Museum Catalog

Watercolor

2021.30

Elmer, Rachel Robinson (1878-1919)

1893

1972.63

Beals, A. L.

Montpelier & Wells River Railroad

City

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

Very little survives from Vermont's earliest baseball teams except for their colorful names, such as the Essex Junction Edmonds, the Cambridge Lone Stars, the Jericho Muffs, and the Ridley Sunflowers. This baseball's just barely legible written label reads- "July 4, 1867/score 75-52/…. Champlains vs. …sp BBC." Vergennes fielded both the First Champlains and Second Champlains in the late 1860s. The other team name isn't clear enough to decipher. Does BBC indicate a Burlington Baseball Club? High scoring games like this one, often with over fifty runs, reflected earlier playing styles such as underhanded pitching and barehanded fielding. Connections by railroads and trolleys between towns and on Lake Champlain by ferries made it possible for the players and a growing number of spectators to enjoy what would become a favorite summer pastime, especially on the Fourth of July.

1967.33

1867

Leather

1965.27

1890-1900

Montpelier & Wells River Railroad

State/Province

Country

Continent

2021.5

Metal

Rutland Railroad

2021.5

Scovell Manufacturing Company

Metal

1951.24

1861

Overall

Bronze, Metal, Wood

Maxim, Hiram, Webster, Theron

City

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

Civil War

1960.44

1905

Overall

Leather, Paper

Bell, Mary Louise Perry (1849-1918), Bell, Charles J. (1845-1909), Boston & Maine Railroad

Town

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

1945.21

Medallic Art Co.

1927

Box

Bronze

Willard, Daniel, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

Town

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

1972.61

Overall

Boston & Maine Railroad

2021.5

Hat

Male

Wool

Blue

Canadian National Railway, Central Vermont Railway

1972.58

Rogers & Bro.

1858

Overall

Silver

Wilder, Jonas (1812-1906)

2005.21

1890-1928

Overall

Porcelain

Cleveland, Eugene R. (1911-2005), Whipple, French & Co., E. L. Chandler Company

Town

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

2012.36

1905-1910

Overall

Porcelain

A. A. Seaver

Village

Town

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

2022.70

Metal, Paper

Village

Town

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

Descended from English Quaker immigrants established in Rhode Island, Rachael Robinson Elmer was the daughter of skilled artist and writer, Rowland Evans Robinson and accomplished artist, Anna Stevens Robinson. She was raised on the family farm, Rokeby, in Ferrisburgh, Vermont within sight of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. Contrary to the usual upbringing of a young girl at the time, Elmer, although quite knowledgeable and capable when it came to "women's work," was not bound by household duties and the usual laborious tasks expected of females on a working farm in the 1900s. Throughout her childhood, her parents recognized and encouraged their oldest child to develop her artistic abilities by spending hours exploring and sketching the flora, fauna, animals and birds on the many acres surrounding the family farm. As a Quaker, hard work, family and community were at the core of Elmer's life. The Robinson family, along with the Quaker community in general, helped many black fugitives along the underground railroad en route to Canada and refused to use foodstuffs and other merchandise grown and/or produced with slave labor. At the age of twelve, Elmer was recognized as a child prodigy for her artistic ability. While attending the Chautauqua Art League, she was invited by the director to study drawing in New York City. For three years, she spent a month in New York. When she was sixteen, she left her family home to study at Goddard Seminary boarding school in Barre, Vermont. She graduated at eighteen, and began teaching art students at home and in Burlington. For three winters, she studied at the Art Students' League in New York under such notable teachers as Childe Hassam, Robert Henri and William Merritt Chase. Elmer's father, Rowland Robinson, was an author of several books portraying 19th century country life. He illustrated his books until he became blind. At this time, Rachael began to illustrate for her father. Her illustrations appear in "Hunting Without a Gun", which was published after her father's death. Throughout her career as an artist, Elmer lived in New York City where she necessarily adhered to society's requirements and standards for young ladies living and working away from home and family - she located acceptable boarding establishments and wrote almost daily to her mother with assurances of safe room and board and financial accountability. Elmer continued her classes at the Art Students League, began working for a firm called Decorative Designers and eventually became associated with Harper & Brothers, the American Book Company and P. F. Volland & Co. Elmer designed book covers, as well as illustrations for magazines and books and also undertook commissioned portraitures. She "signed" her covers and illustrations with two "R's" placed back to back. Elmer established a thriving career through her determination and abilities. Even after meeting and marrying Robert F. Elmer, a New York Businessman and widower with two grown children, in October 17, 1911, she successfully combined married life with her artistic endeavors. Rachael Robinson Elmer later illustrated for "John Bunyan's Dream Story", "Dutch Fairy Tales", historical readers put out by the American Book Company, and a series of poems by Caroline Hofman called the, "Wee Winkles" series. She also designed postcards of New York City tourist attractions, and mastered the craft of linoleum block printing. These cards were issued in 1916, and received wide publicity. Elmer became very involved with the war effort during the First World War. Both she and her husband opened their home to entertain servicemen. She visited the sick and wounded in area hospitals and added some much-needed cheerfulness by drawing life size posters on the servicemen's canteen walls. Elmer's life was cut short when she contracted influenza while volunteering at the Red Cross during the 1918-1919 influenza epidemic that killed hundreds of thousands around the world. Today, Rokeby is a museum and National Historic Landmark honoring the Robinsons, "a remarkable family of Quakers, farmers, abolitionists, authors, and artists."

