[{"id":108,"date":"2025-09-04T20:15:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T20:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/?p=108"},"modified":"2025-09-04T20:28:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T20:28:58","slug":"lineage-land-and-legacy-early-northern-neck-families-and-their-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/2025\/09\/04\/lineage-land-and-legacy-early-northern-neck-families-and-their-beginnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Lineage, Land, and Legacy: Early Northern Neck Families and Their Beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blog is by Walker Hatch, VCU history major and Menokin spring 2025 intern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the economic viability of the Virginia colony became clear, prominent lineages of English gentlemen took notice. After the South bank of the Potomac River was officially patented by the Virginia colony in 1648, those fleeing from the conflict in Maryland fled South, across the river, and into Westmoreland County. This is the context in which three prominent Northern Neck\/Northern Neck-adjacent families established their lineage \u2014 the Washingtons, Taliaferros, and Lees (the focus of my research).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Washington, the establishing patriarch of the Washington lineage in America and direct ancestor to George Washington, built a house on land acquired through his father-in-law as early as 1660. The patriarch of the Lee family, Richard \u201cThe Immigrant\u201d Lee, came to the Virginia colony in 1635, and quickly established himself in politics and tobacco cultivation. Richard Lee began purchasing lands in the NNK as soon as 1653, coming to own thousands of acres in the region. By his death in 1664, he was the largest landholder in the colony, with 13,000 acres owned by him. Another prominent patriarch\u2014 Robert Taliaferro \u2014 owned vaste acreage in the NNK. Robert Taliaferro immigrated to the Virginia Colony in as early as 1647, and co-purchased 6,300 acres of land in the NNK with Lawrence Smith. All three of these men would become prominent tobacco planters with deep economic and political ties to the NNK region.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Col.
Col. Richard Lee I, Esq. (1618-1664), artist unknown<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After the Anglo-Powhatan War of 1644, the land North of the York River was seen as a frontier, largely \u201cuntamed.\u201d However, Native American tribes in the Northern Neck called this region home, and their forcible removal was considered necessary to achieve the goals of families like the Taliaferros, Washingtons, and Lees. In 1670, John Catlett (another prominent planter patriarch) is believed to have been killed by Natives near one of Robert Taliaferro\u2019s homes, Taliaferro’s Mount, during a \u201craid.\u201d All three founding patriarchs of the Washington, Lee, and Taliaferro families were involved in some way with the martial apparatuses of the Virginia Colony. These apparatuses were most often engaged in conflict with Natives of the area, securing land and thwarting threats. Family tradition holds that Robert Taliaferro himself died of wounds sustained during the same \u201cIndian raid\u201d that took Catlett\u2019s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All three families can also trace their origins back to England, where they enjoyed highly prestigious titles dating back hundreds of years. According to the traditional rules of primogeniture, the second and third born sons of men of consequence would either enter the clergy or the military. The founding patriarchs of the Washingtons, Lees, and Taliaferros were all not first-born, and thus they were relegated to carry on their family\u2019s lineage in the New World. While they may have not been inheritors of land or title in England, they still held the prestige and backing of their respective family name. Once they had acquired land in the colony, these men would develop a certain number of properties that would turn a profit (such as a plantation), with their manors often serving as cruxes for the politics of the day. The backbreaking work of clearing the densely wooded lands of the NNK was performed first by indentured servants paying off their passage to the colony, but as the economies of the area developed it became clear more labor was needed. There is no doubt planters of the NNK owned enslaved Native Americans, but these Natives were very likely not from the immediate area. The Native slave trade network functioned in this way traditionally, and it can be assumed any enslaved Natives purchased for their capacity for labor in the NNK were likely not from Virginia. This being said, the chattel slavery we typically imagine when using the word \u201cslave\u201d was not institutionalized in the way it would later be in the mid-1700s, thus there is room for the variability of the nature of their enslavement. The planters of Virginia pivoted away from indentured servitude and Native enslavement, instead turning towards the enslavement of Africans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woodlands that once covered the NNK were felled en masse by those in bondage. To do this, those laborers had to fight through the brush, fell stands of trees, haul the lumber out, pull out stumps and roots, clear debris, level the area, etc. This alone is years of labor, not to mention the subsequent labor in those fields the enslaved cleared. Some of this process may be skirted by a common colonial process, that of appropriating the fields cleared by Natives for hunting, agriculture, or settlement. Of course, this led to land disputes, as these clearings could be rather extensive and prime for homesteading\/European agriculture. As you can imagine, the colonial thirst for land often led to violent interactions with the Natives. On top of experiencing the violence of enslavement, those in bondage also had to reckon with the realities of Native hostility toward colonists. This tension is evident in the enslaved black population and indentured servant black population participating in Bacon\u2019s Rebellion (1676), even after 1640 when slavery began being institutionalized in Virginia. As the despicable practice grew more and more established, the extent and intensity of chattel slavery grew in the NNK.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Front
Front door keystone of the Menokin house, owned by Francis Lightfoot Lee. The designs are of tobacco leaves and flowers. Stored at the Menokin Foundation.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The founding patriarchs of the Lee, Washington, and Talliaferros were successful in their attempts to establish their historic families in the New World. Their wealth was built on settler-colonial violence and enslavement of both Natives and Africans. These prominent men all made calculated, apathetic, and unjust decisions in enslaving both the Natives and Africans. By the turn of the eighteenth century, chattel slavery was officially institutionalized in Colonial Virginia. The wealth rendered from slave labor and land speculation made the Taliaferros, Lees, and Washingtons of the NNK\/NNK area very wealthy. The wealth was passed on as land became more desired; and the land held by these planter families became more profitable. Tobacco continued to be the primary cash crop in the NNK up until the birth of the eventual owner of Menokin, Francis Lightfoot Lee, in 1734.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog is by Walker Hatch, VCU history major and Menokin spring 2025 intern. As the economic viability of the Virginia colony became clear, prominent lineages of English gentlemen took notice. After the South bank of the Potomac River was officially patented by the Virginia colony in 1648, those fleeing from the conflict in Maryland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1151,"featured_media":110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-intern-insights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":83,"date":"2025-06-05T15:31:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T15:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/?p=83"},"modified":"2025-06-05T20:01:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T20:01:16","slug":"behind-the-scenes-of-virginia-the-vietnam-war-with-guest-curator-emilie-raymond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/2025\/06\/05\/behind-the-scenes-of-virginia-the-vietnam-war-with-guest-curator-emilie-raymond\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Scenes of Virginia & the Vietnam War with guest curator Emilie Raymond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As guest curator, Emilie Raymond, Ph.D., published a series of “behind the scenes” Instagram posts about the exhibit “Virginia & the Vietnam War” on display at the Virginia Museum of History and culture to highlight the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon (April 30, 2025). The exhibit will be at the VMHC until July 2025. Some of the posts are below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now open @virginiahistory \u201cVirginia & the Vietnam War.\u201d As guest curator, I will be posting all month about the amazing people and artifacts featured in this exhibit in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

