These awards are handed out annually by the society to recognize the exceptional work done by individuals and community heritage organizations across the state to collect, preserve, and share Vermont’s rich history, with particular emphasis upon innovation.
Former Rep. Louvenia Dorsey Bright served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1989 to 1994, representing South Burlington.
In 1950, President Harry Truman launched a campaign to sell US bonds to fund the rebuilding of our military after WWII. As part of the Treasury Department initiative tied to the bond drives, more than fifty Liberty Bell replicas were cast in France and distributed across the country – one for each state and territory.
The 1935 East Middlebury mystery
On 10 April 1963 the USS Thresher (SSN 593) was lost with all hands; two of those individuals were Vermont Submariners, James P. Ritchie, 22 from Burlington, VT and Edward A. Johnson, 34 from Hardwick, VT.
While Vermont is now well-known for its breweries, the state has a complicated history when it comes to alcohol. It boasted one of the longest prohibitionary periods, even before the arrival of Prohibition in 1919, and out of that environment came a Burlington company that became well known for its drinks throughout Vermont and New England: M. & F.C. Dorn Company.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote, “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” the definition of those words mattered. All 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence had to understand exactly what the document claimed, and agree with it, before they would sign their Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor to defend its cause.
This spring, VHS collections staff are focusing intensely on the items we’ve selected for the “50 for 250” project. One of these objects is a cane that was present at the famous St. Alban’s Raid, the northernmost Confederate action in the Civil War.
Considering Thomas Jefferson was an experienced lawyer, the Declaration of Independence reads more like poetry than a legal document. In what many believe is the greatest breakup letter of all time, Jefferson clearly explained, to the entire world, that the problem was not the colonists in America, the problem was the king.
The Vermont African American Heritage Trail was created by the Vermont Department of Tourism & Marketing. Explore museums, cultural sites, exhibits, films, and tours that illuminate African American history in Vermont.
Most believe the unusual name is derived from “tickeneket,” the Algonquin word for “place of little beavers.”
Later a distinguished Vermont attorney, in 1946 Nate Boone rode in the back of the bus to a segregrated training area for black Marine boots: Montford Point.
The Town of Manchester, Vermont, Municipal leaders were bewildered by what they read on the front page of the Wall Street Journal’s July 29, 1976, edition. It was unwelcome news. They were still contemplating the fate of the 412-acre, 24-room Georgian Revival ancestral home of Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926). A year had passed since Abraham Lincoln’s great-granddaughter, Mary (Peg) Lincoln Beckwith’s Hildene home became vacant after an illness took her life at a Rutland hospital.
A new book from J. Kevin Graffagnino, coming in February
Travelling exhibit utilizes unique “peer-education” to teach the lessons of the Holocaust
Among its dense forests and rocky ledges, local folklore speaks of a terrifying cryptid known as “The Black Beast of Snake Mountain,” which allegedly terrorized the region during the 1920s and 1930s.
As reported by CHNI and other news outlets, a drone video capturing a large, dark shape moving beneath a boat on Lake Champlain has landed filmmakers Richard Rossi and Kelly Tabor on an episode of William Shatner’s The UnXplained.
Vermont’s chilling record of winter women in white
Many non-biblical historians and objective, skeptical scholars insist that he was a historical figure.
Safeguarding liberties in a new nation
When the Civil War erupted, Willie’s father answered the call to defend his adopted country, enlisting in the 3rd Vermont Infantry in June 1861. The boy, desperate not to be separated from his father, begged to accompany him to war.
December 1, 1946, an 18-year-old college student named Paula Welden vanished while taking a hike on the Long Trail near Glastenbury Mountain. Welden had informed her roommate that she intended to go for a walk, but she never returned. The subsequent search involved hundreds of volunteers, including military personnel, but no concrete evidence was discovered.
Branded “SS” (stirrer of sedition) on his forehead, William Brewster’s ears were cut off and he was put in prison “until a convenient time.”
Three retired U.S. Marines now wearing VSP green honor the 250th birthday of the Corps today.
“The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down….”
So, Jimmy Carter did indeed set foot in the Green Mountains in 1976, but Republican incumbent Gerald Ford won Vermont with 54.34% of the vote. Carter garnered the remaining 43.14%.
While Edson’s military exploits drew national attention, his commitment to Vermont shaped the state far beyond his battlefield record.
