October is Archives Month in Virginia, and we'd like to invite you to join in the celebration, "Homegrown: Celebrating Virginia’s Cultural Heritage in Its Archives & Special Collections!" Whether it’s agriculture, viticulture, aquaculture, horticulture, food culture, or film culture, Virginia has a wealth of diverse culture. During Archives Month 2013, the Commonwealth’s archives and special collections will be highlighting the historical records, photographs, and moving images that document Virginia’s many traditions. Within these customs and traditions are aspects of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and collective memory that tie communities to where they’ve been and where they are going.

Please enjoy and share the Archives Month poster, created from images submitted from fifteen archival repositories across the state. The poster highlights Virginians' rich cultural traditions with images from Virginia archives and manuscript collections. (See Downloads to download a pdf of the poster or bookmark).

We also welcome you to explore your Virginia history by delving into an archives collection near you during the month of October. Numerous programs and lectures are slated to take place at institutions around the Commonwealth, so keep track of new events on this web page or on the Archives Month Facebook page. Visit your local repository to see what they’ve “cultivated” for your reading and viewing pleasure. You just might find something unexpected!

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Virginia Archives Month Events:

Special Collections Open House
University of Mary Washington, Simpson Library
Saturday, September 21, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Tour the library, 3D printing lab, and visit the University Archives and Special Collections. Guests will get to view an array of memorabilia from the University Archives collection and a selection of rare books, ranging from Edgar Allan Poe’s first publication of The Raven to John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Coffee and refreshments will be available on the first floor of the Library.

Duck and Cover: Exploring Virginia's Atomic Culture in the Digital Age
Virginia Historical Society
Saturday September 28, 10.30am – 12.00pm
Children $17 Members $10 (Join today) Seniors $17 Adults $17

Air raid drills. Conelrad. Bomb shelters. Duck and cover. All of these were familiar terms to Americans in the Cold War culture of the 1950s. The future looked uncertain in the new Atomic Age because of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. People lived with the threat of nuclear war as part of their daily lives. This tour, led by chief librarian Frances Pollard and senior education specialist Evan Liddiard, will feature survival literature, manuscripts, and objects from Virginia during the Cold War, along with a look at how the VHS uses cutting edge technology to share its collections with a worldwide audience. Reservations are required and may be made online or in the VHS Pusey Museum Shop.

Come Tour the Archives of the Commonwealth at the Library of Virginia
Wednesday, October 02, 10:00 AM–Noon, 
Free. Space is limited. Call 804-692-3605.

Take a behind-the-scenes tour of Virginia’s largest documentary history repository. See how the Commonwealth’s records are conserved and made accessible to researchers. Attendees will also have the chance to view rare and interesting materials from the archival collection.

Unique Family Recipe Contest
The Library of Virginia
October 2-25, 2013
Free (online)

Do you have a recipe passed down from generation to generation that’s a key ingredient to your family’s unique story? Is a holiday season not complete without grandma’s checkerboard cake? Share those special recipes that celebrate your family’s traditions. Winners will be selected for Best and Oldest recipes. Do you have a wacky recipe with strange ingredients or weirdly confusing instructions? We also have a category for the Strangest recipe.  Eligible winners will have their recipes and family stories featured here on Out of the Box and will receive a prize pack from the Virginia Shop. To enter, send a copy of your recipe (photos of that food-stained recipe card are encouraged!) along with a brief description of why it is special to you and your family to lvahomegrown@gmail.com. Please view the full recipe contest rules.

Stories at the Museum
Virginia Historical Society
Saturday October 5, 11.00am – 12.00pm
Free

The Virginia Historical Society is offering special educator-led readings of history books. Every program will include a group reading of the selected history-themed picture book and a craft activity related to the text. Programs take place the first and third Saturday of each month at 11:00 a.m. October 5 & 19: Famous Virginians Month. Stories at the Museum programs are free and open to children of all ages.

First House: Two Centuries with Virginia's First Families by Mary Miley Theobald
Virginia Historical Society
Thursday October 10, 12.00pm – 1.00pm
Children $4 Members Free (Join today) Seniors $5 Adults $6
Main Building
Robins Family Forum
Conceived during the Revolutionary War, built during the War of 1812, and looted during the Civil War, Virginia's executive mansion has endured fires, threats, riots, and hurricanes. Written to coincide with the mansion's bicentennial in 2013, First House: Two Centuries with Virginia's First Family by Mary Miley Theobald brings to life the private stories of the governors and their families who shaped the destiny of this unique home. The book traces triumph and tragedy through the turbulence of wars, fires, economic depressions, and renovations in a story that mirrors Virginia's progress from the nineteenth century into the twenty-first.

Come Tour the Archives of the Commonwealth at the Library of Virginia
Wednesday, October 16, 10:00 AM–Noon, 
Free. Space is limited. Call 804-692-3605.

