History

She took the throne as a young and somewhat malleable girl, married for love, and spent the greater part of her reign as the formidable Widow of Windsor. Her children and grandchildren held thrones throughout Europe, and the Age of Victoria was known for both domestic reform and colonial conquest. Her long and fascinating life has been the subject of numerous books, films, and television series.

Norman Rockwell's Rosie the Riveter poster encouraged women to roll up their sleeves and get on the job in factories to make munitions and equipment to supply American troops in World War II.

On Thursday, March 25, 2010, Caroline Weber of Barnard College and author of Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, will give a talk on the style icon.

This interview airs beginning February 24.
Clayton Ray has the impressive title of Curator Emeritus in the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian Institution. He also studies, collects, and writes about wagons. Debby Klein meets with this fascinating man to explore his many interests.
Find out more about CRRL Presents.

Twentieth-century illustrator Norman Rockwell reflected in his work much of what was good in America. He is known for his sweet depictions of small-town life—soda fountains, family scenes, Boy Scouts, town meetings, doctors’ offices, and boys with dogs—but one of his most touching images was a painful one from the Civil Rights Era: “The Problem We All Live With.”

On Tuesday, January 26, 2010, the University of Mary Washington invites the public to a free lecture on Thomas Jefferson.

    Thanksgiving disasters usually take the form of dried-out turkey or not enough mashed potatoes.  But for the Peterkin family, proper Victorians all, Thanksgiving disaster strikes when their dinner simply disappears.  In “The Peterkins’ Thanksgiving,” Elizabeth Spurr has adapted one of Lucretia Hale’s charming stories about this hapless family into a picture book edition illustrated with cheerful whimsy by Wendy Anderson Halperin.

Our libraries will be closed on Thanksgiving and the day after, so now's the time to pick up some reading to take you through the holiday. We have many cookbooks to help plan the feast, but of our other collections these three books tell stories especially true to life and true to the heart to help make your holiday a warm one.

 The mysterious powers-that-be have shipped over a few more boxes of that remarkable new book Wealthy in Heart: [An] Oral History of Life Before Fort. A. P. Hill. Those books will be distributed FREE, on a first come-first-served basis, until the boxes are emptied.

Seems as though every time there is an incident like the recent tragedy at Fort Hood, Clint Van Zandt turns up on TV, offering insight into what has happened and how to understand it. Van Zandt is well known for having been, for many years an FBI major crimes analyst, “profiler” and hostage negotiator. You may not know that he is today the president of a local business, Van Zandt Associates – an international risk and threat management consulting firm.