Broadsides: Capturing Vermont Culture in a Specific Moment and Place

By Emily Lev, Director of Stewardship and Public Relations

On a paper diner placemat alongside a map of tourist attractions, a cartoon-drawn woman holds a giant maple leaf in front of her, looking reminiscent of Eve in the Garden. The caption reads: “Take me home as a souvenir.” It’s not exactly clear whether the intended souvenir is the maple leaf, maple syrup, or the woman herself, but what is clear is that Vermont is a vacation destination, replete with pancakes and gift shops.

This is one of several placemats to be found filed under “tourist trade,” one of hundreds of subjects in the Vermont Historical Society’s broadside collection, which ranges from political elections to memorial cards to fairs, organized through a well-thumbed subject guide that rests in a blue three-ring binder in the Leahy Library.

Broadsides, strictly speaking, are often defined as single-sheet notices or advertisements printed on one side of a page. The VHS takes a slightly broader definition, says Gail Wiese, access librarian. “We collect informational broadsides,” she explains, including items printed on both sides of the paper (broadsheets) and some items like brochures that can be unfolded and stored flat. “They are usually things that are ephemeral. It may be a flier, it may be a poster, it may be a ticket stub. Or an early report card. A little unfolded list of questions to ask about Vermont, or a business card.”

These items are important for researchers who want to access a moment in time, perhaps researching a specific event or series of events. Advertisements, programs from musical performances, and even some short, unfolded pamphlets containing information like transportation schedules are all in the VHS broadside collection, capturing Vermont culture in a specific moment and place.

And – make no mistake – browsing the broadside collection is fascinating. The items are organized by size, with sets of drawers for small, medium, and large items, and then by subject within those drawers. Each item provides a snapshot of a moment and place in Vermont: a gathering, a performance, a business long since defunct. To pull out the theater folder, for example, is to leaf through variety shows, school performances, and a tour of performances for David Budbill’s play Judevine.

Right now, however, many library users may only learn of the existence of the broadside collection through conversations with library staff. Patrons wishing to view items in the collection need to visit the Vermont History Center and browse through the subject guide. Remote access requires the time and support of a VHS librarian, who can email patrons a static list of subjects and then help them determine if the collection holds the items they are seeking.

This collection will become more visible in the coming years, due to a generous grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Once it is launched, the VHS will use an online platform to guide users through suggested resources for frequently asked questions, including how to use the broadside collection. However, Wiese points out, “It will remain more of a collection that you browse than a collection where you can search for specific keywords. A remote patron may identify ‘This is a category of broadside that I would like to see.’ But the most comprehensive way to browse would still be in person.”

“Part of what makes the broadside collection important is because of the nature of ephemera,” Wiese explains, “these items were originally not things that were intended to be saved. So, there are fewer examples out there. There’s information and examples of how things were presented that you might not find in a lot of other places.”

She goes on: “A ticket stub is very ephemeral. A playbill might be another example. The original intention at the point of creation was that this was something that was going to serve a specific purpose for a limited amount of time. It tells us something about how a culture has changed over time.”

Take, for example, the theater broadsides. Judevine tells a story of rural Vermont, and a visitor can see that the play was produced at community venues all over the state, indicating the high interest across rural communities.  

Programs for minstrel shows are also to be found within the broadside collection. Vermont’s blackface culture is a challenging aspect of our state’s history, one which it may feel more comfortable to avoid. However, understanding Vermont’s embrace of blackface is essential to qualifying and nuancing our understanding of Vermont's relationship with slavery, abolition, and civil rights, as is evidenced by the research of Miles Mccallum, the 2024 recipient of the Weston A. Cate, Jr. Fellowship. Mccallum’s research included the VHS broadside collection, where he was able to use ephemera to gain a broader understanding of performances that have long since faded from memory.

As to our diner placemat with the young lady clad only in a maple leaf, that placemat is undated but likely from the mid-20th century. Most people reading this can remember a time that such an image might have felt commonplace, just another cheeky image advertising the merits of the Green Mountain State to our visitors.

The tourism broadsides offer a window into the ways we have marketed our state since the advent of the automobile, from the wordy to the picturesque to the humorous. They reward the browser with a peek into one of Vermont’s most important economic drivers, tourists.  

And, sometimes, you are rewarded with a gem like this 1961 ad in The New Yorker, “The State of Vermont announces a general amnesty for New York citizens.” This one may be timeless. 

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of our member magazine, History Connections. To get it and support the Vermont Historical Society, sign up as a member.