Virginia History—World Wide

By Charles F. Bryan, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer

During Hurricane Isabel, we were reminded of what it was like for our ancestors to live without electricity. For more than a century now, Virginians, at least town dwellers, have come to rely on electric power as a necessity of daily life. More recently we have also developed an equal dependence on computers and the internet. The VHS shares in that dependency. Email has transformed communications, and computerized databases have given us previously unheard-of intellectual control over collections and cataloging.

Then there is the web and the power it gives us to extend the reach of the VHS around the world. From a modest single-page electronic billboard less than a decade ago, our web site (www.vahistorical.org) has grown into a multi-faceted information, research, and educational resource. In 2003 we will serve nearly a million pages to hundreds of thousands of online visitors. Commitment to quality and service is reflected in our online presence, and the site is constantly updated and upgraded.

A viewer anywhere in the world may learn about and benefit from virtually every VHS program. By examining the online catalog before they visit our reading room, researchers prepare themselves to make the most efficient use of their time at the Society. Members have ready, up-to-date access to information about events, lectures, and exhibitions. And they may order from our online shop and even renew their memberships or make annual gifts through the secure site.

Increasingly, schoolteachers and students use the web site to learn about our collective past. Recently, we called on a number of Virginia educators to help us develop an online companion to The Story of Virginia, our long-term exhibition that stretches from prehistoric times to the present and is located in the Robins Center for Virginia History. In this part of the site, teachers and students can find nearly 100 images, including artifacts, photographs, paintings, and documents that help bring the past to life. Teachers can enhance their lesson plans with a wide variety of activities, links, and detailed references to Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOLs). The casual visitor will find a concise, engaging, richly illustrated narrative—a crash course in Virginia history.

Open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, the VHS web site permits us to carry out our mission without interruption and well beyond the confines of our walls. I encourage you to visit the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond—and on the web.

Posted November 2003
• Letter archive
• Charles F. Bryan, Jr. biography