NewsNorfolk’s “Summer of the Pestilence”
On July 1, Virginia will move into Phase 3 of reopening. This new development will see the reopening of …
NewsQuarantine Road
An 1855 yellow fever outbreak in Virginia eerily mirrors the present-day quarantine. And Marie Antoinette often secluded herself with a secret trove of banned books.
NewsNew Short Film Tells the Story of Virginia’s Maggie Lena Walker
Unladylike is a series of twenty-six multimedia films honoring the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage. Launched in March during Women’s History Month and continuing through August 26 2020, each ten-minute …
NewsThe 15th Amendment, a Failure?
The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified February 3, 1870, gave African American men in America the right to vote. It was the third and last of the Reconstruction amendments. While women’s suffrage …
NewsLoyal Artists, Loyal Slaves
Watch this free public talk by Rachel Stephens, Associate Professor of Art History, American Art and Architecture at the University of Alabama. Much can be gleaned about the role of …
NewsThe Whole Story
Virginia Humanities helps reveal the lives of the enslaved and widen the scope of narratives presented at plantations statewide.
NewsLulu Miller
NPR’s Lulu Miller, a Fellow at VFH, reads an excerpt from her forthcoming book, ‘Why Fish Don’t Exist’. Her reading is set to the live musical accompaniment of Wes Swing.
NewsThe End of Mormon Polygamy
Jane Barnes is an independent scholar in residence at Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. In 2007 she was the writer for the Frontline/American Experience documentary The Mormons and in 2012 …
NewsThe Art of Emancipation
Throughout the mid to late 19th century, Europe was in a state of social upheaval. Political changes, from the Revolutions of 1848 to the Franco Prussian war of 1871, swept …
NewsHands On History
A set of gnarled dentures hang in mid-air. It rotates, exposing dents, ridges, and wear, either from use or years. “Those are actually human teeth,” says Peter Hedlund, the lead …
NewsBlock the Vote
Millions of African Americans were emancipated in 1865 and given the vote. By 1901, almost all of them had lost that vote. What happened in those intervening years? VFH’s Encyclopedia Virginia explores the history of the Readjuster Party in Danville, VA and how it changed Virginia politics forever.
NewsThe Flip Side
A portrait of an unknown man from 1825 has a secret that shows the violence at the heart of slavery.
