More than 2,000 DVDs explaining the causes, conflicts and consequences of the Civil War have been mailed to all public schools in Virginia. The three-hour history lesson was produced by a member of the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission who led the nation’s centennial commemoration. “In the centennial, if we made a big mistake it was that we overlooked the young. We can’t do that again,“ said James I. Robertson, a history professor at Virginia Tech who in 1961 was appointed executive director of the U.S. Civil War Centennial Commission. “A nation that forgets the past has no future.“

For details, go to
  http://www.virginiacivilwar.org.

Want to see one of the original copies of the Declaration of Independence without leaving Richmond? Then you might want to head to the Virginia Historical Society tomorrow. The museum on North Boulevard in Richmond will display one of only 26 known original printed copies of the declaration. It marks the first time the document will be displayed in Richmond.

Polarizing and controversial historical figure John Brown is the subject of a new exhibition at the Virginia Historical Society. The exhibit, “John Brown’s Raid in American Memory,“ opens tomorrow, and explores his actions to put an end to slavery and the ways he is remembered in a historical context. Brown, along with 21 other men—16 white and five black—raided, on Oct. 16, 1859, the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in what was then Virginia (and now is in West Virginia). The raid was a precursor of the Civil War.

If you’re interested in learning more about what makes a caring community tick, then attend this year’s Richmond History Makers event. The annual celebration on Oct. 20 will mark the fifth time Richmond has come together—under the big tent outside the Valentine Richmond History Center downtown TOM
SILVESTRI
—to recognize grassroots leaders responsible for making our community a better place to live.

The third annual Anthem Quest for the Cure will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Virginia Historical Society. Proceeds benefit the Jamie Hess Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Research Fund at the VCU Massey Cancer Center. The event is sponsored by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Connor’s Heroes, a foundation that provides assistance to children and their families being treated for cancer in Richmond.

A decision by the Virginia Historical Society to eliminate admission fees for nearly three months has been a success, its director says. The museum, located on the Boulevard in Richmond, saw its number of visitors more than double this summer when admission was free, compared with last year when patrons paid $5 for adults and $4 for seniors. From June through August, the Historical Society had 11,394 visitors, compared with 5,426 during the same period last year.

The typical voyage from America to combat zones in Vietnam took 18 to 21 days. Confined to a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with sleeping quarters so tight troops had little to no room to move leaves plenty of hours to occupy the mind. How that time was spent by soldiers is the focus of the Vietnam Graffiti Project, an endeavor started 12 years ago in Keswick in Albemarle County by Art and Lee Beltrone.

Textbooks are nice, but nothing beats a history lesson that includes original documents, eyewitness accounts and participants, a group of Virginia teachers is finding out this week. The 19 educators from across the state are learning about Massive Resistance—Virginia’s attempt to keep from desegregating schools in the 1950s and 1960s—as participants in the annual weeklong E. Claiborne Robins Jr. Teachers Institute at the Virginia Historical Society.

Tomorrow the Virginia Historical Society kicks off its 16th annual E. Claiborne Robins Jr. Teachers Institute. Each year, a group of teachers from across the commonwealth gathers at the society for an in-depth exploration of some topic in Virginia and American History. This year’s topic is “The Brown Decision in Virginia.“ This year’s institute observes the 50th anniversary of two significant events in Virginia’s painful struggle to become a more just society—the enrollment of 21 black students in previously all-white schools in Norfolk and Arlington, and the decision of Prince Edward County’s Board of Supervisors to close public schools rather than integrate them.

The Virginia Historical Society, 428 N. Boulevard, recently honored authors, staff members, a philanthropist, a volunteer and a student for their contributions to research, education and the mission of the society. The 10 honorees are: Olga Korostolina, a student at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax County. She received the $5,000 Wyndham B. Blanton Scholarship Award for her paper written during the Wyndham B. Blanton Scholars Forum, a program that brings 20 high school students to the society to participate in a discussion with one of the nation’s leading historians.

The Vietnam War was a deeply emotional, polarizing period that affected a generation of Americans.  The Virginia Historical Society, 428 N. Boulevard, will open exhibits this weekend focused on the personal stories of the Vietnam War, transporting visitors back to the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s.

The Virginia Historical Society is offering free admission this summer, June 6 through Aug. 30. The museum at 428 N. Boulevard in Richmond is featuring three galleries focusing on the Vietnam War era. War experiences will be explored through “Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era”; “Marking Time: Voyage to Vietnam,“ which will display soldier art created on canvas bunk bottoms from the 1967 troop ship General Nelson M. Walker; and “Bring Paul Home,“ a collection of materials donated by Phyllis Galanti of Richmond documenting the movement to draw attention to and free prisoners of war including her husband, Paul Galanti.

The Virginia Historical Society is offering free admission this summer, June 6 through Aug. 30.

The Virginia Historical Society sets national standards. It inhabits an impressive physical plant, possesses impressive collections, and presents (often in collaboration with others) arresting exhibits. One of its gifts has been to place Virginia’s many stories in broader contexts. This is not history told with tired facts and obscure objects displayed in galleries with atmospheres soporific but history that seems as recent as yesterday, as current as today, and as promising (and as challenging) as tomorrow. The past, Faulkner said, is not even past.