The American Association of State and Local History (AASLH) recently awarded the Virginia Museum of History & Culture its highest honor for achievement in the preservation of state and local history — the Award of Excellence. The VMHC was the only museum in Virginia to be given this recognition in 2023.

The VMHC was nominated, and ultimately chosen as an award recipient, following completion in early 2022 of the most extensive renovation and programmatic overhaul in the museum’s nearly 200-year history. Its History Matters campaign aims to help the VMHC better welcome and reflect all Virginians and to tell the story of Virginia for all Virginians.

An excerpt from a July 2022 review in the Washington Post was included in the VHMC’s nomination. It called the reimagined space “a compelling new museum of Virginia’s full history... a fully satisfying, engaging and often moving museum, that echoes in its tone what is happening at all levels of public history...”

The AASLH awards program began in 1945 to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation and interpretation of history throughout the United States. For more than 75 years, the AASLH awards have been determined by a nationwide panel of history professionals and winners who not only represent the best in their field, but also provide leadership for the future of state and local history.

“It is an honor to receive such recognition from the American Association for State and Local History, and also to be select by a group of our peers,” Jamie Bosket, president and CEO at the VMHC said in a statement. “Our recent renovation and re-imagination was the most extensive such project in the history of our institution, and it has fundamentally changed what we do and how we do it. It has positioned us for success and greater public service now and for generations to come.”