Unusual Materials

Posted on March 8, 2023 by Special Collections

This spring, Erika White’s ARTS 196 class, Making Artist Books, includes four sessions in Silver Special Collections. During the first session, librarian Prudence Doherty introduced students to a selection of artists’ books. During the second session, students explored accordion book structures to prepare for an assignment. Last week, again getting ready for a forthcoming assignment, students looked at books that use unusual materials–glass, wood, cloth, metal, plastic, fruit and vegetables, and even soap. After students in teams of two examined more than twenty books, each team selected one book to highlight in this blog post.

For more information about a book, click on its title in the descriptions below. Come to Special Collections to explore our wonderful collection of artists’ books.

Common Threads
Candace Hicks

Common Threads is one volume of an ongoing series of canvas notebooks filled with hand-embroidered text recording coincidences the artist encounters.

Family Tree
Julie Chen, Flying Fish Press

Family Tree uses 16 maple blocks with images and text on all six sides to explore family history and relationships. The blocks can be arranged to show a single image with text, or they can be rearranged to change the story.

Ghost Diary
Maureen Cummins

Ghost Diary uses the most fragile material that the students encountered. The text, essentially a memoir based on an 1807 letter of Lt. Col. Jonathon Rhea, is printed on glass panels that are bound together with black metal. Vintage negatives complement the text.

In War 1940-
Karen Boldner, Drew Cameron

The pages of In War 1940- are made of paper shredded from military uniforms that were donated by veterans or their families. Each page uses uniforms from a separate conflict, from Afghanistan in the front, to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraq-Desert Storm, Vietnam, Korea, World War II in the back.

Mars
Daniel Kelm

Mars includes an accordion book, two pamphlets and three metal objects. A Civil War canister ball, a chrome steel ball bearing, and an iron-nickel meteorite represent what Kelm sees as the three faces of Mars: Military Mars, Scientific Mars, and Celestial Mars. Students spent time transforming the hinged accordion panel into a dodecahedron with stainless steel pins.

Not Paper
Peter Thomas

Not Paper includes samples of seven paper-like materials (amate, birchbark, papyrus, parchment, tapa, tyvek, and wasp nest) accompanied by information about each material.

Occupy Your Wallet
Emily Artinian

Occupy Your Wallet includes 25 plastic credit card blanks printed on one side with photos of Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, Chicago and Delaware. On the reverse side, along with a magnetic strip, there is a record of the location, the date, events of the day and the weather.

Ordinary Discovery
Nicole Eiland

In Ordinary Discovery, Nicole Eiland invites the viewer to look closely at slices of ordinary fruits and vegetables, alternating palladium print photographs with sheets of yam, kiwi and parsnip pressed flat.

Posted in Rare Books | Tagged Artists' books | Leave a comment

Black Caterer Managed UVM’s Hash House

Posted on February 20, 2023 by Special Collections

The 1900 federal census recorded approximately 115 Black residents in Burlington, Vermont. Almon J. Clark, listed as colored in the 1900 census, lived with his wife Anna (54), his daughters Mary (24) and Ellen (22) and his sons John (19) and James (16) at 41 Colchester Avenue. This address was for a building that once stood on the UVM campus known as Commons Hall, or the Hash House.

Map of a portion of the UVM campus and Colchester Avenue in 1900 showing the location and footprint of Commons Hall.

On this 1900 map, Commons Hall is shown on the right, labeled “dining hall.”

Commons Hall was erected on UVM’s back campus in 1885 as a restaurant and eating house. The university’s annual Catalogues advertised “a Commons Hall on the College grounds at which good table board is furnished to students at cost.” Until 1908, UVM hired contractors to manage the dining service, including A. J. Clark.

1929 photograph of Commons Hall, a sprawling frame building with several additions.

Commons Hall in 1929, shortly before it was scheduled for demolition to make way for the Fleming Museum.

Almon J. Clark was born in Virginia around 1852, and by 1870 was living in Hinesburg, Vermont, working as a laborer for a white farmer, Harry Weed. He married Anna Kenna, who was born in Ireland, and by 1880 they were living in Burlington. Clark worked for Peck Brothers, dealers in carpets and curtains, and for some years worked for Burlington caterer H. N. Coon. Clark also operated several food enterprises. He advertised his own catering business in in 1887, and in 1889, the city directory listed Clark as a baker as well as a Peck employee. In 1892, the city’s Board of Alderman approved Clark’s request for a short-term “eating stand” between City Hall and the library. City directories indicate that Anna Clark also worked as a cook. In 1892, she was listed as a cook at Commons Hall and in 1895 at the Sherwood Hotel.

1887 newspaper advertisement for A. J. Clark's cook rooms at 142 St. Paul, listing the various foods that could be ordered.

1887 advertisement for Clark’s catering business.

In late September 1896, the Burlington Free Press announced that A. J. Clark, “the well-known caterer,” took over the management of Commons Hall. City directories first list Clark as the cook and then the proprietor. In December, the Free Press reported that the Clarks offered an excellent Christmas dinner to students who were spending their holidays in college lodgings, with decorated tables and handsome souvenir menus. The students must have been pleased with Clark’s management, because on New Year’s Day they recognized Mr. and Mrs. Cook with a speech and an elegant chair. The Free Press noted, “The College yell brought the pleasant occasion to a close.” The Clarks may have operated Commons Hall as a family affair. Anna was an experienced cook, and the children, all listed as servants in the 1900 census, may have helped.

Advertisement for Commons Hall, A. J. Clark, Manager.