In choosing a theme for \u201cVirginia and the Vietnam War\u201d @virginiahistory I drew inspiration from Tim O\u2019Brien\u2019s classic Vietnam War novel \u201cThe Things They Carried.\u201d I first read O\u2019Brien\u2019s book in grad school, & it has always stuck with me. The theme also turned out to be an effective way to organize an exhibit by allowing me to focus on small physical items and emotional burdens carried during wartime.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"inspiration\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"stack<\/figure>
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These are just a sampling of the many insightful and informative books about Vietnam that I consulted as guest curator for \u201cVirginia & the Vietnam Wat\u201d @virginiahistory They cover policy, diplomacy, prisoners, combat, journalism, activism, refugees, and more. And so many Virginians have contributed to the conversation about the Vietnam War and its impact.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

A number of personal treasures that have become important family heirlooms to those impacted by the Vietnam War are on display for \u201cVirginia & the Vietnam War\u201d @virginiahistory. One example: the Tiet family lent one of the few items Joe Tiet was able to pack when he fled Vietnam with his family in 1979, a childhood shirt he wanted to pass down to his descendants. We were honored that so many participants allowed us to include these special mementos.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"red<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"packing<\/figure>
\n

I wanted to use as many unpublished photos as possible for the \u201cVirginia and the Vietnam War\u201d exhibit to offer viewers images and perspectives they had never seen. Luckily, archives across Virginia hold a variety of photographic treasures. One of my favorites: I.C. Norcom students weighing home made fruitcakes at the post office to send to soldiers. Not everyone likes fruitcake, but I bet the troops were happy to receive these!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Two of the wonderful people I worked with on \u201cVirginia & the Vietnam War\u201d @virginiahistory Paige Newman @newpaigeman assembled archival and object resources, helped me with curator standards, and did everything else in between. Laura Stoner @legstoner77 oversaw the oral history project connected to the exhibit and was a sensitive and conscientious interviewer. I definitely could not have done it without them!<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"raymond<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"South<\/figure>
\n

This is not only one of my favorite photos from the exhibit \u201cVirginia and the Vietnam war\u201d @virginiahistory<\/a> but a beautifully written story by South Hill native Thomas Bragg. Facilitated by the veterans writing project Home and Abroad, Bragg wrote to honor his friendship under fire with Chicago native Eddie Lama, who died on the last day of his tour in Vietnam. This short book is an excellent resource for Virginia educators. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

In an amazing coincidence, as guest curator for \u201cVirginia and the Vietnam War\u201d I met TWO veterans who, like me, grew up in Missouri and now live in Virginia. One is Lawrence \u201cPete\u201d Barnes, Jr. who even graduated from my alma mater Westminster College! Pete served two tours of duty in Vietnam before moving to Richmond where he has lived and worked for 40 years. He contributed to the exhibit with an oral history interview and by lending photographs and artifacts. You can check out Pete\u2019s story at the museum or online.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"emile<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"michael<\/figure>
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In an amazing coincidence, as guest curator for \u201cVirginia and the Vietnam War\u201d @virginiahistory TWO of the veterans I worked with, like me, grew up in Missouri and now live in Virginia. One is Michael Lund who is from Rolla\u2026only 10 miles from my little home town of St. James! Mike served as an Army war correspondent from 1979-71 and is an emeritus professor of English at Longwood University, where he founded the veterans writers workshop \u201cHome and Abroad.\u201d Mike contributed to the exhibit with an oral history, photographs and artifacts. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As guest curator, Emilie Raymond, Ph.D., published a series of “behind the scenes” Instagram posts about the exhibit “Virginia & the Vietnam War” on display at the Virginia Museum of History and culture to highlight the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon (April 30, 2025). The exhibit will be at the VMHC until July […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1151,"featured_media":86,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-connections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":35,"date":"2024-01-31T15:32:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T15:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/?p=35"},"modified":"2025-06-04T15:48:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T15:48:45","slug":"cataloging-richmonds-jewish-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/2024\/01\/31\/cataloging-richmonds-jewish-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Cataloging Richmond’s Jewish History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blog is by Mary Moody McLean, M.A. in History and a Certificate in Public History December 2023<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below the staircase at Beth Ahabah Museum and Archives<\/a> (BAMA) rests a large stone with unnatural craters. These dents resulted from bullets fired by the Nazi Sturmabteilung paramilitary and Schutzstaffel paramilitary forces on November 9, 1938 in Berlin.  The German synagogue where the stone resided was not the only target. Nazi forces destroyed storefronts, synagogues, cars, and houses in the effort to drive out the Jewish population and ultimately force them into concentration camps during World War II. This is the background of just one object in the Beth Ahabah collection, yet it so clearly demonstrates the importance of cataloging the lives and teachings of Jewish communities. Beth Ahabah achieves this mission in a humble archive on West Franklin Street in Richmond. Amongst the floor-to-ceiling bookcases, are snapshots of local Jewish history starting from the 1760s when Jews operating businesses in the Virginia Territory settled in Richmond. Beth Ahabah Museum and Archives is propelled with the mission that documents pertaining to Jewish history, traditions and practices must be preserved and catalogued to continue Jewish education in Richmond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I began working at Beth Ahabah as an intern archivist, I got hands-on experience with cataloging and preserving Beth Ahabah\u2019s important documents. My primary responsibilities at the archive included organizing and processing the papers of Shelly Berger, a current employee and former president of BAMA. The collection consists of meeting agendas, director’s reports, cash positions, other administrative documents, and email correspondence. For several hours each week over four months, I went folder by folder, organizing, cataloging, and verifying each document individually. It is such a special process being trusted to provide the utmost care, attention to detail, and importance to each document, whether it is the original handwritten By-Laws of the Beth Ahabah Trust or simply Shelly Berger\u2019s lunch order during a Trustees meeting. With determination, I managed to process 66% of the collection.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Process of Cataloging, Image by Mary McLean<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In addition to organizing the Berger collection, I also witnessed an accession of materials in the archives. One donor brought various Beth Ahabah memorabilia, including a copy of a letter from George Washington to K.K. Beth Shalome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This acquisition added to an archive that started informally with the Beth Ahabah congregation continually receiving and logging important information regarding the Jewish population of Richmond. After seven decades\u2019 worth of marriage certificates, consecration papers, death notices, birth registries, Bar and Bat Mitzvah logs, and various other synagogue events, the institutional records had grown quite large. In 1977, the Beth Ahabah Museum and Archives Trust was created to properly catalog and safely preserve the acquired materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This collection assists BAMA in its educational mission, where I also gained valuable experience.  I assisted on tours and helped BAMA employees, Bill Obrochta, Shelly Berger, and Tracy Herman with religious programming by finding materials in the dry room.  It is essential that archives have at least one dry room, as the key factor impacting the quality of stored goods is the humidity in the air surrounding them. To control the humidity, the dry room is heated and dehumidified to prolong the lifespan of these objects. Typically, dry rooms store documents, films, or photographs for prolonged periods, safeguarding them from degradation or other detrimental effects.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Blueprint of Congregation Beth Ahabah, n.d.