. Born into slavery the first of eleven children, Carter was educated at Wayland Seminary in Washington D.C., became a teacher, a newspaper…
A collection of maps representing the world beyond Virginia and the Nation's boundaries, like the composite atlas containing 12 maps and an indexed view of a battle scene issued between ca. 1799 and 1835 based upon the Napoleonic Wars. Maps of…
On January 7, 1919, Governor Westmoreland Davis created the Virginia War History Commission. The Commission was tasked with completing a history of Virginia’s military, economic, and political participation in the World War. As part of this…
When the United States entered World War I in 1917, a means of communication was needed to encourage the public to support the war. The Division of Pictorial Publicity enlisted some of the era's finest artists, including Charles Dana Gibson,…
During World War II, the United States government mobilized the best ad-men available to create posters that would speak to the nation. The themes portrayed played on deep levels of fear, pride, duty, and victory. In order to beat the enemy,…
The World War II Separation Notices Digital Collection will contain approximately 250,000 notices for World War II veterans discharged between 1942 and 1950 (with the bulk between 1944 and 1946) who sought employment in Virginia. Most of the…
From 1932 to 1937, the Virginia State Commission on Conservation and Development's Division of History and Archaeology received funds from the Works Progress Administration's (WPA) Federal Art Project to commission five artists—including Rex M.…
This collection highlights the work of the Virginia Writers' Project, and contains scanned life histories, social–ethnic studies, and youth studies, plus more than 50 interviews with formerly enslaved people.
![Handwritten coroner's inquisition that relates to the lynching of Wyche Drumgoole, which occurred Feburary 28, 1870, [died of injuries March 3, 1870] in Lawrenceville, Va.](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2025-05/lynching-drumgoole-1208495_0008_0009.jpg.webp?itok=K9gB8ccR "Drumgoole, Wyche: Coroner's Inquisition, 1870-03-04. Lynching and Racial Violence Digital Collection. Library of Virginia.")
