Welcome to the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society Margaret Martin O’Bryant Research Library
200 Second Street, NE
Charlottesville, Virginia 22902
434.296.1492
[email protected]
The Research Library is currently open Monday – Friday, 8am – 4pm, and Saturday, 10am – 2pm. We highly recommend calling or emailing to make an appointment. This ensures that we have staff available to assist you. To make an appointment please call 434.296.1492 or email [email protected]. All inquiries are answered M-F during our business hours.
Our Collections
Our collections will soon be available for discovering. Please be patient as we compile our catalogs.
If you’d like to help with our catalog projects, please contact our volunteer coordinator Sterling Howell at [email protected]
Vertical Files
Our Vertical Files cabinets contain newspaper clippings, researchers’ notes, family trees, and other miscellaneous information on a variety of area families and topics. Click on each category to access the index.
(Partial Index)
Manuscript and Pamphlet Collection
Discover our manuscript and pamphlet collection with our new online catalog.
New manuscript collections are added weekly!
Magazine of Albemarle Charlottesville History
The Magazine of Albemarle Charlottesville History, published annually by the Historical Society, features articles on various topics related to Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and Central Virginia.
Into the Archives Winter 2024 Program
Into the Archives
Join the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society and the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library for this three-part series of programs. Each session takes place at 11am in the Swanson Room at Central Library, 201 E. Market Street.
January 10th: Photo Preservation with Acacia Rodgers
Miss the program?
February 14th: African American Ancestors with Miranda Burnett
Miss the program?
Access the Outline
Access the Slides
Access the FamilySearch Albemarle Resources
March 13th: Tracing Family History Through Property Records with Miranda Burnett
Access the Outline
Access the Slides
Coming Soon - Albemarle and Charlottesville Maps
Albemarle and Charlottesville Maps
Other Local Resources
Newspapers
Charlottesville Daily Progress Digitized 1892-1964 (University of Virginia)
Virginia Chronicle (Library of Virginia) – Virginia newspapers
Chronicling America (Library of Congress) – nationwide newspapers
Central Virginia Genealogical Association
The Central Virginia Genealogical Association (CVGA) was formed in July 1977, to encourage, foster, and organize genealogical research, teaching, publishing, education, and recording.
The Central Virginia Heritage is CVGA’s quarterly publication. We have the following issues in the ACHS collection:
Volume 1 – Volume 36 (current)
Albemarle County in Virginia by Rev. Edgar Woods
Rev. Edgar Woods’ 1901 classic, Albemarle County in Virginia, has been digitized (text searchable too!) and is available at archive.org.
Virginia Cavalcade
Virginia Cavalcade was a quarterly Virginia history and culture journal published by the Library of Virginia from 1951 to 2002. Want to know what articles were published about Albemarle County? You can search the table of contents of every issue! Then come visit us at the Historical Society – we have every issue published in our library.