All Non-Digital Titles

Historian Carole Herrick uncovers the history of this former farming village to thriving community in over 200 vintage images.

McLean was a farming community in 1910, when Henry Alonzo Storm established a general store that included the McLean Post Office. The store was located on Chain Bridge Road beside a stop on the Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad, an electrified trolley that ran from Rosslyn to Great Falls Park. The stop was named after John R. McLean, a founder of the trolley and owner of the Washington Post newspaper. A village and vibrant community gradually developed around Storm's Store..The Franklin Sherman School, the first consolidated public school in Fairfax County, opened near the store in October 1914; McLean Day, the first event of its kind in the county, started in 1915 to raise money for the school; and the McLean Volunteer Fire Department incorporated in 1923 as Station 1 in Fairfax County.

Middleburg was established in 1787 by Leven Powell, one of Virginia's founding fathers.

Following a long decline after the Civil War, the arrival of foxhunting in 1904 gave the town an international reputation for breeding, showing, and racing Thoroughbred horses. Over the ensuing decades, Middleburg would undertake significant historic preservation, but the town would also be remarkable for its laissez-faire attitude toward the rich and famous. Movie stars and presidents were seduced not only by Middleburg's horses, hounds, and history, but also by its respect for the privacy of its more renowned residents and visitors. In Middleburg, photographs from the collections of local residents Howard Allen and Tyler Gore as well as from the National Sporting Library, the Library of Congress, and other sources were chosen to reflect the character and charm of this historic village.

The history of the house and its grounds offers a glimpse into the private dilemmas and public struggles that mark the development of democracy and reflect the creation of the United States as a nation. Newly renovated and restored to the era President Madison lived and entertained there, the home stands as a testament to its great proprietor's interests and tastes, and as a witness to American history.

By the late 20th century, Montpelier, the home of James and Dolley Madison, had been altered until it would no longer have been recognizable to the couple.

In 2000 the newly-created Montpelier Foundation took over management of the historic home with the seemingly insurmountable task of restoring it to be a visual record of the Madisons' era. Within ten years, the Foundation overcame numerous hurdles, turning Montpelier into a monument to the Father of the Constitution. Over the next decade the site also became a monument to Montpelier's enslaved. The buildings in their community next to the Madisons' home were reconstructed, and award-winning exhibits dramatically illustrate the tragedy of slavery and essential role of enslaved people in Madison's life.

Foundation co-founder William H. Lewis details the nonprofit's ambitious preservation projects and remarkable achievements.

The most famous Civil War name in Northern Virginia, other than General Lee, belongs to Colonel John Singleton Mosby, the Gray Ghost.

The most famous Civil War name in Northern Virginia, other than General Lee, belongs to Colonel John Singleton Mosby, the Gray Ghost. His early life characterized by abuse of childhood bullies, a less-than-outstanding academic career, and even a brief incarceration, Mosby stands out among nearly one thousand generals who served in the war. Even though Mosby was opposed to secession, he joined the Confederate army as a private in Virginia, he quickly rose through the ranks and became celebrated for his raids that captured Union general Edwin Stoughton in Fairfax and Colonel Daniel French Dulany in Rose Hill. By 1864, he was a feared partisan guerrilla in the North and a nightmare for Union troops protecting Washington City. After the war, his support for presidential candidate Ulysses S. Grant forced Mosby to leave his native Virginia for Hong Kong as U.S. consul. A mentor to young George S. Patton, Mosby's military legacy extended far beyond the War Between the States and into World War II. William S. Connery brings alive the many dimensions of this American hero.

Did her rival for a man's love get away with murder? It was a story of violence, bigamy, race and a quest for justice. The strange but true story of James and Susan Watkins.

A drama played out in the mountains of southwestern Virginia in 1891 that attracted nationwide attention and held the citizens of the Roanoke Valley spellbound. The tale of the trial of Charles Watkins for the murder of his wife was marked by threats of lynching, a fugitive manhunt, a disappearing witness, mistaken identities, claims of insanity and finally a secret letter to break the case wide open. In its day, the story was as closely followed as a modern televised murder trial. Despite the rapt attention of the public then, it has entirely faded from the history books - until now. Historian John Long resurrects the truth of who killed Susan Watkins.

