The Shockoe ExaminerBlogging the History of Richmond, Virginia: Two new books on the early 20th century Richmond photography of Harris H. Stilson (1868-1934), streetcar motor man and amateur photographer..

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Two new books on the early 20th century Richmond photography of Harris H. Stilson (1868-1934), streetcar motor man and amateur photographer..

In 2013, two books were published about the life and work of Richmond's Harris H. Stilson (1868-1934), streetcar motorman and amateur photographer. They are both worth acquiring if you are interested in early 20th century Richmond history. These books are the work of Kitty Snow who has begun an effort to preserve his work through a series of projects including these two books. Learn more about Stilson HERE through Snow's Richmond In Sight.

From a Richmond Streetcar: Life Through the Lens of Harris Stilson

written and compiled by his great-granddaughter, Kitty Snow, for sale in local book stores and online. Published in January of 2013.

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On the West Clay Line: Jackson Ward, Carver and Newtowne West

written and compiled by his great-granddaughter, Kitty Snow, for sale in local book stores and online. Published in October of 2013.

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We'll be posting more about Stilson and his photographs of Richmond in the coming year.

- Ray.

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Contributors:

Ray Bonis:

Ray worked at VCU Libraries' James Branch Cabell Library from 1989 until 2021. He is the co-author of Virginia Commonwealth University (2006) and Greetings from Richmond (2009) - an architectural history of the city.

Selden Richardson:

Architectural historian and author of Built By Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia (2006), The Tri-State Gang in Richmond: Murder and Robbery in the Great Depression. (2012), and Richmond Murder & Mayhem (2023)

On History:

"The dead were and are not. Their place knows them no more and is ours today...The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that once, on this earth, once, on this familiar spot of ground, walked other men and women, as actual as we are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions, but now all gone, one generation vanishing into another, gone as utterly as we ourselves shall shortly be gone, like ghosts at cockcrow."
-- G. M. Trevelyan (1876-1962) from his "Autobiography of an Historian," An Autobiography and Other Essays (1949).

Key Dates in Richmond History
(more to follow)

1737 – William Mayo laid out the original street plan for the town of Richmond on land provided by William Byrd II.

1742 – Chartered as a town

1780 – Virginia’s state capital moved from Williamsburg to Richmond.

1782 – Incorporated as a city.

1788 - Virginia State Capitol building completed.

1860-1865 – Serves as capital of the Confederate States of America.

1910 - Manchester, the city located just south of the James, is consolidated with Richmond.

1949 - Oliver Hill (1907-2007) elected to City Council, first African American since Reconstruction.

1968 - Virginia Commonwealth University created by the merger of the Medical College of Virginia and Richmond Professional Institute.

1977 - Henry Marsh elected as first African American mayor of Richmond.

2009 – Shockoe Examiner founded.