Audiovisual Collection

The Stewart-Swift Research Center’s archive holds a small collection (c. 250 items) of audio and video recordings in a variety of formats, including magnetic and audio cassettes, VHS tapes, CD-ROMs, DVDs and other media.

Among the audio recordings are unique oral histories of local Middlebury area historians and prominent residents produced between the 1970s and the late 1990s, including: Jessica Swift, Sanford Witherell, Bob Cushman, Arch Tilford, Polly Darnell, Howard Munford, Stephen Freeman and many others. In addition to oral histories, there are also recordings of numerous Sheldon events, such as lectures, presentations and workshops. Presently the recordings are too fragile to use and just a few of them are available for research in the form of transcripts. The analog recordings will have to be converted into a digital format in order to be available to the public.

For now, please listen to a sample of recordings from our collection:

Arthur Healy, August 1960 Interview

Jessica Swift, 1975 Interview

Deborah Clifford “19th Century Vermont Women,” May 1984 Lecture

In addition to audio recordings, the Center also holds VHS tapes of MCTV broadcasts, including programs with Representative Betty Nuovo and others. The Center also houses CD-ROM and DVD recordings of various town and Sheldon Museum events, as well as locally produced documentaries, from the 1980s to the present.

The Center’s collection also includes several copies of produced in 1939 motion picture Movie Queen. The film is thin on plot, but includes local Middlebury people and scenes of downtown, such as visits to a few local businesses, a parade, a few plays from a college football game, and Middlebury businessmen playing gangsters in a slapstick kidnapping. The film was originally issued as a 16 mm motion picture and was copied to 3/4" Umatic tape in 1992. It can be seen here on Middlebury College’s Vimeo channel.

How to Find

An index to the audio and video collection is available at the Research Center.