The Remarkable Story of Rosenwald Schools page 4
The Tom Wolfe Collection page 10
Julia Child: An American Icon page 14
1774: Prelude to Revolution page 22
The Commonwealth History Fund page 28
Cover: Julia Child: A Recipe for Life Illustration by Laura Marr © 2024
Virginia History & Culture No. 19
Questions/Comments newsletter@VirginiaHistory.org
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NEWSLETTER TEAM Editor Graham Dozier
Designer/Production Cierra Brown
Contributors
Jamie Bosket, Danni Flakes, L. Paige Newman, Tracy Schneider, Karen Sherry, William Rasmussen
EXECUTIVE TEAM President & CEO
Jamie O. Bosket
Chief Financial Officer
David R. Kunnen
VP for Advancement
Anna E. Powers
VP for Collections & Exhibitions
Adam E. Scher
VP for Guest Engagement
Michael B. Plumb
Associate VP for Human Resources
Paula C. Davis
VP for Marketing & Communications
Tracy D. Schneider
VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Chair
Richard Cullen*
Vice Chair
Carlos M. Brown*
Honorary Vice Chairs
Austin Brockenbrough III
Harry F. Byrd III*
Nancy H. Gottwald
Conrad M. Hall*
Thomas G. Slater, Jr.*
Regional Vice Chairs
William H. Fralin, Jr.
Susan S. Goode*
Gen. John P. Jumper
Lisa R. Moore, Staunton
Gerald F. Smith*
*Executive Committee
The Virginia Museum of History & Culture is owned and operated by the Virginia Historical Society—a private, non-profit organization established in 1831.
Makola M. Abdullah
B. Marc Allen
Neil Amin
Victor K. Branch*
Charles L. Cabell
Victor O. Cardwell
Herbert A. Claiborne III
William C. Davis
Melanie Trent De Schutter
Joanie D. Eiland
Peter F. Farrell
Victoria D. Harker
Russell B. Harper
Paul C. Harris
C. N. Jenkins, Jr.
Edward A. Mullen
John R. Nelson, Jr.*
Kevin B. Osborne
J. Sargeant Reynolds, Jr.
Xavier R. Richardson
Elizabeth A. Seegar
Robert D. Taylor
J. Tracy Walker IV
As we begin a new year with wind in our sails, we also reflect back on 2023 with great gratitude and immense pride.
This past year, the first full year following the most extensive reimagination in our long history, overflowed with energy and excitement. The VMHC reached and engaged more people across the Commonwealth than in any other year. Attendance at the museum set an all-time record, exceeding our previous record by nearly 20% and more than doubling our historical average. This, of course, in the context of the current national and regional climate—where most museums have yet to return to pre-COVID levels of visitation— makes this dramatic growth all the more extraordinary.
Another milestone of this past year, we received word at the end of 2023 of our reaccreditation by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the museum field’s highest national standard of recognition afforded the nation’s leading museums. Accreditation certifies that the museum meets the highest levels of excellence in all areas of its work, and it comes after a rigorous year-long, once-per-decade review.
In their report to our Board of Trustees, the AAM national review committee noted: “The strength of this museum is found first and foremost in the work it has done to reimagine itself as the museum for all Virginians. It has maintained its past with great respect and has woven it into the new institution’s persona. The transformation has been remarkable…it serves as a model museum in all areas.”
This very exceptional year demonstrates our boundless opportunity to fulfill our education and preservation mission in new and innovative ways. It speaks to the dedication of VMHC’s tremendous Board of Trustees, staff, and volunteers. And it speaks to the passion and generosity of all who support and empower this special place.
With a great boost from a history-making year, we embark on our 2024 journey with purpose, enthusiasm, and gratefulness. Thank you for joining us.
Most sincerely,
Jamie O. Bosket, President & CEO
In 1911, Booker T. Washington met Julius Rosenwald. This meeting between a Black college president and a Jewish businessman and philanthropist led to one of the most transformative educational initiatives in American history. To address the deplorable state of public education for Black children in the segregated South, they developed a plan that built thousands of schools between 1912 and 1937. The Rosenwald program gave Black families unprecedented access to education in the Jim Crow era. It also fostered interracial collaboration and laid the groundwork for ending segregation.
After the Civil War, Black families clamored for educational opportunities that had been denied to them during slavery. They viewed education as a primary means to their advancement in American society. Black activism and newly elected Black legislators drove the creation of public schools across the South. In 1870, Virginia established a public education system—albeit segregated. Yet by the early 1900s, unequal funding and Black disenfranchisement meant that schools for Black children were either nonexistent or woefully inferior to white schools, especially in rural areas. In 1912, for example, Virginia spent about $12 per white student and $1 per Black student. African American communities lobbied for more resources and created makeshift classrooms in churches and homes, but such efforts could not fix the systemic educational disparities.
Booker T. Washington (1859–1915) was keenly aware of this problem from personal experience and from his position as America’s leading Black educator. Born into slavery in rural Franklin County, Virginia, he went to great lengths to get an education in order to escape a life of poverty and labor in coal and salt mines. After graduating from the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (today Hampton University), he became the founder and president of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1881. With the college’s success, Washington rose to national prominence— U.S. presidents sought his counsel—for his vision of Black progress through self-help and economic independence.
In addition, they both took a pragmatic view of race relations. They focused on providing educational opportunities—particularly vocational training—rather than trying to dismantle segregation. This stance put Washington at odds with other Black leaders, such as W.E.B. DuBois, who were demanding civil rights and equality. Yet Washington’s approach made the school plan more palatable to white Southerners because it did not challenge existing social hierarchies.
For Washington, a major obstacle facing Black Americans was inadequate education. He observed that many Black schools in the South “are as bad as stables.” In 1905, he created a pilot program to construct schools in rural Alabama. Several years later, Washington met Julius Rosenwald (1862–1932) in Chicago. The son of German-Jewish immigrants, Rosenwald was the president of Sears, Roebuck and Company—the world’s largest department store—and a philanthropist who supported Jewish charities, hospitals, the YMCA, and other causes.
It was a fortuitous meeting. At the time, Washington was seeking funding to grow his rural school program and Rosenwald was looking to expand his philanthropy to help Black Americans. Rosenwald wrote, “I do not see how America can go ahead if part of its people are left behind.” The two men shared an ethos of hard work and self-reliance to improve one’s lot.
With Washington’s idea and Rosenwald’s philanthropy, they developed a program to build primary and secondary schools for Black children across the South. This collaboration marked one of the first between Black and Jewish Americans in the long fight for civil rights. And it was a remarkably successful one. Between 1912 and 1937, the Rosenwald program created 4,978 schools, as well as shop buildings and teacher housing, for a total of 5,357 structures in 15 Southern states—from Maryland to Florida to Texas. Rosenwald schools served one-third of all the Black children in the South and employed thousands of teachers. Virginia had 382 Rosenwald school buildings across more than 80% of its counties. The program also supported teacher training and a longer academic year. A cornerstone of the program was its requirement for matching funds—Washington and Rosenwald wanted local buy-in for the schools. Rosenwald grants contributed less than one-quarter of the money needed to construct new schools: municipal governments and Black communities had to supply the rest. This often presented a great hardship for Black families who were already struggling economically. Nevertheless,
they remained committed to obtaining educational opportunities. They held bake sales, barbecues, and rallies to raise money; they also donated land, building materials, and labor toward their matching requirement.
The Rosenwald program provided architectural plans for schools of various sizes designed by Tuskegee architects. These buildings were generally modest, wood-framed structures with large windows to afford lighting and air circulation in areas that often lacked electricity. The designs also called for movable room partitions to maximize flexibility. Indeed, many schools also functioned as community centers. In Virginia, most of the Rosenwald schools were one to three-room building types and taught students through eighth grade. Larger high schools, called training schools, served an entire county. For Black communities, these schools were a source of pride and a physical expression of their aspirations for a brighter future.
“Education was the most important thing,” as Odelle Collins, an alumna of the Cape Charles Rosenwald school, succinctly put it. Through the Rosenwald program, Black Southerners secured what was often their first chance at formal education. Rosenwald schools reduced illiteracy and prepared students for jobs and higher learning. They also cultivated the next generation of civil rights leaders, including John Lewis, Maya Angelou, and Medgar Evers. In addition, persistent inequalities between white and Black schools spurred the activism that ended segregation and brought about legal equality for Black Americans.
Plan for Two-Teacher School, from Rosenwald Fund’s Community School Plans, 1924 (Courtesy of the State Archives of North Carolina).
Despite the profound impact of the Rosenwald schools, this history is not widely known. It is the story of a visionary partnership between a Black educator and a Jewish philanthropist, and the testament to the hard work, sacrifice, and dedication of families seeking a better life for their children.
With school desegregation in the 1950s and ’60s, many Rosenwald buildings were repurposed or neglected. Only about 12% of the more than 5,000 structures survive. In 2002, in the spirit of the public-private collaboration initiated by Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald, the National Trust for Historic Preservation partnered with grassroots organizations to raise awareness of and preserve Rosenwald schools. Preservation Virginia joined these efforts at the state level. Today, community groups around the Commonwealth continue to work to revitalize surviving Rosenwald schools and to share their legacy.
Lettie
Katherine
Mr.
Barbara
B.
Handmade objects bear the marks of their makers. Such marks could be a written signature, as well as the traces of a tool or a distinctive style or approach to crafting the item. Some artisans further personalize their work with symbolic imagery, hidden messages, and other private contents that might not be apparent to the casual observer.
This limited-time display provides a close look at a small selection of decorative objects in the VMHC collection—including a quilt, a ceramic vessel, and several pieces of furniture. Representing a diverse range of artisans, eras, and object types, the featured items share a common thread: they all have hidden contents, symbolic messages, or other personalized features. Through this unique display, visitors can explore these objects’ secrets and what they reveal about their makers, owners, and histories.
On Display
December 9, 2023 to October 20, 2024
Videos are included in the exhibition that allow visitors a closer look at hidden elements and additional background on each object. View them while visiting the gallery or online at VirginiaHistory.org/Secrets
Newspapers, pen, ink and charcoal drawing by Tom Wolfe, about 1960 (VMHC Collection).
One of the most influential authors of the 20th century, Richmond, Virginia native Tom Wolfe (1930–2018) pushed the boundaries of traditional journalism and nonfiction writing to help create New Journalism, a hybrid composition style characterized by dramatic literary techniques, intensive reporting, and reporting of generally acknowledged subjectivity. Innovative and sometimes polarizing, Wolfe’s biting satire, insightful wit, and wildly punctuated prose was unsurpassed in bringing to life the cultural milieu of contemporary American society.
Tom Wolfe caught the writing bug early when he was a student at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, where he wrote for the school paper, The Pine Needle Wolfe attended Washington and Lee University, where he helped found the school’s literary magazine, the Shenandoah, and wrote for W&L’s monthly
Rollcall, Senator, pen and ink drawing by Tom Wolfe, 1959 (VMHC Collection).
magazine, Southern Collegian. After graduating from Washington and Lee in 1951, Wolfe entered the doctoral program in American Studies at Yale University, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1957.
While finishing his dissertation, Wolfe wrote for The Springfield Union newspaper in Springfield, Massachusetts. A gifted illustrator, Wolfe also contributed caricatures that were featured in the Sunday edition of the paper.
