Collection of Commonwealth of Virginia Governors’ Portraits (State Art Collection)

Paintings Collection

2nd quarter of the 19th century–2014
82 paintings. Oil on canvas, oil on wood, pastel on paper.
From 21″ H x 18″ W framed to 69″ H x 51″ W framed.

Patrick Henry

Governors were initially elected by the General Assembly, with gubernatorial vacancies being filled by members of the Council of State. Five of these acting governors have portraits in the collection: William Fleming, Wyndham Robertson, John Mercer Patton, John Rutherfoord, and John Munford Gregory. The Constitution of 1851 established the popular election of governors and also set a four-year term limit. While governors cannot serve consecutively, they can be re-elected, and a portrait is commissioned at the end of each term. Currently, Gov. Mills E. Godwin Jr. (1966–1970, 1974–1978) is represented by two portraits in the Governors’ Gallery. The collection lacks portraits of governors Beverley Randolph (1788–1797), Robert Brooke (1794–1796), and James Wood (1796–1799), and acting governors Hardin Burnley (1799), John Pendleton (1799), and Peyton Randolph (1811–1812).

The first set of governors’ portraits came into the state collection in 1873, when the Library of Virginia (then the Virginia State Library) acquired portraits of James Barbour, Robert Brooke [1], John Floyd, John Buchanan Floyd, William Branch Giles, Joseph Johnson, John Rutherfoord, George William Smith, William Smith, John Tyler Sr., and John Tyler Jr. Over the next few decades, portraits came to the Library as gifts from governors and their family members or were purchased … Read the rest

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Leveque Photograph Collection of Virginia Courthouses

Photograph Collection

 C1:178
1962–1980s, bulk 1960–1970
337 35mm slides, 42 x 2 slides, and 61 prints

C1:178 Alleghany County Courthouse

In 1962, Rhode Island native Roland Leveque moved to Virginia and began photographing the courthouses of Virginia. Within the same year, Roland Leveque passed away and his son, George Philip Leveque, decided to carry on the project. Over a period of almost thirty years, George Leveque photographed every courthouse in Virginia. This collection has all but six of his images. He also photographed historic sites, locomotives, and ships.

George Leveque (1929 – 2012) worked as a budget analyst for the City of Richmond and later for the Commonwealth of Virginia. He took up photography as a hobby and set out to finish the project his father started. His wife described Leveque as a “collector of all things,” and said that he particularly loved history. This was a passion project for Leveque, and he never intended to display the images or lecture. The courthouse images feature the facades and in some instances the sides of the buildings. The historic sites he photographed included places like Monticello and Colonial Williamsburg.

Arrangement and access:
The slides are arranged alphabetically in slide boxes. The subjects are also in slide boxes separated by topic. 131 slides of courthouses, 120 slides of historic sites, 20 slides of locomotives, 43 slides of ships, 27 unidentified slides, and 61 photographs of historic sites. Missing counties: … Read the rest

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Rosa Ulanda Brown Wray Family Photograph Collection

Photograph Collection

C1:179
c. 1940s–1970s
Three photograph albums containing 207 photographs and newspaper clippings, an assortment of 147 loose photographs, 3 school certificates, and an employment service certificate from Bassett Furniture, where Wray worked for 21 years.

C1:179 ROSA ULANDA BROWN WRAY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION

Born and raised in Henry County, Virginia, Rosa Brown Wray (1934–2006) collected hundreds of photographs of her friends and family. The majority of the photos are labeled with the name, age, and hometown of those pictured. Many family surnames—including Hairston, Ross, Williams, Thomas, and Nolen—appear consistently throughout the collection. The majority of the newspaper clippings and other ephemeral items that Wray saved are related to school events in 1952, such as class valedictorians, school track meets, and news about classmates and friends.

C1:179 ROSA ULANDA BROWN WRAY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION

Of special interest are 83 photographs that capture the daily life (1952–1953) of an African American soldier’s service during the Korean War. Wray’s brother Charles Brown Jr. is the subject of the photos, presumably showing his family in Virginia what life was like in Korea. Rather than action shots, however, these photos show Brown lounging, drinking Coca-Cola, barbering, playing guitar, and relaxing with fellow soldiers. The Korean War was the first in which the military desegregated its units, following President Harry S. Truman’s 1948 executive order requiring the military to end racial discrimination. Brown’s photographs reflect this, indicating a camaraderie between the … Read the rest

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Collection of Pierre Daura Paintings and Drawings

Drawing Collection, Paintings Collection

D1:004
c. 1920–1974

120 works of art, including 57 watercolors; 24 oil paintings; and pieces in tempera, gouache, pastel, ink, pencil, charcoal, wood, and mixed media, ranging in size from 7 x 10 inches to 32 x 26 inches

D1:004 Collection of Pierre Daura Paintings and Drawings

Pierre Daura (1896–1976), born Pere Francesc Joan Daura i García, was a noted Catalan-American artist. Following early training at the School of Fine Arts (La Llotja) in Barcelona, Daura moved to Paris in 1914 to complete his artistic education. After military service in Minorca during World War I, he returned to Paris in 1920 and became part of its vibrant postwar modern art scene. Daura married the American artist Louise Heron Blair in 1928, and—following the outbreak of World War II—he spent the second half of his life in her home state of Virginia. Daura produced many depictions of the landscape and people of Rockbridge County, where the family settled, and worked prolifically in a variety of media and styles. During the 1940s and 1950s, he also taught at Lynchburg College and Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.

The Library of Virginia’s collection of Daura’s work represents both the longevity and breadth of his artistic career, with its greatest strength the images of people and places near his Virginia home. These include self-portraits done over three decades as well as portraits of his wife, their daughter Martha Daura, other family members, … Read the rest

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MICHAEL MILEY STUDIO COLLECTION

Photograph Collection

C1:177
ca. 1870–1918, negatives 1900–1918
58 8 x 10-inch glass-plate negatives,  12 carte de visites

Michael Miley (1841–1918), probably most famous for his portraits of Robert E. Lee, was a Rockbridge County native who contributed greatly to the burgeoning field of photography. After serving under General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in the Civil War, Miley moved to Staunton to study photography under J. H. Burdett, where he learned to print positive images using the albumen wet-plate process. He returned to Rockbridge County a year later and joined forces with Andrew Plecker, a traveling photographer from Lynchburg, which led to his most famous photograph: Robert E. Lee with his horse Traveller at the Rockbridge Baths. 

Miley MO35517

In 1866, Miley partnered with businessman John C. Boude to open a photography studio at the corner of Main and Nelson Streets in Lexington. He purchased Boude’s half of the business in 1870, named the studio the Stonewall Art Gallery, and found his niche as a portrait photographer. Miley also photographed classes and athletic teams at Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute. In 1895 his son Henry Miley joined the photography business and renamed the studio M. Miley & Son. Around this time, Miley began experimenting with carbon printing, a process that produced a permanent print in one color. The resulting experiment led to a patent on his color process in 1902, and in 1905 Michael and … Read the rest

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