BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Richmond -- Virginia State Library -- incl Exhibit: Myth and Memory display

VA -- Richmond -- Virginia State Library -- incl Exhibit: Myth and Memory display:

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Description of Pictures: Myth and Memory: Understanding 400 Years of Virginia History
(January 8, 2007—January 15, 2008)
Myth and Memory: Understanding Four Hundred Years of Virginia History examined how Virginians have remembered their past through public events, through writing about history, and through marking history on the landscape. Because Virginians are peculiarly interested in, and contentious about, their past, their historical memory often results in competing interpretations.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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[1] STLIB_071203_004.JPG	[2] STLIB_071203_009.JPG	[3] STLIB_071203_010.JPG
[4] STLIB_071203_014.JPG	[5] STLIB_071203_017.JPG	[6] STLIB_071203_024.JPG
[7] STLIB_071203_028.JPG	[8] STLIB_071203_033.JPG	[9] STLIB_071203_034.JPG
[10] STLIB_071203_037.JPG	[11] STLIB_071203_042.JPG	[12] STLIB_071203_045.JPG
[13] STLIB_071203_049.JPG	[14] STLIB_071203_052.JPG	[15] STLIB_071203_064.JPG
[16] STLIB_071203_069.JPG	[17] STLIB_071203_070.JPG	[18] STLIB_071203_073.JPG
[19] STLIB_071203_077.JPG	[20] STLIB_071203_081.JPG	[21] STLIB_071203_082.JPG
[22] STLIB_071203_086.JPG	[23] STLIB_071203_091.JPG	[24] STLIB_071203_093.JPG
[25] STLIB_071203_102.JPG	[26] STLIB_071203_105.JPG	[27] STLIB_071203_110.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. STLIB_071203_017.JPG: In 1924, Governor E. Lee Trinkle accepted a gavel and tree section from what was known as the Washington Elm, the tree under which, according to legend, George Washington took command of the Continental Army in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1923, the tree died because of age, disease, and street construction. The City of Cambridge (MA) presented sections to each of the states.
2. STLIB_071203_028.JPG: Preservation of Historic Sites: "We cannot escape history." -- Abraham Lincoln Preservation of the past through physical structures is hardly unique to Virginia. The state, however, was home to two of the earliest organizations -- the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association and the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities -- that sought to preserve physical remains of the commonwealth's past. Both organizations were founded before 1900 by women who, denied open access to politics and many public venues, embraced preservation as part of their responsibilities as nurturers. Preserving historic places, they reasoned, enabled them to educate and inculcate the next generation with the virtues of past Virginians. The Virginia landscape is filled with historic house museums that connect visitors to events and local dignitaries of the past. The National Park Service, established in 1916, included historic properties within its system, such as the Petersburg National Military Park (1926) and the George Washington Birthplace Monument (1930) at Wakefield. In an ironic pairing, the Richmond National Battlefield Park, which memorializes the Civil War, administers the Maggie Walker House, former home of the first African American woman bank president in the United States.
3. STLIB_071203_033.JPG: Whose War Was It? Debating the Civil War "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past." -- William Faulkner The American Civil War has been the subject of intense controversy in Virginia. The causes and effects of the war were debated even before the surrender of Robert E. Lee and his forces at Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865. Throughout the war, some Virginians supported the union. Unionists in western Virginia formed the state of West Virginia in 1863. Almost immediately with the war's end in 1865, white and black Virginians began shaping opposing histories of the events. For many white Virginians who fought for the Confederacy, the end of the war was a time of bitterness and resentment at the presence of federal troops. Black Virginians, on the other hand, rejoiced at the end of slavery and the hope of full participation as citizens of the commonwealth and the nation. With the 150th anniversary approaching, the debates will continue in scholarly conferences, museum exhibitions, and public meetings.
4. STLIB_071203_034.JPG: The Lost Cause: Even before Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865, white Virginians struggled to justify their role in the Civil War. During the post-war period of radical social and economic change, women became particularly active in shaping the public memory of the Civil War. In what could have been construed as an act of civil disobedience, Richmond women decorated the graves of Confederate dead in Hollywood Cemetery. Women organized fund-raising campaigns to erect monuments to Civil War soldiers and political leaders. Virginia women took the lead in forming the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1895 and a year later established the Confederate Memorial Literary Society in the former White House of the Confederacy. In these public acts, Virginia women helped to create the myth of an antebellum Virginia that was genteel, patrician, and beneficent.
5. STLIB_071203_052.JPG: What Does Jamestown Mean? "I know of no way of judging the future but by the past." -- Patrick Henry In commemorations of the founding of Jamestown, organizers acknowledged the role of Virginia in the founding and development of the United States by advertising Jamestown as "the place where America began." The public events ignored earlier explorations and settlements in America by the Spanish, French, and Dutch. The commemorations generated notes the role of English men to the exclusion of women, African Americans, and, with the exception of Pocahontas and Powhatan, Virginia Indians. However, the events in 1807, 1857, 1907, and 1957 all were framed in contexts that extended beyond the boundaries of the commonwealth -- the American Revolution, growing sectionalism, become a world power, and fighting the Cold War.
6. STLIB_071203_064.JPG: Pocahontas