Under A. J. Clark’s management, Commons Hall advertised in the UVM student yearbook, Ariel.

Newspaper testimonial for Berry-Hall Company's Gold Star Baking Powder.

The Berry-Hall Company in Burlington shared Anna Clark’s testimonial “from Commons Hall” for Gold Star Baking Powder, which she based on her 35 years of experience as a cook (Burlington Free Press January 11, 1901)

Despite having 100 patrons at Commons Hall, Clark leased another boarding house at 92 St. Paul Street in 1902. Anna Clark died in 1903 and the Clark family left Commons Hall. Clark gave up the St. Paul Street business after only operating it for a short time. The city directory for 1904 notes that Clark had left Burlington. He remarried and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he worked as a houseman, janitor and steward there from 1911 to 1927. By 1928, Clark and his wife Priscilla were back in Burlington, working as a cook at Sally’s Restaurant with his daughter Mary. He died in 1932 and was buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

To learn more about Burlington’s Black residents at the end of the nineteenth century, read Harvey Amani Whitfield’s article, African Americans in Burlington, Vermont, 1880–1900, in Vermont History Vol. 75 (2007), pages 101–123.

Contributed by Prudence Doherty, Public Services Librarian

Posted in University Archives, Vermontiana | Tagged Black history, college dining, Commons Hall, Hash House, University of Vermont | Leave a comment

Christmas Cards from the Studio of Katherine Crockett

Posted on December 22, 2022 by Special Collections

In January 1966, T. D. Seymour Bassett, the curator of the UVM Wilbur Collection, sent a letter to Katherine Crockett in Pittsford, Vermont. Bassett wrote that he had received two of her attractive Christmas cards from friends in St. Louis and Detroit. He continued, “Since the Wilbur Collection aims to include examples of every kind of Vermont activity, including commercial art, we should be pleased to have a set of your designs for Christmas and other greeting cards.” Bassett asked if he could stop by on January 21, soon after lunch, to pick up what she might have available.

Crockett started her Christmas card business in 1929 and moved it to Vermont in 1951. In 1954, Crockett told Vermont Life that her business challenge was to make a good product, “one that is beautiful, original and cheap enough to make people want to buy it.” With silk-screened designs that ranged from traditional to modern and included religious and secular themes, the company was quite successful, distributing some half a million cards annually. Crockett retired in 1966, and the company continued under new owners.

Bassett brought Crockett’s 1965 sample book, Christmas Cards from the Studio of Katherine Crockett, to the Wilbur collection. Here are a few examples. Come to Special Collections to see the rest of the cards.

Christmas card featuring green candles, one with an orange flame and a gold halo.

Posted in Vermontiana | Tagged Christmas cards, Pittsford VT | Leave a comment

High License, Local Option, and the 1902 Election

Posted on November 8, 2022 by Special Collections

As the 2022 election season draws to a close, we offer an article by graduate student Juniper Oxford about the 1902 election, when prohibition in Vermont was the central contentious issue. Juniper conducted research for the article in Special Collections during Professor Dona Brown’s Spring 2022 seminar, Local History in a Global Context.

Vermont’s 1902 election cycle brought forth an issue that had been brewing for several decades: the increasing unpopularity of statewide Prohibition. Long before national Prohibition, Vermont enacted a statewide prohibition on alcohol in 1853. Although the state saw almost fifty years of prohibition officially, the law was not so easily enforced, nor was it popular in all corners. By 1902, the election gave an opportunity for Vermonters to voice their position on statewide prohibition through a candidate and, in the following year, by direct ballot initiative.

In 1902, Percival Clement attempted to gain the Republican nomination for governor of Vermont, seizing on the opportunity to present himself as the candidate for “high license,” granting the license to sell liquors at what was considered high rates, and “local option,” an alternative to a total prohibition of sale that allows local municipalities to vote for whether they permit the sale of alcohol within their jurisdictions.

Front and back covers of a 1902 Clement campaign brochure. Clement proclaims, “You license men are voting for a cause…. My personality is of no consequence …. We have a platform and a principle, and, standing on it, we shall surely win.”

In an opposition pamphlet, “Prohibition, or Local Option,” Joseph Harris of Ludlow, Vermont, articulated several arguments in favor of Vermont Prohibition and against local option. Harris claimed that other states that implemented local option policies saw an increase in public disturbance, that local option proponents were driven by greed to participate in the potential newly legal commerce and are “nursing the appetites for strong drinks,” and that over ninety percent of women were in favor of Prohibition and should have a say in voting against local option. Contrary to Clement’s claims of corruption in Vermont politics, Harris believed it was the local optionists who had corruption in their hearts. Additionally, Harris claimed that Clement sought the direct ballot initiative for local option because he could not and would not manage to pass the bill through the Vermont legislature.

Failing to secure the Republican nomination, with the party instead nominating John McCullough, Clement and his supporters were bitter at their defeat. The faction alleged corruption at the convention, including bought-and-paid-for supporters. Expanding his platform to focus on corruption in the political process in addition to his high license and local option position, Clement eventually declared a third-party candidacy as the Local Option candidate. Although the Republican convention included the local option stance in its platform due to the rallying of its supporters, Clement’s candidacy turned into a referendum on Republican-led politics in the state of Vermont.

“Perspiration Producing Performance of Percy, the Bolter. He’ll never make it.”