Straight from the archives of the Hampton Roads Naval Historical Foundation comes this visual history dating back over the installation's more-than 100 year history.

Naval Station Norfolk is the world's largest naval station, supporting the Navy ships, submarines, and aircraft of the US Fleet Forces Command with a multitude of facilities and services.

This shore establishment, located on the historic harbor of Hampton Roads, Virginia, has remained vital to the Navy since its foundation in 1917. Once established, the naval station focused on serving the fleet in four areas: aviation, recruit training, a submarine base, and a supply base. Men and women of the station continued to work on these and other activities through the pressures of World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, and wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Throughout its incredible history, Naval Station Norfolk made sure that ships and aircraft were successfully deployed to the far reaches of the globe--the nation's indispensable response to international conflicts. Nowadays, the station is the hub for Navy logistics supporting the defense of the entire Atlantic area, from the North Pole to the South Pole. A must-have for fans of United States Naval and military history.

Intentionally built on the fall line where the Piedmont uplands meet the Tidewater region, Richmond has always been a city defined by the land.

From the time settlers built a city on rugged terrain overlooking the James River, the people have changed the land and been changed by it. Few know this better than T. Tyler Potterfield, a planner with the City of Richmond Department of Community Development. Whether considering the many roles of the ""romantic, wild and beautiful"" James River through the centuries, describing the rationale for the location of the Virginia State Capitol on Shockoe Hill or relating the struggle to reclaim green space as industrialization and urban growth threatened to remove nature from the city, Potterfield weaves a tale as ordered as the gridded streets of Richmond and just as rich in history.

Through the images and stories of the people who built it, discover the fascinating history of a railway established to fuel the nations' appetite for coal and that grew into so much more.

For a century, the Norfolk and Western Railway operated as one of the greatest transportation companies in the southeastern United States. From developing the coal fields of West Virginia to accommodating passengers aboard its famous Powhaten Arrow and Pocahontas lines, the N&W was the last major railroad to abandon the steam engine. The story of the N&W is a story about people-a story of the tens of thousands of people who worked in the shops and aboard the trains, sold the tickets and moved the freight, laid the track and managed corporate affairs. Images of Rail: Norfolk and Western Railway celebrates that heritage through the lens of some 200 archival photographs.

From images of the muscular Class J steam locomotive to the lone agent of the rural depot, these photographs have been harvested from the N&W's files at the Virginia Museum of Transportation. The archival material provides the reader the rare opportunity to rummage through the N&W's attic. See the engine crews at the turn of the last century, the shop gangs, freight agents, roundhouses, stations, and iron horses of a bygone age. With views of the rugged and, at times, dangerous days of railroading in the late 1800s to the rise of the N&W as a member of America's corporate elite, these pictures convey the railway's storied history.

The history of a town is almost like a personal diary, each day filled with the events and people who made their mark.

This collection could be thought of as Hampton’s diary, as authors Wythe Holt and Edward B. Hicks offer up a day by day history of the stories that shaped this jewel of the Commonwealth. The city’s story begins at the origins of Old Point comfort as early as 1608 on the coast of Virginia and about 25 miles from the first permanent English settlement in the New World, Jamestown, but that’s only the beginning of the story. The Emancipation Proclamation was first read to the public on the grounds of what is now Hampton University under what would soon be called the Emancipation Oak. NASA’s Langley Research Center helped send astronauts to space and tested the Apollo Lunar Lander. Fort Monroe encompasses nearly two centuries of service to the country, as historic and symbolic site during the Civil War as a Union stronghold in the midst of the Confederacy and as the largest stone fort in North America. Join Holt and Hicks and enjoy the rich historical legacy of Hampton every day of the year.