In 1959, Wolfe was hired as a city desk reporter and the Latin American correspondent for The Washington Post. He spent several months in the Caribbean and wrote multipart stories on the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba. In 1962, Wolfe moved to New York City to work as a reporter and feature writer for The New York Herald Tribune, and it was here that his signature nonfiction style and interest in the state of popular culture, literature, and art began to emerge. Wolfe’s compilation of essays entitled The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965) was followed by The Pump House Gang and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, both published in 1968, which firmly established Wolfe as a leader in the burgeoning New Journalism movement.
Throughout the 1970s, Wolfe published seven books and several landmark magazine features, including “PostOrbital Remorse,” which he later developed into the book The Right Stuff (1979). In 1981 he began work on the novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, which explores cultural and social class tensions in New York City in the 1970s. Both The Right Stuff and Bonfire of the Vanities became national bestsellers and were made into major motion pictures. Wolfe continued to publish short nonfiction throughout the 1990s and 2000s, developing interests in modern technology and the implications of evolution and neuroscience on philosophical concepts of free will.
Thanks to the generosity of his family, the VMHC was recently gifted a manual typewriter used by Wolfe (he shunned the use of a computer) and more than seventy original pen, ink, and charcoal drawings he made while a journalist for The Washington Post. Most notably, the collection also includes one of Wolfe’s custom-made signature white suits, which he wore with pride for decades as a nod to his Southern roots. “You never realize how much of your background is sewn into the lining of your clothes,” he once observed.
Olivetti Linea 98 typewriter used by Tom Wolfe (VMHC Collection).
Stuart G. Christian, Jr. Lecture: The Art of Presidential Persuasion
A special lecture by Talmage Boston
Apr. 17 5:30 pm
Patton’s Prayer: A True Story of Courage, Faith, and Victory in World War II
A special book debut lecture by New York Times
Bestseller Alex Kershaw
May 21 6:00 pm
Registration is required for both free and paid programs at VirginiaHistory.org/Calendar
Enjoy free gallery admission, Café specials, food trucks, and family activities.
First Friday each month | 5:00 pm
Free for members!
First Family: George Washington’s Heirs and the Making of America
By Cassandra Good & Carolyn Eastman
Feb. 22 12:00 pm
Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson
By Rebecca Boggs Roberts
Mar. 7 12:00 pm
The Tory’s Wife: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America
By Cynthia A Kierner
Mar. 21 12:00 pm
Hidden in Plain Sight: Concealing Enslavement in American Visual Culture
By Rachel Stephens
Apr. 3 12:00 pm
Lee’s Army in Maryland: A New Perspective on the September 1862 Campaign
By Alexander Rossino
May 30 12:00 pm
Curator Conversation (VIRTUAL): Julia Child: A Recipe for Life
Join Curator Paige Newman for a virtual behind-thescenes look at our newest exhibition before it opens.
Feb. 26 10:00 am
Julia Child: A Recipe for Life Preview
VMHC members see our newest special exhibition first and free!
Mar. 14 2:00 pm & 5:00 pm
Julia Child: A Recipe for Life Member Tours
Enjoy a curator-led tour of our newest exhibition.
Apr. 11 & May 16 10:30 am
Member Mondays at Virginia House
Enjoy a relaxing evening in the Virginia House gardens with live jazz music.
Apr. 15, May 20, June 10 5:30 pm
Garden Party
Join fellow VMHC members for the event of the season!
Save the Date! Registration will open in April 2024.
May 23 6:00 pm
Family Film Screening
Watch Disney’s hit movie Ratatouille during First Fridays at the VMHC.
Apr. 5 5:30 pm
Julia Child Cookoff
This unique tasting event will feature local Richmond restaurants as they create dishes inspired by Julia Child.
Apr. 12 6:00 pm
Representing a Region and Its Cuisine: Appalachia on the Table
A special lecture by Professor Erica Abrams Locklear
Apr. 25 6:00 pm
Join the VMHC for an excursion to local Virginia farms and artisanal producers. Tastings, lunch, and Virginia wine included.
June 1 8:00 am
Kids Cooking Demonstration
Join Young Chef’s Academy for a hands-on pasta-making demonstration and sampling opportunity as part of First Fridays at the VMHC.
June 7 5:00 pm
Julia Child: A Recipe for Life Highlight Tours
Enjoy summer “highlights” tours of our special exhibition Julia Child: A Recipe for Life.
Saturdays, June–Aug. 11:30 am
Julia Child and production crew at Cambridge Electric Kitchen, 1963 (Photos of Julia Child – Photography by Paul Child © The Schlesinger Library, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University).
Julia Child’s insatiable curiosity and tenacious spirit drove her to endlessly try, test, prove, and communicate how to make delicious food. Learning to cook empowered Julia and she, in turn, empowered others, and profoundly transformed American cuisine and food culture.
The exhibition, Julia Child: A Recipe for Life, opening March 16, explores the key ingredients that made Julia Child the powerful and iconic woman that she was—from her upbringing and overseas adventures to the moment that ignited her curiosity and passion for French cuisine that fueled a culinary empire.
Julia Carolyn McWilliams (1912–2004) was born in Pasadena, California. The oldest of three siblings, she was raised in a well-to-do family. Her father, John “Big John” McWilliams, Jr. (1880–1962), was a Princeton-educated land manager, and her mother, Julia Carolyn “Caro” Weston McWilliams (1877–1937) was the heiress to the Weston Paper Company fortune.
Julia attended Smith College in Massachusetts with dreams of becoming a famous author. After graduating in 1934, she sought employment that would put her writing skills to use, but at that time newspapers did not typically hire women as reporters. Instead, Julia went to work as a copywriter for W. & J. Sloane, a home furnishings firm in New York City.
The position proved unfulfilling, and Julia returned home to Pasadena to help care for her ailing mother, who passed away in 1937. After her mother’s death, Julia described herself as “drifting” and seeking a purpose in life.
“
People who love to eat are always the best people.
“ – Julia Child
When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Julia was determined to serve her country and applied to join both the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES). At six feet, two inches tall, Julia was denied acceptance due to height restrictions. Despite this setback, Julia found her ticket to an international adventure through the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
Formed in 1942, the OSS was the United States’ first intelligence agency and was responsible for research, analysis, espionage, and technical developments that contributed to U.S. and allied efforts in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
During her time in the OSS, Julia worked as a research assistant with the Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment Section. Part of her team developed items for an ocean survival kit, and she is credited with helping to create a shark repellent consisting of copper sulfate and maleic acid – chemicals with a repulsive taste and sour odor. The repellent was not used in the field, so the success of the recipe was never proven. In 1944, Julia was assigned to field offices in Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and then Kunming, China, to file top-secret intelligence documents. Her attention to detail and strong work ethic landed her a promotion to Chief of Registry in Chunking, China. Julia received the Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service in recognition of her work abroad.
States Information Service (USIS). In 1948, Paul took a job as a USIS Exhibits Officer at the American Embassy in Paris, France. With the agency’s postwar strategy of cultural diplomacy, Paul promoted the United States as a trusted ally to the French.
Excited to start a new life in France, Julia faced a sense of uncertainty about herself and her new home, but she soon discovered the allure of French cuisine that would shape her life. To feel more comfortable in France, Julia began taking French language classes and explored her community through food.
By reading cookbooks and shopping at local markets, Julia immersed herself in French culture through its cuisine. Craving more knowledge, Julia registered for a beginners’ cooking course at Le Cordon Bleu, a prestigious culinary institution.
Julia met Paul Cushing Child (1902–1994) in 1944 when they were both stationed in Ceylon. Paul was leading the OSS’s Presentation Division, designing maps, diagrams, posters, and a top-secret War Room for Allied generals.
Paul and his twin brother, Charles (1902–1983), were born in Montclair, New Jersey. Raised by their mother, who supported the family as a singer, the boys and their sister were exposed to an international life as they traveled between Boston and France.
Paul and Julia’s relationship was not love at first sight. In fact, they were not initially attracted to each other at all. However, their friendship blossomed during their adventures in Asia, often dining out at local establishments.
After World War II, Julia and Paul were married and moved to Washington, D.C., where Paul created exhibits for the United
Julia’s passion for learning led her to seek out more opportunities to engage with like-minded people. She was encouraged to join Le Cercle de Gourmettes, an exclusive women’s dining club. There she learned from guest chefs, practiced her own cooking skills, and built relationships around the table. At these dinners, Julia met Simone “Simca” Beck Fischbacher (1904–1991) and Louisette Bertholle (1905–1999) who would usher her into a new stage of her culinary career.
After connecting over their love of French cuisine, Julia, Simca, and Louisette wanted to share their knowledge with others. In 1952, they formed L’Ecole des Trois Gourmandes, or The School of the Three Hearty Eaters, an informal cooking school for American students to learn how to cook and appreciate French food.
In October 1976, Julia came to Richmond as a stop on her tour to promote her fourth book, From Julia’s Kitchen. Her itinerary included a book signing, a local television appearance, and a cooking demonstration at Thalhimers department store. Child traveled with various kitchen implements and ingredients as many tour stops lacked the items she needed for cooking demonstrations.
Before meeting Julia, Simca and Louisette had worked on a cookbook for American audiences but had difficulty getting it published. Julia was asked to review their manuscript and found the original recipes to be complicated and written for experienced cooks. They wanted to write authentic recipes that were approachable to demystify French cooking for American readers. Julia wanted each recipe not only to offer instructions but also explain why and how each step should be done.
First published in 1961, Mastering the Art of French Cooking stands as one of Julia Child’s greatest achievements. Close to a decade of work went into the creation of the cookbook, with Julia providing a unique perspective in collaboration
with Simca and Louisette. The result was a carefully compiled guide, with each recipe tested multiple times for accuracy.
The book changed how Americans thought about French cuisine and introduced them to new techniques and ingredients. The cookbook’s success also brought Julia recognition within the culinary industry and fueled her motivation to educate Americans on the experience and enjoyment of cooking.
While promoting Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia demonstrated how to make a French omelette using a hotplate on Boston’s public television station WGBH. Julia assumed few people watched her demonstration and
was surprised to learn that the show’s producers received fan letters requesting more cooking demonstrations.
The television executives quickly realized that Boston had an audience hungry for a French cooking show and asked Julia for a series proposal for The French Chef. Her warm personality and unique approach of providing instruction throughout the entire process—from ingredient selection to serving and eating the food—set her apart from other television chefs.
Julia Child continued to achieve career success after The French Chef by expanding her focus beyond traditional French culinary techniques. Much of her later career explored American cuisine and how to incorporate modern cooking tools. Despite her success, throughout her 50-year career, Julia humbly maintained that she was just a home cook.
Passionate about educating generations of culinary professionals, Julia believed that anyone could learn how to cook, and that the kitchen should be a place of experimentation and creativity. Julia’s approach to cooking and her commitment to education continue to inspire and empower new generations of cooks to pursue their passions and achieve their dreams in the culinary arts. Her legacy lives on today with every bite created by professional chefs and home cooks who have been inspired by her.
On Display
March 16 to September 2, 2024
Presenting Sponsor
Supporting Sponsors
Mr. and Mrs. E. Claiborne Robins, Jr.
Melanie Trent De Schutter
Atlantic Union Bank
Katherine & Jack Nelson
Sponsor
Anne Carter & Walter R. Robins, Jr. Foundation
Supporters
Russell & Susan Harper
Aggie & Richard Cullen
Michelle Gluck & John McGurl
Mr. & Mrs. Gerald F. Smith, Jr.
