Post by Grubb. The side-paddle-wheel passenger steamer moored on the grounds of the Shelburne Museum is one of two remaining in this country. For a boat that only ferried people across Lake Champlain it is quite impressive in an excessive Gilded Age sort of way. An ornate dining room and cushioned observation chairs for a…
Category: Road Tripping in New England
A potpourri of photos
From the Shelburne Museum’s collection of old Americana with a little new thrown in. Children’s hankies Bandboxes Textiles Now that’s a cabin, not a cottage Covered bridge My favorite from the Webb Gallery
After sixty years, it comes together
Post by Grubb. One of the exhibits of 19th century life at the Shelburne was a demonstration of how an old printing press worked. This was fascinating to me because the press that was being used was exactly like the cast iron monstrosity that I grew up with in Chicago…except the one I remember taking…
Speaking of fear…
Post by Grubb. How about this bird’s eye view of a turkey buzzard ready to dive-bomb a farm? It’s an Andrew Wyeth painting from the early 1950s. I can imagine Miss Nancy Lawson looking at it while she puzzles over the mention of Wyeth’s anxiety over Cold War mutual destruction.
You don’t see many of these anymore
Post by Grubb. On this day of the unmentionable Italian explorer it’s only fitting that, in my Shelburne Museum ramble, I would find myself pausing to look at a collection of wooden figures that used to stand out front of 19th century cigar stores. The best, I thought, was the lighted action figure, a blatant…
1843
Post by Grubb. That’s the year it was all over for Miss Nancy Lawson. She was a follower of William Miller, an early 19th-century religious leader who believed the world would end at that time. There is a portrait of Miss Lawson painted by William Matthew Prior that hangs in the Webb Gallery at the…
A thousand decoys
Post by Ella. 756 carved wildfowl decoys. A few hundred more in storage. “Night at the Museum” (the film where all the creatures on display come alive to cause havoc at night) flashed through my brain. Roughly carved ducks, swans, geese, herons, egrets and more filled the glass display cases crowded into the small rooms where…
Maple everything
Post by Ella. Maple sugar, maple filled chocolate, maple syrup, maple creemee, maple covered pepitas, maple infused olive oil, maple gin, maple chipotle hot sauce. Vermont’s state motto should be “No such thing as too much maple”. Late in the afternoon today we ducked down to the Church Street Marketplace in downtown Burlington to browse…
Dog is great
Post by Grubb. Leaving the White Mountains behind us in the morning mist, we came across a curious form of worship up in the hills outside of St. Johnsbury. (St. Johnsbury is in Vermont, but remember, this is a parallel universe so state borders as we know them may not exist.) Another aspect of experiencing…
Life in Randolph
Post by Ella. Sometimes I am lucky enough to meet an AirBnB host who is not a property management company, who has not asked us to strip the sheets or take out the garbage, and who genuinely seems to care if we enjoyed our stay. Whether owned by a person or a company, most AirBnB…