Goddard Seminary Art Students League, NYC

Artist Writer

Elmer, Rachel Robinson (1878-1919)

Used to stamp the dates into railroad tickets.

1972.61

19th Century

Overall

Iron

Woodstock Railway

Town

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

Henrietta "Hetty" Green was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1834 and had a Quaker upbringing. She was the daughter of Edward Robinson, who controlled the Isaac Howland Jr. Company, a wealthy whaling firm. Green grew up around business and learned about money, investments and the stock market at a young age. Her father died in 1865 and left her as the sole heiress of $1,000,000 in cash and $4,500,000 in real estate. Two weeks later, her aunt Sylvia died, whom Green had lived with as a teenager. Green received a portion of her aunt's estate, but she contested the will with a document confirming that she was sole inheritor. When the case was brought to court, Green was accused of forging signatures, but eventually the case was dropped. Green married her financial advisor, Edward Green of Bellows Falls, Vermont, and initially the couple moved to London. Although Green denied it, they may have left the country to escape forgery charges stemming from the failed lawsuit. When they returned to the United States in 1875, the couple and their two children, Ned and Sylvia, lived with Edward Green's mother in Bellows Falls. Green invested in railroads, real estate, and goverment bonds while continuing to be extremely frugal with her money. Stories about Green's frugality abounded, including that she paid her laundress less than others by ordering her to wash only the section of her dresses that trailed on the ground. While she dressed her children in patched, oversize clothing, her income was between five and ten thousand dollars a day. Her frugality may have had damaging effects on her son Ned's health. When he was fourteen, he dislocated his knee and Green sought free medical help. When she was asked to pay, she refused treatment for him. Five years later, he had another accident with the same knee and his leg had to be amputated. The doctor reported that had Ned received proper medical care with his first injury, the amputation would not have been necessary. When the media learned of this incident, she was dubbed "The Witch of Wall Street" for her cruelty. Edward Green was a wealthy man, but he had fallen into debt. Hetty Green wanted to transfer her $25,000,000 in securities from the John J. Cisco and Son Banking House to the Chemical National Bank, but her request was refused because of her husband's debts. She eventually paid the $422,143.22 he owed, but separated from him because she could not tolerate his poor business investments. Green continued to build her fortune through railroad stocks and mortgages. She purchased large quantities of real estate, including two square miles in the west side of Chicago, owned docks in San Francisco, and held mortgages on numerous buildings. By 1900, she had a yearly income of $7,000,000 and by 1908 she was worth $158,000,000. With age, Green grew increasingly paranoid that people would kill her for her money. She moved frequently and stayed in cheap boarding houses or hotels. However, when her husband grew ill, she nursed him until his death in 1902. Green died in 1916 and left her $150 million estate to her son and daughter. At that time, she was considered the wealthiest woman in the world.

