Isle of Wight County Museum

06/23/2026

Typewriter Day is celebrated annually on June 23, the anniversary of the 1868 patent for American inventor Christopher Latham Sholes who gave us the QWERTY keyboard.

This circa 1920 Oliver No. 9 "batwing" typewriter in our collection was manufactured by The Oliver Typewriter Company in Chicago, Illinois.

06/22/2026

Tall, spotted and unstoppable at the museum!

06/19/2026

Commemorate Juneteenth today with a visit to Un/Bound, the traveling exhibit from the Virginia Museum of History & Culture. The exhibit tells the stories of free Black Virginians from the arrival of the first captive Africans in 1619 to the abolition of slavery in 1865.

06/19/2026

Ashley, Bailey and Rick stopped at the museum on their way from Northern Virginia to OBX to visit the World's Oldest Ham. They all bought matching t-shirts, too!

06/18/2026

LIVE at 12:05: Where the Ink Settles

Memories are inside the diary that we carry with us.

Autograph books, also known as autograph albums, memory albums or friendship albums, are books for collecting the autographs of others. Traditionally they were exchanged amongst friends, colleagues and classmates to fill with poems, drawings, personal messages, small pieces of verse and other mementos.

Their modern derivations include yearbooks, friendship books and guest books.

Join Registrar Sheila Williams-Morales as she highlights two autograph books in our collection which date to the latter part of the 19th century.



www.historicisleofwight.com

Recorded and produced June 18, 2026.

06/18/2026

Family Groceries order book, circa 1908.

06/17/2026

Whazzit Wednesday?
Submit your guess about this object in the museum's collection.

(This is a collection of pharmaceutical weights. They were a part of the apothecary system primarily used by pharmacists in the U.S. until 1971 when the metric system was adopted.)

06/17/2026

We are greatly saddened to hear that our friend David Jones has passed away. A sweet, kind soul--and funny, too.

He and his cousin Ronnie Jones inspired us to create our MY ISLE video series in 2023.

Take a moment to view some of David's memories of peanut farming in Isle of Wight County Virginia.

Fair winds and good harvests, David.

MY ISLE: Peanut Farming in Isle of Wight County, VirginiaOur vide...

06/16/2026

We love repeat customers!

On Sunday, Jordan DeGelia, a member of the Living Classroom Foundation’s vessel Sigsbee, visited the museum. He enjoyed it so much that he brought the remainder of the ship's crew to visit us yesterday.

Fair winds, amazing Sigsbee crew, as you sail towards Baltimore for Sail250 Maryland!

06/15/2026

Jordan DeGelia, in Town of Smithfield Virginia this weekend for the SMITHFIELD MARITIME RENDEZVOUS and a member of the Living Classroom Foundation’s vessel Sigsbee, ventured to the museum to see the World's Oldest Ham. He and his crew members next venture to Baltimore for Sail250 Maryland.