From Ta-Nehisi Coates, who just finished a history of the Second World War by Antony Beevor: This is what is ultimately most troubling for me about Beevor’s work. He—all at once—catalogues all the flaws of the Allies, but robs you of your moral superiority. How should we think about the Soviet Union, which, among “The [...]

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So much of it begins, really, on this day in 1606, when King James I granted the Virginia Company of London a royal charter. “Go west, young men,” he proclaimed, more or less, “and bring me back the loot!” It was a total disaster—at least in the short term. By this day in 1861, Virginia’s economy had certainly turned around, but other [...]

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Fifty years ago today the great country singer and Winchester native Patsy Cline died in a plane crash near Camden, Tennessee, at the age of twenty-nine thirty. She was flying home to Nashville after a benefit concert in Kansas City in a plane piloted by her manager. Also on board were the country music luminaries [...]

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An advertisement for Virginia Dare wine, from the December 14, 1942, issue of Life magazine.

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In June 1969 Ebony magazine celebrated the 350th anniversary of “The Birth of Black America” by remembering the arrival, in 1619, of the first Africans: In August when the shadows are long on the land and even the air oppresses, the furies of fate hang in the balance in Afro-America. It was in August, the [...]

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Consecutive pages from the March 18, 1966, issue of Life magazine, featuring Richard and Mildred Loving.

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An advertisement for Colonial Williamsburg, from the May 22, 1944, issue of Life magazine.

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From the November 4, 1966, issue of Life magazine, an editorial on the legacy of United States Senator Harry F. Byrd, who had died the previous month. First, bad Harry Byrd: Harry Byrd never left the Democratic party, but he refused to support its nominees in the last seven presidential elections. His states’ rights fetish [...]

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From the February 11, 1946, issue of Life magazine: the return to Virginia of Nancy Langhorne Astor, the Virginian who became Britain’s first woman to sit in Parliament. “Oh, there you are, you horrible creatures,” she greeted us, smiling. She shook our hands. “In church I prayed you wouldn’t come. I knew you would ruin [...]

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A party at the Virginia Military Institute, from the December 22, 1941, issue of Life magazine. The caption reads: Cadets and girls sit one out in Jackson Memorial hall under the famous painting by B. West Clinedinst (V. M. I. Class of ’80) of the charge at New Market. The boys above are no older [...]

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From the February 16, 1959, issue of Life magazine, a photo-essay on the reopening of public schools in Virginia to African American students: As Virginia’s “massive resistance” to integration crumbled last week, 21 Negro students walked cautiously into former all-white public schools. They came prepared to face enmity, ridicule or even physical violence. They found [...]

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On this day in 1753, the Virginia governor dispatched George Washington and six of his best men to trek all the way to Ohio country, where they were to demand the departure of a French military force. Good luck with that. The journey, conducted in winter, proved an arduous one, and the French, predictably, told [...]

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From the July 3, 1944, issue of Life magazine: faith healers in southwestern Virginia. RE THE POST’S TITLE: Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died (NIV).

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Speaking of Gabriel’s Conspiracy … in their August 1972 issue, the editors of Ebony magazine paid tribute to “The Black Male.” Alas, Gabriel, who plotted a slave uprising in Henrico County in 1800, did not make the list of “Ten Greats of Black History,” although Nat Turner, whose plot was not thwarted by a driving [...]

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“General” Julius Franklin Howell with Mary Pickford (top) and Helen Longstreet (bottom), from the February 16, 1948, issue of Life magazine, which featured the 102nd birthday party thrown for the old Confederate soldier in Bristol. To be clear, Howell was only a corporal during the Civil War, but he distinguished himself on the staff of [...]

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From the August 7, 1950, issue of Life magazine, a feature on Virginia caves. To see a larger version of the image, either click on the link or on the image itself.

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Consecutive pages from the August 19, 1946, issue of Life magazine: ROBERT EDWARD LEE IV: Today Lee descendants are scattered all over the U.S. Robert Edward Lee IV (above) is great-grandson of Confederate general. World War II veteran, ex-Sergeant Lee is studying at Washington and Lee University, where his great-grandfather once was president. MODEL POSES [...]

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An advertisement for Virginia Dare wine from the September 30, 1957, issue of Life magazine. I wouldn’t have thought that in the 1950s, pink would have been considered “purely American!” On the other hand, 1957 is the year Joe McCarthy died.

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From the February 28, 1938, issue of Life magazine, featuring a story on antebellum parties at Washington and Lee University. The caption to the photograph above reads: A silk taffeta hoop skirt was worn to the Washington & Lee ball by Mary Ann Davie, a visiting belle from St. Louis. The hoops are of hickory [...]

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From the June 20, 1938, issue of Life magazine, a photo spread headlined, “Senatorial Summer Styles Feature Double-Breasted Coats.” That’s Harry F. Byrd, of Virginia, second from left. That other Harry, the one named Truman, doesn’t look too bad, either.

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An interesting bit of history: everybody knows the photograph above, taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt in Times Square on V-J, or Victory over Japan, Day, August 14, 1945. It was published in Life magazine on August 27 with the following caption: In the middle of New York’s Times Square a white-clad girl clutches her purse and [...]

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An advertisement for Woodbury Facial Soap, from the February 7, 1949, issue of Life magazine, featuring Caroline “Calise” Louise Chauvenet, of Albemarle County. Sample caption: Albemarle County boasts of its beautiful hunters—AND—its beautiful Virginia belles. Before you—two shining examples! Woodbury likes to boast too—it’s the only facial soap with its beauty-cream ingredient, a skin-smoothing ingredient [...]

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From the January 20, 1961, issue of Life magazine, a feature designed to kick off the centennial commemoration of the American Civil War. More images after the jump.

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The Shenandoah Valley, from the August 5, 1940, issue of Life magazine. RE THIS POST’S TITLE: Psalm 144:5 (NIV)

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On this day in 1958, Richmond Times-Dispatch editor Virginius Dabney published an article in Life magazine explaining, on behalf of Virginia, why the state closed public schools in several communities—including here in Charlottesville—rather than allow them to integrate. Here’s how it began: Why has Virginia, with its Jeffersonian traditions, its heritage from Chief Justice John Marshall and other [...]

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