As of June 2026, collections from the former Imagebase site can now be accessed here. All are listed in the Collection Tree and can also be found through the search function. Images from Blacksburg and Virginia Tech reside primarily in the Historical Photograph Collection.

Archived Content Notice: Items on this site tagged "archived" have been archived and are no longer being updated, but remain available for reference and research purposes only. For accessibility support, please go to Virginia Tech's Accessibility Portal.

Memoir 1, Page 96, William G. Brownlow

"Against all justice and right and with no reasonable chance of success they (the rebels) determined to go out of the Union, into their rickety boats of "State rights" and hoist their miserable cabbage leaf of a palmetto flag."

This quote is from a letter written in November of 1860 by William G. Brownlow following a South Carolina secessionist’s requests to end his account with Brownlow’s paper, the Knoxville Whig. In response to the secessionist’s statement “Secession now and forever!” Brownlow wrote a scathing letter about the unconstitutionality and futility of secession, including quotes from Andrew Jackson, the Bible, Thomas Jefferson, and the James Madison.

"Except ye abide in the ship ye earned be saved."

This quote was also used by William G. Brownlow in his 1860 letter; “Except ye abide” is taken from the Bible (Acts 27, verse 31) as Christ’s disciple Paul tells sailors during a storm that only those who have faith and remain aboard the seemingly doomed vessel will survive. For a full version of Brownlow’s letter and the correspondence that sparked it, see page 37 of Brownlow’s book Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession.