Center for Research on Vermont - Calendar of Events

The Center for Research on Vermont and the Fleming Museum present an exhibition:

"Art/Document: Defining American Photography "
January 18 – April 24, 2005
Wolcott Gallery, Fleming Museum, UVM
Curated by Evelyn C. Hankins

For more information, please call the museum at 802-656-0750.

In the Spring of 2005, the Robert Hull Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont is presenting Art/Document: Defining American Photography, an exhibition that will introduce the Museum’s audiences to a pivotal moment in the history of photography.

In the first decade of the 20th century, photography remained a strongly debated medium, despite the passage of more than sixty years since the perfection of photographic printing methods. The Photo-Secessionists, an influential group of American photographers led by Alfred Stieglitz, championed the notion that photography was a fine art capable of transcending the camera’s mechanical character in order to convey artistic expression. By contrast, documentary photographers, most notably Lewis Hine, countered that the camera was uniquely capable of providing a truthful, even scientific, account of contemporary events. This exhibition, drawn from the Fleming’s collection, offers a glimpse of this active debate over photography’s role. The exhibition will juxtapose important works by Photo-Secessionists such as Gertrude Käsebier, Eduard Steichen, and Paul Strand with examples of Lewis Hine’s groundbreaking documentation of the plight of child laborers in Vermont. The Lewis Hine photographs are an exceptionally popular group of images that offer an unprecedented view onto Vermont’s textile mills at the turn of the 20th century.

The Center for Research on Vermont presents Research-In-Progress Seminar #185:
"A View from Down Under: A Progress Report on the
Underwater Archaeological Status of Lake Champlain" by Arthur Cohn, Executive Director
Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

Monday, January 31, 2005, at 7:30 p.m.
Memorial Lounge, Waterman Building
University of Vermont

Lake Champlain is one of the most historic bodies of water in North America. It has been utilized for thousands of years for the transportation of people, and in the last four centuries, for military operations, commerce, and recreation. Its 120 miles of navigable waterway in a north/south orientation gave rise to its strategic and commercial significance. Naval squadrons dating from the colonial period, the American War for Independence, and the War of 1812, helped forge North America and the nation. As the lake’s military importance waned, its value as a commercial highway expanded. The lake saw early commercial sloops and schooners, some of the first successful steamboats to operate in the world, and after the completion of the Champlain Canal in 1823, an explosive increase in maritime activity that continued well into the twentieth century. Today the lake represents one of the most important cultural and natural resources in the region.

We now know that this extraordinary, layered history has left behind one of the most important collections of underwater cultural heritage in North America. Over the past three decades, the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s research team has located and documented literally dozens of new shipwrecks. In 1996 this research team began the first systematic examination of the entire bottom of Lake Champlain in order to locate shipwrecks and begin their documentation before the zebra mussel infestation made this difficult, if not impossible. In the past nine years the research team has located 78 new shipwrecks to add to the more than 200 already known to exist. This lecture will provide a summary of what we have learned about Lake Champlain’s underwater archaeological collection and how this legacy can be preserved, shared, and managed for future generations.

Arthur B. Cohn is Executive Director of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum at Basin Harbor, Vt., and Director of its Maritime Research Institute. A professional diver and nautical archaeologist, he is also on the adjunct faculty of the University of Vermont and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University. He has served as coordinator of the State of Vermont’s Underwater Historic Preserve Program since 1985.

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ADA: Individuals requiring accommodations should contact Sally Knight at the University of Vermont at 802-656-3166 no later than 1/26/05.

Letters of Intent are due:
Wednesday, February 2, 2005
for the
2005 Bryan and Nuquist Awards
Deadline: Tuesday, March 1, 2005

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Consuelo Northrop Bailey’s inauguration as the nation’s first female elected lieutenant governor. Over Bailey’s long career, she amassed many notable “firsts,” opening doors for women such as Madeleine Kunin, who would go on to hold public office in Vermont, the nation, and internationally. Bailey was also the first woman Speaker of the House, the first woman to try a murder case in the state, and the first Vermont woman to be admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trailblazing as they are, Bailey’s accomplishments are firmly grounded in a long legacy of Vermont women’s significant contributions to politics. Vermont has sent more women to its state legislature than any other state in the nation, save New Hampshire. Women have assumed leadership roles in Vermont’s Republican, Democratic, and Progressive parties. When Madeleine Kunin was elected as governor in 1984, she was only the fourth woman in the United States to hold this office and the first to serve three consecutive terms.

