Gum Springs

This post was written by Mike Rynearson, Research Services Assistant. In this week’s blog, we spotlight Black History Month with one of our rare books that tell the incredible story of Gum Springs. Gum Springs is the oldest African American Community in Fairfax County, formally established in 1833. The founder of the community was West […]

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Stuck Out of Time

Photos, snapshots of a minute frame of time, often only a fraction of a second, provide a stark and seemingly frozen glance into the past. Special Collections Research Center’s (SCRC) exhibit through April, From Tintypes to .TIFFs displays a variety of these tiny glimpses into the past in a multitude of different formats. Tintypes, cyanotypes, […]

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Happy 136th Birthday, Virginia Woolf!

Virginia Woolf is easily described as one of the greatest and most innovative writers of the English language. Woolf, born in England on January 25, 1882 was also a pioneer of feminist and experimental writing, being one of the first to ever write a novel in a stream-of-consciousness narrative voice. Her most famous works, such […]

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Last Chance to See: Advances in Science, 1586-1999

We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours.   Attributed to Bernard of Chartres […]

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Holiday Cookbooks in Special Collections

This post was co-written by Mahogani Harper. The month of December symbolizes the end of a long year, as a very full month with Hanukah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve all packed into it. The month of December is also a month of food! The amount of national food holidays in December beat the […]

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