Museum Collections

The City museums are stewards of more than 30,000 objects, in addition to more than two million archaeological artifacts and 25,000 archival documents. View online collections and learn about the collections of each of the Historic Alexandria museums.
Page updated on January 17, 2023 at 2:26 PM

Museum Collections

The historic structures and collections managed by Historic Alexandria reflect the diversity of centuries of Alexandria history and provide a context for understanding the broader scope of regional, state and national history. 

The Office of Historic Alexandria is currently engaged in collecting initiatives focusing on current events: The Legacy of George Floyd: the Black Lives Remembered Collection and Chronicling the Pandemic: Alexandria's Story.

Collecting Initiatives

Black Lives Matter Collection: Mask and Pins

Black Lives Remembered Collection

Following the tragic murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, the Museum put out a call to the community to help us to document the legacy of the Alexandria community’s response to this tragedy and and the wave of peaceful protests and vigils that followed. (View Collections Online).

Screenshot of Historic Alexandria Collections Online

Historic Alexandria Collections Online

Historic Alexandria Collections Online showcases select portions of our vast collections in an online database. The Black History Museum is adding to the digital archives with a grant from IMLS. This grant will enable the museum to make four important archival collections publicly accessible.

Chronicling the Pandemic: Sidewalk chalk drawings

Chronicling the Pandemic: Alexandria's Story

As we experienced this unprecedented time in the history of our town and the world, the Office of Historic Alexandria embarked on a project to record our City’s response by conducting oral histories and collecting select memories, objects and documents from across the Alexandria community.

What do the Museums Collect?

Below is a brief description of each museum's collections. See their collections pages for more information on the collections and each museum's collecting policies.

Adult handing toy teapot lid to a child. Image used on poster for Virginia Archaeology Month

Alexandria Archaeology Museum

The breadth and depth of this collection make it one of the foremost collections for use in comparative studies in historic and urban archaeology. The collection contains over 2,000,000 artifacts, collected since 1965 from more than 150 archaeological sites in the City of Alexandria, Virginia.

Parker-Gray students and faculty, old school (catalogue BHM2012-2-548)

Alexandria Black History Museum

The museum houses collections relating the history and accomplishments of African Americans in Alexandria. In addition, the museum collects documents and artifacts relating to a wide range of African American history and culture. 

Lyceum needlework Sampler with basket of flowers, Catherine A Butcher

Alexandria History Museum at The Lyceum

The collection includes the original 1839 lyceum building as well as over 5,000 objects related to the history of Alexandria, Virginia. The museum collects and interprets artifacts and history from all periods of the City's past, from the periods before its founding in 1749 through the present day.

drum with painted American Eagle

Fort Ward Museum

The museum has over 2,000 objects from the Civil War period, primarily of Union origin, in conjunction with the Federal history of the site. Also included are objects related to the Civil War Defenses of Washington, and local Civil War history.

Hose Reel Carriage in front of Friendship Firehouse Museum

Friendship Firehouse Museum

Friendship Firehouse Museum houses the 1851 Rogers Suction Engine and the 1858 Prettyman Hose Carriage (shown here), as well as firefighting tools and memorabilia of the Friendship Fire Company.

John Gadsby's Silver Collection

Gadsby's Tavern Museum

From ceramics to furniture to John Gadsby's Silver (shown above), each object tells the story of the evolution of hospitality in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Photographic Collection documents the tavern’s 20th century journey from run-down buildings to world-class museum. 

Leadbeater letterhead with engraving of Wholesale Druggists buildings.

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum

The museum boasts a vast collection of herbal botanicals, hand-blown glass, and medical equipment. It also has a spectacular collection of archival materials, including journals, prescription and formula books, ledgers, orders and invoices.

Historic Alexandria Collections Online

Historic Alexandria Collections Online (web page)

Historic Alexandria Collections Online showcases select portions of our vast collections in an online database. From silver to samplers, photos to forks, over 30,000 items are held in Historic Alexandria's museums. To offer a taste of this variety, tour the different collections available now. Can you find Carlton Funn’s posters on Crispus Attucks, John Gadsby’s wine cooler, and a student chorus photograph from Parker-Gray High School? 

The Alexandria Black History Museum is a proud recipient of a $243,356 grant from the IMLS Museum Grants for African American History and Culture. This highly competitive and generous grant is enabling the museum to digitize, interpret, and make four important archival collections publicly accessible. Documents, photographs, objects and other material from Alexandrian activists Ferdinand T. Day and Annie B. Rose, Washingtonian opera singer Ben Holt, and public relations icon Moss H. Kendrix will be digitized as part of this grant. 

The following collections can now be viewed online. We will continue to add specific collections or collections’ highlights as their catalogues become available. 

Learn about these collections on the museum's collections webpages, above, or go directly to the database at these links.

Alexandria Black History Museum

Gadsby's Tavern Museum

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum

How to Donate Your Objects or Collections

If you have objects that you may want to donate to Historic Alexandria Museums, please contact the appropriate museum, or contact the curator on Alex311, or at Alexandria History Museum at The Lyceum, who can direct you to the right place.

Gifts to the Office of Historic Alexandria’s historic collections and libraries become the property of the City of Alexandria, Virginia. They are held by the Museums in public trust, to be preserved and used as a resource and legacy for future generations of residents, visitors and researchers. Gifts are tax deductible to the full extent of the law; see your tax accountant for more information.

Each museum follows a Collections Policy that includes a Scope of Collections statement in determining what objects to bring into the collection, so that objects can be used and cared for in the most appropriate setting. 

See below to learn what each museum collects.

Alexandria Archaeology Museum

Alexandria Archaeology Museum collects archaeological materials from professional excavations within the current City limits of Alexandria. The museum may also accept artifacts found on a homeowner's property. 

Alexandria Archaeology Museum collections and collecting policies.

Alexandria Black History Museum

Alexandria Black History Museum’s (ABHM) collections preserve Alexandria, Virginia’s African American history from 1749 to the present. In addition, the museum collects documents and artifacts relating to a wide range of African and African American history.  

Alexandria Black History Museum collections and collecting policies

Alexandria History Museum at The Lyceum

Alexandria History Museum at The Lyceum collects artifacts representing all time periods of Alexandria and the surrounding region’s past, as well as objects relevant for interpreting The Lyceum as a historic site.

Alexandria History Museum collections and collecting policies.

Fort Ward Museum and Historic Site

Fort Ward Museum collections objects that broadly interpret the history of the site, the Civil War Defenses of Washington, and local history related to wartime Alexandria.

Fort Ward collections and collecting policies

Freedom House Museum

Alexandria Black History Museum (above) administers collections that may be relevant to the history of the building and the slave trade, and that may be displayed and interpreted at Freedom House Museum.

Friendship Firehouse Museum

Alexandria History Museum at the Lyceum (above) administers the Friendship Fire Company Collection. The collection includes materials related to Friendship and other Alexandria historic volunteer firefighting companies.

Gadsby's Tavern Museum

Gadsby’s Tavern Museum collects objects in accordance with its Historic Furnishings Plan, to authentically furnish the buildings known as Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, to be relevant to the interpretation and understanding of the stated historical period (1785-1810), or to reflect the subsequent history of the two buildings.

Gadsby's Tavern Museum collections and collecting policies.

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum

Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum may add objects to the permanent collection that are relevant to the interpretation and understanding of the historic site. Adequate history of the object must be established before it is accepted into the permanent collection. 

The Apothecary Museum Archival Collection