Leland Melvin helps launch new Web site

A distinctly Virginia collection of historical artifacts is getting a global audience.

And Leland Melvin, a Lynchburg native turned astronaut, helped with the launch.

The Virginia Historical Society on Friday opened a Web-based educational program aimed at increasing access to its trove of African-American items. “Linking to Our Past: Documenting the African American Experience in Virginia” is designed as a research tool for educators and students.

“It gives us the opportunity to show some of our collection to the larger public,” said Lauranett Lee, the society’s curator of African-American items.

Melvin, who was on the February space shuttle Atlantis mission, was the featured speaker during Friday’s program. While his presentation was centered around a 17-minute movie of his mission in space, he tied everything in his life — from dropping a pass at his high school homecoming football game to shooting pictures in space — to the importance of education.

“Everyone’s an educator, everyone has something they can pass on to a child,” he said.

The society’s input, he said, was perspective.

“You don’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been,” he said.

The site includes a dozen items. For each, users can access an image of the original document, a translation if necessary — mid-19th century handwriting can be tough on the eyes — and sections to explain context, significance, ways the items can be incorporated into lessons, suggestions for further reading and how the item relates to the state’s Standards of Learning objectives.

“I hope it will broaden everyone’s horizons,” said Carolyn Lambert, head of the Richmond chapter of the Links Foundation, an international service group for women that helped fund the project. “African-Americans have a story that hasn’t really been told.”

William B. Obrochta, the society’s director of education, said he was eager to share a favorite approach to learning.

“By looking at individuals, we learn history in a new way,” he said. “We learn from the ground up.”

Currently, less than 1 percent of the historical society collection is on display. Most of the items in the research collection will never be displayed, either because they’re too fragile, they are not the types of items that make good museum displays and there’s simply not enough room.

“We’d need another wing,” Lee said of the room it would take show off everything.

For now, they’re sticking with the limitless possibilities online.

“It’s an engaging way to learn history,” she said.