In February the Encyclopedia Virginia team introduced the brand new Explore Virginia map tool. The new map functionality improves on the previous iteration, allowing the user to make geographic discoveries about Virginia history and culture by filtering points of interest by a combination of date range, category, and/or search term.

You can find out more about the new map tool on our blog, or take it for a spin yourself at encyclopediavirginia.org/map. We hope you'll find it as addictive as we do.

Poplar Forest: This Bedford County plantation served as the former president's villa retreat and architectural playground. Learn more about this extraordinary octagonal house from our entry, contributed by Poplar Forest's director of architectural restoration, Travis C. McDonald.

Martha Jefferson Randolph (1772–1836): Jefferson's daughter was arguably the most highly educated woman in Virginia, but her life was also representative of the era's wives, mothers, and plantation mistresses. Read about her teenage years, spent in pre-Revolutionary France; her troubled marriage to Virginia governor Thomas Mann Randolph; and her efforts to burnish the reputation of her famous father. Cynthia A. Kierner, the author of this entry, was recently nominated for the George Washington Book Prize for her work Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello. 

Monticello: The hub of a 5,000-acre plantation tract, Monticello was home to Jefferson, his family, and more than 100 enslaved people. Our entry sheds light on both architectural phases of the great house; the plantation landscape; Mulberry Row, where Jefferson's enslaved men, women, and children lived and worked; and the fate of the house after Jefferson's death in 1826.

Image of Poplar Forest courtesy of the Virginia Tourism Corporation.

In March, members of the EV staff will be speaking at the following events. If you're in attendance, please say hello!

• March 4, 11 a.m. | Rappahannock Westminster-Canterbury, Irvington, VA: Matthew Gibson, director of digital initiatives at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and editor of Encyclopedia Virginia, will speak at the Rappahannock Westminster-Canterbury retirement community. The presentation is open to the public, but reservations are required.
• March 22, 12:20 p.m. | Virginia Forum, Ashland, VA: EV's managing editor, Brendan Wolfe, and associate editor, Caitlin Newman, will present at a lunch session titled "Identifying Virginia's Boundaries in a Digital World."