Upcoming Events
New Lecture Series at
Michie Tavern - 10:30 - 11:15
January 2009 Talks
JANUARY 7 - LYNN RAINVILLE
“Early Mortuary Practices”
JANUARY 14 - LENI SORENSEN
“Straddling Two Worlds: The Slave Cooks in Jefferson’s Kitchen”
JANUARY 21 - TRAVIS MCDONALD“An Illustrated Lecture on the Restoration of Poplar Forest”
Afterwards join the speaker for lunch at the Tavern. Visit their website for more information.
ACHS Court Square Walking Tours
Our walking tours have ended for the season. Please check back again in April when they resume.
Contact Us:
Ask the Historical Society:
admin@albemarlehistory.org
Staff:
Steven G. Meeks, President: president[at]albemarlehistory.org
phone: (434) 296-1492
Margaret M. O'Bryant, Librarian, Head of Reference Resources:
library[at]albemarlehistory.org
phone: (434) 296-7294
Keri Matthews, Communications and Collections Manager:
admin[at]albemarlehistory.org
phone: (434) 296-1492
Susanna Klosko, Administrative Assistant
admin[at]albemarlehistory.org
phone: (434) 296-1492
Hours of Operation:
Monday-Friday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Saturday 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM (Library only)
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Ongoing Events & News
MACH Magazine Has Arrived!
The 2008 Magazine of Albemarle County History is now available.
Members will receive a copy by mail. Individual copies are for sale at the Society.
ACHS Receives a Grant
The History Channel awarded a grant to the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society as one of 11 Save Our History National Grants for their 2008-09 grant cycle. ACHS will partner with Charlottesville High School in a project titled "The Tale of Two Schools: Promoting Community Unity Through a Historical Study of School Integration." Read more...
November Quarterly Meeting
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| A visitor views Ms. Roades' Exhibit, currently on display, at ACHS. |
The November Quarterly Meeting at the Public Library where Ms. Antoinette Roades spoke on the William Roads photographs. She is a great granddaughter of William Roads. |
Current ACHS Exhibit
"Photographed by Wm. Roads"
About 1859, barely 20 years after Frenchman Louis Daguerre published his process for preserving light-captured images, photographer William Roads arrived in Charlottesville. Over the next 14 years he made images of a wide array of subjects in media including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and albumen prints (direct forbears of the photography considered modern until the digital age). Among those subjects were the University of Virginia and Monticello, of which Roads is believed to have made the first-ever photographs (probably in the winter of 1867-68).
William Roads was born near Luray in the Shenandoah Valley in 1824, learned his art in Richmond in the early 1850s, and operated his own gallery in Fredericksburg before relocating to Charlottesville. Here, he vied for custom with an ever-changing cast of competitors before moving on to Orange County in early 1873. He died in Gordonsville in 1890.
"Photographed by Wm. Roads" (a phrase taken from the backstamps Roads used to identify his images) offers a sampler of Roads' pictures (all made in the carte de visite format)--from portraits (some of which were hand tinted) and composites to a landscape and images of Monticello. Through the portraits, exhibit-goers will be able to meet a variety of mid-19th century Albemarle denizens whose faces have not been seen in public since their deaths. Through accompanying advertisements and examples of work by William Roads' competitors and colleagues, they will get a glimpse into the busy local scene of which he was part.
The exhibit was organized by Antoinette W. Roades, a great granddaughter of William Roads and a writer and photographer whose work has appeared in more than 70 different publications.
Looking for Volunteers....
to help with Interviews surrounding the
Frances Brand Collection of Firsts.
To read more and view the entire collection, click here.
Needed: interviewers, transcribers of taped interviews, and sleuths to ferret out details that mysteriously emerge as we explore the backgrounds of the portrait subjects. Contact: Margaret Lake at 540-456-4644.
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