The Isle of Wight County Museum is located in Smithfield, Virginia.
The Isle of Wight County Museum is located in Smithfield, Virginia.
The Isle of Wight County Museum was founded in 1976.
Nearly two years before the 1976 United States Bicentennial commemoration, a number of heritage-minded Isle of Wight County citizens believed that the county needed a place where its history could be preserved. As a result of their efforts, the Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors appointed a multi-talented group of county residents to a commission whose task was to collect, catalog and display artifacts for a new museum.
Smithfield's historic 18th-century Gaming House, located at 124 Main Street, was the first home for the collection. The museum opened on November 21, 1976, and for the first three years, dedicated volunteers kept the museum open on Sunday afternoons and at other times by appointment.
The museum quickly outgrew its first home as gifts and loans expanded the collection. In 1979, the museum moved into its second historic building, the Bank of Smithfield, built in 1913 and located at 103 Main Street. That same year, the museum commission became a committee under the Isle of Wight County Public Recreational Facilities Authority, which assumed oversight of the museum.
In 1990, the Folk Building, a former dry goods store also built in 1913 and located adjacent to the museum, was purchased for the museum's expansion.
In 2006, the museum was placed under the newly formed Isle of Wight County Historic Resources Division as a part of Isle of Wight County's Parks and Recreation Department. Shortly thereafter, the division became part of the Smithfield and Isle of Wight County Tourism Department.
The museum's growth continued through October 2006 when a nor’easter left the basement flooded with three feet of standing water. Despite the devastating impact of the flood on the museum and its collection, staff, professionals from other Hampton Roads museums, volunteers, concerned citizens and the business community worked tirelessly to re-open the museum in 2008.
On June 30, 2014, Isle of Wight County Historic Resources Division was dissolved, and the museum staff members became employees of the Town of Smithfield. Isle of Wight County currently retains ownership of the museum's collection and the building itself.
Today, the museum continues to grow. Staffed with a full-time director and curator and several part-time docents, it is open seven days a week and offers special events, research opportunities, public outreach and educational programming to both in-person visitors and social media followers.
The museum's exhibits include prehistoric fossils, colonial and pre-colonial artifacts, a turn-of-the-century country store, displays interpreting the Smithfield ham industry and the museum's most notable artifact: the world's oldest, edible cured ham.
P.D. Gwaltney Jr.’s famous pet ham currently resides at the Isle of Wight County Museum. In 1902, a cured ham was overlooked, and for 20 years, the ham hung from a rafter in one of Gwaltney's packing houses. [2] By 1924, the pet ham was kept in an iron safe which was opened daily for guests to view. Advertised as the world's oldest Smithfield ham, Gwaltney fashioned a brass collar for the ham and took it to shows and expos to exhibit the preservative powers of his smoking method. The ham was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not! in 1929, 1932 and 2003.
The museum hosts an annual birthday party for the ham each July, and the museum's Ham Cam keeps tabs on the ham throughout the day.
Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County, Virginia. Helen Haverty King, 1993.
The History of Isle of Wight County in 40 Objects. Isle of Wight County Museum, 2016.
Isle of Wight County is a county located in the Hampton Roads region of the U.S. state of Virginia. It was named after the Isle of Wight, England, south of the Solent, from where many of its early colonists had come. As of the 2020 census, the population was 38,606. Its county seat is Isle of Wight, an unincorporated community.
Smithfield is a town in Isle of Wight County, in the South Hampton Roads subregion of the Hampton Roads region of Virginia in the United States. The population was 8,089 at the 2010 census.
Windsor is an incorporated town in Isle of Wight County in the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. It is located near the crossroads of U.S. Route 460 and U.S. Route 258. The population was 2,626 at the 2010 census, up from 916 at the 2000 census.
Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic Ocean, and the surrounding metropolitan region located in the southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina portions of the Tidewater Region.
Smithfield ham is a specific form of country ham finish-cured in the town of Smithfield in Isle of Wight County in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, U.S.
Founded in 1889, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities was the United States' first statewide historic preservation group. In 2003 the organization adopted the new name APVA Preservation Virginia to reflect a broader focus on statewide Preservation and in 2009 it shortened its name to Preservation Virginia. Preservation Virginia owns historic sites across Virginia including Historic Jamestowne, located at Jamestown, Virginia, site of the first permanent English settlement in North America, and the Cape Henry Light house, one of the first public works projects of the United States of America.
The Smithfield Packing Company sells meat products such as ham, ground pork, pork chops, bacon, and lunch meat. It sells its products worldwide. The company was founded in 1936. It is based in Smithfield, Virginia. It is part of Smithfield Foods which is in turn a subsidiary of WH Group.
