Vermont Historical Society

Who was Weston A. Cate, Jr.?

Born in St. Johnsbury, July 16, 1921, Weston A. Cate, Jr. had a life long interest in printing and journalism. While in high school he set up a print shop and published a neighborhood newspaper, and graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. From 1947 to 1958, he taught high school English in White River Junction, and he was a part-time reporter and columnist for the Valley News. In 1958, he moved to Montpelier to become executive secretary of the Vermont Education Association, a post he held until 1974. From 1975 to 1985, he was executive director of the Vermont Historical Society.

After retirement, his passion for history and publishing led him to become a dealer in Vermont book and ephemera with his homespun company, Adamant Books. He was the author of Up and Doing (a history of the Vermont Historical Society) and Forever Calais (a history of Calais). He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Center for Research on Vermont in 2006. He passed away in 2010.

While he was happiest when surrounded by his family, he also believed in civic responsibility; over the years he served as town moderator in Hartford; school board member in Montpelier; and town moderator, planning commission member, and selectman in East Montpelier, among other positions. He was a leader in many organizations, including the Calais Historical Society, the Green Mountain Folklore Society, the Community of Vermont Elders, and the Vermont Retired Teachers Association.

He was a frequent public speaker and contributed many op-ed columbs and letters to the editors of local newspapers, often offering wry reflections on Vermont history and what it means to live in Vermont. For many years the radio broadcast of his reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas was a tradition for local families.

          

Guidelines and application

Any person may apply using the application form supplied by the Vermont Historical Society. Each applicant must request two letters of recommendation from individuals familiar with his/her abilities. These recommendations should be mailed directly to the Vermont Historical Society by the writers.

The grantee is expected to have completed the research and writing within one year from the date of the award.

The deadline is March 31st of even numbered years.

Applications will be reviewed and the winner selected by the Publications and Research Committee of the Vermont Historical Society Board of Trustees. The winner will be announced at the VHS Annual Meeting the following fall.

The following criteria will be important in assessing applications:

• In making the fellowship award, the Committee will favor applications that address topics designed to fill research gaps in the state's history.
• The research contemplated by the applicant must stand by itself. Because the Society's purpose is to encourage worthwhile original research in Vermont's history that might not otherwise be undertaken, segments of larger studies may be at a competetive disadvantage.
• Insofar as possible, the grantee should use the collections of the Society (its library and/or museum) in the work.
• The fellowship is expected to result either in a paper that can be considered for publication in the Vermont History journal or in a product of some other form, which might be appropriate for exhibition or viewing. The fellowship does not guarantee that winning papers will be published in Vermont History.

The application form and letters of recommendation should be addressed to:

Cate Fellowship Committee
Vermont Historical Society
60 Washington St.
Barre, VT 05641-4209

Please submit originals plus three copies of all materials.

          

Past winners

2011

Jason Newton for Forging Titans: Hegemonic Masculinity in the Working Forests of Vermont, 1800-1920.

2010

Adam Krakowski for A Bitter Past: Hop Farming in the 19th Century Vermont.

2008

Charlotte Rodabaugh for Green Mountain Brotherhood: Yankee Masculinity and the Vermont Regional Experience.

2007

Julia M. Lewandoski for A Map of Historical Native American Communities in Caledonia County.

2006

Kathie Schey of Long Beach, CA for Thomas Hawley Canfield and John Henry Hopkins: A Conversation Lived.

2005

Donald H. Wickman of Rutland, VT for George Houghton: Vermont Civil War Photographer.

2004

Jason Roberts of Essex Junction, VT for Epidemiological and Social Aspects of the Diphtheria Outbreak in Vermont During the 1860s.

2003

Sarah Rath of Spring Green, WI for Biography of Achsa Sprague, 19th-Century Vermont Spiritualist.

2002

Mary Catherine O'Neil of Essex Junction, VT for The Captain White Place: The Chickenbone Tavern Whispers to Commerce, Transportation, and Life in 19th-Century Burlington.

2001

Blake A. Harrison of Madison, WI for Technology, Tourism, and the Landscape of Vermont.

2000

Karen F. Madden of Essex Junction, VT for Ready to Work: Vermont Women in Republican Party Politics in the 1950s and 1960s.

1999

Michael R. Barbieri of Wallingford, VT for An Incursion Into Canada: The Second American Attempt to Invade Canada during the American Revolution.

1998

Sara Gregg of Middlebury, VT for Vermont Agricultural Life: A Social History of the Depression Years.

1997

Mariella Squire, Ph.D of West Glover, VT for Toward a History of the Native American People in Northeastern Vermont.

1996

Donald Wickman of Rutland, VT for Documenting the History of Vermont's Civil War Flag Collection.

1995

Pamela A. Stefanek of Orwell, VT for History of the Diggings: An Abandoned, Largely Undisturbed 1800s Logging Community.

1989

David Demeritt for 'Fond Hopes and Dashed Dreams': Climate and Cropping in Vermont 1820-1850."

1988

J. Kevin Graffagnino for 'Vermonters Unmasked': Charles Phelps and the Patterns of Dissent in Revolutionary Vermont.

1987

Michael McKernan for A Study of the Musical Life of Charles M. Cobb.

1986

Corinne McLaughlin Snow for Post-Civil War Life-Styles in Southern Vermont.

Weston A. Cate links

• Vermont History Radio Broadcasts, ca. 1978-1983 (PDF)
  Information about the recordings of radio broadcasts made by former Vermont Historical Society director, Weston A. Cate, Jr., as part of the historical radio program, “The Voice of the Vermont Historical Society.”
• "'Green Mountain Chronicles' Oral History Transcription" (PDF)
  This transcription is one of approximately 42 transcriptions of interviews with individuals conducted primarily in 1987 and 1988 in preparation for a radio program sponsored by the Vermont Historical Society entitled “Green Mountain Chronicles.”