Items to be conserved and digitized through a
Save America's Treasures grant include this 1781 letter from Sam Jones
to Capt. Henry Young reporting on progress in building boats and requesting
money to settle debt, part of the executive papers of Thomas Nelson,
Virginia's fourth governor.
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Library Receives Save
America's Treasures Grant
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The Library of Virginia Foundation has been awarded a Save America’s Treasures
grant of over $299,000 in support of a Library of Virginia project to conserve and
digitize the executive papers of Thomas Nelson, Virginia's fourth governor. The
award, funded by the National Park Service, in partnership with the National
Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the
Institute of Museum and Library Services, was announced as part of $25 million in
Save America’s Treasures grants from the Historic Preservation Fund.
The Library’s project will involve the conservation and digitization of
2,048 documents from Thomas Nelson’s partial term as governor of Virginia between
June 12 and November 22 in 1781, when he confronted challenges at the end of the
Revolutionary War, the formation of the nation and the daily operations of a newly
formed state.
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Virginia Literary Awards &
Silent Auction
Raise Support for the
Library
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The Library presents the Virginia Literary Awards, the commonwealth’s premier
event for honoring Virginia writers and their contributions to literature, on
Saturday, Oct. 14 at 6 p.m. The evening features an awards ceremony, cocktails,
dinner and a silent auction. Also honored at the event will be the winner of this
year’s Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award, Hans Luijten, for his book
Jo van Gogh-Bonger: The Woman Who Made Vincent Famous.
The Virginia Literary
Awards are hosted by award-winning author Adriana Trigiani, presented by Dominion
Energy and supported by Carole and Marcus Weinstein. Limited tickets are available!
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Don’t miss the Virginia Literary Awards Silent Auction! Packages
for this exclusive silent auction include unique experiences with Virginia
authors, local cuisine and exceptional research opportunities! The auction is now
live at valiteraryawards.cbo.io. All proceeds benefit the Library's
conservation, education and community outreach efforts.
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See 200 Years, 200
Stories Before It Closes on Oct. 28
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Make plans to visit the Library of Virginia’s anniversary exhibition, 200
Years, 200 Stories, before it closes on Saturday, Oct. 28. The exhibition
and multimedia experience celebrate 200 Virginians whose fascinating narratives
are housed in the Library’s collections and together reflect the stories of
Virginia.
Explore stories and collection items from Virginians like Ethel Bailey Furman, one
of the first Black female architects in Virginia; David Martin, founder of the
Martin Agency and creator of the famed tagline “Virginia is for Lovers”; Chinese
immigrant Ow Chuck Sam, who became a naturalized citizen and served in the armed
forces during World War II; and many more.
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Above (left to right): Valerie Glenn, Business &
Public Affairs Collections librarian, Virginia Commonwealth University; Lynde
Roberts, technical services documents librarian, Hamden-Sydney College; Sandra
Treadway, Librarian of Virginia; Mary Clark, Library of Virginia acquisitions
and access management director; Scott Matheson, superintendent of documents,
U.S. Government Publishing Office; Kate Pritcher, chief of Federal Depository
Support Services, U.S. Government Publishing Office; Barbie Selby, retired
regional depository librarian from the University of Virginia; and Trillian
Hosticka, regional depository librarian, University of Virginia. Below: Dorothy
Harrison, Library of Virginia federal and state publications cataloger, poses
with the celebratory cake.
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Library Celebrates the
Federal Depository Library
Program
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The Library of Virginia continued its 200th anniversary commemoration on Sept. 21
with a celebration of the Federal Depository Library Program and our government
publications collection, which dates to 1789 and contains almost 700,000 items.
These include the earliest official publications of the United States government:
The Journals of the United States Congress.
The Library welcomed guests from the U.S. Government Publishing Office, government
documents librarians from around the state and Library Board members. Guests
viewed a display of historic federal publications and heard a lecture on the
origins of the Library’s book collection from our historian emeritus, Brent
Tarter.
