Gathering for Local History in Saint Albans
By Eileen Corcoran, Director of Service and Outreach
For the 72nd time, VHS gathered a diverse and delightful group of staff and volunteers from local historical societies, museums, and cultural organizations for our annual LLHSM conference. The energy at this year’s gathering in St. Albans was once again wonderfully positive and provided a space for making connections between small organizations that often do so much on their own. As one attendee put it, “We are not alone, many of us struggle with the same issues…but those that come are passionate about the work we do to preserve, record, and even make history.”
The day kicked off with one of our favorite things: the annual LLHSM Achievement Awards. This year we honored everything from a new community museum in Newfane, to a sold-out original historical theater production about Ethan Allen, to a video archives series in Middletown Springs, and more. You can see the full list of winners here.
These awards provide the chance to showcase just one small part of all the amazing work done by our local historical societies.
Conference sessions provide another opportunity to share projects and learn from each other. Staff from the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum led attendees in a box-making workshop to help with storing their own collections while a group from the Old Stone House Museum shared information about their immigration history project and how others could adapt it for their own communities. There were also sessions on using Canva, Matthew Lyon in Fair Haven, Vermont samplers, and a special tour of the Saint Albans Museum.
Our keynote address was an inspiring talk by Vermont historian and author Jeff Potash, who shared his journey with Vermont history over the years, and how his latest project, writing a second edition of Freedom & Unity: A History of Vermont which integrates scholarship from the last twenty five years, is opening new doors for how we talk about our state’s long and varied story. We used his keynote as a jumping off point for a discussion on “Vermont 2027” as we start to explore themes and ideas for Vermont’s own 250th next year.
It was an invigorating and engaging day. As one attendee noted, “We are all ‘doing history’ like a thousand points of light across the state. But doing it means making it come alive and be relevant to fellow Vermonters.”
We’d like to thank the Walter Cerf Community Fund for its support, which helped make the day possible. We are already planning for the 73rd annual conference next year and hope to see everyone there.