Bartlett is an unincorporated community in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, United States. It is located at the junction of U.S. Route 17, U.S. Route 258, and State Route 32, on the James River Bridge approach southeast of Smithfield.
Smithfield High School is a public high school located in Smithfield, Virginia in Isle of Wight County, south of Newport News and the James River. It is part of the Isle of Wight County Public Schools and graduated its first class in 1906. The school's current facility opened in 1980. Athletic teams compete in the Virginia High School League's AA Bay Rivers District in Region I. Smithfield High School is also fully accredited school by the Virginia Board of Education and is also part of the program 'No Child Left Behind.'
The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is located in St. Michaels, Maryland, United States and is home to a collection of Chesapeake Bay artifacts, exhibitions, and vessels. This 18-acre (73,000 m2) interactive museum was founded in 1965 on Navy Point, once a site of seafood packing houses, docks, and work boats. Today, the museum houses the world's largest collection of Chesapeake Bay boats and provides interactive exhibits in and around the 35 buildings which dot the campus. The museum also offers year-round educational seminars and workshops.
The Pagan River (Warraskoyak) is a 12.5-mile-long (20.1 km) tributary of the James River located in Isle of Wight County, Virginia. The colonial seaport town of Smithfield sits on the banks of this river.
The Old Isle of Wight Courthouse was built in 1750-51 and was used as the main courthouse for Isle of Wight County, Virginia until a new courthouse was built at Isle of Wight, Virginia in 1800. It is located in the Historic District in the town of Smithfield.
The Wentworth–Grinnan House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and located on the river side of South Church Street within the Smithfield Historic District in Smithfield, Virginia. Smithfield is a colonial seaport town on the Pagan River in Isle of Wight County with colonial trading ties to Bermuda and the West Indies.
Boykin's Tavern is a historic inn and tavern located at Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. The original structure was built about 1790, and expanded to two stories with a 1+1⁄2-story gambrel-roofed wing in the early 19th century. A two-story wing and two-story porch were added in 1900–1902. It has four brick external end chimneys and a standing seam metal gable roof. The interior reflects the transition between the Colonial and Federal styles. It is the only surviving structure associated with the Isle of Wight Courthouse of 1800. The building is occupied by a local history museum.
Four Square is a historic home and farm located near Smithfield, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. The original structure was built in 1807, and is a two-story, five bay, "L"-shaped frame dwelling. Also on the property are eight contributing domestic outbuildings, and a variety of barns and other farm buildings.
P. D. Gwaltney Jr. House is a historic home located at Smithfield, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. The house was built about 1900, and is a large two-story, rectangular, Queen Anne style wood frame mansion with three porches. It features an elaborate profile punctuated by a corner turret, projecting bays, and a complex roof form. It was the primary residence of Pembroke Decatur Gwaltney Jr. of the Gwaltney meat empire.
Ivy Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery and national historic district located at Smithfield, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. It was established in 1886, and is a privately owned cemetery. Grave markers within the cemetery date from the mid-19th century to the present day. It includes a number of notable funerary monuments.
Smithfield Historic District is a national historic district located at Smithfield, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. It encompasses 289 contributing buildings and 2 contributing structures in the historic downtown and surrounding residential areas of Smithfield. There are 211 houses, 37 commercial buildings, 1 warehouse, 4 churches, 10 barns, 1 smokehouse, 23 garages, 1 farm office, 1 colonial kitchen, and 2 corncrib structures. Notable buildings include the original county clerk's office (1799), county jail, Wentworth-Barrett House, Wentworth–Grinnan House, King-Atkinson House, Smith-Morrison House (1770s), Hayden Hall, Boykin House, Goodrich House (1886), Thomas House (1889), Smithfield Academy (1827), Christ Episcopal Church, and Hill Street Baptist Church (1923). Located in the district and separately listed are the Old Isle of Wight Courthouse, Smithfield Inn, Windsor Castle Farm, and P. D. Gwaltney Jr. House.
The Battle of Smithfield was a relatively small skirmish during the American Civil War – taking place on from January 31 to February 1, 1864, in Smithfield, Virginia.
Arthur Smith IV was a British colonial landowner, politician, and captain who incorporated Smithfield, Virginia, served as one of the town's founding trustees, and briefly represented Isle of Wight County in the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Erickson, Mark St. John (November 12, 2016.) "Isle of Wight Museum: 40th birthday, 40 items for exhibit." The Daily Press.
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