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Friday 1pm - 4pm Saturday 1pm - 4pm Sunday 1pm - 4pm

Rockbridge Historical Society, 101 E. Washington Street, Lexington, VA (2026)

06/23/2026

RHS is proud to partner with History Made By Us as one of over 400 historic sites and museums inviting their communities to join together to celebrate THE CIVIC SEASON.

We're particularly grateful for this summer's collaborations with WLU'27 Hewan Teka, one of only 24 Civic Season Ambassadors chosen nationally to help us engage younger members of the Rockbridge community, to drive civic engagement, and to capture authentic local reflections, across generations, about the meaning of Juneteenth, of civic freedoms more broadly, and what it means to be an American today.

See her work and our RHS table featured at:

https://wset.com/news/local/lexington-community-celebrates-juneteenth-with-music-history-and-connection-june-2026

Made By Us
Rockbridge Historical Society
Lex Rock BV Juneteenth
City of Lexington, Virginia Government
Washington and Lee University
W&L Community-Based Learning

06/21/2026

Make YOUR Declaration, this Wednesday night, with RHS' monthly discussion series:

📖 REVOLUTIONARY BOOKS, 1776-2026:

🕰️June 24, 6 PM
Lexington Library

We'll be discussing "OUR DECLARATION: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality," by Danielle Allen.

I especially recommend the book's opening chapter, Allen's fascinating personal reflection on its origins, while jointly teaching the Declaration to her undergraduate students at the University of Chicago by day, and working adults at night school.

Professor Allen is a political theorist at Harvard University and Director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, where she leads applied research on electoral reform, civic infrastructure, institutional design, and democracy-supportive public policy.

"OUR DECLARATION" won the Society of American Historians' prestigious Francis Parkman Prize on its release in 2014, and was recently reissued with a new foreword to mark America's 250th anniversary.

Enjoy this 4-minute video released by THE ATLANTIC to hear Allen describe her own core premise - emphasizing the Declaration's visions for Political Equality, not just Individual Liberty - and how a stray period introduced by an early printer changed "the course of human events," shaping how Jefferson's text has been received through the many turns of America's evolving political culture.

https://tinyurl.com/MisUnderstandingTheDeclaration

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Join us Wednesday night at 6 PM for this 9th monthly meeting of REVOLUTIONARY BOOKS, 1776-2026, exploring two and a half centuries of "American Evolution."

As with each of our gatherings, we'll start with a few short book trailers ~ author interviews to provide common ground and ready talking points for all: whether you've already read the full book, just started in, or are just keen to hear thoughts and perspectives before deciding to dive in!

Harvard University
Harvard Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
Rockbridge Regional Libraries
Rockbridge Historical Society
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

06/19/2026

"What Does Freedom Mean to YOU?" ...
.. Meet us tonight at Lexington's Richardson Park, 6-9 PM, for our community's 6th Annual LexRockBVJuneteenth Celebrations of Lex Rock BV Juneteenth

Visit the RHS Tent to video-record short reflections on "What Does Freedom Mean to You?" or "What Does Juneteenth Mean to You?"

This is a meaningful, authentic chance for you to contribute to the growing and lasting archive of RHS' Local Oral Histories, as we partner with the Gen-Z-driven initiative of Youth250:History Made By Us , and their national social media initiative to drive youth civic engagement, with our 250th anniversary celebrations of independence, VA250, and Rockbridge250, as a guiding spur.

We'll also have a sweep of Juneteenth-themed book titles on display as part of RHS' JUNETEENTH READING LIST, our annual collaboration with the Rockbridge Regional Library to promote African American and more broadly American stories and histories, across a range of genres, and for all ages.

https://rockbridgehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Juneteenth-and-Freedom-Reading-Lists-for-all-Ages-RHS.pdf

See you at the Park ... for dozens of food trucks, vendors and community non-profit booths ... and a Funk Band to stir the night, til 9 PM!

Rockbridge Historical Society
Made By Us
Rockbridge Regional Libraries
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission
City of Lexington, Virginia Government
Rockbridge County, Virginia - Government
City of Buena Vista, Virginia - Government
Main Street Buena Vista
Rockbridge County Public Schools
Lexington City Schools
Lexington, Virginia and the Rockbridge Area Tourism

06/18/2026

Find us at the RHS Tent Friday Night at Richardson Park, for Lex Rock BV Juneteenth ... Year 6!

