When is a letter revolutionary? That’s the question at the heart of our new entry on the Virginia Committee of Correspondence, the first in EV’s new section on the American Revolution in Virginia. It was 250 years ago this week, on March 12, 1773, that the House of Burgesses created a permanent committee to correspond […]
In October of 2022, with support from a Virginia Humanities grant, descendants of Bethany Veney, an enslaved woman who lived in the Shenandoah Valley prior to the Civil War, gathered in Luray to record themselves reading from her autobiography The Narrative of Bethany Veney, a Slave Woman. Like many enslaved people, Veney labored for several different […]
Barbara Johns is one step closer to Washington, D.C. A sculptor has been selected for the statue destined for the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall portraying Barbara Rose Johns Powell as the teenage Barbara Johns, when she rallied the students at the all-Black Robert Russa Moton High School to walk out in protest of their substandard learning conditions. […]
You don’t have to be a fan of NASCAR to appreciate our new entry on the legendary Danville-born driver Wendell Oliver Scott. Scott was already locally famous as a taxi driver-turned-moonshine runner when he drove a souped-up Ford in his first race at Danville Fairgrounds Speedway in 1952. Despite financial obstacles and continued instances of […]
Encyclopedia Virginia is pleased to present our new entry about the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia, the first in a series of new entries about the history and culture of the eleven officially recognized Virginia Indian tribes—past and present. “EV knew we needed to do a better job of representing the history and culture of Virginia’s tribal […]
How should Virginia commemorate the American Revolution? Whose stories will be told and how as we approach the semiquincentennial in 2026? Why is expanding and complicating the narrative of the Revolution important? These are questions we are asking ourselves at Encyclopedia Virginia as we embark on our new American Revolution project “By the People: The Inclusive Story of […]
It’s a wrap on Encyclopedia Virginia‘s first giving campaign, and we would like to thank everyone who made it a success. Whether you gave a gift, attended our EntryPoint event, told us why EV was meaningful to you, or simply visited the site, we are so grateful for your support and your role in our […]
We’re trying something new at Encyclopedia Virginia and invite you to participate. EV’s mission is to provide a free, reliable multimedia resource that tells the inclusive story of Virginia for those who seek to understand how the past informs the present and future. While we’ve been fortunate and grateful to receive financial support from a […]
Our new entry on the Virginia History and Textbook Commission explores another facet of the Commonwealth’s mid-twentieth century effort to hold back the hands of time in a country that was moving toward desegregation. Like the Massive Resistance campaign that shut down public schools in some Virginia communities rather than comply with the Brown v. […]
Encyclopedia Virginia has been online for almost 14 years. Recently, we’ve been taking time to think about how and why we do what we do. We have begun to revisit our editorial processes and older entries as we work to tell the inclusive history of Virginia. As a part of that self-reflection, we’re interested in learning […]
