50 for 250: The Book

Two hundred fifty years ago, the area we now call Vermont was a complicated place, inhabited by Abenaki, English, and a few French. The region was contested by New York to the west, New Hampshire to the east, and British Canada to the north. The English colonists, concentrated to the south, desired legal stability, national recognition, and economic viability. Leaders with such names as Allen, Warner, Chittenden, Robinson, Bradley, and Fay joined with residents in the struggle to form our new country.

Though Vermont cannot be counted as a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, we can claim our rightful place in the struggle for independence and the ongoing experiment we call American democracy. The Vermont story is both strikingly unique and common to the American experience at the same time. For almost 200 years, the Vermont Historical Society has collected, preserved, and presented these stories of our state. Through rare manuscripts, insightful scholarship, and meaningful artifacts, our library, museum, and publications have documented the Vermont experience from the retreat of the glaciers to today.

In this commemorative year, the Vermont Historical Society highlights 50 artifacts that tell 250 years of Vermont, and by extension, American stories. Selected from over 30,000 objects and thousands of linear feet of archives preserved by VHS, these artifacts reflect the profound to the common. Objects often speak for people who have no voice in the written record.

They represent creativity, utility, and imagination unique to their form. Some, like the mounted catamount in the museum lobby, draw immediate attention, while others, like a small folk carving of a rural kitchen party, require greater scrutiny.

A diverse group of writers have collaborated to present their unique interpretation of each object and its place in Vermont History.

Paperback, July 2026. $35.95.

Order the book from our online store and from Amazon.com. It will be available from our museum stores in Montpelier or Barre, and at select booksellers in Vermont.