Sylvia Bugbee and Selene Colburn will speak about the life and work of Consuelo Northrop Bailey and the story of Vermont women in politics as documented in archival collections at the University of Vermont (UVM) and repositories around the state. Bugbee is Assistant Archivist at UVM’s Special Collections and the editor of An Officer and a Lady: The World War II Letters of Lt. Col. Betty Bandel, Women’s Army Corps. Selene Colburn is Assistant to the Dean of Libraries for Outreach, Development, and Planning and recently authored a grant proposal to preserve and make accessible materials documenting Vermont women’s political contributions. Both have worked extensively as processing archivists with the Consuelo Northrop Bailey Papers.

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ADA: Individuals requiring accommodations should contact Sally Knight at the University of Vermont at 802-656-3166 no later than 2/01/05.

The Center for Research on Vermont presents Research-In-Progress Seminar #187:

Understanding climate variability is one of the tasks facing climatologists in their quest to identify patterns and trends in the weather and climate around us. Long-term climate records are essential to this task and are becoming available as part of the Climate Database Modernization Program (CDMP), sponsored by the National Climatic Data Center.

Burlington and Lunenburg(h), Vt., were the first stations to be researched with records dating back to the early 1800s. Dr. Hiram A. Cutting, the Lunenburg(h) observer, was an avid natural historian, who along with Zadock Thompson, left a legacy of manuscripts on Vermont’s climate. Weather data and the environmental conditions under which they were made (i.e., the station history) can also be extracted from diaries, journals, and other publications. These range from the Robinson family diaries at the Rokeby Museum, to the Bushnell, Dutton and Mead families’ diaries housed in Bailey/Howe Library’s Special Collections Department at the University of Vermont. From historical societies around the state have come photographs of historic events and daily weather from towns where no records are kept today. This presentation will highlight the many fascinating discoveries made during visits to various museums, societies, and the Burlington International Airport as we continue to build the historical climate database for Vermont.

Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux is Associate Professor in the Geography Department at the University of Vermont and the Vermont State Climatologist. Her research interests are on quantifying historical climate variability, including the conditions under which observations were made. Complementary interests are in using geospatial techniques to examine natural hazards and severe weather, especially droughts and floods.

ADA: Individuals requiring accommodations should contact Sally Knight at the University of Vermont at 802-656-3166 no later than 2/21/05.

The Center for Research on Vermont presents Research-In-Progress Seminar #188:

When the 9th Vermont Regiment marched down Broadway in New York City in July 1862, the local press proclaimed it as the first regiment to answer President Lincoln’s call for 300,000 volunteers. It was an auspicious beginning. Two months later the Vermonters found themselves part of the Union garrison surrendered at Harpers Ferry. During the remaining three and a half years of their service, the regiment constantly worked towards the removal of that blemish on their record.

From the routine of guarding Confederate prisoners incarcerated at Camp Douglas, Ill., to the piney woods of coastal North Carolina and finally to the gates of Richmond, the 9th Vermont earned the reputation of being well-disciplined and steadfast under fire. The men displayed these characteristics at the 1863 Siege of Suffolk, the sharp engagement at Newport Barracks, N.C., the gallant charge at Chaffin’s Bluff outside Richmond, and the 1864 fight at Fair Oaks. Members of the unit marched among the first troops that entered the Confederate capital of Richmond.

Though the 9th Vermont did not belong to the renowned “Old Vermont Brigade” or the 2nd Vermont Brigade made famous by its role in blunting Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, the regiment still has a noteworthy history.

In this presentation, Don Wickman will describe the experience of writing the history of the regiment, intermixed with portions of the 9th Vermont story. He will explain why this history is not limited to the tale of one unit but rather encompasses those of the 1,878 men who served in its ranks and experienced the soldier’s life as the 9th Vermont became one of the most traveled federal infantry regiments.

