NewsPandemics Past
There’s been a lot of coverage about the challenges of distributing the Covid-19 vaccine. How do we get it to distant areas? How do we use a whole vial before it expires? What about the special refrigerators needed to keep it cold enough? But these problems seem minor compared to the very first vaccine distribution in the early 1800s. Historian Allyson Poska shares the story of 29 orphan boys who crossed the Atlantic Ocean as live incubators for the smallpox vaccine and what lessons we can learn from this early campaign.
NewsLondon Fog, LA Smog
Almost overnight, things that had not been crimes became criminalized in a new Victorian era.
EventThe Virginia Lewis & Clark Trail: Why, How, Where?
On Wednesday, August 11 at 7pm, Peggy Crosson, President of the Virginia Lewis & Clark Legacy Trail, will speak on Botetourt County’s connection to the Lewis & Clark exploration of …
EventBotetourt County: 250+1 Years of Delight
A series of four lectures on various aspects of Botetourt County’s early history will be presented at the Historical Society of Western Virginia and O. Winston Link Museum in connection …
EventBlack Women’s Battle for the Ballot with Evette Dionne & Martha S. Jones
Evette Dionne, editor-in-chief of Bitch Media and author of Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box, discusses her Coretta Scott King Author Honor book with Martha …
The post Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot with Evette Dionne & Martha S. Jones appeared first on Virginia Festival of the Book.
EventChallenging Slavery in the Courtroom: A Question of Freedom
In partnership with the Maryland Center for the Book at Maryland Humanities, the Virginia Center for the Book at Virginia Humanities presents William G. Thomas III as he shares his …
The post Challenging Slavery in the Courtroom: <i>A Question of Freedom</i> appeared first on Virginia Festival of the Book.
NewsNew Documentary Film on the Blue Ridge Railroad Tunnel
Update 3/17/2021: Watch the documentary on YouTube. The Tunnel, a 35-minute documentary film about the creation and the re-creation of the Claudius Crozet Blue Ridge Railroad Tunnel, will be available …
NewsREPLAY: Invisible Founders
There are the names on the buildings, and then there are the real founders.
EventYellow Wife with Sadeqa Johnson
Novelist Sadeqa Johnson discusses her latest book, Yellow Wife, the harrowing story of an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.
The post <em>Yellow Wife</em> with Sadeqa Johnson appeared first on Virginia Festival of the Book.
NewsOutdoor Archives
Cemeteries are outdoor archives. After decades of neglect, volunteers are clearing the brush and illuminating America’s repressed histories.
EventLooking Back
From a waterfall tumbling down Toole’s Creek to a misty morning on an early Abingdon Main Street to the dormered cottage that was the original Johnston Memorial Hospital, Looking Back: …
NewsEverybody’s Gotta Eat
Parents spend a lot of time refereeing. No, you can’t have hot fries and ice cream for dinner. Yes, please, have some more kale. We go to the dinner tables of “natural parents,” who left city life behind to bring kids closer to their food source.