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I particularly enjoyed helping Tracy find objects about the consecration ceremony when the children of the temple between the ages of 5 and 8 officially start their Jewish education. We located pictures of previous consecration classes, and I found an invitation to the 225th anniversary of Beth Ahabah\u2019s special consecration reunion service. These materials helped the children understand that consecration has happened for hundreds of years at Beth Ahabah, and the consecration class they are initiated with will resonate for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working at BAMA has helped me learn more about the history of Jews in Richmond and the history of the congregation. Over one hundred Jewish people lived in Richmond, a city of almost four thousand, by 1789. With this robust population, the Jewish residents established Kahal Kadosh Beth Shalome, meaning The Holy Congregation, House of Peace in the Sephardic tradition. K.K. Beth Shalome, as it is affectionally referred to, was the first Jewish synagogue in Richmond and the sixth in the United States. As more German and Eastern European Jews immigrated to the area, they joined K.K. Beth Shalome but sought an Ashkenazic worship tradition, rather than Sephardic. In 1841, this sect of Ashkenazi Jews established a partner congregation called Beth Ahabah, meaning House of Love, maneuvered in the Ashkenazi traditions.  In 1846, the first Rabbi of Beth Ahabah, Rabbi Michelbacher, founded the first Jewish school in Richmond which did very well and even provided classrooms for the first public school in Richmond. Soon thereafter, Congregation Beth Ahabah began to shift to Reform practices, obtaining an organ, permitting men and women to sit together in the pews of the synagogue, and allowing women to join the choir. In 1875, Beth Ahabah officially joined the Reform movement and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which led to the consolidation of K.K. Beth Shalome and Congregation Beth Ahabah in 1898. The combined congregation necessitated a newer and larger synagogue, which led to the construction of the present-day building in 1904 where I completed my internship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In between my archival and educational work, I always joined the staff for lunch and to chat about our days. It was in this setting that I learned the most about Jewish traditions (and Jewish foods, yum!). Needless to say, I greatly enjoyed working at BAMA, and I have come to love archives. While the work can be challenging (and occasionally tedious), it is a great feeling to know that I have helped future researchers understand, study, and examine Jewish history in Richmond. Bill, Shelly, and Tracy are all extremely kind, cheerful people, and I cannot be more thankful for the experience of working with them.  Be sure to visit the museum at 1109 W Franklin St, between 10am and 3pm to learn more about this wonderful archive!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog is by Mary Moody McLean, M.A. in History and a Certificate in Public History December 2023. Below the staircase at Beth Ahabah Museum and Archives (BAMA) rests a large stone with unnatural craters. These dents resulted from bullets fired by the Nazi Sturmabteilung paramilitary and Schutzstaffel paramilitary forces on November 9, 1938 in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1151,"featured_media":37,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-intern-insights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":52,"date":"2023-09-20T18:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T18:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/?p=52"},"modified":"2025-06-04T19:14:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T19:14:27","slug":"historic-christ-church-new-discoveries-of-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/2023\/09\/20\/historic-christ-church-new-discoveries-of-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Christ Church, New Discoveries of the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blog is by Kayla Payne, certificate in public history December 2023.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Located in Weems, Virginia in Lancaster County is Historic Christ Church and Museum<\/a>. Built by free, indentured, and enslaved craftsmen and designed and financed by the wealthy planter Robert \u201cKing\u201d Carter in 1735, the Anglican parish\u00a0 still stands today and anchors a museum focusing on life in colonial Virginia. Robert Carter III, \u201cKing\u201d Carter\u2019s grandson, is noted for his Deed of Gift that, in the aftermath of the American Revolution, gradually emancipated between 500 and 600 slaves, one of the largest individual manumissions in the U.S. During my summer internship at Historic Christ Church, I gained valuable insights into this historic property and the practice of public history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although I was familiar with Robert Carter III and his Deed of Gift, I knew little about the  rest of the Carters or Christ Church. When I met Robert Teagle, the executive director and my internship supervisor, I immediately recognized his deep knowledge of the site and the people, as well as the passion he, the staff, and volunteers dedicated to the church and museum. Their passion resonated with me. Being able to legitimately understand why <\/em>one goes into this kind of work is something that helps an intern like me visualize how I want my future endeavors to look like, ones where I can be enthusiastically engaged with my work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My tasks were varied, and with each one I was able to understand how even the seemingly simplest ones contribute to a greater purpose. I digitized binders and folders full of photos, postcards, letters, and documents, including the church vestry books so that they can be available on the Christ Church website for the public to use. Digitizing also meant these documents would continue to exist even if the physical object no longer did, ensuring its survival in the digital space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also helped out for their Hands on History Day where children visited Christ Church to participate in a day full of historic activities and crafts. I showed the kids how to play a variety of colonial games including hoop trundling, ball and cup, and the \u201cgame of graces,\u201d played with two sticks and a wicker ring, which turned out to be the most popular amongst them. It was a fun day where instead of kids needing to sit at a desk and hear a lecture from their teacher, they actively participated in their own learning in an enjoyable way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I gained further experience by transcribing letters. Historic Christ Church possesses several letters written by a Confederate POW who signed his name as \u201cL. Carter,\u201d and was held prisoner at Camp Chase, Ohio. His letters date from July 1864 to September 1865. The most immediate lesson I learned was that transcribing is tedious. It\u2019s not a one-time, quick read through. My initial passes on the letters resulted in many blanks and words in brackets as I tried to make out the scribbled sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with transcribing, I also investigated L. Carter\u2019s identity. I combed  through Camp Chase\u2019s register of Confederate prisoners, going page by page to find any L. Carters. There was an L. E. Carter, a private of the 8th VA Infantry who was captured in July 1863; another private L. Carter from Virginia and an L. Carter from Alabama. I couldn\u2019t be positive if any of these L. Carters was the one I was looking for. On top of that, my L. Carter was an apparent murderer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He admits in a September 1865 (after the conclusion of the Civil War and his release from the prison camp) letter that at one point he had \u201ckilled two or three negros\u201d in Fauquier County, Virginia.  Worried that he would be punished, Carter wrote of his plan to flee to Mexico. On top of continuing to go through the prison records, I searched Virginia newspapers to see if there were any mentions of slain black people in the Fauquier County area. Yet I couldn\u2019t find information that could connect with this specific individual who was still just a broad idea of a person.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Sept. 7, 1865 letter, partial. Photo credit: Historic Christ Church, Inc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I had spent so much of my time focusing on L. Carter that I (nearly) ignored another source that was there the entire time: the recipient of his letters. L. Carter addressed his correspondence to his sister, an \u201cN. Goldsburough.\u201d As I looked into the  Goldsburoughs, I learned that they were a prominent Maryland family in Talbot County. I found a Goldsborough family tree, and after scanning through names and dates, saw that Nicholas Goldsborough married Lavinia Turner Carter Goldsborough. Lavinia hailed from a Virginia family and had several siblings including one named Matthew Loughborough Carter who apparently actually reached Mexico but died in 1866.