No candidate for governor or lieutenant governor managed to receive a majority of the popular vote. Clement received second place ahead of a major party candidate—Democrat Felix McGettrick. The Local Option candidates easily received second place in both races for governor and lieutenant governor, tripling the number of votes received by the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor and quadrupling the votes of the Democratic nominee for governor. Since the Republican Party failed to receive an electoral majority, although they had received a plurality of the vote, the election was to be decided in the Vermont legislature, where the Republican majority ensured their victory.

Republican John McCullough received 45.6% of the vote, Democrat Felix McGettrick received 10.5%, Prohibitionist Joel Sherburne received a respectable 3.6%, and Local Optionist Percival Clement received 40.3%. The Prohibition Party existed in Vermont politics and fielded candidates for two decades before the 1902 election, but Sherburne received the Prohibition Party’s highest share of the vote total since their inception and of any election until their last in 1928, unsurprising as the Local Option candidate was Sherburne’s ideological opponent in 1902. The Prohibition candidates for U.S. representative also saw an increase in the vote totals, with 4.2% and 5%, respectively. While Clement’s showing was the most significant factor in why no candidate managed to attain a majority of the vote, Sherburne’s higher-than-expected number of votes certainly aided in pushing the election to the Vermont legislature.

The most practical solution to the Republican Party’s electoral problem was to introduce legislation to eliminate the need for a “single issue party.” The legislature voted to allow an initiative on local option in December 1902, shortly after the election. The Vermont Local Option Alcohol Sales Act was enacted as a result of a direct ballot initiative and was approved on town meeting day, February 3, 1903. Although the high license and local option plank was a part of the Republican platform, it was politically advantageous to promptly enact the initiative because of its seemingly broad support among Vermonters and because a third-party candidate who ran on the issue lost the election by five percentage points. No third-party candidate for governor of Vermont has come near the 40.3% of the popular vote Clement received since the 1902 election.

Despite Clement’s claim of his “personality being of no consequence,” he ran twice more after his initial run as the Local Option candidate in 1902. He ran unsuccessfully in 1906 as the independent-Democratic candidate, and successfully in 1918 as the Republican candidate. In the sixteen years after the 1902 election, Vermonters were given the opportunity to opt-out of the prohibition of alcohol by local option. National Prohibition was enacted by constitutional amendment on January 9, 1919, seven days before Percival Clement took office as governor of Vermont.

Posted in Vermontiana | Tagged 1902 election, high license, local option, Prohibition | Leave a comment

Rah for UVM!

Posted on October 19, 2022 by Special Collections

Photo shows a faded green triangular pennant with felt letters "Vermont-6" on the top and "Dartmouth-3" appliqued on the bottom of a felt V. A leather football appliqued in the wide part of the V bears the date Oct. 21 1922 .

Green Mountain Studios of White River Junction, Vermont marketed a special pennant with felt and leather applique on dark green wool to commemorate the UVM football team’s victory.

When a researcher came upon this faded pennant in the papers of alumnus Richard U. Cogswell (class of 1925) last week, he noted that the 100th anniversary of a UVM football victory was at hand. On October 21, 1922, the UVM football team unexpectedly outscored the Dartmouth College team on its home field in Hanover, NH. It was just the fourth time that Dartmouth lost at home and the first time that UVM had beaten Dartmouth in ten years. While the Vermont Cynic, the UVM student paper, claimed that “More printer’s ink can never do credit to the story of the wonderful fight and the dogged persistence” of the UVM team,” the victory was celebrated at length in the press, the Dartmouth alumni magazine and the UVM yearbook.

Newspaper headlines: Vermont plays sensation football and conquers Dartmouth Eleven, 6-3. Includes summary of game highlights.

Headlines on page 1 of the Vermont Cynic, October 28, 1922.

The Vermont Cynic led with a front-page story and filled three pages with play-by-play accounts in its October 28 issue. According to the Cynic, the UVM team played “its most superb brand of football” to defeat Dartmouth. The Cynic’s sports editor offered a dramatic account of the victory.

The last few minutes of play in the game Saturday provided a thrill which will never be forgotten by any one who witnessed the game. With Dartmouth sending in a fresh backfield after every play, when the Green were within one foot of a touchdown, the strong and sturdy pupils of Coach Keady stiffened on the defense and fought what seemed like an inevitable defeat, even in spite of the fast fleeting seconds, and when the whistle blew, they had once more proved to the world that a David could look a Goliath in the eye and beat him.

Image shows headlines for an article about the UVM football team's victory over Dartmouth: Rah for U.V.M! Green Mountain Boys hit Dartmouth in plexus by capturing fervid game at Hanover by the margin of 6 to 3."

The Rutland Daily Herald cheers the UVM victory, October 23, 1922.

In its December 1922 issue, the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine recognized UVM as a worthy opponent. Vermont’s “powerful and well drilled football machine” compared favorably to Dartmouth opponents like Penn State, Colgate and West Virginia. Dartmouth credited UVM’s “unexpected defensive strength” that “succeeded several times in holding the Green team in check when a touchdown seemed imminent.”

The 1924 edition of Ariel, the student yearbook, devoted nine and a half pages to the “Green and Gold scoring machine” that was the 1922 UVM football team. The football section, illustrated with player and game photos, highlighted the hair-raising finish of the Dartmouth-UVM game.

A drawing shows a smiling football player wearing a dark jersey emblazoned with a V standing with one foot on the body of a bruised opponent lying of the ground. Tags on the prone layer list the teams Vermont vanquished in 1922.

A graphic summary of UVM’s 6-2 record in 1922.