A landscape of inspiration and dread
The school’s positive impact on the lives of their students and experiences in the larger Deaf community are important stories that will now be preserved for future generations of scholars – and members of the Deaf community wanting to learn more about their history.
“Tom was wild about Batman,” recalled former Herald colleague Bob Bennett of Shelburne. “Every day, when other reporters came to the office wearing ties, Tom wore a sweater with a Batman image on it — one his wife had knitted for him.”
From Emily’s Bridge in Stowe, where you might see an ethereal woman with vengeance in the middle of the night – to haunted castles that some claim demons linger, this state is mighty haunted.
It is called a castle, but it never was. Wealth built it, and filled it with the finest that the Old and New Worlds had to offer, but even the Robins’ fortune couldn’t satisfy “Doctor” Johnson’s unbridled ambitions.
n 1955, the Ticonderoga made its remarkable overland journey from Lake Champlain to Shelburne Museum, where it has remained “docked” in its grassy basin ever since. Today, the 220-foot landmark remains one of the most iconic and beloved structures on the museum’s campus.
Designated Vermont’s state terrestrial fossil in 2014, the mammoth continues to inspire research into the region’s Ice Age past.
On September 14, 1923, the Champlain Valley Fair finished its first season in its current location. Some may say it was never bigger than when in 2008 Sir Elton John graced its grandstand.
As America itself became the root cause of the attack on so many campuses, the symbol that soothed the heart of many after the bombings, the American flag, became a source of endless hate.
Vermonters have always been an innovative breed, and yet most of the Green Mountain State’s iconic manufacturers built their companies elsewhere. Henry Wells, co-founder of both American Express and Wells Fargo, left Thetford for New York, as did Elisha Graves Otis of Halifax, founder of Otis Elevator. John Deere left Rutland for Moline, Illinois. One Vermonter, however, managed to achieve iconic status without leaving his hometown of Manchester.
The seeds of Okemo were planted during the Great Depression, when State Forester Perry Merrill—often called the “father of Vermont skiing”—pushed to create recreational forests.
Dan Cohen remembers celebrating with an unlikely Vermont governor-to-be in 1972.
Springfield and Windsor, Vermont were considered key targets.
Vermont probably wouldn’t exist today if not for the Battle of Bennington.
Don Keelan will serve as master of ceremonies and Bill Budde, curator of the Russell Vermontiana Collection, will speak on the topic of Remember Baker’s place in history.
Close encounter over Lake Champlain
“Special interest groups certainly don’t have anything to do with the anniversary of the Revolutionary War battles fought by Vermont forefathers,” the petition claims.
Bishop Robert Joyce in the 1970s enjoyed a weekly “aperitif” at UVM fraternity house
The Lafayette Trail is an organization (Sponsored by the The William G. Pomeroy Foundation) that commemorates Lafayette’s grand tour. 2024 marked the 200th anniversary of his visit, and over the course of his return, he stopped by a number of locations in Vermont.
The forgotten potential fourteenth colony and its relation to the Fourteenth Star
For the Vermont place called Satans Kingdom, the devil lays only in the details.
The July 9, 1888 incorporation of Congregation Benai Israel in Poultney
The British and Hessian troops met unexpectedly stiff resistance from the Green Mountain Boys.
“Sylvia Drake and Charity Bryant lived together in Weybridge from 1807 until Charity’s death in 1851 as one of the most well-documented same-sex couples in early America,” according to a Middlebury College website.
Former Burlington school superintendent was one of Iran’s U.S. hostages in 1979
The real history of U.S. Immigration Enforcement
June 17 is the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill. Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes!
There have been so many more “firsts” during my lifetime, and undoubtedly there will be many more to come. Will the Town of Arlington ever develop a wastewater system that can replace the failing septic systems that now exist? What a “first” this would be.
Albert Sponheimer, of East Rygate, was there that day, and was awarded the Silver Star for his heroic work as a medic…. He saved countless lives while exposing himself to heavy enemy fire on the shores of Omaha Beach.
Dr. Oscar S. Peterson Jr. believed that nuclear radiation played an important role in the future, in its capacity to extend the lives of his patients, as well as its ability to cause irreparable harm. His work specializing in radiation therapy at the University of Vermont led to an invitation to serve as Vermont’s Radiological Consultant to the Civil Defense Division of the Vermont Department of Public Safety.
