The Vermont Historical Society (VHS) has announced it’s annual League of Local Historical Societies & Museums (LLHSM) Achievement Awards, recognizing the outstanding efforts of individuals and community heritage organizations throughout the state that collect, preserve, and share Vermont‘s rich history.
This year, VHS presented six awards at its annual LLHSM Conference in Manchester, VT on October 29th: four Awards of Excellence, two Awards of Merit, and one Individual Achievement Award.
The Award of Excellence recognizes superlative impact and innovation for projects undertaken or completed by an organization during the past year (July 1st, 2021, through June 30th, 2022). An Award of Merit recognizes meritorious achievement within the context of available resources and professional abilities. Individual Achievement awards honor a person’s work and commitment to local history over an extended period.
This year’s winners are exceptional in advancing local history and adding nuance and depth to the tapestry of Vermont’s story.
Award of Excellence
Danville Historical Society
Book: West Danville Vermont, Then and Now, 1781-2021
The book West Danville, Vermont: Then and Now, 1781–2021 is a comprehensive history of the area surrounding West Danville and Joe’s Pond. Arranged in chronological order within separate chapters that cover the history of the area from when Jesse Leavenworth established the first mills at Joe’s Pond to the present-day recreational trail built on the old railroad bed. The authors cover nearly every aspect of daily life (e.g., the weather and mail service, schools and the church, employment and recreation) and describe how the inhabitants of the region overcame hardships and built a thriving community.
The book has nearly 400 pages of well-researched and footnoted information gathered from town documents, newspapers, internet sources, personal diaries, and interviews. There are over 300 images, many that have never been published before. The book is visually appealing, easy to understand, and covers a wide range of topics, making it an excellent text for anyone interested in knowing more about the community’s collective history. It is a high-quality publication completed by an all-volunteer organization, showing the potential of what local historical research and writing can be.
Landgrove Historical Society
Video: The Story of Monk and Lester
The Landgrove Historical Society wanted to creatively expand on its program of collecting oral histories. It was fortunate to receive a large number of documents and photographs from Duncan (Monk) Ogden that told the story of his upbringing on Stony Hill Farm, one of the few farms left in Landgrove, in the middle of the twentieth century. The Society convinced Monk, now nearly ninety, to take part in a film to create an oral and visual record of not one, but two individuals whose shared lives offer a window into everyday life in Landgrove during that era. The Society was able to work with a young filmmaker from the community, MacPherson Christopher, to create a portrait of Landgrove through Monk’s story of life with Lester Cody, a man so closely identified with the town that “He was the town of Landgrove.”
The film premiered at the Society accompanied by an extensive photographic display showing Lester as a dairy farmer, hunter, fisherman, logger, and sugarer. This new approach to recording the town’s history has the advantage of linking past and present through personal accounts and remembrance. The film is poignant, well-crafted, and accessible. It serves as a top example of how local historical societies could potentially share the stories of their people and their places.
Monk & Lester can be viewed here.
Manchester Historical Society with special recognition to Shawn Harrington
Manchester TravelStorys App
For many years, the Manchester Historical Society, through the work of curator Shawn Harrington, has expanded the outreach and presence of the society through the use of social media and online collections. To date, this has included digitizing over 15,000 photos showcasing the variety of stories within Manchester’s history. Building on this work, Shawn recently supplied the text, the narration, and over 100 photos and captions to build a TravelStorys app, a free walking tour of Manchester that is available on cellphones and online.
The tour includes many interesting places in Manchester’s three main neighborhoods: Manchester Village, Manchester Center, and Manchester Depot. The TravelStorys app provides history “on-the-go” for visitors, as well as highlights special locations accessible to anyone online. The use of images, oral narration, & GPS technology offers a promising new direction for traditional history tours about town.
The app and details can be found here.
Award of Merit
Colchester Historical Society
Self-Guided Historical Driving Tour
Inspired by the COVID-19 health pandemic and the inability to hold in-person programs and meetings for more than a year, the Self-Guided Historical Driving Tour provides people with an opportunity to get out and about in a fun and safe way to explore and learn about many of Colchester’s historical sites. The great advantage for participants is that the tour can be done on their own time, at their own pace, and without any fees.
The tour includes over 40 local historical sites and, for ease of use, is divided into four broad geographical areas: Colchester village area, Mallett’s Bay area, Fort Ethan Allen area, and Airport Park area. There is an additional section that includes six of Colchester’s local cemeteries. For each location, the physical address is included, and in some instances a map has been provided. The driving tour offers an example for local historical societies who may be geographically expansive and cannot create a more traditional walking tour, as well as a commendable example of how a small organization responded creatively to pandemic limitations.
Details about the driving tour can be found here.
Remember Arlington
Play: The Capture and Rescue of Remember Baker
On March 22nd, 1772, a posse of Yorkers under Justice John Munro attacked Green Mountain Boys Captain Remember Baker in his home while attempting to collect the New York bounty on him. In the ensuing scuffle, Baker’s thumb was severed by a Yorker sword, while Baker’s wife and son also sustaining injuries. As part of the 250th anniversary of the event, a group of dedicated volunteers created an original live theatrical production. Based on historical accounts, the idea was to tell the story of Remember Baker as well as help to explain the historical context of continuing land disputes between the New Hampshire Grants and New York in a way that engaged the audience and made them a part of the action.
In addition to the play, the over 100 attendees were able to interact with reenactors as well as local history organizations. The event showcases a creative approach to telling more traditional history narratives, as well as an example to other organizations on potential activities related to the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States.
Individual Achievement
Bruce Yelton
East Middlebury Historical Society
Bruce Yelton’s arrival at a meeting of the East Middlebury Historical Society immediately moved the organization into the digital era. One of his first projects was to set up a website for the Society. Working with another new arrival, both the website and the digital files are now extensive- including a listing of all the paper files the Society has available. His expertise greatly expanded programming, with Yelton assisting speakers with tech, and sharing his own studies of Carlton’s Raid on Middlebury, General Crook, and petroglyphs and pictographs.
Yelton’s activities extend beyond the computer. He assembled an East Middlebury Walking Tour brochure and then expanded it into a booklet in 2021. He assembled photos/postcards for an exhibit titled “Then and Now.” He arranged excursions and at the East Middlebury Community Picnic in June, he set up an historical themed scavenger hunt for the children. The last functioning ironworks in Vermont was situated in East Middlebury.
Currently Yelton is negotiating the hurdles of erecting a historic marker at the site. The contributions Bruce Yelton has made to the East Middlebury Historical Society have allowed them to spread information about their community and take pride in their accomplishments.
For more information, visit the Vermont Historical Society website.
Leave a Reply