Tag: museum

Shelburne Vermont Preservation of Collections

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~ David Boucher, Shelburne Historical Society

Shelburne Vermont has had at least two groups of citizens interested enough in the towns history to gather collections and create a museum space and hold events. These individuals  however either passed away or were unable to continue. Large amounts of time and effort resulted in wonderful collections but with no centralized, permanent access, all their work was being dispersed and lost. The public does not know the importance of what they have in their possession.

In 2013, the 250th anniversary of the chartering of Shelburne saw the creation and focus of a large group of volunteers gathering written, oral and pictorial collections and presenting them during town celebrations. The resulting collections however were being moving around, with no centralized home due to renovations and new construction of the town offices and library. So at the end of the celebration, the initiative was taken to establish The Shelburne Historical Society, a legal non-profit.

At the completion of construction, the newly formed Society moved into the ‘old’ town clerk’s office complete with fireproof vault. The roving collections were moved in, think hoarders house, and every item was reviewed and put into topical folders. Collections management software systems were researched and a CatalogIt subscription purchased because it was very simple to understand and use, cloud based, and priced right for the budget.

Using money from a grant provided by the Lake Champlain Basin Program, archival shelving and storage materials were purchased, collection management education taken, procedures written for consistency, and then the topic folders one by one reviewed again, and recorded into the pictorial focused CatalogIt system.

The unique identifier assigned to each object during cataloging, provided a digital folder/file numbering system that allowed any data collected about that entry to be stored in a digital archive which is backed up weekly, monthly and annually in three different drives.

Having a collection is of little use unless there is easy public access and the CatalogIt HUB provides public access. However, it required access through a website platform, so a Google Space Website, free for qualifying non-profits, was created.

A monthly E-newsletter, utilizing the digital images and metadata being recorded, cutting/pasting was started to drive interest and build some ‘buzz’ about the new access to the town’s history.

Some of the gems we discovered during this process:

Color image of seven journals with a leather wrap and some with gold embossed labels. Diaries of Lucia E. Comstock 1865, 1870, 1874, 1876, 1877, 1879, 1891.
Diaries of Shelburne residents.
Black and white image of a two-story building with chimney and water tower behind on the left. An old-style gas pump is in front of the building and cars are parked to the left. A man walks out of the frame on the left. Shelburne cooperative Creamery Company - Parke Kent Collection.
10 years of Shelburne Cooperative Creamery Company business artifacts.
Color image of the front page of an old volume. "Shelburne Vt. July 1st 1917 Presented to the Shelburne Free Library by Felix A. Chauvin. In Memory of his Father Leander Joseph Chauvin born in Varennes P.I. Canada, Feb 19th 1826. Died at Shelburne Vt. April 4th 1914.
Leander Chavin, town cobbler, accounting ledger with records from 1850-1854 including customers, work done, charges, and payments made including barters.
Color image of an old volume open to a page that says, "Washington Band Book Shelburn [sic] Vt"
A hand inscribed music book circa 1812.
Image of a typed record that says, "Interview with Kitty Noonan 11/22/81 On the history of Shelburne Falls. Miss Quinlan Picked out photographs from an old photograph album we found in our attic. Following are the people she knew: Frederick A. Basford and Family had a wagon shop at the Falls i 1869. A.K. Moore who ran the Grist Mill at Shelburne Falls. He died around 1989 from an accident at the Grist Mill. The mill was down behind Barbara Kent's house. John Papineau lived in the Oak's House. Another family lived across the street (Henry Papineau. John was the father. Mrs. Papineau was a Sorrell. Her father lived to be 100 years old. View of the 1927 Flood. Back view of the Grist Mill at Shelburne Falls when both dams on the river were washed out. The people in the picture are Evert Laroque, Clayton Shortsleeves, Jr. and his wife Hazel. This is a view of the front of the Grist Mill. The stones from the Grist Mill were used to build the Vermont House at Shelburne Museum. Map of Shelburne Falls in 1900 drawn from an inset of the 1869 Shelburne map by Tom Tompkins, Cub Scout in the 1960's as a project on town history. He visited the neighbors in the Shelburne Falls from Mt. Philo Road to just over the Falls bridge. He also drew another map of the people living on the street in the 1960's. For 1900: Begining [sic] at the bridge and going East, the first house on the left is where Mrs. Sorrell lived. Then the..."
Oral and handwritten histories from town residents covering 1800’s to 1900’s.
Black and white image of a building on wheels being pulled by a rope down the middle of a street. People are stopped by the buildings on the left watching the site.
Images of building being relocated to the Shelburne Museum.

Best of all is the appreciation of Shelburne residents when they discover that someone is preserving the town’s history and providing a place for their donated collections. Gratitude that provides the incentive to continue the work.