Virginia History - Directory of Online Resources

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 Virginia Tech - In Memoriam: April 16, 2007

Afro-American Sources in Virginia
A Guide to Manuscripts
An electronic edition of the impressive print version
"This guide is a joint collaboration between Michael Plunkett, The University Press of Virginia, and the University of Virginia's Electronic Text Center
Edited by Michael Plunket

Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities
"Virginia's long and historic past is captured in the collections of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA). Stretching from the Eastern Shore to the mountains of Blacksburg, the properties owned and operated by the APVA trace Virginia's history from the settlers' landing at Jamestown to the taming of the western reaches of the colony."

  • Jamestown Rediscovery
    "...a ten-year interdisciplinary project searching for the remains of 1607 Jamestown on the 22.5 acre APVA property on Jamestown Island, Virginia.

Booker T. Washington National Monument

The Diary, Correspondence, and Papers of Robert "King" Carter of Virginia, 1701-1732
Transcribed and Edited by Edmund Berkeley, Jr.
"This site includes transcriptions of the diary, correspondence, and papers of the richest and most important man of his day in Virginia, who owned at his death at least 300,000 acres containing many farms and plantations that produced tobacco and other crops for sale, some 1,000 slaves to work those plantations, and large sums of money invested in Virginia and in England. Robert Carter was a member of the Council of Virginia, was acting governor, and a political power in the colony. He had received a classical education in England, and corresponded widely both within the colony and with merchants in England."

Early Virginia Religious Petitions
"...presents images of 423 petitions submitted to the Virginia legislature between 1774 and 1802 from more than eighty counties and cities. Drawn from the Library of Virginia's Legislative Petitions collection, the petitions concern such topics as the historic debate over the separation of church and state championed by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, the rights of dissenters such as Quakers and Baptists, the sale and division of property in the established church, and the dissolution of unpopular vestries."
- American Memory, Library of Congress

Geology of Virginia
"A resource for information, photographs, maps & diagrams of the geology of the Commonwealth."
Sections include: Rivers & Watersheds ; Maps & Diagrams ; Teaching Resources ; Economic Geology ; Historic Places ; Natural Hazards.
- Dept. of Geology, The College of William & Mary

NPR [National Public Radio] - Looking Back - Brown v. Board of Education
"Fifty years ago this week, the Supreme Court heard final arguments in the landmark desegregation case of Brown v. Board of Education. The following May, the court ruled that separate schools for black and white children were unconstitutional. In a series of stories, NPR explores the high court's decision and its repercussions."

Separate Is Not Equal : Brown v. Board of Education
A Teacher's Resource Guide To Preparing Curriculum Materials
"This electronically-published version of A Teacherís Guide to Brown v. Board of Education is intended to make information available to grade school and college faculty in time to prepare course work for the coming spring, when national attention will focus on the fiftieth anniversary."
By Alonzo N. Smith, National Museum of American History and Adjunct Professor, Montgomery College.

PBS - Secrets of the Dead - Death at Jamestown
"...takes a 21st century look at the eerie fate of the men and boys who left London to establish the first permanent British colony in North America: Jamestown, Virginia. Three years after they first set foot on American shores, 440 of the original 500 settlers had died...Death at Jamestown paints an eerie new picture of the conditions in Jamestown, and implicates some very unlikely culprits."
Sections include: Background ; Clues & Evidence ; Interview ; Resources.

Private Passions, Public Legacy:
Paul Mellon's Personal Library at the University of Virginia
"...447 rare books, manuscripts, and maps from the estate of Paul Mellon. Celebrated as a philanthropist, art collector, and breeder of thoroughbred horses, Mellon was also a passionate book collector and amassed one of the greatest libraries of original documents of American history..."
Online exhibit from the Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library

Virginia Runaways Project
"The Virginia Runaways Project is a digital database of runaway and captured slave advertisements from 18th-century Virginia newspapers. When a slave ran away, slaveowners often placed remarkably detailed advertisements for their return. Sheriffs and other county officials also often advertised the capture of runaways or suspected runaways. This project offers full transcripts and images of all runaway and captured ads placed in Virginia newspapers from 1736 to 1790."
By Thomas Costa, History Department, University of Virginia's College at Wise

The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War
"The Valley of the Shadow Project takes two communities, one Northern and one Southern, through the experience of the American Civil War. The project is a hypermedia archive of thousands of sources for the period before, during, and after the Civil War for Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Those sources include newspapers, letters, diaries, photographs, maps, church records, population census, agricultural census, and military records. Students can explore every dimension of the conflict and write their own histories, reconstructing the life stories of women, African Americans, farmers, politicians, soldiers, and families. The project is intended for secondary schools, community colleges, libraries, and universities."
- University of Virginia Research Project

Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries - Online Exhibits

WPA Life Histories
Works Progress Administration - Virginia Life Histories
"...consists of approximately 1,350 life histories, social-ethnic studies, and youth studies; more than 50 interviews with former slaves, and a small number of folklore studies, all of which were created by the staff of the Virginia Writers' Project."
- The Library of Virginia


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