Introduction

Following the events of April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech received over 90,000 letters, cards, posters, banners, photographs, artifacts, textiles, books, certificates, and more from people and organizations all around the world, many of which were left at memorials on the Blacksburg campus.

Special Collections and University Archives collected representative items as part of the Virginia Tech April 16, 2007 Archives of the University Libraries, a collection of over 500 cubic feet of material. Items from every continent, 80 countries, and all 50 U.S. states are represented in the collection. Digital representations of over 7,000 items were also captured by archivists and are online in the April 16, 2007, Condolence Archives digital collection.

Created for the 14th annual remembrance commemoration in 2021, this exhibit - We Are Better Than We Think: Selections from the April 16, 2007 Condolence Archives - highlights the items Virginia Tech received following the events of April 16th. It features artifacts, children’s letters, poems, and more with messages of love, hope, and peace, most of which have not been displayed for exhibition before.

The title piece of the exhibit, "We Are Better Than We Think" by Eric W. Schuttler (pictured above) is on display in Newman Library near the 2nd floor entrance, April 12 thru April 23 during the library's open hours. (No other items are on display.)