Lisa & Bill Moore
Lettie Pate Evans Changing Exhibition Fund
Linda M. Warren Special Exhibitions Fund
Traveling exhibition from with additional support from
Julia Child demonstrating a frosting technique, with Merida, 1970 (Photos of Julia Child – Photography by Paul Child © The Schlesinger Library, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University). Julia Child: A Recipe for Life was developed by Flying Fish and Napa Valley Museum, supported by The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, Schlesinger Library, Harvard Radcliffe Institute and Oceania Cruises.
Julia Child was no stranger to the Commonwealth. From promoting her many cookbooks to collaborating with Virginia chefs, her influence can still be felt today. Many chefs credit Child with demystifying food and French cuisine by making it approachable and fun. This contributed to a greater appreciation for fine cuisine and inspired a new generation to explore cooking as a serious and enjoyable pursuit. Patrick O’Connell and Jimmy Sneed are just two examples of chefs who experienced Child’s impact firsthand.
Patrick O’Connell learned his love of food from his grandmother. He initially planned to become an actor, but his first job in a restaurant at age 15 satisfied his need for artistic expression. A journey to Europe introduced him to how French culture treasured culinary work. A self-taught chef, O’Connell cooked his way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and developed his own approach of blending regional American cuisine with the classical French style of cooking.
In 1974, O’Connell started a catering business with Reinhardt Lynch. O’Connell-Lynch Caterers opened in Washington, Virginia, and operated out of a farmhouse kitchen using a wood-burning cookstove. Four years later, they opened the Inn at Little Washington out of an abandoned garage
transforming the front of the building into the dining room with a kitchen in the back. They welcomed clients from their catering business and did not expect their business would grow beyond the surrounding counties in the first year. In 2019, the Inn received three Michelin-stars, the most coveted restaurant rating in the world, and joined just 12 other restaurants in the United States with that immense honor.
Jimmy Sneed’s first culinary experience came in 1974 when he accepted a job as a translator for the American students at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, France. He returned to the United States to pursue a career in cooking and began as a sous chef for Jean-Louis Palladin at the Watergate Hotel.
Sneed moved to Urbanna, Virginia, to open his first restaurant, Windows on Urbanna Creek, and in 1993 opened The Frog and The Redneck in Richmond. Sneed was under consideration as a featured chef in a new television series, In Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs. He had briefly met Child in 1987 in Washington, D.C., Sneed found out he had been chosen for the show and made soft-shelled crabs with fresh pasta during his appearance. Sneed and Child became good friends and worked so well together she asked him to attend book signings, cooking demonstrations, and housewares shows with her. In 1995, Sneed held a dinner in her honor at The Frog and The Redneck.
Chef Patrick O’Connell offers a selection of sundae toppings to Julia Child as they celebrated her birthday together, 2002 (Courtesy of The Inn at Little Washington).
2024 marks the 250th anniversary of a dramatic and tumultuous year in the American Colonies that brought them to the brink of revolution. The events of 1774, namely economic and political actions and reactions, drove American resolve. Leaders in British North America feared that growing financial obligations to Britain threatened their established way of life, and increasingly determined that independence would ultimately be their solution.
I never heard in any Conversation from one Person drunk or sober, the least Expression of a Wish for a Separation, or Hint that such a Thing would be advantageous to America.
– Benjamin Franklin, 1775
When George III assumed the British throne in 1760, American colonists revered him. They valued the king for defending their rights and protecting them from the neighboring colonies of France and Spain. In 1770, colonists erected an impressive equestrian statue of George III in New York City. Six years later, they pulled it down. Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1775, “I never heard in any Conversation from one Person drunk or sober, the least Expression of a Wish for a Separation, or Hint that such a Thing would be advantageous to America.” What had happened?
The British Parliament established higher taxation rates following victory in the French and Indian War (1754–1763). The colonists rejected the increases, complaining of taxation without representation in Parliament. The war, costly enough on its own, brought the addition of “new” territory (reaching the Mississippi River—land long occupied by Native Americans) that would require significant investments. The British thought it reasonable that colonists would share these expenses. Initially, the American colonists did not criticize George III. They placed the blame solely on Parliament. They believed that their colonial assemblies were coequal, and not subordinate, to Parliament. Colonial leaders petitioned their king to intervene, asking him to reclaim and employ the royal power to veto acts of Parliament. However, the British government blocked him. The colonists were disappointed, and further so when George later approved a revised land policy that impeded settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains. And they
found themselves disappointed a third time when he refused to end the slave trade that brought him revenue from taxes. The Virginia legislature had petitioned him in 1772 to terminate “a Trade of great Inhumanity”—not out of altruism, but because the slave taxes were driving up their cost of producing tobacco. One disappointment after another caused the stature of King George to plummet in America.
To win the French and Indian War, British Secretary of State William Pitt overpowered New France with masses of troops backed by vast quantities of supplies. This nearly doubled the British national debt, the servicing of which would consume more than half of the country’s annual budget. At the same time, Pitt tripled British territory in North America, necessitating 10,000 troops to defend it at an annual cost of £360,000.
Thus, in 1764, Parliament passed both the Sugar Act, which placed a duty on that American import, and the Currency Act, which barred the colonies from issuing paper money. In 1765, Prime Minister George Grenville initiated the more impactful and notorious Stamp Act, which levied a tax on legal documents, newspapers, and even playing cards. The Stamp Act eradicated the long-standing tradition that each colony could raise needed funds in whatever manner it pleased, and it made the powerful statement that Parliament held the power to levy all taxes.
The Stamp Act appalled American colonists. Many feared that British leaders were plotting their downfall. A resistance movement began in Boston, where Patriots led by Samuel Adams and John Adams subsidized
newspapers, produced pamphlets, staged parades and mock funerals, and urged nonpayment of the tax. A group calling itself “the Sons of Liberty” was formed. Similar associations emerged as far south as Georgia. There was rioting in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Newport, Annapolis, Wilmington, and Wethersfield, Connecticut. Merchants joined the resistance by boycotting trade. Those colonists who supported the resistance movement called themselves Patriots; those who opposed and remained loyal to Britain were called Loyalists.