Don Wickman is a Vermont historian and author. He is the editor and compiler of the two-volume Letters to Vermont: From Her Civil War Soldier Correspondents to the Home Press and has written a large number of historical features for the Rutland Herald. He is recognized as the regional authority on the American Revolution site of Mount Independence in Orwell, Vt., and currently serves as the historical consultant for the Vermont Civil War Preservation Project.

ADA: Individuals requiring accommodations should contact Sally Knight at the University of Vermont at 802-656-3166 no later than 3/10/05.

The Center for Research on Vermont presents Research-In-Progress Seminar #189:
"After the Cow:
Dairy Processing in Chittenden County"
by Jerry Fox
Research Historian

Thursday, April 14, 2005, at 7:30 p.m.
Memorial Lounge, Waterman Building
University of Vermont

Vermont began its transition to being a dairy state in the 1840s and has remained one ever since. However, dairying is a very labor-intensive type of farming, and as semi-self-sufficient farmers adjusted to the demands of dairy husbandry, an extensive infrastructure developed to support them. Eventually this infrastructure included the Vermont Department of Agriculture; cattle breeding associations; veterinarians; seed, feed, and grain merchants; cattle dealers; slaughterhouses; and agricultural equipment salesmen, none of which have received adequate historical attention. This research is an attempt to survey the development of another segment of that infrastructure, the Vermont dairy processing industry—cheese factories, butter factories, milk receiving stations, and creameries.

During some years as many as 250 individual dairy processing plants of various types were in operation within the state. Many firms, however, were short lived. Over the years they often changed owners, names, locations, and/or product lines. In order to get a better perspective on the trends within the industry, dairy processing plants serving Chittenden County between 1866 and 1960 are highlighted.

Jerry Fox is the principle researcher with Vermont Historysmyth and is an adjunct archivist in the University of Vermont Libraries Department of Special Collections. He is actively engaged in several aspects of local history, and is a past president of the Chittenden County Historical Society (CCHS), the Essex Community Historical Society, and the Champlain Valley Railroad Club. He is currently the CCHS membership chair and secretary of the Central Vermont Railway Historical Society.

ADA: Individuals requiring accommodations should contact Sally Knight at the University of Vermont at 802-656-3166 no later than 4/07/05.

Cosponsored Event:
15th Annual
UVM Sugar-on-Snow Party
Tuesday, April 19, 2005, 11:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Bailey/Howe Library Portico, UVM

The UVM Sugar-on-Snow Party flier is published in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) which requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. The image below links to Adobe.com where this can be downloaded for free. Otherwise, click the UVM Sugar-on-Snow Party link to launch Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the details.

The Center for Research on Vermont presents its Annual Meeting Presentation:

"Reflections: A Vermonter Looks Back"
Jeffrey Amestoy
Former Chief Justice, Vermont Supreme Court

Thursday, May 5, 2005, 7:30 p.m.
Memorial Lounge, Waterman Building, UVM

Jeffrey Amestoy is a Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. A graduate of the Kennedy School, Mr. Amestoy served as Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court from 1997 to 2004, following his nomination to that position by Gov. Howard Dean. Mr. Amestoy was Attorney General of Vermont from 1985 to 1997. He was reelected six times and in five elections was the nominee of both the Republican and Democratic parties. He served as Vermont's Commissioner of Labor and Industry from 1982 to 1984, and was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Vermont from 1977 to 1981, where his responsibilities included white-collar crime prosecution and representing the state before the Vermont Supreme Court.

Mr. Amestoy has held positions of leadership in the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) where he served on CCJ's Board of Directors and chaired its Government Affairs Committee and its Best Practices Institute; and in the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) where he chaired NAAG's State Constitutional Law Project, Environmental Committee, and Executive Committee. He was president of NAAG in 1992-1993.

Mr. Amestoy received a bachelor's degree from Hobart College in 1968, a law degree from Hastings College of Law, University of California, in 1972, and a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School in 1982. He holds honorary degrees from Norwich University and Vermont Law School.

The talk is free and open to the public. For information, please call the Center for Research on Vermont at 802-656-4389.

ADA: Individuals requiring accommodations should contact Sally Knight at the University of Vermont at 802/656-3166 no later than 04/29/05.

Seminar Series / Presentations / Events

Spring 2005