Encyclopedia Virginia’s September fundraising campaign is underway to raise $10,000 to support free, public access to Virginia history.
While we’ve been fortunate and grateful to receive financial support from a variety of sources throughout our history, projects like ours thrive with reader support. When readers contribute, we can create nuanced, relevant content that helps students, journalists, educators, and everyday citizens understand Virginia’s history and culture. And when we understand our past, we can move toward a better future.
We believe that everyone deserves access to nuanced Virginia history. That’s why we launched EV fifteen years ago: to create a trustworthy resource for the public. We collaborate with subject-matter experts to share stories about Virginia’s history and culture. We fact-check every word. And it’s all available, for free, to anyone with an Internet connection. Join us in giving students at every level free access to Virginia history.
Here’s how you can help:
- Email us at ev@virginiahumanities.org and tell us in a sentence or two why EV matters to you. We’ll share responses on social media.
- Follow EV on social—Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter—and share our posts about the campaign.
- Sign up for our newsletter.
- Make a tax-deductible donation of any size to EV.
Thank you for your continued support of EV. And don’t forget to register for our upcoming EntryPoint webinar.
EntryPoint: The Oyster King of New York
Join EV editor Patti Miller from 12-1 pm on September 20 in conversation with Joanne Hyppolite of the National Museum of African American History and Culture as they discuss the remarkable life of culinary entrepreneur and activist Thomas Downing.
Downing was the “Oyster King of New York” who owned Downing’s Oyster House, one of the most successful restaurants and catering companies in nineteenth-century New York. Downing was born in 1791 on Chincoteague Island, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. His parents had been enslaved by a major landowner in the area and freed prior to 1783. Growing up surrounded by the waters of the Chesapeake Bay familiarized Downing with harvesting seafood. Downing was actively involved in New York’s free Black community, including its struggle for equal rights and its many civic organizations. FREE/ZOOM: REGISTER HERE
