VMHC Education

In one week you can meet the ships of Richmond SailFest!
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Three tall ships — the Oosterschelde, Pride of Baltimore II, and Virginia — will travel up the James River and anchor at Dock Street Park & Intermediate Terminal in Richmond for this free, family-friendly, weekend-long festival from June 12-14. Take tall ship tours throughout the weekend (free, advance registration is recommended) and see what life is like on the high seas!
The City of Richmond and the VMHC are proud to partner in hosting Richmond SailFest, a Sail Virginia℠ 2026 Affiliate Harbor, featuring live music and performances, historical re-enactors, art & history exhibitions, an epic fireworks show over the James, and much more.⁠
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Details and ship tour registration at https:///VirginiaHistory.org/SailFest

June is National Immigration Month - Did you know that 13.3% of Virginia's population today is comprised of immigrants? You can learn more about their stories in our newest temporary exhibition, We the People: The World in Our Commonwealth, open through the summer.

Happy Pride Month! VMHC collections contain buttons related to various issues throughout the years - including this selection celebrating LGBTQ+ rights, promoting messages of equality, honoring those lost to the AIDS epidemic, and commemorating Stonewall. These buttons are from The Proctor-Burns Collection, 1850-2019, which contains a variety of material related to LGBTQ+ history, activism, and culture. In 2019, Virginia couple Judd Proctor and Brian Burns generously donated this collection to the VMHC.

Join us on Tuesdays and Thursdays this summer for family friendly programs on Tuesdays and Thursdays - featuring outdoor games, international crafts inspired by our current exhibition "We the People: The World in Our Commonwealth" and other exciting activities. Learn more at our calendar of events: https://secure.virginiahistory.org/events

The Richmond Road Saints was founded in the 1950s by a group of young men who shared an interest in cars generally, but race cars specifically. This jacket was recently donated by a former member and belonged at one time to Edgar Alonzo "Chuck" Jett III, a founding member of the group. Jett and his father were also the founders of Colonial Heights' first drag strip for hot rodding, originally conceived to give young enthusiasts a safer place to race. While much of the club was dedicated to restoring and racing cars, they had a philanthropic side as well. In 1957 the group banded together with other automobile clubs to host "Power for Polio" - a fundraiser for the March of Dimes. (VMHC 2025.3)

For decades, this miniature portrait of Thomas Jefferson has been hiding some incredible information that new research recently brought to light. Art historians Diane Ehrenpreis and Laura Auricchio have established that this watercolor, which had been through to be the work of John Trumbull, is in fact the work of an artist in the studio of the French artist Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. An accomplished portraitist and highly sought after painter of the French Royal Court, Labille-Guiard also notably operated a studio made up entirely of female artists. In 1786, when Jefferson was serving as American Minister to France, he commissioned this miniature and recorded the payment of 240 livres in his account book - making this one of the two earliest known life portraits of Thomas Jefferson.

The back of the VMHC portrait bears an inscription “Portrait of Mr. Jefferson.” While art historians long thought the style of the watercolor painting did not match Trumbull’s less refined manner, all agreed that this inscription was clearly Trumbull’s handwriting. It is likely that Jefferson ordered this miniature as a reference image for Trumbull to use as a model for his group portrait, the famous "Declaration of Independence."(VMHC 1978.22)

VMHC is proud to offer free admission for active military and veterans on Memorial Day. Visit the front desk to redeem.

Congrats to our Virginia History Day state contest winners who will be headed to College Park, Maryland for the National Contest in June! We’re so proud of all of the students who completed history day research projects in their classrooms this year.

You can learn more about the Virginia History Day program here: https://virginiahistory.org/learn/virginia-history-day

We know, we know - ghost stories are usually for October. But in Virginia, hauntings happen all year long - sometimes where you least expect them! An intern in the education department recently unearthed this accounting of a haunting in the Virginia governor's mansion.

Richmond SailFest is less than one month away! ⛵️

The City of Richmond and the VMHC are proud to partner in hosting Richmond SailFest, a Sail Virginia℠ 2026 Affiliate Harbor, on June 12-14, featuring three tall ships along with dockside entertainment and concessions.

This free, family-friendly, weekend-long festival will include ship tours, live music and performances, historical re-enactors, art & history exhibitions, an epic fireworks show over the James River, and much more.
Details at https://VirginiaHistory.org/SailFest