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In May, we celebrate Preservation Month. Mary Wingfield Scott was a preservationist extraordinaire who documented Richmond’s historic buildings and neighborhoods, advocated for their preservation and adaptive reuse and inspired numerous preservation efforts in the city.

Read more about her in her “Dictionary of Virginia Biography” entry using the link in our bio.

#PreservationMonth

The Library of Virginia will be closed on Saturday, May 23 through Monday, May 25 in observance of Memorial Day. View the Library’s Plan Your Visit webpage linked in our bio for our regular hours.

#holidayclosing #MemorialDay

The Library of Virginia, in partnership with Old Dominion University, invites you to the opening celebration for our new exhibition, “Envisioning Revolution: Virginians in Action,” on Saturday, June 13. The exhibition will be on display in the Library's gallery through Dec. 31, 2026, to commemorate Virginia’s role in the 250th anniversary of American independence.

The exhibition features artwork from students in ODU's Department of Art that envisions Virginians featured in legislative petitions submitted to the state between 1776 and 1786.

A variety of VA250-related activities will be available to visitors during the June 13 opening day celebration. Exhibition tours will begin at 1 p.m. and continue each half hour up until 3 p.m. ODU student artists and exhibition curators will be on hand to discuss the exhibition and its works. Visitors will also have the option of watching a livestream of the TED Democracy Philadelphia: Founding Futures symposium or taking part in a VA250 Revolutionary-era transcription event.

Learn more at the link in our bio.

Earlier this month, Richmond was the host city for the spring conference of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC). Hundreds of archival professionals gathered to network, learn, share best practices, and explore our fair city.

Read more in today's The UncommonWealth using the link in our bio.

#marac #archives #archivalprofession #professionaldevelopment #training

Join us Wednesday, June 3, at noon for a virtual reprise of historian Brooke Newman's talk about her latest book “The Crown’s Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery.” The book uncovers the British monarchy’s deep entanglement in the transatlantic slave trade and colonial slavery. With discussion ranging from the Tudor era to the reign of Queen Victoria, Newman shows how successive monarchs invested in, profited from and defended an imperial system built on racial slavery — and how the Crown’s silence continues to shape public memory to this day.

This event is part of the Library’s programming commemorating Virginia's role in the 250th anniversary of American independence. This is a free event, but registration is required using the link in our bio.

#VA250 @varevolution250

Thank you to all who attended the Library's event "Interpreting History," a discussion between Christy S. Coleman, executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, and Librarian of Virginia Dennis T. Clark.

More photos from the evening are available on the Library's Flickr page at the link in our bio.

A recording of the event will be posted early next week on our YouTube channel.

@jyfmuseums @dennistclark @christyscoleman #VirginiaHistory #thisisLVA

Thank you to all who attended the Library's event "Interpreting History," a discussion between Christy S. Coleman, executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, and Librarian of Virginia Dennis T. Clark.

More photos from the evening are available on the Library's Flickr page at the link in our bio.

A recording of the event will be posted early next week on our YouTube channel.

@jyfmuseums @dennistclark @christyscoleman #VirginiaHistory #thisisLVA

Thank you to all who attended the Library's event "Interpreting History," a discussion between Christy S. Coleman, executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, and Librarian of Virginia Dennis T. Clark.

More photos from the evening are available on the Library's Flickr page at the link in our bio.

A recording of the event will be posted early next week on our YouTube channel.

@jyfmuseums @dennistclark @christyscoleman #VirginiaHistory #thisisLVA

Thank you to all who attended the Library's event "Interpreting History," a discussion between Christy S. Coleman, executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, and Librarian of Virginia Dennis T. Clark.

More photos from the evening are available on the Library's Flickr page at the link in our bio.

A recording of the event will be posted early next week on our YouTube channel.

@jyfmuseums @dennistclark @christyscoleman #VirginiaHistory #thisisLVA

On this day in 1776, the Fifth Virginia Revolutionary Convention in Williamsburg unanimously passed a resolution instructing Virginia’s delegates of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to propose a formal declaration of independence from Britain. On this same day, a committee including George Mason and James Madison was appointed to draft a declaration of rights and a new state constitution for Virginia, establishing an independent government for the state.

Read more about this important day on the Library’s Shaping the Constitution webpage using the link in our bio.

#VA250 #VirginiaHistory @varevolution250

On this day in 1903, the Virginia General Assembly established a statewide system of wildlife law enforcement officers. Each city and county in Virginia was to appoint new “game wardens” paid for with non-resident hunting license fees.

Learn about one particularly active game warden in Wise County during the 1920s in the Library’s UncommonWealth blog post and more about the position’s history in an article by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources using the links in our bio.

#OTD #OnThisDay #VirginiaHistory

Thank you to Virginia This Morning and R-Home magazine for this interview with Library of Virginia chief of researcher engagement Sarah Falls on the Library's upcoming exhibition "Envisioning Revolution: Virginians in Action."

Watch the interview and learn more about the exhibition at the links in our bio.

@virginiathismorning @rhomemag@varevolution250 #EnvisioningRevolution #VA250

The convening of Virginia's fifth Revolutionary Convention coincided with the final gathering of the colony's House of Burgesses in May 1776. In today's The UncommonWealth, you can read about how the various convention factions, both for and against independence, were eventually brought together thanks to the efforts of the fabulously coiffed Edmund Pendleton. See link in bio. @varevolution250

#VA250 #AmericanRevolution #history #independence #America250

Join us for a noon talk on Wednesday, May 27, with historian Kathleen DuVal, Ph.D., on her book, “Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution.” While citizens of the 13 rebelling colonies came to blows with the British Empire over tariffs and parliamentary representation, the situation on the rest of the American continent was equally complicated. DuVal reveals that an individual’s motives were as important in their allegiance to the Revolution as the ideals of liberty and freedom the Founders espoused — independence held personal as well as national meaning.

A book signing will follow the program. This event is part of the Library’s programming commemorating Virginia's role in the 250th anniversary of American independence. Register today at the link in our bio.

VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission #VA250 #VirginiaHistory #RevolutionaryWar

May is Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month. Newspapers are a crucial resource in researching APIDA history in Virginia.

Learn about the some of the stories uncovered in the Library's UncommonWealth blog post using the link in our bio.

#APIDA #VirginiaHistory #newspapers #archive