The resolutions, riots, and boycotts, augmented by objections from British manufacturers and merchants, were effective. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766, when a new cabinet led by Lord Rockingham chose not to perpetuate it. But Parliament quickly passed a Declaratory Act that asserted its power to tax. In 1767 and 1768, it passed the Townshend Acts that further taxed goods. Predictably, the nonimportation agreements continued. Leaders in Virginia spoke out. In 1769, George Mason urged George Washington to continue to sacrifice for the Patriot cause: “Our All is at Stake, & the little Conveniencys & Comforts of Life, when set in Competition with our Liberty, ought to be rejected not with Reluctance but with Pleasure.”
The non-importation agreements served to isolate and shame those who opposed the resistance movement. Patriots called them “enemies”; their names were posted and public apologies were demanded. Noncompliance could lead to tarring (with hot tar) and feathering—a brutal and humiliating experience. Such mob incidents marked the beginning of the violence that would characterize much of the Revolution.
In 1768, British troops were sent to Boston to protect the Loyalists there. In 1770, nine soldiers fired into
a crowd of hundreds, killing several, in an incident that became famously remembered as the “Boston Massacre.” That same year, a new ministry led by Lord North repealed the Townshend duties because they had caused a 50 percent reduction in British exports. However, to maintain Parliament’s right to tax colonists, they let one duty remain, a tax on tea. That led to another memorable incident, the “Boston Tea Party.” In 1773, when the British East India Company sent ships laden with taxed tea to colonial ports, 50 Patriots in Boston stormed aboard three of the ships, and dumped 90,000 pounds of tea into the harbor.
Parliament was infuriated, and on March 31, 1774, directed against Boston and Massachusetts four “Coercive Acts”—soon known in the colonies as the “Intolerable Acts.” These closed the Boston harbor, expanded the power of the Massachusetts
governor, authorized him to send indicted government officials out of the colony for trial, and called for the quartering of British soldiers in private buildings.
The Virginia House of Burgesses responded on May 24 by designating June 1 as “a day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer” for its members, who were “devoutly to implore the divine interposition, for averting the heavy Calamity which threatens destruction to our Civil Rights, and the Evils of civil War.” On May 26, in retaliation, Lord Dunmore, the royal governor in Virginia, supported the Crown by dissolving the House. The burgesses, in turn, in June, called for a First Virginia Convention, which began on August 1 in Williamsburg. There, the burgesses listed grievances against Britain, banned commerce and payment of debts with Britain, and pledged support for Massachusetts.
As the resistance movement became increasingly violent, leading Patriots worried they might lose control of it. They chose delegates to assemble in Philadelphia in September 1774 as the “First Continental Congress.” Virginia is credited with initiating the idea. When the Congress convened, Peyton Randolph of Virginia was elected its president. Other Virginians, including Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and George Washington, gave strong support to the New Englanders. Though Henry saw no possible collaboration between Parliament and the colonial assemblies, Washington wrote that “it is the ardent wish of the warmest advocates for liberty that peace and tranquility, upon Constitutional grounds, may be restored & the horrors of Civil Discord prevented.”
The First Continental Congress endorsed the Suffolk (Massachusetts) Resolves that ordered noncompliance with the Intolerable Acts, the nonimportation of British goods, and the creation of a militia. It created the Continental Association, which set precise dates for ending British imports (December 1774) and for ending the exporting of American goods to Britain (September 1775). The Virginia delegates demanded a late date for the cessation of exports so that the colony’s summer tobacco crop could be harvested and shipped. The Congress agreed to reconvene in May 1775, which, as it turned out, would be a month after skirmishes at Lexington and Concord had begun the American War for Independence.
In November 1774, Virginians held their own tea party. A British ship, the Virginia, arrived in Yorktown carrying tea for John Hatley Norton, the Yorktown agent of John Norton and Sons of London, to be sold to the Williamsburg merchant, John Prentis. On November 7, citizens of Yorktown boarded the ship and dumped the tea in the river, just as in Boston. The incident convinced most Virginia merchants to accept the nonimportation stance.
The Stamp Act harmed artisans and laborers the most, because they had no savings upon which they could fall back. Wealthy landowners were more troubled by land
policies passed by Parliament in 1774. Those denied land opportunities in the west, where sales of land taken from Native people were become an easy source of revenue.
Colonial expansion west of the Appalachian Mountains troubled British leaders because opportunities there might lure too many subjects from the motherland and settlement would require costly defense as Indigenous people fight for their land and against their dispossession. They feared loss of control of their empire, even its collapse. In response, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 prohibited settlement west of the Appalachians.
Westward expansion, however, was unstoppable. In 1773, the Virginia Gazette commented, “Not even a second Chinese wall, unless guarded by a million soldiers, could prevent the settlement of the Lands on the Ohio.” Virginians frustrated by British policy included Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and
George Washington. Even the governor, the Earl of Dunmore, opposed the policy because he utilized western land grants to win support of leaders in his legislature. Dunmore claimed the whole Ohio Valley for Virginia’s land speculators and had the Virginia militia in 1774 fight a war there (known as “Dunmore’s War”) against Shawnee and Mingo Indians.
That same year, Parliament passed and George III endorsed the Quebec Act, that enlarged Canada south to the Ohio River and west to the Mississippi— well beyond the Appalachians. It allowed Canadians to own land and serve in government. American colonists felt doubly betrayed, because it essentially gave the western lands over to Canadian possession. Virginian Richard Henry Lee called the act “the worst grievance” suffered by the colonists.
A second land act passed in 1774 required the public sale of smaller tracts (100 to 1,000 acres) of western land—to aid small-scale, individual purchasers, but mainly to increase the revenue that would come to the Crown. Edmund Pendleton of Virginia complained that “the Ministry [was] degrading Royaltie into the Pedlar hawking lands for sale.” Thomas Jefferson argued that the king had “no right to grant lands of himself.” They spoke for many planters who were struggling economically.
