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Christiansburg Institute
Online History
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Explore Christiansburg Institute's past through its online history
Contribute your knowledge on our message board
Archie Rollins Views Exhibition Historical Exhibits tell the many stories of Christiansburg Institute: the place, its people and their ideas and actions. Christiansburg Institute experienced turbulent changes between 1866 and 1966, its first century, and so did Virginians and Americans at large. The exhibits are interpretive explorations of the past. They focus on the school, but always in the context of larger historical forces, from emancipation to progressivism, through segregation and disfranchisement, to desegregation and the digital divide.
At left: CI Alumni Association board member Archie Rollins views "A Century of Contribution: Christiansburg Institute and Educational Change in Virginia," a traveling historic exhibition currently on tour, Christiansburg Institute Collection.

The Key to Power is an overview exhibit, introducing you to the broad sweep of CI history. Our first suite of more detailed exhibits will explore each major period in CI's history. Future exhibits will explore topics such as student life, sports, the changing curriculum, financial support, alumni careers, and CI's role in the larger history of African-American education. Our exhibits will be researched and written by our many participants--students, educators, alumni, and historians. If you are interested in contributing to a future exhibit, please contact VCI historian Phillip D. Troutman, trout@duke.edu. Soon you will be able to research VCI's growing collection of digitized primary sources, via an online archive.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO Key to Power ONLINE EXHIBIT.

This web exhibit opens windows onto Christiansburg Institute's past.
Click on the links to travel through the exhibit. Click on the images for larger viewing.

Our initial series of planned exhibits going online one at time are:
  • Clandestine Education: Knowledge under Slavery
  • Born of Zeal: CI from Emancipation to 1895
  • Heart, Head, Hand, & Feet: the Booker T. Washington Era at CI, 1895-1934
  • Equal But Separate?: CI and the Public School System, 1934-1966
  • Crossing the Digital Divide: CI's Second Century

    • The message board is a public forum where all participants can share their knowledge, opinions, and interpretation of CI's history. Participants might use the message board to:
  • identify people shown in CI photographs.
  • share information about new sources.
  • express an opinion not reflected in the exhibits.
  • propose topics for new exhibits.
  • suggest avenues for future research and interpretation.
  • explore uses of VCI in the classroom.
  • comment on VCI's organization and ease of use.
  • query fellow participants on research topics.
  • review books or articles relevant to CI history.
  • announce events of interest to VCI participants.

    • CLICK HERE TO GO TO message board.
    This project, to develop an accessible and interactive online history of the school, is supported by a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy. Online history developed by Phillip Troutman, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Writing, at Duke University, email trout@duke.edu.
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