Greetings from Richmond, Virginia: Visitors through the Centuries
April 1 – August 1, 2016
Wilton Companies Gallery, University of Richmond Downtown

You would hardly know Richmond,” Jefferson Wallace wrote on his trip to the city in 1850. Over a century and a half later, his words still speak to the experience of countless visitors. But who are those visitors? They are athletes who came here to assert their place in the record books. They are students who came here to learn. They are celebrities who came to make their fame. They are statesmen and reformers who came to change the world. And they are slaves, men and women brought here to be sold as chattel. This exhibition seeks to take a deeper look at visitors to Richmond through the centuries.

Richmond is, and always has been, many things to many people. As the nation worked to bind its wounds after the Civil War, Richmond presented itself as both a “Gateway to the South” and the site of the nation’s founding. As the nineteenth century progressed, Richmond’s elite reimagined their city as a progressive metropolis, not just a sleepy, historical town. With a vibrant art scene, Richmond is avant-garde. And it appeals to entrepreneurs as a beacon of burgeoning commercial potential. It is the birthplace of our constitutional liberties. But the evils of slavery, a trade that flourished here, remain seared in the collective subconscious, and the struggle for civil rights continues to play out in Richmond’s contemporary life.

What is the Richmond that visitors have found through the centuries? And how have those visitors changed the way that Richmonders see their city? This exhibition seeks not only to see the city through the eyes of its visitors, but also to see visitors through the eyes of the city. These collective experiences tell a story of a city replete with dualisms and contradictions, a city that you would hardly know.

Welcome to Richmond.