Unable to turn a sufficient profit with his plantation operation, Jefferson had been in financial trouble for years. Because of the instability of the tobacco market in Britain, Virginia planters consigned their tobacco with commission agents there. But the prices realized by the agents often were low, insufficient to pay for the goods requested. In a letter of 1769, in the Virginia Museum of History & Culture’s collections, a London merchant asks Jefferson to ship tobacco to him, to be sold for a price “at least equal” to that of any tobacco sent from Virginia. If prices did not rise, however, Jefferson would sink deeper into debt. At the time of the Revolution, colonial merchants and planters owed
British creditors some £5 million. Virginia planters held the greatest portion, owing £2.3 million.
1774 saw taxation and land settlement issues push American colonists to a tipping point that would culminate in the 1775 decision to seek separation from Britain. The events of that year would be as complex as those of 1774, as words and protest turned into direct action on battlefields up and down the Atlantic Seaboard. In Virginia, events would culminate in December when, at the Battle of Great Bridge, Patriot militia repulsed Lord Dunmore’s forces. The defeat forced the eventual evacuation of Dunmore and his troops from Virginia, effectively ending British rule over the colony. These events and many more will be examined in an upcoming major exhibition and traveling show presented by the Virginia Museum of History & Culture and the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, and with the support of Virginia’s 250th Commission.
The only 17th-century above-ground structure at Jamestown is the church tower, which was built after Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 (Courtesy of Jamestown Rediscovery).
The Commonwealth of Virginia is rich with history— far-reaching, consequential history. Thankfully, there are more than 600 history organizations across the state that join the Virginia Museum of History & Culture in the important work of preserving this history and using it to inspire our collective future.
The VMHC is proud, in its leading role as the state’s history museum and the only museum with a mission to save and share all of Virginia’s past for all Virginians, to offer meaningful support to its fellow history organizations—helping lift up great work happening by others all across Virginia.
Thanks to a generous investment by longtime VMHC supporter Dominion Energy, and others, the VMHC established the Commonwealth History Fund, a significant endowment and grant-making program in early 2022. One of the largest of its kind, the Fund provides some $400,000 annually in grants to history projects and organizations across the state.
Now in its third year, the VMHC, through the Commonwealth History Fund, has provided grants to more than three dozen projects totaling nearly $1,200,000.
The Commonwealth History Fund is administered in partnership with Virginia’s Department of Historic Resources (DHR). Funds can be used for a variety of purposes including preservation, research, publications, acquisition and conservation of artifacts, and educational programming. Eligible recipients include Virginia nonprofits, educational institutions, and Virginia Indian tribes.
VMHC accepted applications from eligible organizations in fall 2023. Nearly 90 compelling applications were submitted with requested funds totaling more than $6 million. Through the hard work of professionals from VMHC and DHR, fourteen stand-out projects were selected to receive a total of nearly $400,000. The impressive projects chosen spread across the Commonwealth, include organizations of all sizes, and span a great deal of
The Commonwealth History Fund is one of the best tools we have as your state history museum to support history education and preservation efforts taking place in communities all across this great state.– Jamie Bosket, VMHC President & CEO
historical topics and time periods (see the detailed list of awardees on the pages that follow).
Applications for the fourth annual grant cycle will be accepted in September 2024 with grants announced in early 2025. As part of VMHC’s 250th Initiative, grant applications related to the commemoration of America’s semiquincentennial will be given special consideration.
14 Awardees
$396,000 Awarded
Total Awards To Date
37 Awardees
$1,199,706 Awarded
Appomattox Regional Governor’s School for the Arts & Technology (Petersburg, Virginia)
With support from the CHF, students at Appomattox Regional Governor’s School will gain handson public history experience by facilitating oral history and collections management projects to preserve history related to the original Petersburg High School. Recording and digital assets will be made available via a searchable database.
Belle Grove Plantation (Middletown, Virginia)
With help from the CHF, the largely unknown story of Eleanor “Nelly” Conway Madison Hite, sister of James Madison and wife of Isaac Hite Jr., of Belle Grove (the Madison-Hite Plantation) will be better told. Historical documents will help share insight into Nelly’s role as a mother, wife, sister, daughter, and owner of enslaved people.
Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia (Richmond, Virginia)
Funds from the CHF will enable the BHMVA to better preserve their collections through an extensive organization and improvement project at the museum’s artifact storage facility. This timely project will empower the museum to continue the work of cataloging, rehousing, and digitizing its holdings.
Gloucester County Parks, Recreation & Tourism –Museum of History (Gloucester, Virginia)
Housed within a 1770 tavern, the Gloucester Museum of History is situated in the heart of Gloucester Courthouse. Funding from the CHF will provide for the development and installation of dynamic new exhibitions, applying best practices and community engagement, to present a reimagined museum experience.
Here2Hear (Richmond, Virginia)
With help from the CHF, Here2Hear will expand their work to tell inspiring Black history that incorporates Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals. A new mobile exhibition will be produced as well as new accessible enhancements to the Richmond slave trail.
Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia (VMHC).
Historic Germanna (Orange, VA)
This new project will support Historic Germanna’s efforts to better represent indigenous voices. This effort will result in new Tribal Consultation Guidelines, research led by Monacan Indian Nation citizen Kaleigh Pollak, and new, co-curated public history programming. A new online exhibition will also be created to share the story of Katina, a Siouanspeaking woman, enslaved by Alexander Spotswood.
Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation (Jamestown, Virginia)
The Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation will develop several new programs and initiatives that address Jamestown’s pivotal role in establishing the rule of law and legalized chattel slavery in U.S. society. As part of this project, new onsite and virtual educational resources will be produced and made widely available.
