Nearly $40 million raised in historical campaign

The Virginia Historical Society has exceeded its $38 million goal for the Story of Virginia campaign. Individuals, corporations and foundations contributed to the campaign, which was organized to update the 15-year-old exhibition.

The Story of Virginia campaign was launched in May of 2011 with an initial goal of $32 million. VHS raised this goal to $38 million in November 2012. The campaign contains three elements:

• $20 million for capital projects such as renovation of all public space on the main level and a larger Story of Virginia long-term exhibition
• $8 million for programs such as a website redesign and restoring the Charles Hoffbauer Memorial Military Murals
• $10 million for the endowment

“Our digital imprint is now worldwide in scope,” said VHS past chairman Claiborne Robins. “Our investments in technology have given us the opportunity to talk, in one week, to school students in Sweden about Pocahontas, to a classroom in the Dominican Republic about colonial Virginians, and to educators in Moscow about the Powhatan Indians.”

The mission of the VHS is to connect people to America’s past through the story of Virginia by collecting, preserving, and interpreting the state’s history. The Story of Virginia exhibit alone contains more than 500 artifacts, maps, letters, and diaries ranging from the earliest tools shaped by humans to a satellite built by high school students in 2013.

“I think our emphasis on the importance of the lessons of history truly resonates with Virginians,” said Paul Levengood, president and CEO of the Virginia Historical Society. “We all recognize that understanding our rich past is vitally important to confront the challenges of today.”

The campaign also provided significant funds to create a multi-purpose learner center with classrooms, a resource room for teachers, display space, and a studio with the streaming capacity to deliver programs to an international audiences. The international impact of the programs is important to the VHS.

“We said from the start that this campaign was to help us put education at the core of everything we do, to help teach those lessons and further that understanding,” Levengood said.

The campaign also funded an eighteen-month construction project that included the creation of 4,000 square feet of exhibition space from relocated offices that now house new galleries named for Virginia Sargeant Reynolds, Susan and David Goode and Cecil Hopkins.

The VHS will continue to seek funds for a $2.4 million program to receive, store, and digitize the rich archives that the Museum of the Confederacy is transferring to the Virginia Historical Society. Funding for this project will remain open until the goal has been reached, of which $1.4 million has already been raised.

Other funding will continue to come in as the campaign remains open for more contributions.

“Our campaign will remain open until January 30, 2016 so that proposals still being considered by various individuals and groups can be accommodated and other specific challenges can be met,” Robins said. “Contributions committed to date and other anticipated support, exceed $45 million.”

Supporters of the campaign include federal agencies such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, National Park Service, National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and the Library of Congress.

Several private foundations supported the campaign and a large donation from Lora and Claiborne Robins, Sr. was also obtained. This included their home, Clear View, and its furnishings, along with a significant endowment.

“We have been fortunate in the past to have gratifying community support for our capital campaign (…) but it is still incredibly gratifying to know that so many feel so strongly about what we do at the VHS,” Levengood said.

Levengood also encouraged VCU students to come and see the new exhibits and updates to the museum.

“The campaign helped us add much more gallery space. And one gallery in particular, the Susan and David Goode Gallery, will allow us to display more of our collections, many of which truly blur the lines between art and history,” Levengood said.

The VHS was founded in 1831 by John Marshall, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the first president of the VHS; John Floyd, governor of Virginia at the time and the first vice president of the VHS; and J.P. Cushing, fifth president of Hampden-Sydney College and the second vice president of the VHS.

Adriel Velazquez, Contributing Writer