The pennant that Richard Cogswell saved is part of the University Archives collection of alumni papers (Record Group 81). The collection includes scrapbooks, diaries, letters, and memorabilia donated by former students that provide insights into student life over the decades.

Posted in University Archives, Vermontiana | Tagged Dartmouth, Football, UVM alumni | Leave a comment

Tons of Honey: The Forbes Apiary

Posted on October 2, 2022 by Special Collections

When Bill Mares and Ross Conrad were doing research for their 2018 book, The Land of Milk and Honey: A History of Beekeeping in Vermont, they discovered a number of helpful resources in Silver Special Collections. Unfortunately, we found few photographs of Vermont beekeepers or their apiaries. So we were excited last month when a researcher and friend of Special Collections brought us a donation of miscellaneous items that included three photographs of Volney N. Forbes and his West Haven, Vermont apiary.

Volney Forbes in the bee yard. For recordkeeping, Forbes painted the number of each bee colony on the gable end of the wooden hives.

Volney Forbes was born in West Haven in 1832 and lived there all his life. When he died in 1915, the Rutland Daily Herald (August 16, 1915) reported that Forbes had held all the town offices, was town clerk and treasurer for thirty years and served a term in the Vermont legislature. He was a member of the West Haven Grange and the Vermont Bee Keepers Association, “being one of the most successful bee keepers in the state.” Honey was just one of the products Forbes raised on his 135-acre farm. He was also a breeder of fine merino sheep and registered pure bred Jersey cattle.

Forbes inspecting a frame from a hive.

At the 1906 Vermont Bee Keepers annual meeting, Forbes gave a presentation on “Short Cuts in Bee Keeping.” His methods must have been successful, as his production increased significantly over time. The 1880 agricultural census indicates that his bees produced 300 pounds of honey in 1879. Thirty years later, the Fair Haven Era (September 10, 1910) reported that Forbes, “the leading raiser of honey in this vicinity has three tons of best quality honey ready to ship to the Boston market.” According to Forbes, the 1910 season had been a good one though not better than some past years. In October 1915, seven tons of comb honey were shipped from West Haven to Philadelphia. The honey shipped by a Mr. Greenleaf “was partly from the apiary of the late Volney N. Forbes for many years the most noted bee man of this section” (Fair Haven Era, October 28, 1915).

Volney’s apiary in winter. Spaces between the double walls of the hives were filled with chaff or sawdust that helped protect the bees during cold weather. The buildings may be a honey room and a work room, used to store honey and equipment.

Submitted by Prudence Doherty, Public Services Librarian

Posted in New Aquisition, Vermontiana | Tagged apiary, beekeeper, honey, West Haven VT | Leave a comment

UVM’s Dairy School: Short and Intense Practical Training

Posted on June 6, 2022 by Special Collections

For National Dairy Month, Silver Special Collections student assistant Michael Maloney (UVM 2022) writes about the UVM Dairy School, which began in 1891. His research was prompted by two early twentieth-century photos of Dairy School students that were recently donated to Special Collections.

The University of Vermont held an annual Dairy School program each winter starting in 1891. The Dairy School was typically four to six weeks in length and initially taught lessons on the practical manner of the manufacture of butter using the most modern apparatus for the job. By the fifth year of the program, it included lectures on the constitution and production of milk, creaming and churning, handling, and testing of milk products. The Dairy School was suspended during the winters of 1904 to 1907 while UVM constructed a new Agricultural Department building. Morrill Hall, completed in 1907, was fully furnished with modern equipment for Dairy School classes. After the Dairy School was reinstated in the winter of 1908, it continued with only minor changes to the program over the years until the late 1930s, when it ended due to a lack of demand.

Photograph of the UVM farm buildings, including left to right, the apiary, barns, creamery and dairy school, the greenhouse and the superintendent's house.

This 1901 photograph of UVM’s farm buildings includes the original creamery and dairy school (third from right). Source: Vermont Agricultural College Bulletin.

Color postcards shows the front facade of Morrill Hall.

Morrill Hall, circa 1911.

Dairy school students in white uniforms stand in front of the Morrill Hall main entrance.

Class of dairymen in their official uniforms in front of Morrill Hall. Photo by B. Benton Barker, circa 1907-1913.

The Dairy School maintained throughout its operation that its purpose was to teach practical application and technical instruction, and the focus of the school was about business and not academic learning. The program was designed to meet a demand for an intense short and practical training lesson in the handling of milk and manufacture of milk products. Its goal was to teach how to manage a dairy enterprise of any sort and it was intended for those interested in butter-making at a creamery or at home, in the market milk industry as producer or handler, and for those who could not take one of the longer courses at UVM.

Photo of dairy school students working in a laboratory with an elaborate pulley system on the ceiling.

Students at work in dairy laboratory, circa 1919. Source: Vermont Agricultural College Bulletin.

The 1907/08 UVM course catalogue describes the equipment provided at Morrill Hall for the Dairy School: “The creamery equipment consists of several power separators, milk heater, Farrington pasteurizer, starter can, cream ripener, combined churn and workers, and multiple butter printer. The farm dairy room contains several hand separators, churns, workers, printers, etc. The milk testing lab has hand and power Babcock testers, an apparatus for determining total solids, acidity, taints, and the moisture content of butter. The market milk room has a pasteurizer, milk cooler, bottle filler, bottle washer and sterilizer. All machinery runs on two five-horsepower electric motors. A hot water boiler and fifteen-horsepower boiler furnish hot water and steam for the cleansing and pasteurizing.”

Morrill Hall basement floor plan, showing location of Farm machines, boiler room, separators, churn room, and cold storage for making butter.

