Katy Simpson Smith

Before the Acela hit 160 miles per hour and turned train travel into a race from one destination to the next, riding the rails was an occasion. Sweeping vistas right outside the window and meals served with silverware made traveling by train an experience—one that a dwindling generation looks back on fondly.  But the Virginia […]

These are just a few more artifacts that make Virginia so much fun. We’ve compiled a short list of Virginia’s most bizarre destinations. Up to Speed. Weighing a mere 34 tons, one of four manganese bronze ship propellers from the S.S. United States once propelled the 990-foot ship, built in 1951 and retired in 1969. […]

A 1795 off-white, wool men’s jacket and breeches with a dark tan silk brocade waistcoat; a black silk taffeta, beaded mourning bustle skirt and bodice from the 1880s; and three Christian Dior ensembles from the ’60s and ’80s—all found in the University of Virginia’s Historic Clothing Collection, housed underneath the Culbreth Theater. For Marcy Linton, […]