My trip begins in Charlottesville, VA, a thoroughly charming town which is home to the University of Virginia as well as quite a concentration of Presidential homes. I had arranged to spend the morning at the Miller Center, which was high on my list of places to get to because of their audiovisual resources (I'm always pointing readers to their Presidential Recordings Program), and also because in many ways the Miller Center is much like my home institution, the Rothermere American Institute. Like the Rothermere, it is an institute within a large University designed to bring scholars together working on a particular aspect, and hosts public events designed to promote a greater understanding of their particular subject area. Unlike the Vere Harmsworth Library though, the Miller Center library is small and not focused on building and maintaining comprehensive book collections; instead their real focus is on their digital collections, and making available their rich resources of oral history and Presidential recordings and speeches.

I was looked after by their librarian, Sheila Blackford, who welcomed me warmly and spent a good amount of time showing me their digital resources. I knew about the White House tapes, of course, and had a basic knowledge of some of the other areas of their collections, but seeing the extent of it was really useful, as well as the ways in which they are working to make this all publicly available via their website. They have just overhauled this, and have been changing the ways they present these resources. They have portal pages for each President which then link to the relevant collections, which for non-advanced users in particular looks very intuitive and helpful. It was also interesting to hear about how they work with the National Archives and Presidential Libraries to access their content and make it available alongside their own. I was also taken on a tour of the building, which is full of fabulous photographs of Presidents, and dropped in to learn more about their oral history project. The files for the George H.W. Bush oral histories are due to be released next month, with the exception of a few where the interviewee has specified they should remain closed.

After my library visit, I attended the Miller Center Forum that was taking place this morning, where former New York Times journalist Janny Scott was speaking about her book on Barack Obama's mother. It was a fascinating to hear about her unconventional life and the insights into it from people that knew her, including President Obama himself. I was invited to attend the lunch after the Forum where the discussion continued further. Ms Scott was an excellent and engaging speaker, and the topic was one I hadn't really considered much before, but was really interesting, especially given that Obama himself has been responsible for constructing his own identity when it comes to his family roots to a large extent. I also had the opportunity at lunch to talk with other members of the Miller Center staff, as well as a retired rare books librarian who worked for many years at UVa.

This afternoon I went down to the main campus of the University for a visit at the Small Special Collections Library, which has some of the most extensive and impressive manuscript collections for US history. Petrine Jackson gave me a tour of their lovely building and exhibitions, before spending time showing me a whole load of wonderful materials which she had selected and brought up for me to see. These included a 1616 letter describing Virginia in a positive light, sent back to England; Thomas Jefferson's own copy of his Notes on the State of Virginia, complete with marginalia and his annotations; a letter from James Madison; various documents relating to slavery; and the record of Virginia's vote to secede from the Union. It was a real treat to see these materials and to have such a knowledgeable guide to them in Petrina.

It's been a wonderful first day to my visits, and lovely to have such a warm welcome from everyone I've met here today. I only hope the rest of my trip can live up to the high standard today has set!