Treasures Revealed: From the Paul Mellon Library of Americana

In his bequest to the Virginia Historical Society, collector Paul Mellon provided a stunningly rare collection of items from American and in particular Virginian history. Among the treasures are a 1603 order from James I "Banishing Rogues to the New Found Lands;" a 1755 map of Virginia by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson; a 1772 petition from the Virginia House of Burgesses to King George III regarding abolition of the Atlantic slave trade; the only known copy of a broadside announcing the victory at Yorktown in 1781; William Birch's rare folio, "Country Seats of the United States" (1808), one of the first books published in America, Winslow Homer's Civil War "Campaign Sketches" printed in 1865; and much, much more.