Nestled in the beautiful rolling hills of Virginia's Piedmont, Orange County has a storied cultural heritage. Local writer Patricia LaLand presents a collection of tales that recounts the fascinating history of this beloved county. Relive the days when the Virginia Central Railway ran through Gordonsville and brought travelers to the Exchange Hotel, a time when hard work in Orange's silk mill supported entire communities and when a humble one-room schoolhouse in Rapidan educated local children. From James Madison's Montpelier home to the remains of statesman John Barbour's residence and all points in between, this one-of-a-kind collection covers the historic reaches of Orange County and paints a vivid portrait of the county's past.

Located in the heart of Southside, Virginia, Red Hill is the historic home and burial site of Patrick Henry, the Founding Father famous for his “Give me liberty or give me death!” speech. Named for its distinctive crimson soil overlooking the Staunton River Valley, Red Hill became Henry’s final home in 1794, and it is where he died in 1799. After spending nearly half his life in the political arena defending the rights of the people, Henry’s later years enshrined his legacy as a Cincinnatus of his time. Generations of his descendants as well as descendants of those he enslaved lived on the estate until 1944, when Lucy Gray Henry Harrison, the last of the Henry family to reside there, passed away. That year, the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation was established to purchase and preserve Red Hill as a public museum. The foundation’s mission of education and historic preservation continues today.

Now for the first time, Petersburg's history is shown through the photographs of William E. Lum Jr.-the city's predominant photographer, c. 1925-1950. Lum's photography illustrates the social, business, and personal lives of Petersburg's citizens. His first published collection, these images hold crisp detail from the eras of the Great Depression and World War II, including Camp Lee, Virginia State College, the merchants on North Sycamore Street, carnivals, and football games-to name a few.

Images of America: Portsmouth, Virginia is an educational and entertaining volume that will delight residents and visitors as well as lovers of history everywhere.

Located in heart of the Chesapeake Bay at the zero milepost on the Intracoastal Waterway, Portsmouth's five historic districts and its thriving downtown are living landmarks, reminding onlookers of the gracious living, perilous times, and exciting events that often played a crucial role in the life of the nation.

Here the last Colonial governor of Virginia took refuge, and here Lord Cornwallis garrisoned his British troops before going to Yorktown, where his defeat gave birth to the United States. Here the first ironclad ship, the first battleship, and the first aircraft carrier were designed and built, and here the wounded from all of America's wars since 1830 have been brought to recover at Portsmouth's naval hospital. Vintage photographs within these pages capture the everyday lives of almost four centuries of residents. The ferries that connected Portsmouth to nearby Norfolk, the trains that made it the gateway to the South, and the city's center-its commercial district-all come alive through the images.

Focusing on the Olde Towne historic district, the Naval Hospital, the Naval Shipyard, and the downtown area district, this volume provides a tour of the quaint structures of the oldest part of the city and preserves part of the nation's heritage. Author, and lifelong Portsmouth resident, Robert Albertson draws together postcards, photographs, paintings, and engravings that capture the drama of the city's past and disclose the charm of its neighborhoods.

Whether assisting escapes through the Underground Railroad, forming banks, publishing a newspaper, or providing recreational facilities, Portsmouth's African Americans created one of the most stable middle-class black communities in America.

African Americans in Portsmouth built a strong, insulated community because they were cognizant of the need to look inward. Early 20th-century leaders such as Dr. William Reid, Nancy T. Wheeler, and the Reverend Harvey N. Johnson Sr. were civic models and guiding forces for a community emerging from the ravages of slavery, and enduring the hardships of segregation.

Black America: Portsmouth, Virginia captures the world of an ever-changing community and a people who persevered, no matter the odds.

Prince William County, just south of Washington, D.C., has changed dramatically over the years.

The area welcomes thousands of visitors annually to historic sites and is home to thousands more residents. This volume takes readers on a journey through the county that preserves its past with an eye to the future.

Longlisted for the 2022 PEN America John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, a riveting and tightly argued history of eugenics and its ripple effects, by acclaimed historian Elizabeth Catte.