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is still much to learn about  L. Carter’s life, crimes, and victims, and more I can do to sharpen my personal research practices. There\u2019s never just one path to an answer. History can branch out from its original source and make connections not initially apparent. It\u2019s fun to make those new discoveries, not only in research but also with yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog is by Kayla Payne, certificate in public history December 2023. Located in Weems, Virginia in Lancaster County is Historic Christ Church and Museum. Built by free, indentured, and enslaved craftsmen and designed and financed by the wealthy planter Robert \u201cKing\u201d Carter in 1735, the Anglican parish\u00a0 still stands today and anchors a museum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1151,"featured_media":53,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-intern-insights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":42,"date":"2023-06-02T15:54:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T15:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/?p=42"},"modified":"2025-06-05T14:30:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T14:30:52","slug":"from-monroe-park-to-saigon-vcu-and-the-vietnam-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/2023\/06\/02\/from-monroe-park-to-saigon-vcu-and-the-vietnam-war\/","title":{"rendered":"From Monroe Park to Saigon: VCU and the Vietnam War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blog is by Emilie Raymond, Ph.D.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students enrolled in my History 657: Controversy in Public History prepared an exhibit about the VCU community during the Vietnam War that is currently on physical display in the History Department and on digital display in the below slide show.  The idea for this project originated from an exhibit I am guest curating at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture about Virginia and the Vietnam War to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon (opening in Fall 2024).  My initial research into the VCU campus during the war showed various ways students and faculty were affected by and responded to American involvement in Vietnam, whether as service members and veterans, activists in support of or against the war, or as Vietnamese refugees.  So I offered students a challenge: create a small exhibit for the History Department that gives insight into their various perspectives without taking sides AND finish it in 6 weeks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four students answered the call, and took on various roles:  Meredith Glasco wrote the script, Elliott Martin conducted two oral histories, Kayla Payne served as art director, and James Randall researched campus and local publications.  I acted as exhibit coordinator.  We met weekly to make group decisions about themes and what topics to highlight and to give each other feedback. Although the last week was a hectic flurry of activity, we got it done (with the help of a sturdy laminator)!  There is more research to be done and stories to find, and we certainly don’t view this as the definite word on VCU and Vietnam.  Nevertheless, we are proud of what we accomplished in a short time, and hope you enjoy the digital display below (& that it will possibly inspire you to stop by the History Department to see the physical display!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VCU_Vietnam War<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog is by Emilie Raymond, Ph.D. Students enrolled in my History 657: Controversy in Public History prepared an exhibit about the VCU community during the Vietnam War that is currently on physical display in the History Department and on digital display in the below slide show.  The idea for this project originated from an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1151,"featured_media":43,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":54,"date":"2023-05-25T19:08:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T19:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/?p=54"},"modified":"2025-06-04T19:14:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T19:14:57","slug":"digital-history-using-arcgis-to-create-historic-walking-tours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/2023\/05\/25\/digital-history-using-arcgis-to-create-historic-walking-tours\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital History: Using ArcGIS to Create Historic Walking Tours"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blog is by Sean Moseley, M.A. in History 2024. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine you\u2019re visiting a small town in Virginia for the first time. As you walk down the street, you notice a few houses or buildings that appear to be historic. Perhaps you see gothic window arches with stained glass, leading you to assume that the building was constructed in the nineteenth century. Or maybe you notice a home\u2019s patchwork shingled-roof and clad board siding, suggesting an eighteenth century build date. While these are good guesses, how can you be sure about a building\u2019s history? Furthermore, how can we as historians provide the public with tools to better understand the histories of small communities? This spring I completed an internship with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (VDHR) and implemented two digital walking tours that seek to achieve this goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VDHR had already developed a list of Virginia communities as potential locations for walking tours and gave me the option to select any community on that list. Being interested in Tidewater and maritime history, I chose the towns of Colonial Beach and City Point (Hopewell) because of their respective connections to the Potomac and James Rivers. I was also interested in these two communities because I had never researched or visited them prior to my internship! I embraced the Colonial Beach and City Point walking tours as an opportunity to learn more about Virginia history and enter a new project with few assumptions about the histories I would discover along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I began working on Colonial Beach, a small town nestled on the Potomac River. Established in 1892 as a vacation town for Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia residents, Colonial Beach has been a tourist destination since its creation. Even in the modern-day, the town boasts that it has the second longest beach in Virginia, followed only by Virginia Beach. I poured through any documents I could find about Colonial Beach, including: archaeological site surveys, National Historic Register Nomination Forms, and pamphlets and magazines archived at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture and the Library of Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I selected eleven historic buildings in Colonial Beach that featured diverse architecture according to their build date and told the story of the community\u2019s late-nineteenth century development and mid-twentieth century growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the VDHR\u2019s existing relationships with communities throughout the state, I connected with Colonial Beach Mayor Robin Schick and Director of The Museum at Colonial Beach, Mitzi Saffos and visited their town. Throughout the day of my visit, I walked the route of our tour and took photographs of each building that would be featured on our digital map.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Museum at Colonial Beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Alexander Graham Bell House in Colonial Beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Both Mayor Schick and Saffos were enthusiastic about my project and provided insight to the community\u2019s history as well as their hopes for the town\u2019s future, aspirations generally unavailable in an archive. This experience showed me that no matter how much archival research you conduct, interacting with the community that you\u2019re researching will lead you to think about your project differently, ask questions you may have never considered, and ultimately, allow you to feel more connected to the community. Furthermore, consulting local experts who are passionate about the subject of your project can strengthen your findings and lead to a better understanding and representation of a community\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After I gathered all of my information about Colonial Beach, I transitioned to the community of City Point, which straddles the Appomattox and James Rivers. As I researched City Point, I quickly realized the unappreciated significance of the area. From being selected by Christopher Newport as the original site for the first English settlement in 1607 (which was thwarted by colonists disembarking downriver at Jamestown) to being the site of General Ulysses S. Grant\u2019s Union encampment during the Civil War, City Point has consistently served as a critically important location during Virginia\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After selecting eleven buildings that represented multiple eras of City Point\u2019s history, I traveled to the area to photograph the structures and walk the path of the tour. Upon arriving at City Point, I was met with a surprisingly large number of well-preserved historic homes clad with historic markers and waysides that explained the community\u2019s 400 year history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
St. Denis Chapel, City Point<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From these waysides, as well as my research prior to visiting City Point, it was clear that the Appomattox Manor, a plantation owned by the Eppes family since the mid-seventeenth century, was central to the community\u2019s story since its origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Appomattox Manor, City Point<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Various waysides throughout City Point told the story of slavery at Appomattox Manor, however I saw potential to expand upon the available historical information about African Americans in City Point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point in my research, I pulled from my History 611: American Civil War & Reconstruction Readings course with Prof. Kathryn Shively and began searching databases for information on possible refugee camps developed during the Union Encampment of the area. I found an 1864 sketch entitled \u201cEvening African-American Prayer Meeting,\u201d which depicted African American refugees gathered in prayer at City Point.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
“Evening African-American Prayer Meeting, City Point, Virginia, September, 1864, artist’s impression, detail,” House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Additionally, I found a digital National Park Service report devoted to the migration of enslaved people from the surrounding counties to City Point during the Union occupation. Because of my previous readings, I had wondered what impact African American refugees had on the success of the Union occupation at City Point and found that enslaved people strengthened City Point\u2019s defenses until the end of the war. I am proud to include this underreported aspect of City Point\u2019s Civil War history into the walking tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I had collected information about Colonial Beach and City Point, I collaborated with VDHR staff members in uploading my research to a public-facing platform. Using ArcGIS, a geographic information system, we were able to map the tour. As one embarks on the tour, the digital map guides them from start to finish, with stops at selected historically significant buildings. Each building featured in both walking tours has modern photographs accompanied by information about when the building was constructed, who has used it or inhabited it in the past, as well as how the building has changed since its era of historical relevance. Some buildings feature historic photographs allowing users to see for themselves how the structure has changed over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My internship with the VDHR allowed me to experience the hours of research, writing, and digital editing that are required to create accurate, informative, and interesting historical narratives for public-use. Whether in classrooms or in conferences, as budding historians, we always hear about the increasing importance of incorporating technology into our research and presentation of public histories. It was fascinating to see firsthand how institutions such as the VDHR have utilized software, like ArcGIS, to preserve information, catalog and categorize sites, and present Virginia\u2019s history to the public. Being able to travel and meet with community leaders was especially rewarding and allowed me a glimpse into life in Colonial Beach and City Point that one simply cannot grasp by only visiting an archive. Additionally, collaborating with both community leaders and the VDHR staff in obtaining information and successfully designing a work of digital history showed me that oftentimes, many hands mold a project into its optimal form before it reaches the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Importantly, I have learned that amateur, academic, digital, and public histories are not always exclusive to one another. By combining all of these different approaches, we can develop more inclusive, impactful, and informative historic resources for the public. My hope for the Colonial Beach and City Point Walking Tours is that they encourage the public to explore more communities throughout Virginia and remain curious about the state\u2019s unique history and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~Both tours will be published on the VDHR website<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog is by Sean Moseley, M.A. in History 2024. \u00a0 Imagine you\u2019re visiting a small town in Virginia for the first time. As you walk down the street, you notice a few houses or buildings that appear to be historic. Perhaps you see gothic window arches with stained glass, leading you to assume that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1151,"featured_media":56,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-intern-insights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":64,"date":"2022-09-28T13:58:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T13:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/?p=64"},"modified":"2025-06-05T14:13:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T14:13:00","slug":"living-history-the-ultimate-way-to-show-not-tell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/2022\/09\/28\/living-history-the-ultimate-way-to-show-not-tell\/","title":{"rendered":"Living History: The Ultimate Way to \u201cShow, Not Tell\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blog is by Richard Elliott Martin, M.A. in history May 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is history a fact on a page, or is it a living, breathing thing? To me, the past is as real as the present is today, and the public historian\u2019s role is to bring it to life. In the summer of 2021, I interned at Pamplin Historical Park & The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier<\/a> in Petersburg, Virginia. While there, I learned to conduct tours and 1860s-period military demonstrations, including weapons firing and camp life presentations. In addition to these duties, I researched and archived letters and personal accounts of soldiers\u2019 lives for the park\u2019s Collections Department and provided guest engagement services. These experiences introduced me to the field of public history, and inspired me to pursue the Graduate Certificate in Public History beginning in Fall 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To achieve a real grasp of the human past and tell its story accurately, one of the most powerful tools in a museum or historic site\u2019s belt is living history. Distinct from the popular hobby of re-enacting historic battles, living history focuses on the day-to-day life of the average person in a historical era. When utilized in combination with artifact exhibits, presentations, and other aspects of a museum\u2019s mission, it can bring guests into the world of the past through the senses. It can bring the past alive, make it touchable, hearable, and active. But it must be done thoughtfully, and the living historian must design his program to fit the needs of the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an undergraduate I became interested in interning at one of the many historic sites in the greater Richmond area. Pamplin Park preserves a mid-nineteenth century plantation, as well as trenches which were the site of significant fighting during the Civil War. I was fortunate to work with the Park\u2019s Interpretation and Education department. Since the position included tours and costumed demonstrations, I jumped at the chance to dig into living history and educate the public about the experiences of common soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Entrance to Pamplin Historic Park.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In fact, Civil War reenactments had been a hobby of mine since my teenage years. Enticed by the rural setting, feel of the wool uniform, sound of fire rifles and smell of the gunpowder, I had been joining the ranks of the modern-day Union and Confederate armies for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, when I began to develop my presentation at Pamplin, I had a rich career as a reenactor to draw on, but I shadowed my coworkers to observe their presentation styles for the purposes of the museum. Two valuable lessons impacted my own work. First, audiences are most engaged in learning when people can make a personal connection to the subject. The presenter must be mindful of this and find ways to encourage audience participation. Anecdotes about troops from a person\u2019s home state was a great way to break the ice, as was telling personal or family histories. Asking folks questions was also engaging. Second, after the introduction Pamplin provided an outline for employees to follow that could be adapted for audience needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audiences often consisted of a number of people from different backgrounds, each with their own interests and questions which required me to be adaptable. Pamplin\u2019s outline included discussion of items such as logistics, supplies, soldier\u2019s motivations, and weapons technology, complete with a loading and firing demonstration. The latter was the most popular section of the presentation and comparing advances in 1860s weapons technology to that of modern computers demonstrated a key reason for the war\u2019s high casualty rates- people are often slow to respond to innovations. Some guests asked questions about units or soldiers from their places of residence, and