Morrill Hall basement floor plan. Farm machines, boiler room, separators, churn room, and cold storage all for making butter. Source: 1906 Vermont Agricultural College Bulletin.

Morrill Hall first floor plan shows offices, horticulture and dairy school spaces, including the dairy school pasteurization room, cheese room, and laboratory.

Morrill Hall first floor plan. Pasteurization room, cheese room, and laboratory used by Dairy School students. Source: 1906 Vermont Agricultural College Bulletin.

Dairy School students in white uniforms working with buttermaking equipment in a laboratory.

Dairy men working in basement of Morrill Hall with modern butter making equipment. Photo by B. Benton Barker, circa 1907-1913.

In its later years, the Dairy School expanded to include a variety of winter courses focused more on general agriculture and home economics, and it eventually became part of UVM’s “Winter Short Courses in Agriculture.” Women were encouraged to come to the Dairy School as early as 1901/2. However, when the home economics program was introduced, they were strongly encouraged to take those courses instead. Course bulletins and newspaper articles still mentioned that women were welcome to take the dairy courses, but there was a clear emphasis encouraging women to participate in the home economics programs. The images below provide a general sense of the courses offered and a dairy school attendee’s day-to-day schedule. Students often went on excursions outside Burlington to visit technical plants, farms and Dairymen Association meetings.

Newspaper article announces the courses for the sixteenth session of the winter course in agriculture.

List of winter courses at UVM including creamery management and dairying courses. Source: Vermont Cynic, Jan. 5, 1911.

Newspaper article lists the daily schedule for the dairy school.

The daily schedule for dairy school students. Source: Vermont Cynic, December 30, 1908.

Many of the dairymen, as they were called, found themselves in very successful careers after completing the program at UVM. For example, Oscar H. Perrin attended UVM Dairy school in 1896 and had a successful forty-year career in Charlestown, Massachusetts working as a dairyman for H. P. Hood. Another example is Mr. Gilmore, a graduate of the Dairy School who helped operate Ingleside Dairies in St. Albans, Vermont.

Newspaper advertisement for Ingleside Dairies, promoting the model creamery practices directed by Dairy School graduate Mr. Gilmore.

Ingleside Dairies advertises that “our milk…is rushed to our model creamery…and tested, pasteurized ad bottle under the direction of Mr. Gilmore, graduate of the University of Vermont Dairy School.” St. Albans Daily Messenger, May 14, 1938.

Portion of newspaper article about O. H. Perring, a Dairy School graduate and 40-year employee of H. P. Hood.

With the “scientific training for the milk business” that he received at the UVM Dairy School, Oscar H. Perrin worked for the H. P. Hood dairy corporation for 40 years. United Opinion, April 3, 1936.

The UVM Dairy School and its history highlight the significance of the dairy industry in Vermont. As the state moved from traditional agriculture to more scientific and mechanized practices, UVM created programs that would help Vermont farmers succeed and thrive in the changing landscape. The dairy school helped teach dairymen how to use new technology, improve their business practices, and make new connections that helped grow the dairy farming industry during the first part of the twentieth century.

Posted in University Archives, Vermontiana | Tagged B. Benton Barker, butter, cheese, dairy school, dairymen, Morrill Hall, University of Vermont | Leave a comment

Diaries of a Vermonter Teaching in China

Posted on May 13, 2022 by Special Collections

UVM History students Sarah McAtee and Rhone Allison worked with Professor Erik Esselstrom and Chris Burns, Hannah Johnson, Dorothy Dye and Erin Doyle from Special Collections to transcribe four diaries from the Henry C. Brownell Papers. In this blog post, Sarah shares some excerpts from Brownell’s diaries.

Henry Chase Brownell was born in Burlington in 1887, graduating from the University of Vermont in 1908. Henry and his wife, Jane, also a UVM grad, moved to China in 1908, where they both taught at Lingnan University in Canton (today called Guangzhou). Henry and Jane were prominent members of the university, with Henry rising to Head of History and Dean of Men, and Jane serving as Dean of Women. Henry and Jane Brownell spent a total of more than thirty years in China from the mid-1910s until the early 1950s. When it became clear that Western ideals would no longer be accepted in China by Communist leadership, the Brownells returned to Burlington where they retired. They were one of the last families to leave South China without difficulties.

Jane Brownell in a light colored dress stands next to her husband Henry who is wearing a shirt and tiee.

Henry and Jane Brownell, late 1930s

Henry Brownell’s diaries from 1938-39 and 1949-50 share details of his family’s life, politics, social impacts, and the university under Japan’s control of China as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War and during the Chinese Communist Revolution. Entries discuss everything from specifics about a rice harvest to issues with consuls to student activism, making it a very engaging look at an American professor’s experience in China during this period.

A woman wearing a hat and a man with an umbrella stand in from of a two-story house with a tile roof.

The Brownells’ home at Lingnan University

Below are a few excerpts from Brownell’s diaries that show the broad range of topics that Henry chose to write about. Using the Transkribus software, we were able to copy down each line of text and type it out into an easier to read format.

1939. Brownell writes about the price of rice in different areas. The price is lower at Lingnan than in the city, but is only available for those who are associated with the university.

1949. Students in campus dormitories were moved into a main hall, having to sleep on the floor in many cases to be in more protected quarters as explosions went off around campus.

October 1949. Brownell describes a mass meeting of around 900 students where speakers praised students who did not flee the country and told them that the country will need their services, especially for translation.

April 1950. Some entries are as short as this one, while some go on for several pages. In this entry, so much is wrapped up into one sentence, as Brownell reports that Hainan fell to the Communists in late April.

The Brownell diaries will be added to the UVM Libraries’ digital collection, Diaries, in the near feature.

Contributed by Sarah McAtee, Research Assistant, Department of History

Posted in Manuscript Collection | Tagged diaries, Lingnan University, transcription | Leave a comment

Special Collections Honors Women’s History Month With New Digital Collection

Posted on March 22, 2022 by Special Collections

In celebration of Women’s History Month, we are pleased to announce the launch of our latest digital collection, Diaries. The collection provides access to more than thirty digitized and transcribed diaries from the late eighteenth to early twentieth century, with three-fourths of the diaries authored by women.

The diaries in this collection were transcribed during the work-from-home portion of the Covid-19 pandemic by Special Collections staff (Ingrid Bower, Erin Doyle, Hannah Johnson, Sharon Thayer) and students (Ella Breed, Dorothy Dye, Ibrahim Genzhiyev, Tabitha Ireifej, Mike Maloney). In addition, transcription work on the Caroline Crane Marsh diaries built upon previous transcription work conducted by Mary Alice Lowenthal. The Special Collections team put an enormous amount of thought and effort into this work and what is now available online is a direct result of their labor along with, of course, the work of the original diarists themselves.

As a preview of the rich content you can expect to find in these diaries, below are brief descriptions of the women diarists, summaries of what they wrote about, and a sample entry from each. More detailed information is available within the online collection, along with the images and transcriptions of the diaries.

Genieve Lamson Diaries, 1908, 1909, 1910-1912

Genieve Amelia Lamson was born in Randolph, Vt. on April 29, 1887. Lamson graduated from Randolph High School in 1905. After graduation, she taught for four terms in Vermont district schools and for five years (until 1915) in high schools in Roselle Park, NJ and Springfield, Mass. Lamson completed her undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Chicago, receiving her B.S. degree in 1920 and an M.S. in geography in 1922. She accepted a professorship at Vassar College in 1922 and taught in the geography department until her retirement in 1952.

Topics in Lamson’s diaries include teaching (as well as the process for becoming a certified teacher in Vermont circa 1910), travels to major cities of the West Coast, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle; turn-of-the-century fashion and home clothes-making, the sinking of the Titanic, turn-of-the-century slang, and the local history of Randolph, Vermont. In the passage below, Genieve writes of the last leg of her journey home, via the Canadian Pacific Railway, following a 1909 trip out west.

Mandana White Goodenough Diary, 1844-1846, 1860-1861

Mandana White was born on January 15, 1826 in Calais, Vermont. Between 1844 and 1845, she taught school in Marshfield and attended the Lebanon Liberal Institute in Lebanon, NH. She married Eli Goodenough in Calais on April 20, 1845, and the couple had four children that lived to adulthood: Myron Alonzo, Flora Gertrude (m. Whipple), Edward Tucker, and Charles Davis.

The Goodenoughs lived and worked on a large farm in Hardwick. After her husband’s death in 1860, Goodenough sold the family farm and purchased a smaller one in Walden, where she raised her four children. Topics in Mandana’s diary include employment opportunities for women in the 1840s, courtship and marriage, illness and death, and religious beliefs and practices in mid-nineteenth-century Vermont. Her entry for February 11, 1860, the day Eil died, is below.

Mary Susan Davis Kelley Diary, 1883-1893

Mary Susan Davis was born on January 10, 1866 in Fairlee, Vt. Davis grew up in a large household consisting of her parents, her three siblings, and her uncle. After she graduated from secondary school in 1884, Davis helped her mother at home and with taking care of the boarders who occasionally resided in their home; she also taught in local schools and occasionally performed housework and childcare for hire in other households in the community. Prior to her first marriage, Davis moved to Orange, Massachusetts, where she was eventually employed by shoe manufacturer Jay B. Reynolds as a skiver.

Topics in this diary include women’s health and other subjects relating to health and medicine; the experiences of working women circa 1890, turn-of-the-century courtship and marriages, and the local social and cultural history of Fairlee, Vermont. A page from her diary with two entries from August 1892, where she discusses her ill health, are below.

Mary Farnham Diary, 1862-1863

Mary Elizabeth (Johnson) Farnham was born in Bath, NH, on January 19, 1828. She came to Bradford with her parents at a young age and was educated at Bradford Academy and the Newbury Seminary. On December 25, 1849, she married Roswell Farnham (1827-1903) in St. Albans, Vermont. Farnham spent several months during the winter of 1862-63 in Union camps near Fairfax Court House and Wolf Run Shoals, VA, with her husband, who had been appointed Lieutenant Colonel and placed in command of the 12th Vermont Volunteer Regiment. Farnham returned to Vermont in April 1863 and her husband was discharged later that year, after which he entered into a career in politics.

Topics in Farnham’s diary include living conditions in Union camps and towns near the front lines, the roles and expectations of women during the American Civil War, Washington D.C. in the 1860s, mid-century modes of travel, and health and medicine during the Civil War. She writes in the March 16, 1863 passage below of some intriguing events involving the Confederate spy, Antonia Ford.

Caroline Crane Marsh Diaries

Caroline Crane was born on December 1, 1816 in Berkley, Massachusetts and was the eldest daughter of ten children. In 1839, Caroline married George Perkins Marsh (1801-1882) and in 1861, her husband was appointed U.S. Minister to the Kingdom of Italy. The couple traveled to Europe that June in the company of Caroline’s niece, Caroline “Carrie” Crane. While in Italy, the Marshes took several sightseeing trips through northern Italy, southern France, Switzerland, and western Austria. They also moved several times to stay near the capital of Italy, which moved from Turin to Florence in 1865 and then to Rome in 1873. George Perkins Marsh died in 1882 at the Marshes’ home in Vallombrosa, and Caroline returned to the United States the following year, living with her nephew Alexander Crane and other relatives until her death on October 27, 1901.

The seventeen diaries (1861-1865) included in this collection document the Marshes’ day-to-day lives during their time in Italy, particularly during their stay in Turin. Topics include the American Civil War, race and slavery, Catholicism, European political and social relations, British-American political relations, Napoleon III and Second French Empire, King Victor Emmanuel II and Italian politics, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Italian nationalism, religious and funerary practices in Italy, the status and treatment of women in Italy and elsewhere, problems within and interactions between the Italian social classes, the experiences of Protestants, Jews, and rural peasants in Italy; health and medicine in Italy, Italian industries and agricultural practices, the Italian education system, the Italian language, crime and punishment in Italy, Italian fashion and etiquette, tourism and hospitality in Italy and the Alps, popular books and reading habits during the 1860s, George Perkins Marsh’s diplomatic and scholarly activities in Italy, and the everyday experiences of upper and lower-class Italians.

In the entry below, Caroline writes of their arrival in Turin and the death of Count Camilo di Cavour, the first prime minister of the kingdom of Italy.

We are thrilled to make available these transcribed diaries on our digital collections site and, in particular, to highlight the personal accounts of these five women. In addition, we have made available for download the full-text diary transcriptions as plain text and TEI XML files: https://cdi.uvm.edu/content/diaries-transcriptions.

The online publication of these diaries represents about half of our larger diaries transcription project. Stay tuned in the coming months for the publication of an additional thirty-plus diaries from Mary Jean Simpson and two diaries from Henry Brownell from his time in Japanese-occupied China in the late 1930s.

Submitted by Chris Burns, Interim Director, Silver Special Collections

Posted in Manuscript Collection, Vermontiana | Tagged Vermont, women's diaries | Leave a comment

Portraits of Black Vermonters: The Hazard and Mero Families

Posted on February 24, 2022 by Special Collections

To celebrate Black History Month, we are sharing portraits of the Hazard and Mero families of Woodstock, Vermont. Both families were part of the town’s small Black community that had roots extending back to the late 1820s. The collection includes a tintype, studio portraits, and several 8 x 10 black and white prints. The studio portraits especially show the Meros and Hazards as they wished to be represented. Dressed for the occasion, they made their way to local photography studios. Special events, such as a christening or a graduation, may have prompted some of the photo sessions.

Fortunately, notes on the photographs identify each person. The brief biographies that accompany the photographs in the gallery below are based on information gathered from a wide range of sources, including census data, newspaper articles and obituaries, vital records, maps, gazetteers and directories, and print and online articles. Most of the photos are not dated, but we estimated date ranges for some based on the years when the photographers were active in Woodstock. The paper photos are pasted on stiff cardboard embossed with frames and decorations, often with a large border around the images. For this blog post, we cropped the borders to highlight the individuals.

A studio photograph shows an older Black woman sitting in an ornate chair. her hands are folded over a book in her lap.

Roxana Park, photographed by A. W. Perkins between 1910 and 1914.

Roxana Hazard Park (1828-1915). Roxana Park was born in Barnard, Vermont to Henry and Belinda (Lewis) Hazard on April 18, 1828. She married Henry Park in 1852. In 1866, they bought land on South Street in Woodstock where Henry farmed and bred cattle. Their daughter Cornelia, born in 1854, married Thomas Gilman Mero on March 1, 1882 in Woodstock. Thomas worked on the nearby Billings estate for 47 years. Thomas and Cornelia also lived in a house on South Street, where they raised four daughters: Julia Ann, Roxanna, Caroline and Rosetta.

This studio photograph shows a young Black woman standing next to a chair. She is wearing a hat, an embroidered top and a long pleated skirt.

Roxanna Mero

Roxanna Agnes Mero (1885-1929). Roxanna Mero, daughter of Thomas and Cornelia Mero, was born in Woodstock in 1885 and died in Waterbury 1929.

Studio photograph of a young Black woman seated in an elaborate chair. She is wearing a long dress with a high collar.

Carrie Mero, photographed by A. W. Perkins between 1910 and 1914.

Caroline (Carrie) Belinda Mero Ledeatt (1891-1943). The third daughter of Thomas and Cornelia Mero, Carrie Mero was born in Woodstock on September 10, 1891 and died in New York in February 1943. She graduated from Woodstock High School (1910), Burlington Business College (1915), and the College of the City of New York. She married Edmund Athill Ledeatt in 1918.

In November 1917, Carrie Mero was appointed secretary of the Ladies Division of the United Negro Improvement Association. When the UNIA organized in the United States in 1918, she was one of the directors who signed the certificate of incorporation. Carrie served as a clerk-stenographer for the UNIA and its shipping company, the Black Star Line. She contributed articles to the “Our Women” page in the UNIA’s Negro World advocating for gender equality and urging black women to be leaders and innovators.

In 1926, Carrie was the first Black typist/stenographer employed by the borough of Queens, where she worked until she transferred to the New York City Department of Welfare in 1939. Carrie’s obituary notes that she was an active member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, the Empire State Federation of Women’s Clubs, the Business and Professional Women’s Guild and the Merry Wives of Jamaica.

