George Swallow Glass Plates

Photo of women in a wagon, George Swallow Photographer

This collection contains the photographs of George Swallow (1864-1951) of West Windsor, Vermont. Swallow lived in the village of Brownsville where he operated a general store, was postmaster, and pumped gas. At another period of time he conducted a watch, clock and jewelry repair business.

Many of his photographs show the geographic area where he lived in the heart of Brownsville, including people sitting on the porch of his store and wagons stopped on the street in front of it. Swallow captured the buildings, landscapes, and activities of his community. The collection includes several of the construction of the new civic building known as Story Memorial Hall, which was dedicated in 1915, and the Mary L. Blood Memorial Library, which had been given to the town in 1901.

The collection includes several images of large groups of people gathered on top of nearby Mount Ascutney, as well as photos of a baseball game, haying, sugaring, prized livestock, a new motor car, and the bounty from hunting expeditions.  Among the images are photographs of “The McKinley Stone,” a huge piece of granite that had been quarried nearby from the base of Mt. Ascutney and was headed to Canton, Ohio, to be used as one of the sarcophagi in the McKinley National Memorial there.

This collection of glass plate negatives has been divided up into subject-based "sets" on Flickr, a photo-sharing website.Use the links below to see individual sets or click here to see the entire collection.

Activities

Agriculture

Ascutney Mountain

Barns

Bridges

Brownsville Panoramas

Brownsville Buildings

Houses

McKinley Stone

Other Buildings

People

Pico Peak

Rivers

Store and Post Office

Transportation in Brownsville 

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