I loved answering them. Research was paramount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The park\u2019s presentation area included a reproduction of a Confederate winter encampment, complete with a four-man soldier\u2019s cabin, a canvas tent, officer\u2019s mess, and \u201cGideon,\u201d the army\u2019s wooden punishment and discipline horse. Nearby are original trenches which saw combat during the war. To supplement my presentation, I read personal accounts of the units which manned them in 1865, and also of prewar life on the original plantation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another duty which I particularly enjoyed was using ancestry.com to make Microsoft Excel spreadsheets of the names of soldiers who took part in the Union Army\u2019s final assault on Petersburg. Focused on the men of the Sixth Maryland Infantry, I read scanned digitized images of original muster rolls which documented soldiers\u2019 names, dates of enlistment and discharge, ranks, wounds received, work assignments and other data. In so doing, I enhanced the park\u2019s understanding of the combat that took place in the area as well as my own skills in research and listmaking. Not to mention that it was particularly cool to discover the stories of hundreds of brave American soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One soldier\u2019s story was already known to the park, and I had the additional duty of preserving and summarizing his correspondence for future researchers. In his letters home, Sgt. Andrew McCornack of the 123rd Illinois Infantry described army life in camp, his relationships with fellow soldiers, griped that he is not receiving mail from loved ones, and discussed the combat experiences which earned him the Medal of Honor. By transcribing the letters, I saw McCornack\u2019s thoughts, actions and fears, and those of his comrades. This experience took me past the raw numbers of history and added a human element to my work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The skills I learned at Pamplin will serve me well in the Certificate in Public History program at VCU. Through my internship, I honed my public speaking and research skills. And I gained four valuable insights: first, public records suggest the facts and data; second, personal accounts such as diaries and letters demonstrate who an individual was and illustrate their thoughts and actions; third, a presenter must refine their methods to effectively reach the public; and fourth, giving the guests the experience makes the past truly come alive. When synthesized together, these points make for an enjoyable experience for any visitor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog is by Richard Elliott Martin, M.A. in history May 2025. Is history a fact on a page, or is it a living, breathing thing? To me, the past is as real as the present is today, and the public historian\u2019s role is to bring it to life. In the summer of 2021, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1151,"featured_media":65,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-intern-insights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":27,"date":"2022-03-21T18:19:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-21T18:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/?p=27"},"modified":"2025-06-04T15:39:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T15:39:58","slug":"from-army-veteran-to-army-docent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/2022\/03\/21\/from-army-veteran-to-army-docent\/","title":{"rendered":"From Army Veteran to Army Docent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blog is by Kevin Cale, M.A. in History in 2018<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back over the years, I can honestly say that I have been a history nerd since elementary school. If my elementary school back in Michigan was still around, you could go to the library and find a book on the American Revolution and see that I signed it out for almost all of third grade. So, it was no surprise that my freshman year of college I signed up for a military history class sponsored by the Army Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC). This led to my commissioning as an Army lieutenant upon graduation from college and a twenty-year career as an Army logistician followed by a career as a government civilian at Fort Lee, VA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After several years working as a government civilian doing organizational design for transportation units, I knew that it was time for a change. That realization led me to the History M.A. program at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) starting in 2016. As a graduate student, I took a variety of classes including two internships (one at Petersburg Battlefield and the other at the Library of Virginia), and several involving Public History.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduating, I was trying to determine what I wanted to do with my life. As a new grandfather, I spent part of my time taking care of my new granddaughter, but something else was needed. Then in fall 2019 the soon-to-be open National Museum of the United States Army, located at Fort Belvoir, VA, advertised for Docents. This seemed perfect. The job combined my love of the Army and history into one. I signed up right away, was accepted into the program, and began the training.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The National Museum\u2019s mission is to interpret the Army\u2019s history and culture and display its invaluable historical artifacts and art collection. According to Visitor Services there are 1,300 items in the museum\u2019s ten galleries ranging from individual weapons (like swords, pistols, muskets, and rifles) to weapons systems and uniforms and knapsacks to load bearing equipment. These items were selected from an incredible 600,000 items available from the forty-seven museums that make up the Army Museum Enterprise. The museum board aimed to select items that help illustrate soldiers\u2019 service and sacrifice and that could easily provide talking points for Docents like myself when communicating with the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the training we were given the Docent Resource Book, which covered most of the items on display in the museum. It provided the Docents with a common baseline for each item, i.e., nomenclature, artifact history, historical significance, along with related artifacts, interpretative techniques, and several other facts to give us a good understanding of the items and be able to tell its story to visitors. Our goal as a Docent is to create an enriching and enjoyable experience for visitors and encourage a lifelong interest in the Army history and the stories of the Soldiers who served. We are to do this by actively engaging the visitors, answering their questions and providing an interpretation of what they are seeing and how it fits into the time frame of the gallery and the Army as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of this training took me back to HIST 651: Public History: Theory & Practice, with Dr. John Kneebone. During that class, we discussed the concepts of a what is a museum and the story or stories each one was trying to tell. We also talked about the processing of selecting what items went into a museum and how they were to be displayed, as well as what items were not included and what that means to the visitor. Because of that class I felt comfortable in understanding most of the choices that were made in the selection and presentation of various items.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Looking down the Army concourse with several of the galleries on the right, the Army and Society Gallery is on the far left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The museum was originally scheduled to open on 4 June 2020. However, Covid delayed the opening until Veterans Day, 11 Nov 2020. I began first sessions a week later. Then in January 2021 the museum closed again due to Covid. This lasted until June when it reopened and has remained open since. Until recently we were required to wear a mask whenever we entered the building. Slowly the museum is getting more and more visitors. One reason is because of the easing of Covid restrictions, and the other is because people are increasingly finding out about the museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Docent community is close-knit. A good portion of us are retired Army with a strong interest in history. On slow days we gather in the main concourse and talk about our Army assignments or about things in the museum. We also discuss how we interact with the guests, helping us learn from each other about how we present items and their stories. When I deal with children under the age of about seven, I encourage them to do a scavenger hunt for child-friendly items, like a photo of a dog serving on the front lines, a stuffed carrier pigeon, the G.I. Joe and Army Barbie dolls, and the flight suit worn by the monkey Able when he went into space.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Because of my background as an Army Transportation Corps Officer this must be my favorite item in the museum, the 1918 Standard B Liberty Truck.