7. STLIB_071203_069.JPG: Jamestown Commemorations: Celebrations of the founding of Jamestown in 1807 and again in 1857 linked the early settlement to the establishment of democracy on the American continent. On 13 May 1807, a crowd of 1,500 to 3,000 people, by newspaper accounts, some of whom had direct experience with the American Revolution, celebrated the founding of Jamestown at the site with music, the firing of artillery, and a procession of ladies and civic dignitaries. Orations also celebrated the victory of Americans over the tyranny of the British monarchy in 1781 at nearby Yorktown, casting Jamestown as the beginning of what would become a unified nation. At the 1857 commemoration, speakers, including former U.S. president John Tyler, who spoke for two hours, asserted Virginia's role in the American Revolution even as the debate over slavery became increasingly tense.
8. STLIB_071203_070.JPG: 1907: The 1907 Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition stressed a common national origin as the United States marked its ascendancy as a world power. Originally intended to be a lesson in history, the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition quickly developed into a much more complex event. Organized by a federal commission, the exposition demonstrated American industrial and naval power with a massing of ships dubbed the "Great White Fleet." It also continued the post-Civil War reconciliation between North and South by stressing a common national origin. For the Virginia organizers and participants, the 300th anniversary was an opportunity to reassert the founding story -- the establishment of Jamestown in 1607 -- as the true historic event in the face of rising interest in the Pilgrim story. Significantly, at the insistence of the federal commission, a building was constructed for displays attesting to the contributions of African Americans to the country's history and development. Overseen by Giles B. Jackson, the Negro Building housed more than 3,000 exhibits, including dioramas sculpted by Meta Vaux Warwick Fuller that presented a chronology of the black experiences in America.
9. STLIB_071203_077.JPG: Memory of the Landscape: "Every man is his own historian." -- Carl Becker Public memory of historic events appears on the landscape. Have you ever read a historical highway marker or followed a heritage trail? Have you wondered why a street in your town was named after a person? These are examples of "memory-landscapes." Virginia's communities provide ordered, tangible representations of the past through activities such as naming streets and buildings after historic figures and events and holding dedication ceremonies for monuments and historic markers. This interactive map is based on the Virginia Historical Highway Marker Program, administered by the Department of Historic Resources, and presents the location of Virginia Historical Highway Markers across the commonwealth. You can explore the history, geography, themes and issues presented by marker content. We encourage you to think about your own community's past by examining how history is commemorated on Virginia's landscape.
10. STLIB_071203_081.JPG: George Washington: George Washington occupies a special place in Virginia and American history. A native Virginian, he became a revered leader during his lifetime and took an almost mythic status at his death in 1799. As the leader of the Continental Army, he accepted the surrender of British troops at Yorktown, ending the American Revolution. Washington was elected the first president of the United States and served two terms before retiring to his home, Mount Vernon. Communities regularly held balls or gatherings on Washington's birthday, and in 1889 the city of New York marked the centennial of Washington's inauguration as president. In 1858, the equestrian monument to Washington was dedicated in Capitol Square, in Richmond. Ann Pamela Cunningham founded the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association in 1853 to preserve his home. In 1932, the federal government established a national commission to celebrate the bicentennial of Washington's birth.
11. STLIB_071203_082.JPG: The George Washington Bicentennial Celebration: In 1932, Americans in every state celebrated the bicentennial of George Washington's birth. The federal George Washington Bicentennial Commission created four initiatives: educational activities, the building of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, a tree-planting campaign, and the restoration of Washington's birthplace at Wakefield. As the United States entered the Great Depression, Washington was held up as the ideal American who expressed strength in the face of adversity. The bicentennial events also served to defined what was "American" and to teach those values to immigrants.
Wikipedia Description: Library of Virginia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia, its archival agency, and the reference library at the seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and is located 2 blocks from the Virginia State Capitol building.

Formally founded by the Virginia General Assembly in 1823, the Library of Virginia organizes, cares for, and manages the state's collection of books and official records, many of which date back to the early colonial period. It houses what is believed to be the most comprehensive collection of materials on Virginia government, history, and culture available anywhere. Its research collections contain more than 808,500 bound volumes; 678,790 public documents; 410,330 microforms, including 45,684 reels of microfilmed newspapers; 308,900 photographs and other pictorial materials; 101.8 million manuscript items and records; and several hundred thousand prints, broadsides, and newspapers.

Among the Library's many distinguished publications, exhibitions, and educational programs is the Dictionary of Virginia Biography, a multivolume reference work documenting the contributions of Virginians to four centuries of local, state, and national history.

Since 1998, the Library of Virginia and the Library of Virginia Foundation have sponsored the annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards honoring outstanding Virginia authors and books about Virginia in the areas of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They also present annually a lifetime achievement award, whose past recipients are Ellen Glasgow (1998), Edgar Allan Poe (1999), Anne Spencer (2000), Booker T. Washington (2001), Mary Lee Settle (2002), Louis D. Rubin Jr. (2003), George Garrett (2004), Merrill D. Peterson (2005), William Styron (2006), and Tom Wolfe (2007).
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