Illustrating History: A New Exhibit at the Vermont History Museum

By Amanda Kay Gustin, Director of Collections and Access

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what do those words say about the way we imagine American history? Starting in July, the Vermont Historical Society will be launching an exhibit that’ll explore that question: Illustrating History.  

Drawn from our vast archival collections, this exhibit will feature nearly 50 illustrations that provide a broad overview of how the image of Vermont was presented to state, national, and international audiences since the founding of the United States 250 years ago.?

As a tool of mass communication, illustration is different from other art forms in that the works are commissioned for a specific commercial purpose, often intended for repeated printing and distribution. Art often tells a story, usually from the artists’ point of view, but illustrations tell a story that is dictated by the author, business, civic group, or government that commissions them.?

These parties have different motivations for depicting Vermont, its landscape, its people, and its history over time. In surveying VHS collections, it became clear that the majority of illustrations fell into three large categories: Pastoralism, Revolution, and Settlement.?They’re almost exclusively told from an Anglo-American viewpoint, and these themes often explore our interest in the Vermont landscape, the birth of Vermont through its conflicts with both Great Britain and our neighboring colonies, and the foundation of our town-based focus of government and community.?

Illustrating History will explore these depictions across these three categories, featuring high-quality reproductions of the illustrations that depicted Vermont across 250 years of history. The pastoral images will showcase illustrations featuring Vermont’s landscape and scenery, and how they’re used as symbols. Images of mountains, trees, and agricultural activity can convey a sense of comfort, of returning to an “easier” time – used both to sell products and to push back against modernity.?

Even with this general emphasis on preindustrial imagery, we do find some illustrations of technology and innovation – factories and railroads throughout the 19th century showing the excitement of progress. This tension about the changing landscape has always been an undercurrent of Vermont history, and it continues today.?

Another subset of images examines Vermont’s role during the Revolutionary War, shaped by the many depictions of Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys. Over and over again, we see the founding moments of the state shown with revolution in a positive light. Often illustrations of the Green Mountain Boys depict them as role models for young people and an engaged citizenry.?

In a way, these illustrations push back against a broader definition of revolution: they emphasize a specific way of life, and a specific way for Vermont to look and feel. They decline change, in ways that the themes of pastoralism and settlement reinforce.?

The majority of the illustrations depicting Vermont history are from the point of view of European settlers. These pieces often depict their arrival in Vermont as heroic, as they fight against nature, British soldiers, and Native Americans. It’s a simple and straightforward narrative, and even long after the earliest days of settlement, these illustrations tell a story of a Vermont that looks and feels historic and nostalgic.

The exhibit will also feature a section drawing on the artwork commissioned by the National Life Insurance Company, which commissioned 150 works of art depicting stories from Vermont's past, often to pitch various insurance products, and appeared in such popular publications as?the Saturday Evening Post,?Time,?Colliers, and The Atlantic. These illustrations were so popular, the company issued them in book form for use by Vermont schools.