📽️ 🎤 Videorecord your thoughts on "What Freedom Means to Me" as we partner with Youth250: History Made By Us Made By Us to develop a social media gallery, and add to our archive of local oral histories

🍔 🥘 🍽️ Share food, fellowship, and fun

🎶 💃 🪇 Music and Dancing, with known and new neighbors!

📖 Browse our annual display of local history and books drawn from our annual JUNETEENTH READING LIST:

https://rockbridgehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Juneteenth-and-Freedom-Reading-Lists-for-all-Ages-RHS.pdf

Rockbridge Historical Society
Lexington, Virginia and the Rockbridge Area Tourism
City of Lexington, Virginia Government
Rockbridge County, Virginia - Government
City of Buena Vista, Virginia - Government
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission

06/16/2026

📽️🍿 Wednesday, June 17, 5:30 PM --> Return to the cool of W&L Stackhouse Theater for another special Juneteenth-themed screening in the DeLaney Center's multi-year Screen-to-Square Series, followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A at 7:30 PM.

The screening continues a rich coupling of historically-centered movies this week -- free and welcoming to all -- after last weekend's well-and-warmly attended screenings of HAMILTON.

Our continued thanks to W&L Lifelong Learning in that shared enterprise -- as also with our running and rich collaborations with The DeLaney Center -- for a first, purposeful partnering of our joint community & university missions to advance Lifelong Learning and Civic Engagement.

"Something the Lord Made" stars Mos Def, Alan Rickman, Gabrielle Union & Kyra Sedgwick. The 2-hour film focuses on a critical medical breakthrough that both celebrates Black scientific and medical achievements, while contributing so vitally to American History -- and the saving of American and global lives, still today -- establishing the origins of modern cardiac surgery.

Established in 2021 and named after eminent Lexingtonian and beloved W&L Professor, Theodore “Ted” DeLaney, the DeLaney Center serves the campus and the Lexington-Rockbridge community by sponsoring events that investigate Southern race relations, culture, and politics.

The Center’s Screen to Square Film Series plays a vital role in carrying out its mission. During the 2025-2026 season of the series, we have held programs related to the theme, “Racial Adversity and Southern Resilience.” This Juneteenth edition will round out the year’s quartet.

See you at the movies! And again, this Friday, for LexRockBV Juneteenth (Richardson Park, 6-9 PM).
.. with more ahead about the event, and our annual partnering with the Rockbridge Regional Library to curate a table of cross-genre, multigenerational books for browsing, from our JUNETEENTH READING LIST. Great opportunity for connective conversation ... no less than summer reading, during the freedoms of a summer vacation!

Washington and Lee University
Rockbridge Historical Society
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission
City of Lexington, Virginia Government
Lexington City Schools
Rockbridge County Public Schools
Buena Vista City Public Schools

06/11/2026

📜"Jefferson and The Fight Against Slavery," a talk given by Dr. Cara Rogers Stevens (Ashland University)

5:30 PM, Stackhouse Theater
W&L Elrod Commons

This free community lecture is the first of 3 public events this weekend that RHS is co-sponsoring with the W&L Lifelong Learning Summer College, as part of their week's series on "America at 250: The Founding of an Independent Nation."

On Saturday and Sunday nights, join us for a two-night screening of the hit Broadway musical HAMILTON.

So that we don't run too late into the night (and giving us time to complement with some fun clips from the other classic Revolutionary Era-musical, "1776"), we will screen:

📽️ Act 1: 8 PM, June 13, Stackhouse Theater

📽️ Act 2: 8 PM, June 14, Stackhouse Theater

🍿🎶 Bring a movie snack, and your best singalong voices or rapping rhythms, to join in "The Spirit of '76'

Rockbridge Historical Society
W&L Lifelong Learning
Washington and Lee University
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission
America250

06/09/2026

🇺🇲 🎂 Less than a month now til America's "Big Birthday Party" on July 4:

When we hope you will bring family and friends to meet us at Lexington's Court House Square for Birthday Cake, and to share your Memories of 1976, and Hopes for 2076!

In the meantime, calendar these dates, building "The Spirit of '76"...
.. Starting this weekend as we partner with W&L Lifelong Learning for a trio of free community events:

📖 Friday's 530 PM talk about "Jefferson & The Fight Against Slavery"

📽️ Saturday's 8 PM screening of ACT I of the film version of HAMILTON (with complementary clips from the classic 1970s musical, "1776")

📽️ Sunday's closing 8 PM screening of ACT II of HAMILTON...

🎙️... Sing along, in fellow chorus, if you feel the "Revolutionary Call"!!!

06/05/2026

🥂 🎨TONIGHT: 5-7 PM: Juneteenth Art Show & Poetry Reading at Nelson Gallery (27 W Washington St., Lexington), sponsored by Project Horizon

Come launch your month's run of local programming and fellowship, in particularly colorful, and liberating style, as America once again nears "The Civic Season" -- the stretch of national holidays and community gatherings that extend from Juneteenth to July 4, all the more resonant in this 250th Anniversary Year of Independence.

For the 7th year now, Project Horizon is staging its multigenerational, community-sourced Juneteenth Art Show at the Nelson Gallery (pictured, a photo of the inaugural winners in the 2020 Juneteenth Art Show).

🍷🖌️ Doors and Free Reception open at 5 PM, to preview the range of multimedia submissions before the year's awards are announced at 5:30. Artworks are available for purchase and will remain on show at the Gallery, through the month.

Also on tap this year:

✍️ 📖 A special trill organized by RHS, as we've worked with Project Horizon's staff to introduce the evening's program in a lyrical key. The show's framing cue -- Langston Hughes' closing, inclusive, connective line "I, Too, Am America" -- echoes the chosen title for our own 2026 Black History Month Series last February.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47558/i-too

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Fittingly, in our Anniversary cues throughout this commemorative run, Hughes' poem was first published in 1926, exactly 100 years ago.

So today, all the moreso, his words once again offer an inviting index to see how far our nation has evolved over a given arc and prospect of time. No less than a more personal sense of our more individually emerging selves, in evolving social and generational contexts.

Tonight, you can hear Hughes' stanzas live, locally voiced, along with some of the other lyrics mentioned above, when read by local students, alumni, and community members.

As you listen to those and other related lyrical lines: take the purposeful time to reflect on who else, and what else, you want to see integrated into your America, your freedoms ...

"... Too ..."
🇺🇸🌞💫

Rockbridge Historical Society
Lexington City Schools
Lex Rock BV Juneteenth
VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission
Lexington, Virginia and the Rockbridge Area Tourism

06/04/2026

🚲Rockbridge Historical Society shares our thanks (and these photos) for the shared time at yesterday's Open House at the RHS Museum. It was a treat to welcome the Bike76VA team during their stay in Lexington last night, after riding up from Daleville and through Natural Bridge, as part of their cross-state ride from Wytheville to Williamsburg.

We're particularly glad to have shared your enthusiasm and experience with other community residents and riders who were eager to chat with you, following hospitality shared by our community partners and visits to NBSP~ Friends of Natural Bridge State Park, Grace Episcopal Church, and Falling Springs Presbyterian Church.

We loved both learning from and deepening your enthusiasm and historical curiosity...

🍻🍻 Capped by a taste of our locally-owned business, bites, and brews at Heliotrope Brewery.

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Thanks, more broadly, for your athletic and civic efforts in enriching Rockbridge250's commitments to cultivate community connections in authentic, creative, and connective ways:

🇺🇸 To celebrate VA250 - American Revolution 250 Commission and America250 in connective, collective ways.

📜 To spread the good word about

📖 To earn your RHS stamps with the VA250 Passport Program: proud to be one of the state's selected sites to distribute them, with a couple dozen stamped for members of the peloton! For more on that yearlong initiative, and its opportunity to earn prizes and discounts at over 70 historical sites across the Commonwealth, see:

https://virginiahistory.org/virginia-250-passport

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As you wheel your way through other small towns and historic landmarks throughout the state -- and as others among you here continue the virtual journeys with our work -- keep sharing the word about:

🏛️ Lexington, Virginia and the Rockbridge Area Tourism and the bike-friendly Sharrows and investments made by the the City of Lexington, Virginia Government; with particular thanks to Mayor Friedman and City Councillor Leslie Straughan, and Rockbridge County Administrator Spencer Suter for spending time with the riders at the Museum.

🚵⛰️ And last but not least ... good luck today on the fabled climb up VA-Route 56 ~ US-Bicycle Route 76, from Gertie's Restaurant at Vesuvius, cresting the Blue Ridge Parkway at Tye River Gap: the steepest 4-mile stretch on the entire 4,250 TransAmerican Bicycle Trail Adventure Cycling Association... right here in Rockbridge County, Virginia - Government.

06/03/2026

Along with our own welcome at the RHS Museum this afternoon from 3-6 PM, see this post from our peer local history organization in Wytheville, similarly setting the stages of Virginia History, through this commemorative ride!

Rockbridge Historical Society

06/23/2026

06/21/2026

06/19/2026

06/18/2026

06/16/2026

06/11/2026

06/09/2026

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06/03/2026

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