Featured Collection Items Letter, Granville White Spraggins to Ritta Boscoe 20 November 1853 Diary, William Gwathmey 30 November–5 December 1859 Slave Auction, Virginia by LeFevre Cranstone, c. 1860s Chimborazo Teacher's Register November 1868 Broadside, from the Committee 2 April 2 1866 The Fifteenth Amendment, 1870 Lithograph by James C. Beard Letter, Giles B. Jackson 28 July 1879 Grand Fountain, United Order of True Reformers Photographic Composite, c. 1900 Leonie Helen Holmes, 1909 Photograph by Foster Studio Letter, Jerome Baskett 8 October 1944 Speech, Roy Wilkins 27 February 1958 Sketch of Arthur Ashe by Paul DiPasquale, 1993

Collections

The collections of the Virginia Historical Society include more than 8 million cataloged manuscripts; 150,000 books (15,000 of which are classified as rare or unique); more than 5,000 maps; 1,200 newspaper titles and 300 serials; more than 4,000 pieces of sheet music; more than 1,000 portraits and other paintings; 200,000 photographs; and in excess of 25,000 museum objects, including textiles, silver, furniture, and weaponry. Our 20,000 items of paper ephemera range from funeral notices to inauguration programs. We have been collecting museum items since 1834.

Materials that relate to the African American experience in Virginia can be found in abundance in all the categories listed above. In doing this project, we chose specific items to highlight various themes in African American history and to demonstrate the breadth of our holdings. The items we have chosen for this project include letters, diaries, broadsides, government documents, telegrams, paintings, prints, museum objects, and paper ephemera.