Between 1927 and 1979, more than 8,000 people were involuntarily sterilized in five hospitals across the state of Virginia. From this plain and terrible fact springs Elizabeth Catte's Pure America, a sweeping, unsparing history of eugenics in Virginia, and by extension the United States. Virginia's eugenics program was not the misguided initiative of well-meaning men of the day, writes Catte, it was a manifestation of white supremacy. It was a form of employment insurance. It was a means of controlling troublesome women and a philosophy that helped remove poor people from valuable land. It was cruel and it was wrong. As was amply evidenced by her acclaimed 2018 book What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, Catte has no room for excuses; no patience for equivocation. What does it mean for modern America, she asks here, that such buildings are given the second chance that 8,000 citizens never got?

Grounded, well-rendered, and highly disturbing, Pure America is another necessary corrective to the historical record, a must-read for anyone concerned with how to repair its damage.

Longlisted for the 2022 PEN America John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, a riveting and tightly argued history of eugenics and its ripple effects, by acclaimed historian Elizabeth Catte.

Between 1927 and 1979, more than 8,000 people were involuntarily sterilized in five hospitals across the state of Virginia. From this plain and terrible fact springs Elizabeth Catte’s Pure America, a sweeping, unsparing history of eugenics in Virginia, and by extension the United States. Virginia’s eugenics program was not the misguided initiative of well-meaning men of the day, writes Catte, it was a manifestation of white supremacy. It was a form of employment insurance. It was a means of controlling “troublesome” women and a philosophy that helped remove poor people from valuable land. It was cruel and it was wrong. As was amply evidenced by her acclaimed 2018 book What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, Catte has no room for excuses; no patience for equivocation. What does it mean for modern America, she asks here, that such buildings are given the second chance that 8,000 citizens never got?

“Grounded, well-rendered, and highly disturbing,” Pure America is another necessary corrective to the historical record, a must-read for anyone concerned with how to repair its damage.

Go behind the scenes with never before reported stories of intrigue from some of the most colorful characters in Virginia politics over the last half century.

Read about the changes that political figures have brought to the Old Dominion, from Henry Howell's legendary gubernatorial run in the 1970s through 2020's successful battle for Richmond Public Schools against the Dominion Coliseum. Along the way, see how visionaries challenged Virginia to overcome her legacy of segregation and how that history still affects our destiny today.

Hailed by the New York Times as part of "a major revolution in racial politics in America'? for running the groundbreaking campaigns of Governor Doug Wilder, author Paul Goldman has spent decades on the leading edge of Virginia politics.

Remembering Lynchburg and Central Virginia--a collection of writings by local writer and journalist Darrell Laurant--unearths the various layers of history that have shaped Lynchburg and the surrounding area. From the shores and waters of the James River, which runs through Lynchburg, to Thomas Jefferson, who was a frequent visitor in Lynchburg and neighboring Bedford County, the history of the Lynchburg area speaks volumes to the inquisitive visitor or lifelong resident alike.

With an eye for history and a journalistic touch, Laurant revisits the characters and events that have made this section of the Old Dominion state a treasure trove of historical tales.

In addition to being the state capital, Richmond, Virginia, was also the capital of the South during the Civil War. Today Richmond is a vibrant city that embraces its historical past while looking toward future developments.

After Reconstruction, businesses developed, and the warehouse district - Shockoe Bottom - was rebuilt, boosting Richmond's economic growth. Then & Now: Richmond uses late-19th-century photographs of Richmond neighborhoods, churches, businesses, and schools, contrasting these historic photographs with contemporary views of the same Richmond sites such as St. John's Church, the Capitol, Broad Street, Main Street, and the Old Stone House. Then & Now: Richmond takes a step back in time and compares the glory of the past with the progress of the future.

Images of America: Richmond: A Historic Walking Tour guides readers through one of the earliest cities in the United States.

The book offers stories about settlers and Native Americans, our Founding Fathers, and even famous celebrities such as Elvis Presley, who made a visit to the Jefferson Hotel. Presented in this book are several walking tours, including one through Capitol Square, home to the Thomas Jefferson-designed state capitol; a stroll down Monument Avenue, one of the first streets to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places; and even a ramble through Hollywood Cemetery, the picturesque 19th-century resting spot for many celebrated historical figures.

