Once Upon a Time…: the Virginia Historical Society’s The Story of Virginia, an American Experience



Exterior, Virginia Historical Society

Exhibit banner


16,000 years in 10,000 square feet [1].  While this does appear to be quite a feat, it is the explicit mission of the Virginia Historical Society’s exhibit The Story of Virginia, an American Experience.  The site, located in downtown Richmond’s museum district, chronicles Virginia’s historical transformation from the earliest recorded times of native Virginians all the way through the present day.  The exhibit’s explicit purpose is to allow visitors to “witness the cultural and historical transformations of the commonwealth as they travel from one gallery to another” [2]. The mission of this particular exhibit also reflects that of the Virginia Historical Society in its entirety.  Founded in 1831, the Virginia Historical Society has a stated mission of “connecting people to America’s past through the unparalleled story of Virginia” [3]. 

The unparalleled story of Virginia.  So, what exactly is the story of Virginia?

This is the question that the exhibit aims to answer, or put more accurately, aims to explore.  The exhibit does more than just display artifacts that merely detail the historical events that characterize the creation and maintenance of the commonwealth or simply retell the story of Virginia; it creates an arena for constructing a vision of the commonwealth’s identity by providing visitors with an exploration of the essence of Virginia – what it means to be Virginia and what it means to be a Virginian.  This is the facet of history with which the exhibit most engages: tackling the notion of defining Virginian history, delineating the legacy of Virginia, and creating a space for understanding Virginia’s potential.

The exhibit takes its visitors on a chronological journey of Virginia’s own journey as a place, a state, and as a community of people.  It is notably framed as an evolutionary narrative.  The theme of evolution and transformation guides the structure of the exhibit and subsequently structures the conception of Virginia’s identity as a continually transforming, progressive experience.



Replica of Arthur Ashe at exit of the exhibit.

The apparent buzzword of the entire exhibit is “becoming”.  The exhibit is organized into several galleries and sub-galleries focusing on specific time frames and specific sub-topics respectively.   It all begins when visitors enter “Virginia Becomes Home” which documents the lives of native Virginians.  Next, visitors enter “Becoming Virginians” which documents the lives of the colonial Virginians. Then, visitors walk to the next galleries see how Virginians participated in “Becoming Americans” during the Revolution, “Becoming Southerners” and the advent of the plantation system, and ultimately “Becoming Confederates” with the onset of the Civil War.  The next phase in the journey demonstrates how Virginia engaged with “Becoming New Southerners” during Reconstruction, “Becoming Americans Again”, and “Becoming Equal” during desegregation.  Lastly, after following the circular construction of the exhibit, visitors enter “Becoming a New Virginia” which is a compilation of present day artifacts.  This gallery leaves visitors wondering about what future generations of Virginians will accomplish as it  leaves them off right where they started by the “Virginia Becomes Home” gallery.  The journey visitors physically take is circular while the journey they experience follows more of a linear progression.

The narrative frame that emphasizes evolution throughout time is also seen through the strategic use of color and decorative elements in the different galleries of the exhibit.  The early galleries employ more muted, earth tones with low lighting.  As visitors progress on the self-guided tour, the lightening gets brighter and brighter colors are introduced, although a muted palate nonetheless fills the majority of the walls.  Other decorative elements are staged to place the visitor within the historical context, as seen in the photos below.  These production elements mimic the constructed transformative journey on which Virginia and the visitors have embarked.


Decorative element that reflects early colonization of Virginia.

Decorative element that reflects daily life on a Virginian plantation.

This story of Virginia with allusions to its complexity as told through a plethora of artifacts, however, is not complete.  The strength of the museum to consider the larger picture always demonstrates a weakness of the exhibit to try to include all of Virginia’s history into a relatively small space.  Certain topics of historical interest are breezed over without much depth to the topic’s inclusion in the exhibit.  For example, one problematic inclusion in the exhibit is the discussion of Native Americans in the exhibit.  They are referred to as the first “inhabitants” of the land we all now know as Virginia.  In one or more places, Native Americans are actually referred to as “Indians”.  Another example is that slavery is mentioned in a few places throughout several galleries but the topic is not shown as a prominent part of Virginia’s identity.  It seems to be thrown into the mix as contextual evidence of the times rather than an institution that complicates the vision of Virginia’s progressive history.  The severity of slavery is also breezed over as it is first referred to in the exhibit as “African Labor”, as seen in the photo below.


One of the first mentions of Virginia's engagement with slavery.

Each gallery, as dictated by their respective titles, embodies the spirit of becoming something else in the evolution of the commonwealth.  The reason this blog post has not delved into much detail about each historical landmark event or artifact included is because the sheer amount of details would be tiresome to write and to read about.  What appears to be most important for the visitor is to engage in the experience of Virginia, what it has been like, what it is like today, and to imagine what it will be like in the days to come. What a visitor walks away with a powerful sense of what Virginia is about – an experience of Virginia, a memory of Virginia’s transformation.

 

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[1] "About The Story of Virginia, An American Experience." Virginia Historical Society - The Center for Virginia History. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/about.htm>.
[2] "About The Story of Virginia, An American Experience." Virginia Historical Society - The Center for Virginia History. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/about.htm>.
[3] "About the Virginia Historical Society." Virginia Historical Society - The Center for Virginia History. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.vahistorical.org/about/main.htm>.