Celebrating Virginia's 250th at LVA
Virginia played a significant role in the American Revolution that shaped our nation’s beginnings. The Library of Virginia invites you to explore our Colonial, Revolutionary War, and Early American resources. Discover a variety of interactive on-site and community events designed to engage Virginians and bring the Revolutionary era to life across the Commonwealth. Browse our list of important early documents like the Virginia State Constitution, a historical newspaper database, educator resources and other records that offer a journey through history.
The Library is excited to partner with the American Revolution 250 Commission (VA250) on a project to engage Virginia’s citizens with the ideas and actions of those living in the Revolutionary era. The “Ideas in Action: Virginians Petition their Government, 1776-1786” project will focus on Legislative Petitions, which served as the official means for Virginians to request assistance from their elected representatives on issues such as religious freedom, compensation for losses incurred during the war, emancipation from enslavement, and other local matters. Library staff will lead crowdsourcing events across the state to deepen engagement with and access to the Legislative Petitions. These events will highlight local historical records that reveal the interests and concerns of Virginians during the formation of their democracy. While the project is set to launch later in 2025, you can learn more about the Legislative Petitions in the UncommonWealth blog.
Events
Check back often! This page will be updated regularly with new events and resources. We look forward to your participation in this important celebration of our nation’s path to independence.
Dunmore’s Proclamation
November 7, 1775
As tensions between Virginia and Great Britain increased, Lord Dunmore proclaimed martial law and offered freedom to enslaved people who agreed to fight for the king. Rather than calm tensions, this proclamation alienated influential planters and political leaders who remained loyal until then.
Digital Collections
Our collections contain early records of the Commonwealth including the political effort to attain independence and observations about military campaigns. The records in these collections illuminate Virginia's pursuit of self-governance and extraordinary contributions to shaping our nation. Explore these collections from the Revolutionary War and Early American era.
Executive Communications of the Office of the Speaker, 1776-1864
The Executive Communications digital collection contains correspondence to the Speaker of the House of Delegates.
Virginia Revolutionary Conventions, 1774-1776
This digital collection includes documents related to the five revolutionary conventions that provided Virginians with an alternative government between August 1, 1774, and July 5, 1776.
George Mason Papers, 1775-1789
This collection of George Mason’s papers concerns his work during the Virginia Conventions and his time in the Virginia House of Delegates. Of special interest is a copy, by Mason, of the first draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
Governor's Letters Received
Letters and other documents received in the Governor’s Office from 1776 to 1784 provide a detailed picture of Virginia government during and immediately after the Revolutionary War. There are reports of military actions, Native American affairs, and economic conditions.
Electoral College Collection
This collection contains the Journal of Electors of Virginia, 1804-1856, 1876 and 1889, election certificates, and certificates of vote and ascertainment.
Executive Letter Books
Executive letter books, 1780-1906, are comprised of copies of outgoing letters of Virginia Governors. Currently, only Thomas Jefferson’s letter books have been digitized.
Virginia State Constitution
June 29, 1776
The last of Virginia's Revolutionary Conventions met from early May through July 5, 1776 to establish a new government for the independent Commonwealth of Virginia. In this session, the delegates unanimously passed the Virginia Declaration of Rights on June 12 and wrote a new constitution that they officially adopted on June 29.
Genealogy Resources
Can you trace your family history to the beginning of the nation? Use these resources to find your Virginia roots.
Virginia Revolutionary War Service Records
Virginians played a pivotal role in the struggle for American independence, 1775–1783. Virginia troops fought from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, and many Virginians provided some form of military or public service. There is no single source or index for Virginia Revolutionary War records, but a wide variety of records are covered in this guide.
Family History Presentations
The Library of Virginia houses a vast collection of materials and records documenting the lives of Virginians. Delving into those records to explore your family’s history can be an immensely satisfying and rewarding experience. To start organizing your search, watch the videos included in this YouTube playlist.