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Oct. 5 Panel Discussion Explores Virginia
LGBTQ+ Communities, Politics & the Law
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In honor of LGBTQ+ History Month in October, the Library will present a panel
discussion on Thursday, Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. on Virginia's LGBTQ+ history through the
lens of law and government. Reflecting on discrimination, stigmatization, LGBTQ+
community building and political activism, a group of panelists will speak to the
importance of LGBTQ+ voices in the state's civic institutions.
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C. Paul Brockwell Jr., Library of Virginia Board chair and associate director of
communications for MCV Foundation, will moderate the discussion with Aurora Higgs,
vice president of operations at HUMiN, Inc., and founder of Borealis Consultancy;
Cathleen Rhodes, director of Gay Cultural Studies at Old Dominion University; and
Jeff Trammell, rector emeritus/former rector and member of the Board of Visitors
of William & Mary, and owner of Trammell and Company.
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Archives Month in Virginia
Celebrates Community-Made Zines and Self-Published Material
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Each October, archival and special collections institutions across the
commonwealth join together to celebrate the importance of our shared documentary
history. This year's Virginia Archives Month theme, Community Made:
Zines and Self-Published Material, highlights the power and opportunity in
the do-it-yourself efforts of both archivists and archives users.
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On Thursday, Oct. 12 at 6 p.m., join us for a free
virtual workshop, “Make a Zine for Archives Month,” with Jen Thomas, Book
Arts Program director at the University of Richmond. Learn three zine-folding
techniques, select a zine format and then make your own!
On Saturday, Oct. 21 at 12
p.m. and 2:00 p.m. the Library will offer tours highlighting LGBTQ+
materials in our collections (to also acknowledge LGBTQ+ History Month) and the
role of government archives in preserving and making accessible the records of our
civic actions. Each tour will be followed by a zine-making workshop.
On Thursday, Oct. 24 at 12 p.m., join us for “Zines
from the Pandemic and Beyond: Strategies for Archives,” a free virtual talk
exploring how self-publishing strategies in the U.S. have transformed since the
late 20th century, presented by Caroline Meyers, research and collections
specialist with VCU’s Special Collections and Archives.
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LVA On the Go Visits Fredericksburg and
Lebanon in October
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The Library of Virginia continues its
statewide tour in October with LVA On the Go! As part of our yearlong 200th
anniversary celebration, our custom-built van is bringing some of the Library’s
vast resources, staff expertise and programming to every corner of the
commonwealth.
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Nov. 2 Weinstein Author Series
Talk Features an Artist’s View of the Commonwealth
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Artist and author Suzanne Stryk will discuss her first book, The Middle of
Somewhere: An Artist Explores the Nature of Virginia, on Thursday, Nov. 2
at 6 p.m. during the final Carole Weinstein
Author Series talk of 2023. Stryk journeyed through her home state on a
mission inspired by the reflective, encyclopedic sensibility of Thomas Jefferson’s
book Notes on the State of Virginia. The creatures in their habitats and
the people she meets are characters in the book, a tapestry of essays, lush
sketches and ephemera. A book signing will follow this free talk. Books can be
purchased in person or online at the Virginia Shop.
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DID YOU KNOW?
The Virginia Literary
Awards Debuted in 1998
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Each autumn since 1998, the Library has hosted the Virginia Literary Awards. After
the move to its current building in 1997, the Library wanted to offer a signature
event. The Library’s Virginia Authors Room (now called the Virginia Authors
Collection) gave us an opportunity to focus on those authors at a time when no one
else in Richmond was highlighting the richness of the state’s literary
community.
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In 2001, the awards “celebration” didn’t seem appropriate in the aftermath of
Sept. 11, so the regular event was cancelled and a smaller literary awards
luncheon was held for finalists and their guests at the Executive Mansion. In
2003, Hurricane Isabel collided with the awards and the event was rescheduled
because of power outages and water problems caused by the storm. More recently,
the COVID crisis required the Library to present the Virginia Literary Awards
virtually in 2020 and 2021, but the event returned to the Library in person last
year.
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