John Marshall House/Preservation Virginia (Richmond, Virginia)
As part of an organization-wide effort to better interpret their historic properties, Preservation Virginia will design, produce, and install new interpretive signage on the grounds of the John Marshall House. This exciting site enhancement will utilize new research, which has revealed more details of the many people who lived and worked on the property.
Norfolk Historical Society (Norfolk, Virginia)
With support from the CHF, Norfolk Historical Society (NHS) will research Fort Norfolk’s use as a Civil War prison camp. NHS will identify the prisoners housed, guards stationed, and conditions experienced at the fort during the Civil War.
Orange County Historical Society (Orange, Virginia)
This research project will allow the Orange County Historical Society to expand on the names in the extant free Black register (1734–1864) with information from primary and secondary sources. Missing portions of the Orange County register of free black people have been recently identified which has allowed for the transcription of entries from 1803 to mid-1850.
Poplar Forest (Forest, Virginia)
Support from the CHF will allow for the start of restoration work of a historic two-story brick structure at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. This building housed enslaved and free African Americans until the mid-20th century but is rapidly deteriorating. Funding will support archaeological excavations around the exterior of the structure and a new water drainage system. Funding will also support structural engineering, architectural documentation, and architectural design plans.
Radford Heritage Foundation/Glencoe Mansion, Museum & Gallery (Radford, Virginia)
As part of restoration and reinterpretation work being done by the Radford Heritage Foundation, accessibility
and preservation enhancements will be undertaken to Glencoe Mansion. New interpretation will focus on the story of Reconstruction with focus on those individuals who were “Building a New Life” after the Civil War.
Science Museum of Virginia Foundation (Richmond, Virginia)
This extensive research project will help the Science Museum of Virginia better document and interpret the history of its historic building and campus. Union Station/Broad Street Station was designed by John Russell Pope and was in service from 1917 until 1975.
Virginia Tech Foundation, Inc. (Blacksburg, Virginia) The Tribal Truths Podcast, produced by Radio IQ WVTF, is a public platform for Indigenous people in Virginia to tell their history, debunk myths and legends with fact, teach tribal heritages, cultures, histories and address current issues through sound and place. With support from the CHF, a second season will be produced with tribal representatives of the Patawomeck, Upper Mattaponi, Pamunkey, as well as military veterans of all 11 state recognized tribes.
Front view of Thomas Jefferson’s summer home, 2007 (Courtesy of Getty Images/mdmilliman)
Our American experiment is unique in human history—a government of laws and not of individuals; a government by the people and for the people, founded on the self-evident truth that all are created equal and are endowed with the universal rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. In our first two and a half centuries, our nation, through the determination of its people, and with its unlimited capacity for reinvention and renewal, has progressed in its journey, working to fulfill by struggle and sacrifice the promise of our founding for all Americans.
In 2026, the United States of America will mark its 250th anniversary. We must embrace this historic moment—extraordinary in our lifetimes—and act upon it by together renewing our commitment to the unfinished pursuit of A More Perfect Union—to reflect deeply on our past and invest with great purpose in our future.
The VMHC is proud to play a leading role in Virginia and nationally for America’s 250th, and to produce a dynamic multi-year portfolio of activities for all Virginians.
Learn more at VirginiaHistory.org/250
The museum’s governing body welcomed four new members in January 2024.
Marc Allen lives in Fairfax, Virginia. He is the former Chief Strategy Officer of The Boeing Company and senior vice president of Strategy and Corporate Development. He was a member of the company’s Executive Council and led Boeing’s overarching strategy, including long-term planning; global business and corporate development; strategic investments, acquisitions and divestitures; and the company’s Ventures businesses. Marc is a graduate of Yale and Princeton University.
Melanie Trent De Schutter
Melanie Trent De Schutter lives in Montecito, California. Her family history dates back to Pre-Revolutionary War Virginia. She recognized the importance of preserving history for future generations by endowing the museum’s library director position and the Tidewater gallery of the VMHC’s new Our Commonwealth regional showcase exhibition. Within her community, she is on the Buildings and Grounds Committee of Casa del Herrero, a National Historic Landmark, with a strong connection to Virgina Chase Steedman Weddell and Virginia House. Melanie and her husband are patrons of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Melanie is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University.
Paul Harris lives in Richmond, Virginia. He is executive vice president and chief sustainability and compliance officer at Huntington Ingalls Industries. HII is a global engineering and defense technologies provider based in Newport News, and is the largest military shipbuilding company in the country. Paul is a graduate of Hampton University and The George Washington University.
Sarge Reynolds lives in Richmond, Virginia. He is a founder and principal of Reynolds Development, a local commercial real estate development firm located in Richmond, and he serves as a Director and President of the Virginia Sargeant Reynolds Foundation. Sarge is a graduate of the University of Virginia.
The Virginia Museum of History & Culture (VMHC) has been reaccredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), the highest national standard of recognition afforded the nation’s leading museums. Accreditation certifies that the museum meets the highest standards of excellence in all areas of its work, and it comes after a rigorous year-long review process that AAM member museums undergo every 10 years to maintain accredited status. Developed and sustained by museum professionals for 50 years, AAM’s accreditation program is the field’s primary
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The museum has progressed more rapidly than expected since the last review. The task they set for themselves was large and difficult but through proper leadership and board participation they have been able to meet and exceed their goals.
– AAM Review Committee
vehicle for quality assurance and public accountability. Of the nation’s estimated 33,000 museums, only 1,106 have achieved accredited status, a distinctive honor the VMHC shares with some of America’s most prestigious museums including the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Colonial Williamsburg. The VMHC has been accredited since 1998.
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The museum has undergone a major change in philosophy and has recreated itself as a place for all Virginians to come and explore. In the process they have developed a much broader reach in terms of programming and have successfully involved the local community in new ways…VMHC has taken museum community partnerships to the next level.
– AAM Review Committee