Take a behind-the-scenes tour of Virginia’s largest documentary history repository. See how the Commonwealth’s records are conserved and made accessible to researchers. Attendees will also have the chance to view rare and interesting materials from the archival collection.

The Great Western Virginia Cover-Up: Historic Quilts & Bedcovers
Virginia Historical Society
Wednesday October 16, 12.00pm – 1.00pm
Children $4 Members Free (Join today) Seniors $5 Adults $6
Main Building

Explore historic quilts and bedcovers during this guided tour of The Great Western Virginia Cover-Up: Historic Quilts & Bedcovers.
The Great Western Virginia Cover-Up: Historic Quilts & Bedcovers presents more than thirty bedcovers—spreads, quilts, coverlets, blankets, and a rare bed rug—made in western Virginia between 1800 and 1950. During this guided tour, Blue Ridge Institute & Museum director Roddy Moore will explore patterns, methods, and fabrics passed down through generations of Virginia families. He will explain the intense research that his museum staff and exhibition consultants conducted to determine origins, dates, and cloth types presented in the show—including stories about a ballad singer, a character witness for moonshiners, and a mysterious possible future husband.

J. Harvie Wilkinson, Jr., Lecture - "In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin"
Virginia Historical Society
Thursday October 17, 5.30pm – 6.30pm
Members Free to Councils; $18 to Members (Join today)
First Baptist Church

On October 17, Erik Larson will deliver the 2013 J. Harvie Wilkinson, Jr., Lecture entitled "In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin." Erik Larson chronicles William Dodd's time in Germany in a new book, In the Garden of Beasts. It's a detailed portrait of the man who served for four years as the ambassador to Germany before resigning — after repeatedly clashing with both Nazi Party officials and the State Department.
A light reception and book signing will take place at the Virginia Historical Society following the lecture.
Please note: this is a members-only lecture. Reservations are required. Seating is limited. Overflow seating will be used once capacity is reached in the sanctuary at First Baptist Church.

No Child Left Behind: Education in Virginia
Virginia Historical Society
Saturday October 26, 10.30am – 12.00pm
Children $17 Members $10 (Join today) Seniors $17 Adults $17
Main Building

Explore the history of education and the public school system in Virginia during this behind the scenes tour led by VHS educational services manager Bill Obrochta.
In 1869, the new Underwood Constitution mandated that the commonwealth establish and maintain a statewide system of public schools. Of course Virginians had been educating their children, both formally and informally, for centuries. In this tour, we examine photographs, student notebooks, teacher rosters, diaries, primers, textbooks, artifacts, and other items in the collections that document the long history of children’s education in Virginia. Reservations are required. You may purchase your ticket online or in the Pusey Museums Shop.

Copyright: The Archivist & the Law
The Library of Virginia
Monday and Tuesday, October 28–29,
Early-Bird Registration Deadline: September 29, 2013

This two-day workshop is provided at no cost to the first 15 registrants. In addition, a limited number of travel stipends may also be available for attendees traveling more than 150 miles from Richmond.  Please note that you must be an archivist employed in the state of Virginia to be eligible for this scholarship.  Workshop attendance is capped at 30 attendees.

 

Homegrown: Celebrating Virginia’s Cultural Heritage in Its Archives & Special Collections
The Library of Virginia
Wednesday, October 30, 6:00–8:30 PM 
Free. 
This unique event brings together food-culture historians—the modern interpreters of historical foodways—and local food-movement advocates: practitioners, growers, and promoters of regional food and beverages. The keynote presentation will be by chef Patrick Evans-Hylton, author of Dishing Up Virginia: 145 Recipes That Celebrate Colonial Traditions and Contemporary Flavors followed by a Q & A session. Attendees will then be able to enjoy a Virginia open house with various practitioners, growers, and promoters of regional food and beverage culture. Enjoy a Virginia open house with tastings, literature, and a chance to talk with the specialists. Virginia products and books will be for sale and related items from the Library of Virginia’s collection will be displayed.

Family of Assassins: The Surratts of Maryland by David O. Stewart
Virginia Historical Society
Thursday October 31, 12.00pm – 1.00pm
Children $4 Members Free (Join today) Seniors $5 Adults $6
Main Building
Robins Family Forum

Everyone knows about John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. But what about Mary Surratt, the boardinghouse keeper who "kept the nest that hatched the egg" of assassination and was the first woman executed by the United States government? Or her son John, a Confederate courier and boon companion to Booth, who fled through Canada and Britain to Vatican City, ending up as a Papal Zouave until he was chased across the Mediterranean and hauled back to face a Washington, D.C., jury that deadlocked and set him free?

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Archives Month is a collaborative effort to celebrate the commonwealth’s archival and special collections repositories and the rich cultural record they protect. It is a project of the Library of Virginia, in conjunction with the Virginia State Historical Records Advisory Board, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference.