This was my first view of the Shelburne Museum, a few miles south of Burlington, Vermont.

It occupies 45 acres of a former farm, and was founded about the end of 1946 by Electra Havemeyer Webb, a pioneering collector of American folk art, with the aim of preserving examples of Vermont vernacular buildings and displaying her collections.

She was married to William Webb, whose mother was a Vanderbilt, and her own father had a fortune from sugar and collected Impressionists and other European and Asian art.

This photo is from wikipedia and you can find out more about her here.

This was the only building on the site when she started, the old brick farmhouse and a long wooden building (which extends far to the left of this photo). Now they house a textile and craft collection, some modern, some old and some made specifically for Electra by friends.

There is so much on the site that I spent about six and a half hours there over two days. I will only be able to include photos of a very small percentage of what I saw. I would return if I was ever in the area again, as I must have missed a great deal.

The first building near the entrance is this red barn built in 1901 in East Passumpsic, Vermont, and moved to the museum in 1985. It was a model of efficiency. Hay and silage dropped from the top floor to the middle one where up to 60 cows lived, and their manure was removed from the bottom floor. Note it is built into a slope.

Nowadays it houses part of the museum’s collection of horse powered vehicles.

The vehicle on the right is a surry with a fringe on top!

Next was this 550 ft long U-shaped purpose built building, and a working carousel on the right.

I could have spent hours here as it houses a 1:12 scale model of a circus procession, that would be two miles long if real size, together with Electra’s collection of restored carousel animals.

The initial view as you enter. The circus runs round the left and the carousel animals are on the right.

Roy Arnold (of St Johnsbury) spent 25 years between 1925 and 1955 carving the procession with the aid of 5 assistants. They used old photographs. Such processions could manage 10 miles a day between stops.

There are tableaux of childrens’ stories, such as this “Old Woman who lived in a shoe”.

Many groups of horsemen from around the world like this set of English Hussars.

Animals, birds and reptiles from everywhere under the sun.

I liked these Shetland ponies with dog riders

And many tableaux of other countries. This represents the Sudan.

And lots of clowns.

At the far end was ‘The Kirk Brothers Circus’. Carved between 1910 and 1956, using only a penknife and a foot powered jig-saw, by Edgar Decker Kirk of Pennsylvania, it was donated to the museum in 1981 by a couple who had acquired it as a toy for their children!

Still in the same building, it is time for some carousel animals.

Next was a replica of a hunters’ cabin.

Inside were rooms with guns, and others with stuffed animal trophies of all sizes.

This room had furniture made largely from antlers.

This is SS Ticonderoga, now stranded on land, but not very far from her former workplace, Lake Champlain. Built in 1906 and 220 ft long, she is America’s last remaining walking beam side-wheel passenger steamer. She served a daily north-south route on Lake Champlain, carrying passengers as well as farm animals and goods of all kinds. She was moved 2 miles overland to the museum in 1955.

The dining area

Part of the mechanism

One of only a handful of cabins

Nearby was the 1871 Colchester Reef lighthouse from Lake Champlain.

It was last lived in in 1933, then automated. It was moved to the museum in 1952. There is a museum within it, but it was closed, as were a few other buildings on the site which will not, as a result, get a mention. The donor’s mother was born in the lighthouse where her father was keeper.

This building was built on site after Electra died. Her children wanted somewhere to replicate the principal rooms in the family apartment on Park Avenue, New York. She had always admired a similar house elsewhere in Vermont, so they commissioned this one. Inside does not relate to the outside. The rooms are positioned relative to each other exactly as in New York, and furnished exactly as Electra had them when she was alive.

Living room

Electra’s bedroom

William Webb’s bedroom

William Webb in his library

William Webb was a polo player and hunted to hounds.

The art works are from her father’s collection and include paintings by Monet, Manet and Corot. I do wonder if they are originals, as security was not particularly severe.

Incidentally, the trustees attracted a lot of adverse criticism when they sold many other art works for $30 million in order to endow the rest of the collections in perpetuity. It was thought this set a very bad precedent for other museums wanting to raise funds. The works sold were never on display, merely stored.

Although married to a member of the Vanderbilt family, fortunately Electra did not share the taste displayed by Cornelius Vanderbilt at Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island. He only wanted to impress other rich men, she wanted to live in a comfortable environment that was enriched by her possessions. She probably spent as much money on the Shelburne Museum as he spent on Breakers alone, but her aim was to educate and enhance the lives of as many people as possible. She ensured that the entry fees would be kept sufficiently low that most people could visit. $23 covered me for 2 full days; Vermonters pay considerably less.

The blacksmith’s shop is a single room brick building c 1800 from the nearby village of Shelburne. Abandoned in 1935, it was transported (jacked up on a 24 ton lorry) 2400 ft to its current site in 1956.

The smith doing a demonstration started 25 years ago as a volunteer. He had been given ill-health retirement very young and took a course at the smithy. After 22 years working as a volunteer, he is now one of four smiths who demonstrate the craft.

Of course, in a small rural community, the smith was also a farrier and a wheelwright.

Next was the Print Shop. Built on site from old timbers, it contains presses from 1820 to 1955.

1820 hand press

I omitted to take a photo of its description!

This red barn (original from somewhere I failed to note) contained more horse drawn vehicles, both wheeled and on runners.

A Victoria with a skeleton boot

Note the articulated runners for easy cornering

This 1890 two room jail is from the slate quarrying community of Castleton, Vermont.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Congregational Meeting House from Charlotte was built in 1840 and moved to the Museum in 1952. It looks as though it may be next in line for refurbishment.

Scattered throughout the site are 22 gardens. Most, in early October, were not at their best, but a few were still interesting.

There is a railway station as well. I failed to note where it came from, but I think somewhere in Vermont. They had a steam engine and some coaches, but they were under a canopy (to protect from the weather) and very difficult to photograph.

In 1782 Samuel Dutton built a house in Cavendish, Vermont which was the first dwelling moved to the site in 1950.

He had a large family, but it was also an inn at certain periods. It is furnished today based on a probate inventory of 1824, when Samuel died.

This was not for inn visitors!

But this might have been

The loft was probably used for storage

This is the Stagecoach Inn, built 1787 in Charlotte, Vermont, and moved a few miles to the site in 1949. Originally Electra thought of using it as a place of refreshment for visitors, but decided to use it to display her collection of folk art, including weather vanes, trade signs and ships’ figureheads. It has only just re-opened after being closed for three years for refurbishment.

Just a few of the weather vanes

And a few trade signs

The eagle is huge!

Ship figureheads

The Smoke House is the smallest building on the site. It is c 1820 and came a few miles from Charlotte, Vermont in 1956.

The Stone House is c 1840 and arrived from South Burlington in 1949. Apart from the Jail, it is the smallest dwelling on site, and would pass unnoticed in many a Yorkshire village. In Vermont it is very unusual being built from stone not wood.

I doubt the well has any water!

It is a two up, two down, but one can only look from behind the rails.

This covered bridge was relocated from Cambridge, Vermont in 1950, when it was 105 years old.

This 18th century style Settlers Barn was constructed on site in 2001.

This is the interior of the Settlers House of 1846, from East Charlotte, which arrived in 1955. I forgot to take a photo of the exterior.

The Saw Mill was also constructed on site in 1958, though the water mill machinery comes from South Royalton and dates from the late 1700s. It operated to the early 20th century

Owl Cottage was the original ticket office. It is now used for small groups education.

And to finish just two of the paintings in a purpose built building which houses Electra’s collection of early American paintings.

The obvious omission is a Schoolhouse. There is one but it is currently closed.

This post has rather too many photos, but I did not want to split it in two.

Next time I move to the North East Kingdom.

And finally your next object to identify from a small museum in northern Vermont.