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I have met many people from across the nation while serving as a Docent. I really enjoy interacting with them. Some people have no idea of various portions of the Army story, so it\u2019s great to educate them. Others who visit have more knowledge than I do, so I pick their brains to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Museum of the United States Army is located on Fort Belvoir and is free to the public. However, you need to go to the website, www.thenmusa.org<\/a>, to get your free timed-entry tickets. If you want to see everything and read everything expect to spend at least three hours there. It is worth the visit. I am there twice a month, but it changes from month to month. So, keep your eyes open when you come to visit, and you might just see me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog is by Kevin Cale, M.A. in History in 2018. Looking back over the years, I can honestly say that I have been a history nerd since elementary school. If my elementary school back in Michigan was still around, you could go to the library and find a book on the American Revolution and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1151,"featured_media":38,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-alumni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":50,"date":"2022-01-14T18:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T18:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/?p=50"},"modified":"2025-06-04T18:02:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T18:02:39","slug":"coming-soon-to-a-third-grade-classroom-near-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/2022\/01\/14\/coming-soon-to-a-third-grade-classroom-near-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming Soon to a Third Grade Classroom Near You!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blog is by Cece D’Arville, Certificate in Public History, May 2022<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Cece D’Arville<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I always knew graduate school would be different from my undergraduate experience. Certain things one can expect, like having more in-depth readings or larger assignments. However, it wasn\u2019t until I was halfway through working on my final project for \u201cHIST 691: Museums, Cultures, and Communities\u201d that I recognized the most important distinction in VCU\u2019s Public History Grad program: the emphasis on experiential learning. Gone are the undergrad days of writing theoretical papers without application or real-life use! I found myself working alongside the Valentine Museum on a project that would actually be sent out into schools in Richmond and surrounding counties. If you don\u2019t know much about the Valentine<\/a>, it is a museum located in downtown Richmond focused on \u201ccollecting, preserving and interpreting Richmond Stories,\u201d which it has been doing for over a century! If you\u2019re local to the area, I highly suggest stopping by to say hi and to check out the exhibits.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Valentine Museum Historic Marker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For the final project in the \u201cMuseums, Cultures, and Communities\u201d course, Professor Karen Rader<\/a> encouraged students to reach out to local institutions to propose or create an exhibit, education program, or community engagement project. As a part-time employee at the Valentine Museum, I immediately thought of reaching out to their education department. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Valentine shifted many of its educational programs so that students could continue to interact with the museum in safe and engaging ways. In addition to virtual tours and programs, the Valentine offers a \u201cLearning Trunk<\/a>\u201d program that allows students a hands-on learning experience in their own classroom. The Learning Trunks are loaned directly to classrooms and come with reproduction artifacts, primary sources, activities, and lesson plans! This program has a long history with the Valentine, as the museum used to fill trunks with artifacts from the collection and send them to all corners of Virginia via train before the age of digital museums existed. I was thrilled when Marisa Day, the Manager of Student Programs and Tours, invited me to help put together an \u201cAncients in the Classroom\u201d Learning Trunk for elementary students studying ancient civilizations, namely Rome, Greece, and Egypt. This post is going to take you through our process of putting together the trunk!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ancients in the Classroom Learning Trunk was inspired by the Valentine\u2019s lesson plans for the in-person and virtual tour of the historical 1812 Wickham House<\/a>, which features aspects of neoclassical architecture and design. The Wickham House tour allows students to make connections between what they learn in the classroom to real life examples of the influence of ancient cultures in Richmond and modern society. When students aren\u2019t able to walk through the Wickham House, QR Codes, found in the lesson plans accompanying the materials in this trunk, allow teachers to pull up photos of different rooms in the Wickham House, as well as other buildings throughout Richmond that use ancient architectural features, such as columns and domes. In addition to the online presentation components, the Learning Trunk includes the contents pictured and detailed below:<\/p>\n\n\n

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1. Lesson Plans; 2. Activity Books premade by Valentine Education Department; 3. Laminated vocabulary cards and photographs; 4. 3D Printed Columns; 5. Column \u201cCaps\u201d; 6. Ancient Architecture Building Blocks and Puzzles; 7. Small Clay Vase; 8. Aesop\u2019s Fables Book; 9. Map of World; 10. Stickers!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Because this trunk was adapted from in-person tours and programs, the Valentine already had some great materials that fit perfectly into the trunk, such as their Column \u201cCaps.\u201d The Column \u201cCaps\u201d are Styrofoam headwear, designed to look like the tops of the three classical columns: Corinthian, Doric, and Ionic. Not only do the caps give students a fun learning experience, but even the name serves as a learning device – they\u2019re called \u201ccaps,\u201d not hats, because the tops of columns are called capitals! However, we added plenty of new materials to the Ancients in the Classroom Learning Trunk as well:  like the 3D-printed columns and the architecture building kits and puzzles. These materials allow a hands-on approach to studying ancient architecture and give students the ability to become architects in their own right, encouraging their leadership and teamwork skills in the process!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Caps for the Three Classical Columns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In addition to lessons on architecture, this Ancients in the Classroom Learning Trunk also includes a lesson on the ancient world\u2019s influence on arts and culture – specifically in storytelling. Many students may have heard or read a fable by Aesop, such as \u201cThe Tortoise and the Hare\u201d or \u201cThe Boy Who Cried Wolf,\u201d without realizing it was created by an Ancient Grecian thousands of years ago. The inclusion of the book of Aesop\u2019s Fables will hopefully help students see the lasting influence of ancient ideas and stories. Additionally, the clay vase, as well as laminated images of painted classical and neoclassical vases, serve to show students how ancient civilizations used drawings and images to depict stories, something they may be familiar with today in picture books or even through the use of emojis to send messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to know more, you\u2019ll just have to go back to school (or visit the Valentine)! I hope you have enjoyed this peek into my final project as much as I enjoyed putting it together. I\u2019m incredibly grateful to both Dr. Karen Rader and Marisa Day for the opportunity to create something that children in Virginia will actually use. As an aspiring history educator, this project was such a wonderful learning experience, and I\u2019m excited to work on more in the future as part of my ongoing participation in the Valentine\u2019s Education Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog is by Cece D’Arville, Certificate in Public History, May 2022 I always knew graduate school would be different from my undergraduate experience. Certain things one can expect, like having more in-depth readings or larger assignments. However, it wasn\u2019t until I was halfway through working on my final project for \u201cHIST 691: Museums, Cultures, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1151,"featured_media":51,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":60,"date":"2021-09-08T19:35:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T19:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/?p=60"},"modified":"2025-06-04T19:52:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T19:52:24","slug":"surf-culture-st-augustine-part-ii-building-a-museum-and-fostering-community-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/2021\/09\/08\/surf-culture-st-augustine-part-ii-building-a-museum-and-fostering-community-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Surf Culture St. Augustine Part II: Building a Museum and Fostering Community Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This blog is by Claire Barnewolt, M.A. in History 2018.