Businesswoman Investor

1993.14

1850-1860

Cardboard, Paper, Wood, String

1984.7

Kellogg & Bulkeley Company

Howe Scale, Co.

1953.52

Grand Army of the Republic

1894

Overall

Steel, Silk

Grand Army of the Republic

City

State/Province

Country

Continent

2021.5

Bronze

Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad

2021.5

Metal

Rutland Railroad

2021.5

Bronze, Iron

Rutland Railroad

2021.5

Bronze

Rutland and Burlington Railroad

Watercolor

1958.1

Hardie, Robert Gordon (1854-1904)

1863

Overall

Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad

1999.59

Cardboard

St. Johnsbury Gas Company

Town

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

1999.59

Cardboard

Warren Motors, Inc.

Town

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

1999.59

Cardboard

2004.78

Frank G. Landry

Overall

2021.5

1981

Satin Weave

LeCompte, Conrad Armand (1907-2003), Central Vermont Railway

2021.5

1982

Satin Weave

LeCompte, Conrad Armand (1907-2003), Central Vermont Railway

2021.5

1973

Satin Weave

Green

Central Vermont Railway, LeCompte, Conrad Armand (1907-2003)

2021.5

1975

Satin Weave

LeCompte, Conrad Armand (1907-2003), Central Vermont Railway

2021.5

1976

Satin Weave

LeCompte, Conrad Armand (1907-2003), Central Vermont Railway

2021.5

1977

Satin Weave

LeCompte, Conrad Armand (1907-2003), Central Vermont Railway

2021.5

1978

Satin Weave

LeCompte, Conrad Armand (1907-2003), Central Vermont Railway

2021.5

1979

Satin Weave

LeCompte, Conrad Armand (1907-2003), Central Vermont Railway

2021.5

1980

Satin Weave

LeCompte, Conrad Armand (1907-2003), Central Vermont Railway

2022.72

Brice, Frederick Joseph, Sr. (1917-1988)

1977

Wood, Paint, Glass

US Bicentennial Celebration, Champlain Valley Fair

1949.17

Watson, William Arthur (1865-1950)

1879

Wood

Central Vermont Railway

City

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

Train Model, 1877 Alfred Edward Butterfly (1848-1891) Montpelier, Vermont Painted metal Gift of Alfred Emmanuel Butterfly, #1945.27 The locomotive "Stranger" started operations on the Vermont Central Railroad in 1852 and may have served the stone industry, transporting unfinished stone to the finishing sheds in Barre and Montpelier. Alfred Butterfly, the son of Canadian immigrants, worked as a polisher in the stone sheds of Montpelier. He died at the age of 43 in 1891 of silicosis, a disease of the lungs caused by granite dust.

1945.27

Butterfly, Alfred E. (1848-1891)

1877-1877

1990.25

McDonnell, Arch (1909-1978)

Village Press Publications

1974

Overall

Central Vermont Railway

Used to record the date of repairs of railroad tracks.

2021.5

1930

Metal

Used to record the date of repairs of railroad tracks.

2021.5

1931

Metal

Used to record the date of repairs of railroad tracks.

2021.5

1932

Metal

Used to record the date of repairs of railroad tracks.

2021.5

1947

Metal

Used to record the date of repairs of railroad tracks.

2021.5

1931

Metal

Used to record the date of repairs of railroad tracks.

2021.5

1929

Metal

Used to record the date of repairs of railroad tracks.

2021.5

1922

Metal

Used to record the date of repairs of railroad tracks.

2021.5

1932

Metal

Used to record the date of repairs of railroad tracks.

2021.5

1929

Metal

Sales Sample, 1883 William Cooley Vermont Farm Machinery Company Wood, metal Anonymous gift, 1957.19 Dairy has long been one of Vermont’s primary industries, and when refrigerated railroad cars provided easier, faster access to major markets in Montreal, New York, and Boston, production grew exponentially. Rather than cheese and other preserved products as the primary export, it became feasible for Vermonters to sell cream and milk out of the state. William Cooley of Waterbury invented a number of things, including a variety of gasoline engines, granite industry tools, and other machine parts. This creamer was one of his earlier efforts, patented in the 1870s. The creamer was found to be more efficient at extracting cream from milk than other similar machines, and the Vermont Farm Machine Company purchased the patent from Cooley to manufacture and distribute his machine. Within a few years, 8,000 dairies were using the creamer. Its more efficient process made the development of centralized creameries possible, streamlining production rather than the individual on-farm process that had dominated before. The design proved popular enough that the company spent time in court protecting its patent against infringement on a number of different occasions. This creamer is a salesman’s model, intended to show the mechanics of the machine but not necessarily to actually produce cream. The smallest production model of Cooley’s Creamer was at least twice as large as this one.