Reading Old Handwriting
Whether you’re using the Library of Virginia’s collections for family history research or transcribing archival documents on Making History, tune in for these tips on deciphering the past. Please join experienced editor John Deal and circulation and archival assistant (and expert transcriber!) August Moulis to learn about special characters, common abbreviations, and other challenges to reading old handwriting.
American Revolution Blog Posts
Explore some of the most interesting stories of the American Revolution on the Library’s blog, The UncommonWealth. More posts are added as we process, digitize, and transcribe collections!
Historic Newspapers
Newspapers offer a glimpse into everyday life, from important political debates to local announcements, advertisements, and events. Access Virginia newspapers from the Revolutionary War era and beyond on Virginia Chronicle, our historic newspaper database. For a comprehensive list of additional free, digital newspaper resources for collections outside the commonwealth, visit Chronicling America and Purdue University’s Free Historic U.S. Newspapers by State list. Subscription newspaper databases are available to Virginia residents with a Library of Virginia account. Did you know there were three different newspapers all named The Virginia Gazette? Learn about the distinctions between the papers.
Virginia Chronicle
The Library of Virginia’s historical newspaper database, Virginia Chronicle, provides free access to full-text searching and digitized images of over 5 million newspaper pages, including many papers from the Colonial and early American period.
Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, VA, 1736-1780)
Established in 1736 by William Parks, this edition of the Virginia Gazette was Virginia’s first official newspaper. After Parks’ death in 1750, succeeding publishers included William Hunter, Joseph Royle, Alexander Purdie and John Dixon, Dixon and Hunter, and Dixon and Thomas Nicolson.
Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, VA, 1766-1774)
William Rind began a competing Virginia Gazette in 1766 at the urging of influential men like Thomas Jefferson to provide an alternative voice to the established Virginia Gazette. When Rind died in 1773, his wife, Clementina, continued publishing the paper, making her Virginia’s first woman printer and publisher. John Pinkney carried on the paper until 1776.
Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg, VA, 1775-1778)
Though Alexander Purdie had worked as a publisher on Parks’ Virginia Gazette, in 1775 he broke away and began his own Virginia Gazette. With the motto, “Always for Liberty, and the Publick Good,” Purdie’s newspaper was unapologetically pro-revolution, carrying the Declaration of Independence on the front page of its July 26, 1776 edition.
Index of Virginia Printing
This database provides brief biographies of individuals involved in the Virginia print trade from 1683 to 1820; a catalog of imprints published in Virginia between 1730 and 1820; and narrative histories of Virginia newspapers issued before 1821.
Educator Resources
The American Revolution is considered one of the most crucial times of United States history to study; it lays the groundwork for all political history following it. These resources are designed for teachers and students but open to all.
Shaping the Constitution
This resource provides important primary source documents and paintings from the Library of Virginia and the Library of Congress related to America's Founding era and the U.S. Constitution.
Document Bank of Virginia: Revolution and the New Nation
Using primary sources, teachers can make history relevant to students while helping them learn and understand state standards. The Document Bank of Virginia (DBVa) will teach students to be critical thinkers as they analyze the original documents and draw their own conclusions about Virginia’s past.
Encyclopedia Virginia: Revolution and Early Republic (1763–1823)
Access primary sources, biographies, and topical articles related to the Revolutionary period. Encyclopedia Virginia is a project of Virginia Humanities in partnership with the Library of Virginia. EV publishes topical and biographical entries written by scholars, edited to be accessible to a general audience, and vigorously fact-checked. Content creation is a work in progress, with new entries published regularly.
Additional Resources
American Revolution 250 Commission (VA250)
Commemorating 250 years of our Nation in the Commonwealth
Give Me Liberty: Virginia & the Forging of a Nation
Exhibition by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and the Virginia Museum of History & Culture
American Association for State and Local History
Resources for Commemorating America’s Semiquincentennial
Worlds Turned Upside Down
Podcast from R2 Studios telling the stories of the American Revolution
American Revolution Digital Collections
Resources from the Library of Congress
Historic St. John's Church
Tours and historic reenactments at the site of Patrick Henry's famous speech
