History, Natural History & the Arts
If you walk into the Vermont Historical Society’s museum in Montpelier, you’ll a flag hanging from the wall behind the admission desk: the blue and green Green Mountain Boys flag.
It’s a flag that’s been wrapped up with a hefty dose of legend and mythology. [Read more…] about The Green Mountain Boys & The Evolution of Vermont’s State Flag
In his book Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of our National Identity (Pantheon, 2022), Donald Yacovone shows clear and damning evidence of white supremacy’s deep-seated roots in our nation’s educational system through a fascinating, in-depth examination of America’s wide assortment of texts, from primary readers to college textbooks, from popular histories to the most influential academic scholarship. [Read more…] about Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Ordeal and National Identity
Debates and protests over the toxic traits of capitalism are not uniquely modern phenomena. Eighteenth-century New Englanders were torn over what type of society they wanted to live in: a more traditional moral economy, or the increased wealth and comfort of the emerging market economy. For example, public debates over preserving the annual fish runs versus damming the rivers to power large mills were frequent. [Read more…] about Why We Should Blame New England’s Fish for Capitalism
In 1863 a young Black man, Loudon Langley, strode down Lincoln Hill in Hinesburgh, Vermont to join the Union Army in the Civil War. After the war he moved with his family to Beaufort, South Carolina where he became one of the founders of Radical Republicanism, which believed in the equality that had been promised to those who loyally fought for the Union. That belief made him a radical.
At first, there was much progress. However, the Reconstruction playbook eventually dashed the hopes of freed people. That playbook is still being used today to push false narratives about that time in our history. [Read more…] about Reconstruction: When Republicans Were Radical Progressives
Dr. Robert Goodby will lead a Zoom program that focuses on the Native American structures that were discovered in Keene, New Hampshire, in 2009, when an archaeological site survey was conducted prior to the construction of the Keene Middle School.
The remnants of buildings and artifacts found at this site date to the end of the Ice Age, about 12,000 years ago. These items provide valuable information about the area’s early inhabitants, including insights into Paleoindian gender roles, the organization of their households, and their social networks that stretched for hundreds of miles. [Read more…] about 12,000 Years Ago in the Granite State
The Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen and his brother Ira, controlled the area of disputed land grants. Based at a tavern in Bennington, they evaded arrest warrants from New York State and harassed settlers from New York, surveyors, and other officials, often with severe beatings and destruction of their belongings.
At a stand-off at the New York established court in March of 1775, two men were killed and Ethan Allen called for independence from New York. [Read more…] about Ethan Allen’s 285th Birthday Celebration Set For Saturday
At the end of December, President Joe Biden signed the FY23 omnibus spending bill that passed the Senate on December 22nd, 2022. Included in that spending package was $210,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending from Senator Bernie Sanders for the Vermont History Center in Barre, Vermont. [Read more…] about Vermont History Center Gets Major Grant
Jane Williamson has been researching and documenting the lives of Black Vermonters for more than a decade. Many of the Vermonters she studies were highly successful and integrated into their communities as church members, parents of schoolchildren, farmers, and homeowners. [Read more…] about African-Americans in Vermont, 1790-1870
The Vermont Historical Society and the League of Local Historical Societies & Museums (LLHSM) will host “Communicating About History,” a free virtual roundtable set for Thursday, January 26th. [Read more…] about Communicating About History: A Free Virtual Roundtable
Henry Stevens, Jr. (son of the elder Henry Stevens who founded the Vermont Historical Society) was an American antiquarian in the transatlantic book world in the 1840s. Among his accomplishments was the purchase of a small collection of association copies from George Washington’s library at Mount Vernon, which highlighted differences between British and American collecting habits and perspectives. [Read more…] about The Great Monopolist of Books: Henry Stevens Jr of Vermont