Category Archives: Henry Sheldon Museum

Henry Sheldon Museum, Public

Sheldon Museum: Aesthetic Addictions – Psychological Perspectives on Collecting from Rudolph II to Charles Foster Kane

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Collections are the foundation of museums, and behind every collection lies the story of a collector. Dr. Graham C. Boettcher, director of the Birmingham Museum of Art, discusses some of history’s greatest collectors—actual and fictional—exploring what motivates these passionate gatherers and separates them from hoarders. Boettcher will also discuss how the ethics of collecting have changed, and touch on some of the new challenges and obligations collectors—both individual and institutional—face today. This program is presented as part of the “Elephant in the Room” lecture series, supported by Vermont Humanities. This talk is presented with additional support from Marble Trail Financial.

 For more info, visit http://henrysheldonmuseum.org/[/ezcol_2third_end][ezcol_1third]

Producer: Henry Sheldon Museum

Henry Sheldon Museum, Public

Sheldon Museum: Alexander Wolff: “Riddling Out Endpapers”

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Cornwall author Alexander Wolff spent a year in Berlin, sifting through family letters and diaries and mining German archives, for his book Endpapers. In this presentation he describes the process of researching and ultimately writing this saga about his book publisher grandfather, who fled the Nazis, and his father, who was left behind to fight for them. His remarks should be of interest to anyone eager to illuminate their ancestors’ lives and times with primary source materials. Wolff spent 36 years on staff at Sports Illustrated. He is author, co-author, or editor of nine books, including The Audacity of Hoop: Basketball and the Age of Obama; the New York Times bestseller Raw Recruits; and Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure, which was named a New York Times Notable Book. He has a B.A. in History from Princeton, where he has taught journalism.

 For more info, visit http://henrysheldonmuseum.org/[/ezcol_2third_end][ezcol_1third]

Producer: Henry Sheldon Museum

Henry Sheldon Museum, Public

Sheldon Museum: David Bain – “Joseph Battell: A Life and a Legacy”

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Middlebury College Senior Lecturer in English and American Literatures David Bain will offer a biographical talk on Joseph Battell (1839 –1915), a leading citizen of Middlebury and his estate, which bequeathed his mountain lands to Middlebury College. Battell was a contemporary of Henry Luther Sheldon (1821 – 1907). This talk is offered in conjunction with the exhibit “Sightlines: Picturing the Battell Wilderness.”

 For more info, visit http://henrysheldonmuseum.org/[/ezcol_2third_end][ezcol_1third]

Producer: Henry Sheldon Museum

Henry Sheldon Museum, Public

Sheldon Museum: Bill McKibben – “Breadloaf as a Vital Center”

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Middlebury College Scholar in Residence in Environmental Studies Bill McKibben resides in the Green Mountains and will discuss his wilderness experiences, the environmental and recreational importance of the mountains, and his admiration for the artistic outdoor explorations of Caleb Kenna and Jill Madden.

Bill McKibben is the author of “The End of Nature” (1989), the first book for a general audience about global warming. Recent books include “Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet” (2010), “Deep Economy” (2006), “Enough” (2004), which critiques human genetic engineering and other rapidly advancing technologies; “Wandering Home” (2005), which catalogs his foot-travels across the Vermont landscape; and “Age of Missing Information” (2006), in which he compares his experience watching 1700 hours of videotaped TV to that of contemplating nature in the Adirondacks. In 2007, with six Middlebury College students, McKibben set up Step It Up 2007, which organized more than 1400 climate change demonstrations across the United States. He now leads a similar campaign on a global basis with the group 350.org, and in 2011 he led the fight to stop the Keystone Pipeline project.