Being one of the earliest forms of taxation, it is not surprising that tariffs produced one of the earliest forms of tax evasion: smuggling.
How Russia weaponized America’s hacking tools to burn down the internet, and how Vermont lays vulnerable
Someone’s grandparents always seem to remember one, and sometimes you can still find the scruffs and scrapes of shoes and boots on the floors. But where’d those hoedowns go? What were they like? And what did they do for small, rural communities?
An elegant piece of Vermont history made a public appearance Thursday evening, April 24 for the 70th birthday party of Sen. Alison Clarkson of Windsor County.
The 80th anniversary of two significant events, this Spring.
Multiple private donors, including Marilyn Blackwell and George Burrill, stepped forward with generous contributions to underwrite the program through October.
The 45-minute video follows the Bills brothers and their co-owner niece, Debbie (Bills) Bauer, during the last days of their sawmill, founded in 1936 by their intrepid father, Melbourne Bills.
“Ethan Allen in Castleton” is a 250th anniversary event that is set to begin with a 6 PM patriotic parade in the village of Castleton on Friday, May 9.
The life and afterlife of Stowe’s tap-dancing ghost
Vermont Historical Society announces Vermont History Day, April 5
Despite the fact that women would not win the right to vote until she was 19, Bailey pursued and succeeded in a career in law and politics.
1,600 miles as a prisoner of war and escapee across a collapsing Confederacy
I know some will say times are different, the challenges are greater. But is it just that we are different?
There is no worse policy for the taxpayer and consumer than to have politicians and bureaucrats choosing winners and losers in the economy.
Admiral Byrd’s Dog Team Model: now on display at the Vermont History Museum
Booker T. Washington believed in the ability of blacks to succeed by their own merits, despite the obstacles they faced.
Closed borders racist? Not according to our nation’s greatest civil rights leaders.
The senator’s travel and campaign materials are the first wave of his vast collection to be available for public research
“Without him, your picture of the history of Vermont is massively incomplete,” said J. Kevin Graffagnino, author of “Ira Allen: A Biography.”
Not until the close of the 20th century did a black woman sit in the Vermont Legislature.
Providing context for the now-maligned name, and it’s co-option by those who oppose its true meaning.
Flying explorer Amelia Earhart had many important personal connections to Vermont. Here’s one more….
Bennington Battle Monument is saturated with water and in urgent need of $40 million restoration.
As integral figures in Western Abenaki traditional beliefs, they represent one of the ways the Abenaki have wisdom for the modern day.
Vermont has many young men and women who, in every way, will emulate Jimmy Fisher’s kindness, dedication, and sacrifice.
Three dozen corporations now exert overwhelming control over agricultural input manufacturing and food distribution. ‘Twas not always so.
A reflection on our age of carbon indulgences
Radio station owner and history-making car enthusiast…..sounds a little like Ken Squier.
Thus, was the strange winter of the Vietnam War, D3 Norwich playing DI UVM, and a great 3-pt gunner whose long-distance baskets only counted for 2.
Vermont’s cryptid with particularly slanted views
If a marsh rabbit can care about politics, the one in this story was surely a Republican.
Vermont’s coldest day: December 30, 1933
How the Protestant Reformation influenced the rise of Socialism
Understanding the history of the U.S. and World Trade
The life and times of Joshua Young, the deaf abolitionist minister of Vermont
The place where the great marine explorer first learned to work underwater is not where you’d expect.
Our Brave Little State knew the war was coming.
Several weeks after the battle of Gettysburg on July 1st of 1863, in which more than 7,500 Americans died and scores more were wounded, Abraham Lincoln set forth a Thanksgiving Day proclamation.
Miller’s reputation was still lingering in the halls of U-32 as students and teachers who knew his work spoke admiringly of him for years to follow.
“(The spirits) always let you know they’re here in some way,” Probst said. “Not one group that’s left has said it was a very quiet night.”
He and his fellow platoon members spent long weeks during the rainy season trying to interdict enemy troops throughout the Mekong Delta, conducting sweeps during the day and night.
Two UVM grad students are disputing the widely held notion that Vermont during the early 20th century targeted native Americans with a eugenics-related sterilization policy.
One of the most colorful “doctors” of that era was “Sleeping Lucy” Cooke, a trance medium who made medical diagnoses and set broken limbs while in a hypnotic state from which she claimed to remember nothing.
