Richmond Illustrated Imprints

Digital Collections come from a broad range of sources, including materials that are offensive or contain negative stereotypes. VCU Libraries provides access to these items to support research and inquiry.

About this collection
The Richmond Illustrated Imprints Collection contains digital versions of late 19th and early 20th century books that illustrate Richmond, Virginia. Some of these books were published in Richmond. This digital collection will grow as other books and publications of the city are added. All digitized books are fully searchable. The books themselves are housed in James Branch Cabell Library Special Collections and Archives.

The first three publications to be featured in the Richmond Illustrated Imprints Collection were published in the 1890s. This decade was a time of transition for Richmond as it emerged from the Reconstruction Era to a time dominated by the New South vision of industry and veneration of the Lost Cause. City manufacturing of tobacco, specifically the production of cigarettes, spiked in the 1890s. This spurred economic growth. At the same time, monuments and statues to the leaders of the Confederacy were erected. Monument Avenue, an avenue of domestic architecture and Confederate monuments, which came into being in the 1890s, is a reflection of both of these forces. These prints also reflect the attitudes and language use of dominant groups at the time, including offensive terms and negative stereotypes of marginalized groups, particularly Black Americans.

New Album of Richmond Views (1890s), Richmond, Virginia, Illustrated (1891), Art Work of Richmond (1897), and Pen and Sunlight Sketches of Richmond (1910s) were part of a wave of books published nationally at this time that are often called city-booster books. They were meant to sell an idealized view of a city. These Richmond publications virtually ignore the life of the city’s lower classes and that of its Black population. The publishers of these books wanted to illustrate the city’s economic and cultural growth.

Broad Street Old and Historic District, Richmond, Virginia discusses the unique history of Broad Street as a commercial center and its wealth of significant architecture with the aim to provide a “common framework for the renovation of shop exteriors, bringing out the best in the existing architecture of Broad Street and discouraging the introduction of inappropriate designs and materials.”

These books contain hundreds of images of the city. They show a variety of Richmond structures including domestic, civic, religious, and commercial architecture. Views range from city parks and cemeteries to street scenes of horse and buggies and early streetcars. Some of the views are rare. Others were often reprinted.

Copyright
This collection is of mixed copyright status and includes items that are in the public domain, in copyright, and of unknown copyright status. See individual items for item-specific copyright information.

Credits
Art Work of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, and New Album of Richmond Views were digitized by VCU Libraries in 2012-2014. Digital Specialist Drew Rollo was responsible for the digitization and quality control, and Metadata Librarian Mary Anne Dyer created the metadata. Broad Street Old and Historic District was digitized in 2015. Drew Rollo supervised student employees, digitization, and quality control. Student employee Shannon Roulet assisted with digitization. Metadata Librarian Mary Anne Dyer created the metadata for this digital collection. Pen and Sunlight Sketches of Richmond was digitized by Digital Specialist Katie Condon in 2023, with metadata created by Digital Initiatives Librarian Irina Rogova.