Current exhibitions
Virginia Rocks! The History of Rockabilly in the Commonwealth
August 28–December 12, 2010
Rockabilly was one of several musical styles of "Rock-and-Roll," the catch phrase for youth music of the post-World War II era. Rockabilly was an energetic blend of blues and country powered by dramatic solo singers (also a feature of post–"Big Band" adult music), fast-walking bass runs, strong guitar licks, catchy lyrics, and bold stage movements. Numerous Virginia bands and singers embraced the rockabilly style—and a few even gained national recognition—but their impact on Virginia's cultural legacy has been largely overlooked by historians and musicologists. This exhibition—organized by the Blue Ridge Institute of Ferrum College—includes both well-known and lesser-known Virginia artists who recorded 45 rpm rockabilly records performed on radio "dance party" television shows and played for thousands of teenagers in dance halls and school gyms in the 1950s and early 1960s. The exhibit explores the rise of rockabilly as a then-radical departure from established popular music and an early chapter in the phenomenon of youth rebellion, the place of rockabilly in the larger youth culture of the pre-Beatles era, and the demise of the genre in the early 1960s as the music and movie industries invested in the softer sound of "teen idols." It includes photographs, rare recordings, stage costumes, a jukebox, and musical instruments. The music itself will be presented through audio recordings and rare video recordings.
Pictured: Don Day and the Knights played shows in nearly every high school in the Roanoke Valley between 1959 and 1962. The versatile outfit also frequented colleges and beer joints. They were one of several rockabilly groups who utilized the piano for their boogies. Image courtesy of Linda Vernon.
What's related:
• Gallery walk
Bizarre Bits: Oddities from the Collection
June 12, 2010–February 13, 2011
Bizarre things have crept into the Virginia Historical Society's collections since its founding in 1831. These peculiar, perplexing, or even grotesque objects provide insight into the hopes, fears, assumptions, and practices of the past that are foreign to us today. Historical items range from the bullet that killed the first Confederate officer, nails from the part of the Capitol that collapsed in 1870, a list of knights at an 1865 joust, fungus carved with the likeness of R. E. Lee on Traveller, "Junior Partner" cigarettes in their original pack featuring an image of a child, a 6,000 year old piece of wood from the Canary Islands, and a silhouette cut by an armless Virginia woman with her mouth. Personal items include pieces of James Madison's hair, letters telling of fingernail clippings sent by a 19th century naval officer to his wife as tokens of endearment, and a smallpox scab taken from an infant in 1876.
Pictured: Carving in fungus of Robert E. Lee on Traveller by Frances Gibboney (1867–1941), Wytheville, Virginia
What's related:
• Press release |
Read Curator William M. S. Rasmussen's blog about the exhibition | Gallery walk
 Heads and Tales
April 26, 2008–December 30, 2011
Heads and Tales presents portraits of five people with compelling personal stories—a woman who inspired the English poet Alexander Pope; a royal governor who was murdered by a mob; a Federalist politician struggling against the tide in Jeffersonian Virginia; a patron of the arts who made his fortune as a robber baron in the Gilded Age; and a Virginia suffragette, freethinker, and political radical. Their tales are told by analysis of components of their pictorially complex portraits.
What's related:
• Press release | Online exhibition
 Virginians at Work
Long-term exhibition
This long-term exhibition tells the story of how Virginians have made a living and why jobs have changed over time. Focusing on people rather than on abstract principles, the exhibition follows four broad categories: "A Colonial Economy (1600–1780)"; "A Commercial Economy (1780–1865)"; "An Industrial Economy (1865–1945)"; and "A Service Economy (1945–2006)." These titles refer to the most dynamic elements of the economy for each period. Learn more
What's related:
• Press release
 The Story of Virginia, an American Experience
Long-term exhibition
This multi-gallery exhibition covers 16,000 years of Virginia history from prehistoric times to the present. It features a dugout canoe, a Conestoga wagon, a street car, and the largest collection of Virginia artifacts on long-term display.
What's related:
• Online exhibition | Order exhibition catalog | Gallery walks
 The Virginia Manufactory of Arms Collection
Long-term exhibition
From 1802 to 1821, the state of Virginia did not rely on the federal government to arm its militia but manufactured its own weapons. This new exhibition presents a comprehensive collection of the products of the Virginia Manufactory of Arms, a state-of-the-art water-powered facility that stood in Richmond. On display are flintlock muskets, rifles, pistols, and swords, including examples of the weapons that were used by the militia defending Virginia during the British campaigns on Chesapeake Bay in 1813–14. This collection is important not only as a chapter in the history of armament, but also as evidence of an episode in the evolution of state and national interests in the early American republic.
What's related:
• Press release
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