This morning (January 18), the Stewart Bell, Jr. Archives received a wonderful gift – an original Lord Fairfax Land Grant document! We would like to give a huge thank you to Mike Robinson, Winchester Tales, and everyone involved! This is an example of a community coming together to preserve a piece of its heritage.
“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love, 1963
To us at the Stewart Bell, Jr. Archives, these are words to live by. We do not seek to manipulate the historical data entrusted to us, but rather to present an accurate picture of the people and events of our community. We members of the community are a multi-faceted bunch, each shaped by the past in ways unique to the individual; this is the legacy preserved in the archives.
The Handley Library first opened its doors in a formal ceremony 107 years ago on August 21, 1913. The invitation sent out for the event states that “the exercises will be held in the lecture hall of the Library at eight o’clock p.m. and immediately thereafter the reading rooms and books will be open to inspection.”
In August, we remember the Suffragette movement. Our display this month shows elements of the local fight for women’s right to vote. In particular, the display highlights Fannie Baker Dunlap, who registered for the vote on October 2, 1920 at 56 years of age, and Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon, a member of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia.
This month marks the 150th anniversary of the dedication of Winchester’s Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church. Winchester’s original Catholic Church, known as “the old stone church,” was destroyed during the Civil War, leaving Winchester without a Catholic Church building from 1864 until 1870.
John Bruce (1793-1855) was a man who spent over twenty years of his life finding ways to make an impact on his community. He was born in Scotland, but emigrated to the United States and settled in Winchester. Some people make impacts through teaching and preaching, some through caring for people’s well-being, but others find that they are best suited to improving the community through other means, as John Bruce did by overseeing various constructions.
Memorial Day, a day to honor and mourn those who died serving in the Armed Forces, originated in the years following the Civil War, through it did not become a federal holiday until 1971. The Civil War caused more bloodshed than any other conflict in U.S. history, claiming the lives of about 500,000 soldiers. After the war, Americans began holding tributes to fallen soldiers every Spring. Memorial Day later expanded to honor those who lost their lives in other conflicts and wars.
Winchester has certainly been home to many remarkable people, including many women over the decades who owned and operated their own businesses. Several in particular stand out for the unique ways they showed strength in their careers as businesswomen.
Did you know that a famous classic American writer was originally from Frederick County? When people think about Willa Cather (1873-1946), they often associate her with the Midwest (she spent her teenage and college years there, and many of her novels are set in the Midwest), but actually Cather spent much of her childhood in our neighborhood.
A travelling exhibit, the first in a series, will be coming to the Bowman Library on December 10th. On loan from the Library of Virginia, the exhibit is called Teetotalers & Moonshiners: Prohibition in Virginia, Distilled and consists of a series of informative banners on the Prohibition Era in Virginia from 1916 to 1933. It will be featured in the lobby of the Bowman Library for the next month and a companion exhibit which was prepared by our archivists will be on display at the Handley branch on the lower level outside of the Stewart Bell Jr. Archive.