Studio photograph of a young Black woman sitting on a ledge in front of window. She is wearing a fancy white dress and may be holding a diploma.

Rosetta Mero, photographed by J. O. Stone, Woodstock. Stone bought and opened his studio in 1914, dating the photograph to 1914 or later.

Rosetta Elizabeth Mero (1898-1947). Rosetta Mero was born to Thomas and Cornelia Mero in Woodstock on June 2, 1898 and died in Jamaica, New York on March 20, 1947. A graduate of Woodstock High School, Rosetta worked at the Vermont Standard newspaper as a typesetter for several years before moving to New York in 1920 to work as a linotype operator. Her daughter Margaret was born in 1923. The 1930 census indicates that Rosetta was living in the family home in Woodstock. The 1940 census reports that Rosetta and Margaret lived with her sister Carrie and her family in New York and worked as a servant.

Studio photograph of a Black man and woman in front of a studio backdrop.

Allen and Martha Hazard

Allen Horace Hazard (1858-1950) and Martha Hazard (1863-1945). Allen Hazard was born about 1858 to James and Sarah (Talbot) Hazard, who lived on Prospect Street in Woodstock. As a young man, Allen worked as a mason for Tower Hazard in Harvard, Massachusetts. He married Tower’s daughter Martha in December 1879. They had four sons, including Alva (see below), and three daughters. Allen was a caretaker for the Hildreth estate in Harvard for 65 years. He died in 1950.

Studio portrait of a young black man wearing a suit and fancy tie.

Alva Hazard, photographed at the Park Studio in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Alva Edward Hazard (1884-1965). Alva Hazard was born December 22, 1884 in Harvard, Massachusetts to Allen and Martha Hazard. He married Julia Ann Mero (1883-1941), the oldest daughter of Thomas and Cornelia and sister of Rosetta, Carrie and Roxanne, in 1910. They raised five children in Woodstock. Alva worked for over forty years as a caretaker for Dr. and Mrs. Fred Kidder. He died in Woodstock October 1, 1965.

Studio portrait of a young black child seated on a chair and possibly wearing a white christening outfit.

Elmer Hazard in April 1912, when he was ten months old.

Elmer Edward Hazard (1911-). Elmer Hazard was the first child of Alva Hazard and Julia Mero Hazard, born July 17, 1911. He died on September 16, 1913.

Two images of a Black man in middle age and old age. The younger man is wearing a suit and tie. The older ma is sitting on a porch smoking a pipe.

William F. Hazard. The photo on the left was taken by Arthur E. Spaulding between 1897 and 1907. The photo on the right was taken by Fred Woods. According to a note on the back, it shows William at 102.

William Frederick Hazard (1853-1958). William Hazard was born to James and Sarah (Talbot) Hazard on Nov. 6, 1853. He served in the Navy from 1869-1874. In 1893, articles in a number of Vermont newspapers reported that William was “the first convict to be released on probation in the history of the Massachusetts state prison. Hazard has had a good record as a prisoner and Gov. Russell determined to make an experiment of the case” (Vermont Phoenix, September 22, 1893). William married Amanda Dunbar the following year, and they had six children. In 1900, he was listed in the census as a teamster. He later worked as a farm laborer and Woodstock town employee. William was featured in Vermont newspapers for his status as the oldest Vermonter before his death at 105 in 1958.

Studio portrait of Black woman wearing a fancy white blouse and a bow or hat on her head.

Lizzie Lewis, photographed by Arthur E. Spaulding between 1897 and 1907.

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Hazard Lewis (1857-1931). Elizabeth Lewis was born in Woodstock March 4, 1857 to Austin and Rhoda Hazard and died there October 27, 1931. She married Arthur Lewis in 1878. After Arthur’s death in 1909, she lived with her son Joseph (1879-1966) and her grandson Arthur in Woodstock.

“Ozie.” Only the name “Ozie” is penciled on the photograph; we have not yet identified this family member. The photo was taken by J. O. Stone of Woodstock.

Sylvester Oriston Mero (1847-1919). The last photograph in the Hazard-Mero Family Photographs is a large tintype with a note on the back that says, “Believe this is Sylvester Mero.” We do not yet have a good copy we can include here.

Sylvester Mero was born to Hezekiah and Harriet Hazard in Woodstock on April 6, 1847. Thomas Mero, husband of Cornelia Park Mero was his younger brother. During the Civil War, Sylvester, along with two of his brothers, served in the Vermont Infantry and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. The tintype image may have been taken at the same time, or in the same place, as a photograph of Sylvester’s oldest brother George. After the war, Sylvester returned to Vermont and worked as a farm laborer in Pomfret and Woodstock, a coachman in Rutland, and later a janitor in Worcester, Massachusetts. He died in Worcester in March 1919.

More about the Hazard and Mero Families

The Woodstock History Center’s photo essay on Thomas Hazard (1914-1993), Alva and Julia’s son, includes a photo of the Mero-Hazard house at 43 South Street.
A Flickr album, “Hazzard Family of Woodstock, Vermont” includes portraits from the photo collection of William Hazard that were offered for sale. The collection includes family members from Woodstock (photographed by E. R. Gates 1873-1884) and from various cities in Massachusetts.
Michael Dwyer’s article, “Meros of Woodstock and Derby, Vermont: A Network of Free Black Families,” in the Spring 2021 issue of Vermont Genealogy traces the families of four Meros who served in the Civil War.