Current exhibitions

End of an Era: The Photography of Jack Jeffers The President’s Photographer: Fifty Years Inside the Oval Office

March 4, 2013–July 8, 2013
John F. Kennedy was the first president to have an official photographer, and nearly every president since has had one. Photographic images have become an increasingly critical tool in how we understand our presidents. This National Geographic exhibition features dozens of rarely seen images of recent U.S. presidents through the eyes of their official photographers. Featuring images taken in tense times and on joyous occasions, during official meetings and at informal moments, the show explores the role of the president’s photographer, documenting for history every possible aspect of presidency. Label copy accompanying each image offers a fresh and candid viewpoint on life and work from the photographer. The exhibition also includes the National Geographic documentary about Pete Souza, President Obama’s chief White House photographer.

End of an Era: The Photography of Jack Jeffers

February 11, 2013–May 26, 2013
This exhibition features more than twenty silver sulfide prints by award-winning naturalist photographer and Farmville, Virginia, native Jack Jeffers. The images depicted were taken in Virginia’s Blue Ridge region in the late 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. They showcase Virginia’s rugged mountain people, weather-beaten structures, and well-hidden Appalachian landscapes. All of the text is taken from stories Jack Jeffers tells about what he experienced when photographing the people and places. Visitors get to learn about the subject of each image through the artist’s own words.

An Artist’s Story: Civil War Drawings by Edwin Forbes What Remains of Edward Beyer's Blue Ridge: Landscapes of Salem and Liberty

October 15, 2012-December 30, 2013
In the 1850s, German artist Edward Beyer traveled throughout western Virginia and painted landscapes of many of the small towns in the Blue Ridge Mountains. These paintings are remarkable not only for their beauty but also their attention to detail. This exhibition uses Beyer’s landscapes as documents to compare the bustling communities of the middle nineteenth century with the Blue Ridge towns today.

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A View of Salem of Virginia in 1855

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

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• 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.

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• Online exhibition | Order exhibition catalog

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.

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• Press release