National Life Group Contributes to Saving Vermont's Treasures
Dateline: March 21, 2011
Barre, Vt.– Have you ever seen a child’s cape made from milkweed? Did you ever wonder how Vermont main streets appeared from horse and buggy? Do you know what the Sky Route to the Quarries was? These images, artifacts, and more will be on exhibit at the Vermont History Center in Barre in the near future thanks to the Vermont Historical Society’s Saving Vermont’s Treasures capital campaign.
The National Life Group Charitable Foundation recently contributed $40,000 to this campaign. “This major gift will help open the doors to the many treasures in the Vermont Historical Society collections,” noted Mark Hudson, the executive director of the Vermont Historical Society. “By creating three new exhibition galleries; restoring the signature bell tower at the historic Vermont History Center in Barre; and developing more history programs, the Vermont Historical Society will grow as the state’s premier resource for experiencing Vermont’s rich heritage.” These new exhibits in Barre will augment the Vermont History Museum’s permanent exhibit, Freedom and Unity, located in the Vermont History Museum, in Montpelier, next to the State House.
Initial exhibits planned at the Vermont History Center in Barre will be:
Service and Sacrifice: Vermont’s Civil War Generation—in commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War, the spectacular photographs of George Houghton and the famed 150-ft. long Civil War panorama by Charles Andrus will be on exhibition. This exhibit is supported in part by the Vermont Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Emergence of the Granite City: Barre 1890 to 1940—with objects from the Vermont Historical Society’s collections and items from other local collections, this exhibit will explore Barre’s development from a small town to a diverse city, with a particular focus on the extraordinary changes that occurred as a result of immigration and industrialization in the last 19th and early 20th centuries.
Icons, Oddities, and Wonders: Stories from Vermont Historical Society Collections—this exhibit will feature a distinguished selection of artifacts that reveal and represent the best, the worst, the weirdest, and sometimes the most wonderful stories of Vermont’s history.
“To accomplish this, the Vermont Historical Society needs to raise a total of $900,000.” Hudson stated.” And with donations from individuals, businesses, foundations and other organizations, we have only $75,000 remaining to be raised.”
The Vermont Historical Society would also like to acknowledge grants from the Vermont Division of Historic Preservation, the Vermont Humanities Council, and the Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior, the National Endowment for the Humanities, or the Vermont Humanities Council. The Vermont Historical Society does not discriminate against any person in regard to their race, color, sexual orientation, national origin, disabilities, religion, age, or sex.
If you’d like more information on the campaign, please contact Amy Sholk at (802) 479-8525 or check the web at www.vermonthistory.org/capital.
