The Virginia Historical Society Offers Free Admission for Everyone This Summer.

Beginning June 6th and running through August 30th, the Virginia Historical Society (VHS) will be free for all visitors every day the museum is open to the public.  This summer, while open to the public at no charge, the VHS will display three exhibitions about the Vietnam era.

Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era explores the issues, actions, reactions, and expressions of life and culture of African Americans as they were affected by the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War.  Over 160 artifacts, photographs, audio recordings, songs, oral histories, and an original documentary on display in this award-winning exhibition show how events in the 1960s helped frame African American political and social perspectives that extended beyond civil rights.

Marking Time: Voyage to Vietnam features a cache of Vietnam War soldier art of striking importance and poignancy.  Soldiers and Marines on the ship USNS General Nelson M. Walker, bound for Vietnam in 1967, inscribed graffiti phrases and images on the bottom sides of canvas bunks in the troop compartments.  Men wrote their name and hometown, the date they expected to leave the service, and kept day-by-day calendars to mark the progress of the voyage.  Original graffiti-covered canvases-discovered in the process of scrapping the vessel in 2005-display messages of patriotism, politics, humor, anxiety, and love.

Bring Paul Home: Phyllis Galanti and Vietnam War POWs is based on the collection given to the Virginia Historical Society by Richmond resident Phyllis Galanti.  Her husband, Paul, was a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy when his plane was shot down over Vietnam on June 17, 1966. Mr. Galanti was a Prisoner of War (POW) until February 12, 1973.
Pictures, letters, pamphlets, buttons, and posters from the donated collection show Mrs. Galanti's efforts, and those of the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, to publicize the plight of their loved ones and to secure their release.