Vermont

‘Vermont for the Vermonters’: A History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State

October 1, 2023 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

“Vermont for the Vermonters”: A History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State (Vermont Historical Society, 2023), written by Mercedes de Guardiola, is a new examination of one of Vermont‘s darker chapters, and sheds new light on the factors that helped bring it about.

Eugenics is a pseudo- scientific field of selective human breeding that rose to prominence in the early 1900s and was the foundation of Nazi Germany. [Read more…] about ‘Vermont for the Vermonters’: A History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State

Lake Champlain Maritime Museum Acquires Historical Paintings by Ernest Haas

September 17, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Historical painter Ernest Haas has donated a collection of his original artworks, prints, and materials to the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes, Vermont. Haas has been a longtime supporter of the museum, which already holds a few of his works.

This donation brings the total number of Haas’ original paintings held by the museum to 29. [Read more…] about Lake Champlain Maritime Museum Acquires Historical Paintings by Ernest Haas

Northern New York Landscape Artist Daniel Folger Bigelow

September 17, 2023 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

Daniel Folger Bigelow, the nationally known landscape painter, was born on a farm in Peru, Clinton County, NY, on July 20 1823. As a child, Daniel stood on a chair and studied a wall painting. Between farm chores, he would sit on a fence and look across Lake Champlain, watching the magnificent change of colors on Mount Mansfield.

His pencil sketches pleased his parents, but they did not take his talent seriously, believing it was an impractical way to make a living. [Read more…] about Northern New York Landscape Artist Daniel Folger Bigelow

Jehudi Ashmun: A Founder & Historian of Liberia

September 14, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Born and raised in the town of Champlain, Clinton County, NY, Jehudi Ashmun (1794 – 1828) was a religious leader and social reformer who helped lead efforts by the American Colonization Society to “repatriate” African Americans to a colony in West Africa.

The organization, formed in 1816 by Quakers and slaveholders, founded the colony of Liberia as a place to resettle free people of color from the United States, believing in part that Black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States. [Read more…] about Jehudi Ashmun: A Founder & Historian of Liberia

Brooklyn Royal Colored Giants Baseball in Northern New York

August 11, 2023 by Maury Thompson 1 Comment

“A cloudburst of the harshest kind ever known in local baseball history,” hit Port Henry on Lake Champlain, June 14, 1923. It was not the kind of cloudburst of rain which disrupts a ballgame and sends fans scrambling, but a cloudburst of talent that finds local fans cheering for the visiting team.

The Brooklyn Royal Colored Giants professional baseball team defeated the Port Henry semi-professional team, comprised primarily of local players, 20-1 in a game the home team was not expected to win. Sourian, the Giants pitcher, had 19 strikeouts. [Read more…] about Brooklyn Royal Colored Giants Baseball in Northern New York

Vermont Historical Society Launches 2023 Flood Archive

August 11, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

When it became apparent that the early July 2023 flooding that took place in Vermont was going to rival other floods that loom large in the state’s collective memory, the Vermont Historical Society decided to establish a new digital archive to collect images and other ephemera. [Read more…] about Vermont Historical Society Launches 2023 Flood Archive

Wake of the Flood: A Lake Champlain Report

July 28, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

It has been two weeks since flooding devastated many communities in the Lake Champlain watershed and throughout the states of New York and Vermont. The heavy rains lasted for days and sent rivers and streams over their banks, pouring into homes and businesses and carrying a swill of debris, nutrients, sediment, untreated wastewater, chemicals, and more into Lake Champlain.

If you live in an area not directly affected it may be hard to understand the monumental impact. [Read more…] about Wake of the Flood: A Lake Champlain Report

Crown Point Road: Opening Northern New England & Lake Champlain

July 17, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

After the fall of the forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point during the French and Indian War in the fall of 1759, General Jeffrey Amherst ordered the building of the Crown Point Road.

The road was to run across what is now Vermont between Crown Point and The Fort at No. 4 on the Connecticut River in what is now Charlestown, New Hampshire. [Read more…] about Crown Point Road: Opening Northern New England & Lake Champlain

July 7, 1777: The Battle of Hubbardton in Vermont

July 7, 2023 by Editorial Staff 4 Comments

July 7th marks the anniversary of the 1777 Battle of Hubbardton, in Vermont. The battle was one of the only engagements in what’s now the state of Vermont during the American Revolutionary War, although the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775 and the Battle of Valcour Island in 1776 did spill over into Vermont as well.

Like the Battle of Bennington, it holds a particularly outsized role in the conflict itself owing to it having taken place in the lead-up to the Battles of Saratoga. [Read more…] about July 7, 1777: The Battle of Hubbardton in Vermont

The Battle of Bennington on August 16 1777

June 2, 2023 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

This week on The Historians Podcast, Phyllis Chapman of Friends of the Bennington Battlefield State Historic Site discusses the Battle of Bennington, fought about ten miles from Bennington, Vermont, in the hamlet of Walloomasc, in the Town of Hoosick, Rensselaer County, NY, on August 16 1777. [Read more…] about The Battle of Bennington on August 16 1777