More than 250 years passed from the founding of the first English colony in the New World at Jamestown in Virginia until the beginning of the American Civil War, and nearly a century and a half more has passed since the Civil War ended. As distant as such milestones of history may seem today, Virginians are fortunate to be able to see the physical evidence of great events, people, and places everywhere in the Old Dominion.

Historic Photos of Virginia showcases many of the state’s important places as well as events both great and small, beginning with the Civil War and carrying forward to the momentous changes that took place during and after the Second World War. While historic sites such as Monticello, Hampton Institute, and Arlington National Cemetery are featured, so too are the everyday city streets and rural countryside where Virginians lived and worked. These black-and-white images tell the story of Virginia, its people and places, with a vividness only historic photographs can offer.