 For more info, visit http://henrysheldonmuseum.org/[/ezcol_2third_end][ezcol_1third]

Producer: Henry Sheldon Museum

Henry Sheldon Museum, Public

Sheldon Museum: Living With Death – How Artists, Historians, and Museums Create Meaning In a Time of Loss

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In this shared conversation, artist Dario Robleto and art historian Ellery Foutch will discuss their responses to the tragedies of September 11, 2001 and our current pandemic moment, sharing what their research and practices have revealed about the historical past and future paths of what we might call a “history of the creative response to loss.” This program is presented as part of the “Elephant in the Room” lecture series, supported by Vermont Humanities. This talk is co-sponsored by the following Middlebury College departments and programs: American Studies, Studio Art, History of Art and Architecture, Associate Dean for the Arts, and Middlebury College Museum of Art. https://www.henrysheldonmuseum.org/events/living-with-death[/ezcol_2third_end][ezcol_1third]

Producer: Henry Sheldon Museum

Henry Sheldon Museum, Public

Sheldon Museum: “The Birth and Rebirth of the Sheldon Museum” by David Stameshkin

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Dressed as Henry Sheldon, historian Dr. David Stameshkin will bring the history of Henry Sheldon and his museum to life in this entertaining talk.

Henry Sheldon chartered one of the first community-based museums in the United States in 1882.  After he died in 1907, the Museum—and his dream of sharing his many treasures with the world—was suspended for three decades, until a small group of energetic and creative Middleburians brought it back to life and made Henry’s dream come true.

 Dr. David Stameshkin, the author of a two-volume history of Middlebury College, is writing a history of the Sheldon in connection with the celebration of Henry’s 200th birthday this year.

For more info, visit http://henrysheldonmuseum.org/[/ezcol_2third_end][ezcol_1third]
Producer: Henry Sheldon Museum

Henry Sheldon Museum, Public

Sheldon Museum: A Story of Weight – The Otter Creek Trestle Collapse of 1893

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[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]The Sheldon Museum presents: A Story of Weight – The Otter Creek Trestle Collapse of 1893, a talk by Danielle Rougeau, president of the Henry Sheldon board and Middlebury College Archivist. She uses the Sheldon’s photo of the Otter Creek train trestle collapse of 1893 to talk about the town, the train industry, and the forces that shape the story behind that photographic moment. The covered wooden railway trestle spanning Otter Creek collapsed under the weight of a coal train in the early morning hours of Friday May 5, 1893. The engine, boxcars and five fully loaded coal hoppers made it safely onto land on the Water Street side, but as the next five fully loaded coal hoppers rolled onto the 200-foot span, the trestle gave way, sending the five cars to the bottom of the creek and derailing the remainder on the southern side. Less than thirty minutes earlier, a passenger train had safely crossed the bridge.

For more info, visit http://henrysheldonmuseum.org/[/ezcol_2third_end][ezcol_1third]
Producer: Henry Sheldon Museum

Henry Sheldon Museum, Public

Sheldon Museum: By Seen And Unseen Hands – Spirit Artists And Their Art In The 21st Century

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[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]The Sheldon Museum presents: By Seen and Unseen Hands: Spirit Artists and their Art in the 21st Century, a talk by Associate Champlain College Professor Stephen Wehmeyer, Since the earliest days of its history, the American Spiritualist movement has been closely tied to the visual arts.  Renowned mediums like the Bangs Sisters and the Campbell Brothers trafficked in “precipitated” paintings – artwork purportedly produced by spirit hands – while the emergent technology of photography offered believers (and the occasional charlatan) a new tool for capturing visible records of an invisible world.  Spiritualism thrives in the present day, and the visual arts remain a vital part of the expressive culture of modern Spiritualists.  Since the mid-1990s, Stephen has been exploring the artistic work of Mediums and Spirit Artists from Spiritualist communities in Western New York, Southern California, and New Orleans.  This presentation explores the role and function of visual arts in the lives and work of these latter-day Spiritualists, whose vernacular visions of unseen worlds continue to intrigue, delight, and inspire.