Explore the dark side of the River City's history.

Richmond has a curious share of horrific accidents, coolly calculated slaughter, and incidents of implacable deceit in its history. Here, the wronged, the devious, and the heartbroken enact their lives on the stage set of the River City’s ostensibly genteel neighborhoods, where a tree-shaded city street may have been the site of a crime of passion and an innocuous path in the woods recalls a grisly unsolved murder. Discover these and other lesser-known stories, from a young bride poisoned by her husband to the horrific fate of an entire airliner.

Local historian Selden Richardson explores tales from a time when murder and mayhem stalked the streets of Richmond.

Known as the birthplace of black capitalism, Richmond had one of the largest black business districts in America at the turn of the 20th century.

Richmond, Virginia boasts a proud legacy of achievement among its African-American residents. Medical pioneers, civil rights activists, education leaders, and enterprising bankers are listed among the city's African-American sons and daughters. As individuals these men and women made their mark not only on Richmond's, but also the nation's, history. As a community, they have endured centuries of change and worked together for the common good. In their determined faces and in unforgettable scenes of the past, we celebrate and pay tribute to their history.

In the history of the steam locomotive Roanoke Machine Works played a key part. Take a look at this important economic center of the New South.

Roanoke Shops has been an indispensable part of the Roanoke Valley and the ""Magic City"" for more than 125 years. Founded in 1881 as an independent company, Roanoke Machine Works built new locomotives and cars for the Shenandoah Valley and Norfolk & Western Railroads. Situated between the picturesque Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains, the facility caused an economic boom in the nearby village of Big Lick and the surrounding area. By 1891, Big Lick had become Roanoke and had emerged as one of the most important economic centers in the New South. Today, Roanoke Shops employs skilled craftsmen who provide the highest-quality overhauls and repairs to diesel locomotives. This book takes a look into its history, particularly at production during that exciting and enchanting era of the steam locomotive.

Travel back in time and witness Roanoke Valley's humble beginnings and how it has grown into the region it is today.

Nestled in the shadows of the Blue Ridge, the Roanoke Valley has developed as the capital region for western Virginia. After a century of growth fueled by transportation, education, and healthcare, the region has undergone significant visible change. While some of the valley's landmarks remain, many have been replaced or dramatically altered.

Rockbridge County lies at the southern end of the Shenandoah Valley in southwestern Virginia

After the Civil War, renowned photographer Michael Miley took up residence in Lexington, where he established a studio and created a one-of-a-kind photographic archive with over 7,000 photographs spanning nearly 70 years. In 1866, Robert E. Lee was invited to come to Lexington to be president of small Washington College. Miley photographed Lee extensively, along with the townspeople of Lexington and Rockbridge County, students and faculty of Washington and Lee, unusual characters who seem to abound in the area as well as gorgeous landscapes of the mountains and rivers of the region. Rockbridge County: The Michael Miley Collection shares photographs of life in this rural landscape during the last third of the 19th century. It affords the modern reader with a remarkable view into a sometimes familiar but often foreign past.

A collection of rare and vintage images documents the fascinating history of Russell County from 1786 to present.

Russell County was formed in 1786 from a portion of Washington County. It was named for Col. William Russell, who assisted in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Early settlers, who were mostly English and Scotch-Irish, endured geographic isolation as they shaped the ways of life, attitudes, products, legends, and realities that would ultimately usher Russell County into the information age of the 21st century. In 1774, Daniel Boone led the defense of the Clinch River settlements during Dunmore's War, the war between the colony of Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo Indians. The Virginia-led attack was designed to remove the last obstacle to colonial conquest of the area. By 1858, Russell County had been reduced from 3,000 square miles to 483 square miles. Other counties formed from all or part of Russell were Lee, Tazewell, Scott, and Buchanan. A portion of what is now West Virginia was within the original boundaries of Russell County. The county seat, Lebanon, is a vibrant destination for industry and technology.