Exhibit Reception: Fairbanks Scales: Weighing the World

Join us for a reception for the latest exhibit in our Local History Gallery. Free admission and refreshments. 

Fairbanks Scales: Weighing the World is curated by the St. Johnsbury History & Heritage Center. 

The exhibit explores how a large scale led to large-scale changes in how the world does business and changed the course of the history of St. Johnsbury, VT.

In the early 1800s, the Fairbanks brothers had a problem and Thaddeus devised a solution. His platform scale innovation allowed for wagon loads of materials to be weighed without unloading. The concept was an overnight success and soon the Fairbanks Scale Co. was making scales to weigh everything from a piece of paper to a locomotive. The exhibit features a number of scales, alongside photographs, documents, and ephemera that tell this core St. Johnsbury story.