1957.19

Cooley, William

Vermont Farm Machinery Company (1871-1921)

1883

Overall

Wood, Metal

Town

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

Watercolor, Pencil

Rutland and Burlington Railroad Engine No. 10

1958.1

Hardie, Robert Gordon (1854-1904)

1866

Overall

Rutland and Burlington Railroad

1975.2

1840-1850

Overall

Iron

Village

Town

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

1960.190

19th Century

Overall

Tin, Glass

Central Vermont Railway

1988.14

19th Century

Overall

Metal, Glass

,

Mary French Rockefeller is the granddaughter of Frederick Billings, a lawyer and president of the Northern Pacific Railroad (1879-1881) who was involved in the earliest efforts to create Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks. Mary grew up on the family estate in Woodstock, Vermont. After attending Vassar College, in 1934, Mary French married Laurence Rockefeller, grandson of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil. Following in their grandfathers' footsteps, Mary French Rockefeller and her husband, Laurance Rockefeller, founded the Billings Farm & Museum at the Billings estate. In 1992, Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller donated her family home and surrounding property in Woodstock, Vermont, to the federal government for development as the state's first national park and protecting Mount Tom as well as preserving Woodstock's character. Mary and Laurence Rockefeller's work lives on through the programs they have created. They worked on the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission which contributed to the creation of the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Wilderness Act and the National System of Scenic Rivers. Mrs. Rockefeller was a dedicated supporter of the Young Women's Christian Association and traveled over the world to study the YWCA's activities. She was a trustee of Spelman College for 25 years, a trustee of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, the Woodstock (Vermont) Historical Society, and the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation of Plymouth, Vermont. In 1988, she wrote a new introduction to "Grace Coolidge and her Era: the Story of a President's Wife," by Isabel Ross. Mrs. Rockefeller wrote that the book "gives us new insight on those times, and it demonstrates how (Grace Coolidge's) grace, charm and good humor proved a steadying and supportive influence upon a heavily burdened President and upon all those around her."

BA, Vassar (1931)

Philanthropist Preservationist

2012.36

1900-1920

Overall

Porcelain

E. F. Moody

Village

Town

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

2012.36

1900-1920

Overall

Porcelain

Whipple, French & Co., E. L. Chandler Company

Town

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

Lillian Minor Shipley operated a successful hotel, bar, and brothel on the Vermont/Canadian border in the early twentieth century. The daughter of William and Mary Minor, she was born in Stevens Mills, Richford in 1866. As a young woman, she left her family and married A. G. Shipley, a peddler of patent medicines and entertainer with a reputation for horse thieving and grave robbing. The couple traveled widely, staging a medicine show. By the turn of the century, Lillian had become involved in prostitution and managed a brothel in Boston until 1910, when local authorities shut down much of the illegal business in the city. Returning to Vermont, she purchased and restored a three-story hotel straddling the Canadian border in Richford. From 1911 until the end of prohibition in 1933, she operated "Lill's Palace," a bar, hotel, and bordello which benefited from its stategic location on the Canadian-Pacific railroad line between Montreal and the cities of the Northeast. Known as "Queen Lil," she served clients from the local area as well as urban business travelers. To take advantage of the demand for illegal liquor, she piped supplies from Canada under the Missisquoi River and operated her own bottling plant, selling to New England bootleggers. Shipley was known for carrying a pistol and flaunting her hard-earned wealth in a fancy automobile. She largely evaded the law by bribing federal officials, but after an international raid in 1925 she was forced to plead guilty and was fined for violating the Mann Act against trafficking in prostitutes. Shipley retired after the end of prohibition diminished her business. She bought several farms with her earnings, married farmer Levi Fleury, and lived with him and his two children until her death.

