The Virginia Museum of History and Culture founded in 1831 as the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a major repository, research, and teaching center for Virginia history. It is a private, non-profit organization, supported almost entirely by private contributions. In 2004, it was designated the official state historical society of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The historical society's headquarters was renamed from Virginia Historical Society to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in 2018. The museum features exhibitions and programming for visitors of all ages and has more than of exhibition gallery space and the largest display of Virginia artifacts on permanent view. The Virginia Museum of History & Culture is the only museum with all of Virginia's history under one roof—all centuries, regions, and topics are covered. Mission The mission of the historical society is to connect people to America's past through the unparalleled story of Virginia. By collecting, preserving, and interpreting the Commonwealth's history, the society links past with present and inspires future generations. History On December 29, 1831, twenty-eight Virginians—consisting of political, economic, and social leaders—met in the House of Delegates chamber of the Virginia State Capitol to establish a state historical society. Christened the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society, the new institution's mission was to preserve the memory of the commonwealth's prominent colonial and Revolutionary past at a time when Virginia was experiencing the movement of many of its citizens out of the state, which contributed to a growing sense of social upheaval and a perceived disconnection with Virginia's “golden age.” To give the new historical society a boost from the very beginning, its founders elected Chief Justice John Marshall as its first president and former president James Madison its first honorary member. In its early years, the historical society gathered an eclectic collection of natural history specimens, historical artifacts, and printed and written material. From time to time, it published the texts of historic documents and the addresses delivered at its annual meetings. This was hampered, however, by having virtually no endowment and no permanent home. In 1848, the institution shortened its cumbersome name to the Virginia Historical Society to reflect a primarily historical focus as it became more active in publishing historical material. The society gained its first permanent headquarters building in Richmond in 1893. The society's journal, the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, has published on