For more info, visit http://henrysheldonmuseum.org/[/ezcol_2third_end][ezcol_1third]
Producer: Henry Sheldon Museum

Henry Sheldon Museum, Public

Sheldon Museum: The Hutchinson Family Singers – Huzzas, Horrors, And Bumps In The Night

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[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]The Sheldon Museum presents “The Hutchinson Family Singers: Huzzas, Horrors, and Bumps in the Night,” a talk by Dale Cockrell, a specialist in American popular music. The Hutchinson Family Singers were the best-known, most-loved, and most-hated musicians in nineteenth-century America.  Their passionate commitment to talking and singing about the sisterhood of social reforms garnered them notoriety on all sides of a wide range of divides (including spiritualism).  Too often overlooked, though, is that they bear a primary responsibility for the ways in which American popular music was then made, heard, and appreciated, legacies still much manifest today.

For more info, visit http://henrysheldonmuseum.org/[/ezcol_2third_end][ezcol_1third]
Producer: Henry Sheldon Museum

Henry Sheldon Museum, Public

Sheldon Museum: Sinners, Prophets, And Seers

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[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]The Sheldon Museum presents Sinners, Prophets, and Seers: Moral Reform and the Second Great Awakening, a talk by Professor Bill Hart, Middlebury College. No longer governed by a king, the new republic of the United Sates required its citizens to be virtuous and selfless. However, by the first decade of the 19th century, many Americans experienced personal stress and cultural disorientation.  Westward expansionism, the rise of individualism, northern emancipation, and technological change led many Americans to question their institutions, beliefs, and values.  Many sought to change their personal behaviors and social practices, which gave rise to a series of reform movements. The goal was to perfect the individual, American society, and ultimately the world.

For more info, visit http://henrysheldonmuseum.org/[/ezcol_2third_end][ezcol_1third]
Producer: Henry Sheldon Museum

Henry Sheldon Museum, Public

Sheldon Museum: Fly Fishing, Guiding, and Kayaking in Vermont

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[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]Professional fishing guide and co-owner of Stream and Brook Fly Fishing guide service, Brian Cadoret brings his knowledge of Addison County’s rivers along with a fish story or two in his talk, “Fly Fishing, Guiding and Kayaking in Vermont”. Using videos and demonstrations, Brian shares how days on the river have brought him joy in the outdoors and shaped his stewardship and dedication to Vermont conservation. Did you know Brian spends over 150 days a year fly fishing on lakes, ponds, rivers and streams in VT and NY?

For more info, visit http://henrysheldonmuseum.org/[/ezcol_2third_end][ezcol_1third]
Producer: Henry Sheldon Museum

Henry Sheldon Museum, Public

Sheldon Museum: Cheerleading the Arts

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[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]In his enthusiastic and entertaining way, Warren Kimble shares his experiences and the role he played in making the arts a strong presence in his home-town community of Brandon, and his creative, artistic approach to fundraising for the Vermont Arts Council and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.  He and Lorraine, his wife and business partner, have been deeply involved in Brandon’s civic life and philanthropy for over forty years. Did you know Warren was a cheerleader at Syracuse University where he received his B.F.A.? Warren is a trustee of the Sheldon Museum.

For more info, visit http://henrysheldonmuseum.org/[/ezcol_2third_end][ezcol_1third]
Producer: Henry Sheldon Museum

Henry Sheldon Museum, Public

Sheldon Museum: Never Meant to Last, Everyday Treasures of Ephemera from the Archival Collections of the Henry Sheldon Museum

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[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]Archivist Eva Garcelon-Hart and avid ephemera collector, Lucinda Cockrell,  present a broad overview of the Sheldon archives’ colorful ephemera collection. The plethora of broadsides, trade cards, posters, catalogs and other formats will provide a unique glimpse into 19th-century local and national business advertisements, medical practices, sports, and entertainment. Eva Garcelon-Hart has managed the Sheldon’s Stewart-Swift Research Center since 2011. She holds graduate degrees in Art History and Information Science from UC Berkeley. Lucinda Cockrell is a retired curator and archivist. She worked for more than thirty years in the museum, archives, and public history field in various states. Did you know that Eva worked for the Nobel Prize laureate poet Czesław Miłosz and for pictorial collections at the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley and Lucinda is co-author of the recently published book How to Weed Your Attic: Getting Rid of Junk without Destroying History?

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Producer: Henry Sheldon Museum