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(this post is the second of two about the opening of the Surf Culture Museum; see part one here<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I published \u201cSurf Culture St. Augustine Part I\u201d in January 2020 on this blog, I was working with the St. Augustine Historical Society<\/a> in Florida to open a new Surf Culture Museum. Magen Wilson, Jeanette Vigliotti, and I had transitioned from collecting oral history interviews from surfers in St. Augustine to compiling and grouping emerging narratives into what would eventually become the five rooms of the new museum.  We had hoped to host a grand opening in October 2020, complete with a lecture series at nearby Flagler College and a festive celebration of the community effort that had led to the success of our project.  Little did we anticipate that the year 2020 would mean planning our panels on Dropbox, meeting with an exhibit designer and our coworkers over Zoom, and postponing our grand opening until August 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we worked on the designs for the museum panels with exhibit designer Jodi Marcil, we continued to conduct oral history interviews with St. Augustinians, even over the phone, when COVID-19 protocol demanded it.  Adjusting to these challenges, that is staying connected to community in the midst of such social isolation, was integral, because we pledged to remain committed to two of our original goals: including direct quotations from our narrators on the museum\u2019s display panels and incorporating receivers throughout various rooms in the museum so that visitors had the chance to listen to their voices.<\/p>\n\n\n

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View from one end of Room 4, where visitors learn about local surf shops and shapers. The room also includes a model of the St. Augustine Beach Pier and receivers with recordings of oral history interviews.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Our steady dedication and continued efforts to reach out to other local cultural heritage institutions and surf organizations paid off.  We received generous donations of artifacts and images to display.  One such collection was photographer M.E. Gruber\u2019s surf images from the West Palm Beach Historical Society.  Gruber traveled through Florida in the 1960s taking photographs of surfers, and shot images of many of our locals in the late \u201860s at St. Augustine Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Magen, Jeanette, Jodi and I started to get a feel for the physical space we were inhabiting, the historic Tovar House on Historical Society grounds, we thought of the other elements we could include: monitors to display the reels of video from donors, a model of the St. Augustine Beach Pier, and racks to hold loaned vintage boards.  We agreed on each room\u2019s theme as well.  Room 1 would encompass the general history of surfing in Florida as we had researched it, which spanned from 1911 to present day.  Trips to Cocoa Beach, New Smyrna Beach, and Daytona Beach informed our early Florida surf knowledge.  Room 2 would depict the 1960s and 1970s in St. Augustine, and those early surfers who shaped the sport and the surf spots into what they are today.  Iconic shots from Gruber give visitors a sense of the \u201860s look of the era.  We also agreed on the importance of including contextual information about the segregated beaches of St. Augustine at the time and to provide quotations depicting the Civil Rights demonstrations, known as wade-ins, that took place on some of the beaches we would be highlighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Room 3 would be devoted to our local legends.  This room was enormously difficult to curate because of the immense talent characterizing St. Augustine.  We created highlight panels of the professional surfers, shapers, and photographers that have emerged from this small surfside community and have gone on to influence the industry with their creativity and warmth of spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A panel in Room 3 depicting our \u201cLocal Legends.\u201d These figures can be shapers, surfers, or photographers in the surf industry that have benefitted the local community over the decades.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Room 4 would contain vibrant descriptions of the different surf shops in town.  Local mentor and surf shop owner Tory Strange loaned several vintage boards on display in this room.  We also discuss local shapers, those who built the surf boards.  And last but certainly not least, Room 5 would illustrate surfing as a family sport devoted to the community and to nature.  This room particularly encapsulates our efforts at ensuring this is a museum made by and for the St. Augustine community.   Local chapters of charities such as Sups and Pups<\/a> (benefiting K9s for Warriors), SurfQuest<\/a>(empowering those with disabilities to learn to surf), and SurfRiders (protecting the world\u2019s oceans and beaches) are highlighted here.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A panel in Room 5, highlighting the benevolence of local surfing organizations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On the night of the grand opening in August 2021, we also displayed cards that visitors could take with them in order to access our digital site.  Using the Omeka platform, our coworkers have published a digital archive (https:\/\/stasurfarchive.omeka.net\/<\/a>), which houses all of our oral history interviews, in audio and transcription form, as well as our image collection.  Having this digital archive was such a relief, as we began to realize we could not possibly fit every image we had collected into our five rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the physical structure of this new surf museum and our digital archive, our surf culture project has led to fruitful collaborations that we hope are ongoing.  The St. Augustine Historical Society has teamed up with SurfearNEGRA,<\/a> an organization focused on bringing cultural and gender diversity to the surf industry, by pledging to raise awareness of SurfearNEGRA and to sponsor one young woman to the program for 12 months each year.  We have also partnered with a newly formed non-profit called the St. Augustine Board Riders Club,<\/a> which has used our new museum as a meeting place.  Our longtime friends, Marineland, have opened their Marineland History Museum<\/a> on the floor above our surf museum.  On the day of our grand opening, we also celebrated the Marineland exhibit, which explores the history of Marine Studios, a setting for Hollywood films dating back to 1938.<\/p>\n\n\n

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We partnered our grand opening alongside Marineland\u2019s celebration of its cinematic past. Marineland was the filming site for Revenge of the Creature (1955).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Opening day itself was quite surreal.  It felt fantastic seeing so many people we had interviewed in one place, again COVID-19 permitting.  Different generations met each other, legends recognizing legends.  A pair of 1960s greats that hadn\u2019t seen each other in 35 years reconnected.  We were overflowing with gratitude \u2013 and with extra artifacts.  For the grand opening, we spread out some of our loaned items into other Historical Society buildings.  For example, one veteran from St. Augustine who had served in Afghanistan had not been able to stand the thought of being stranded in the desert.  He shipped some material to a military base and shaped three surfboards while on deployment, one of which was displayed on opening day of the museum.<\/p>\n\n\n

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National Guardsman Captain Nate Dinger brought shaping tools to Afghanistan and shaped three surfboards while deployed at Bagram Air Base. Pictured above, one of his boards on loan in the Dunham Building at the St. Augustine Historical Society at the grand opening of the surf museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I\u2019m happy to say, this project seems to have touched so many.  One St. Augustinian surfer has been inspired to try out an oral history project in the Philippines, we still have a surf issue of El Escribano<\/em>, the Historical Society\u2019s journal, forthcoming, and now that I find myself living in Hawaii, I\u2019m sure I could find something surf-related here\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Author Claire Barnewolt under the Thank You banner to the sponsors at the grand opening of the Surf Culture Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

~Claire Barnewolt is the Co-founder of the Surf Culture Museum, she is currently a Historian supporting the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency, Indo-Pacific Directorate.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This blog is by Claire Barnewolt, M.A. in History 2018.   (this post is the second of two about the opening of the Surf Culture Museum; see part one here) When I published \u201cSurf Culture St. Augustine Part I\u201d in January 2020 on this blog, I was working with the St. Augustine Historical Society in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1151,"featured_media":61,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-alumni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/public-history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]