The Bust of William Mahone

In 1873, the Virginia legislature authorized the State Library, then housed in the Capitol in Richmond, to acquire art. What followed was a burst of collecting, with almost fifty works arriving by 1875. Looking at the intersection of visual culture, public space, and race, this paper frames the library’s gallery as part of efforts by Virginians, both white and Black, to shape a visual experience of power that would influence its practice. By exploring art’s role in the struggle over defining Virginia’s post–Civil War future, I challenge scholarship that suggests the public collection of art in the South could only occur once white Democrats “redeemed” state governments.