Historic Alexandria
The museums, historic structures and collections managed by Historic Alexandria reflect the diversity of centuries of Alexandria history and provide a context for understanding the broader scope of regional, state and national history.
Online Collections
- Alexandria Black History Museum: Select Collections and Library
- Fort Ward Museum: Lewis Cass White Collection
- Gadsby’s Tavern Museum: John Gadsby's Silver
- Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum: Archival Collection
Alexandria Black History Museum
The Alexandria Black History Museum houses collections relating the history and accomplishments of African Americans in Alexandria. The Watson Reading Room is a non-circulating library with collections covering a wide range of topics related to the Black experience.
Social activist Annie Beatrice Bailey Rose (1893-1989] dedicated her life to improving the lives of African American people in Alexandria. More about the Annie B. Rose Collection…
The Collection documents the career of Black opera singer, Ben Holt Jr. (1955-1990). More about the Ben Holt Collection…
The collection documents the Alexandria community’s response to tragic 2020 murder of George Floyd and the wave of peaceful protests and vigils that followed. More about the Black Lives Remembered Collection…
For fifty years, History teacher, Carlton Funn, Sr., collected material to make his African American students “aware of their positive heritage.” More about the Carlton Funn Collection…
Moss H. Kendrix was a trailblazer in public relations, whose work transformed representation of African American consumers in the media. More about the Moss H. Kendrix Collection…
The Parker-Gray Archives preserves documents, photographs, yearbooks and other memorabilia relating to this segregated school (1936-1965). More about the Parker-Gray School Archives…
These paintings were part of Sanabria’s Sites of Conscience series, which focused on African American heritage. More about the Sherry Z. Sanabria Paintings…
The Reading Room is a non-circulating library of over 4,000 volumes. The collection covers a wide range of topics related to the Black experience. More about the Watson Reading Room Library…
Fort Ward Museum & Historic Site
Fort Ward Museum features a collection of over 2,000 objects from the Civil War period, primarily of Union origin, in conjunction with the Federal history of the site. Also included are objects related to the Civil War Defenses of Washington and local Civil War history.
The collection consists of documents, objects, photographs, and ephemera related to White’s Civil War service, and his mission to preserve the Defenses of Washington. More about the Lewis Cass White Collection…
Gadsby’s Tavern Museum
Gadsby's Tavern Museum consists of two buildings, a ca. 1785 tavern and the 1792 City Tavern, that provided a space for discussing revolutionary ideals and how to put them into practice in early America.
Englishman John Gadsby was a famed tavern keeper and hotelier in Alexandria, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. from 1796 to 1836. More about the John Gadsby’s Silver Collection…
Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum
The Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum boasts a vast collection of herbal botanicals, hand-blown glass, medical equipment and archival materials used in this family business, in operation from 1792 until 1933.
The collection is comprised of letters, invoices, account books, and ledgers of the apothecary and pharmacy business owned by the Stabler and Leadbeater families. More about the Apothecary Museum Archival Collection…
More Historic Alexandria Museums
The Alexandria Archaeology Museum’s collection contains over 2,000,000 artifacts, collected since 1965 from more than 150 archaeological sites in the City of Alexandria, Virginia.