As the nation nears the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Isle of Wight County Museum and the Bank of Southside Virginia, in conjunction with the Isle of Wight County VA250 Committee, are partnering to bring a state-sponsored mobile museum to Smithfield. The hands-on, interactive and immersive VA250 Mobile Museum Experience offers the “Out of Many, One” exhibition.

The mobile museum will be available free for visitors from May 15-18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the BSV Smithfield branch parking lot at 115 Main St. The Isle of Wight County Museum coordinated the mobile museum’s stop with the annual Smithfield Arts Festival on Saturday, May 17, when three blocks of downtown are closed to vehicle traffic and filled with artists, craftspeople, authors and performers.

“Across the state, so many Virginians were involved in what led up to the American Revolution and our founding,” said Jennifer England, director of the Isle of Wight County Museum and the county’s historic resources manager. “There is rich Colonial history right in our backyard, and we’re fortunate to bring this mobile museum to Smithfield for residents to rediscover those events.”

The exhibition also features a reproduction of “Elizabeth Bennett Young, 1781,” a painting by Smithfield artist Stephanie Faleski, who depicts how Young hid the county’s courthouse records as British Lt. Col. Banaster Tarleton was nearing Smithfield. Commissioned by the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter and dedicated in 2013, the painting documents how the wife of Deputy Clerk Lt. Francis Young protected what are now some of the oldest and most complete U.S. court records, usually among the first materials destroyed during war. She hid them in a trunk she buried off what is now known as Route 10.

Students from Smithfield High School and Windsor High School have also been working together since September for a unique cross-curricular project blending history, technology and creative writing. Through research, field trips to the Isle of Wight County Museum, 1750 Courthouse and St. Luke’s Historic Church and Museum, as well as hands-on technology, they brought local history to life with the development of a podcast: Revolutionary Roots. Isle of Wight County Schools produced a video about the students’ process as the students dove deeper into subjects such as agriculture and education through primary source research. This entire project will be shared with students and hosted permanently on the Isle of Wight County Schools’ website.

Listen to the podcasts, view the production process video and learn more at:

https://sites.google.com/iwcs.k12.va.us/revolutionary-roots?usp=sharing

“As a community partner, we are honored to provide complementary use of our grounds and parking lot for events that enrich local programs and activities,” said Will Clements, BSV chairman. “We’re honored to be able to host this important mobile museum, as we celebrate our nation’s history and, more specifically, how Southside Virginia and our ancestors played a role in the fight for independence.”

For 23 years, BSV has provided free use of the parking lot for the Smithfield Farmers Market, which operates from 9 a.m. to noon every Saturday from April to October, except when the downtown streets are closed for other special events. The 2025 market opened on April 5 and is in its final year at that location.

In related activities, The Isle of Wight County Museum has partnered with the Smithfield Times for a three-year series of monthly articles that celebrate 250 years of American history.  Additionally, at 2 p.m. on May 17, the museum will feature “Stamps Heard ’Round the World,” a presentation featuring U.S. postage stamps commemorating the fight for independence and the county’s connection to the war’s opening Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.