Business Owner

1997.43

Shirt

Male

16/35

Cotton

Enro

circa 1985

J. W. Campion, Rogstad, Syver P.

City

County

State/Province

Country

Continent

The Barre, Vermont Board of Trade commissioned this sign around the turn of the 20th century to promote the city. The Board was the forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce in the area. In the 1980s, workers found this sign along with nine other identical ones in a barn, still packed in its original railroad shipping crate. We don't know why the signs were never uncrated and used.

2014.60

circa 1900

Overall

Wood, Metal

Anne Eliza Brainerd Smith was a prolific writer. The eldest daughter of politician and abolitionist Lawrence Brainerd and Fidelia B. Gadcombe, she married John Gregory Smith. A prominent lawyer, politician, and railroad developer, John Gregory Smith served as governor of Vermont during the Civil War. The couple had six children; their son, Edward, served as governor during the Spanish-American War. Under the name, Mrs. J. Gregory Smith, or anonymously, Smith wrote essays on religious topics, poems, and several important novels in the late nineteenth century. Her novel, "Seola" (1878), was revised and republished under the title "Angels and Women" in 1924. Anne Smith became prominent in Vermont, both because of her husband's position and her own writings, which led to many speaking engagements. She became involved in local charitable work and served as president of the Warner Home for Little Wanderers. In 1876, she became president of the managers of the Vermont women's exhibit at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. She traveled widely, both in the United States and abroad. Smith's papers can be found at the St. Albans Museum. Correspondence with her husband is located at the Vermont Historical Society.

Writer

1972.58

Rogers & Bro.

1858

Overall

Silver

Wilder, Jonas (1812-1906)

1972.58

Manhattan Plate Company

1858

Overall

Silver, Silverplate

Wilder, Jonas (1812-1906)

1972.58

Rogers & Bro.

1858

Overall

Silver

Wilder, Jonas (1812-1906)

1972.58

Rogers & Bro.

1858

Overall

Silver

Wilder, Jonas (1812-1906)

1972.58

Rogers & Bro.

1858

Overall

Silver

Wilder, Jonas (1812-1906)

Used to collect train tickets from passengers on the Vermont Central Railroad.

1950.6

1840-1850

Overall

Leather

Bush, R. C., Central Vermont Railway

Used to stamp railroad tickets

1972.61

Metal

2021.5

KayDee

20th Century

Plain Weave

Linen

Linen

Linen

Rutland Railroad

2008.38

Adams, Raymond Herbert (1920-1998)

1952

Overall

Wood

Watercolor

2005.30

1910-1913

The Vermont Lime Company

1972.58

Rogers & Bro.

1858

Overall

Silver

Wilder, Jonas (1812-1906)

Delia Webster was born on December 17, 1817 in Vergennes, Vermont, an area with strong anti-slavery sentiment. She attended Vergennes Classical School, and later studied at Oberlin College. Oberlin had a reputation for its abolitionist activities and was a station on the underground railroad. Webster left Oberlin due to an unknown dispute with the college. In 1843 Webster then moved on to Lexington, Kentucky where she founded the Lexington Female Missionary Society, a girl's school. In 1844, she and the Methodist minister Calvin Fairbank succeeded in transporting a black family (Lewis Hayden, his wife, Harriet, and their young son, Joseph) across the border to freedom in Ohio. Webster and Fairbank were, however, caught on the return trip. Webster was sentenced to two years in the state penitentiary, though Kentucky's governor pardoned her after she spent two months in jail. As a condition of her release, she proclaimed that she was not an abolitionist, which was obviously a false statement. Webster returned to Vermont and wrote a book (published 1845) with her father about her trial. After a few years in the north, she moved to Madison, Ind., on the Kentucky border, where she tutored children and became a governess. She then bought a farm in Kentucky, where newspapers soon reported that many slaves had disappeared. She left Kentucky in 1854 after raids on the farm, threats, and scandal. She continued to lecture and write for a while. Webster died in Iowa in 1904 at the age of eighty-six.

Attended courses at Oberlin College

Abolitionist Teacher