Exhibits
Variety Sew: A Sampling of Textile Tools and Devices
May 13 - October 14, 2023
From the collections of the Henry Sheldon Museum comes a plethora of sewing machines, a surfeit of spinning wheels, and a myriad of sewing paraphernalia to discover. Many of these items have not been on exhibit for decades and have Middlebury and Addison County histories.
Artists in the Archives Unseen Neighbors: Community, History & Collage
May 13 — August 26, 2023
During the 2023 summer season, the exhibit Artists in the Archives, will continue in an enriched format under the title Unseen Neighbors: Community, History & Collage. On view will be all the previous year’s artwork but with additional focus on previously absent populations from our archival records. Three formerly digital collages -- Todd Bartel’s “A Group of Nations Claiming Unity of Purpose or Common Interests,” Jeanna Penn’s “A Fly in the Buttermilk,” and Young Shin’s “Untitled (China Hall)” -- will be shown in their original analog format and enhanced with displays of recently discovered and acquired materials highlighting the presence of Native American, African American, and Asian peoples in the Middlebury area.
Image: Jeanna Penn, Fly in the Buttermilk
Addison County Collects
June 15, 2022 - January 7, 2023
This summer, the Henry Sheldon Museum invited residents of Addison County to lend an object from their personal collections to exhibit. Addison County Collects is a unique and eclectic collection of objects and personal stories from 36 collectors, celebrating both local and global community.
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Addison County Kids Collect
When it comes to collecting, kids are the ultimate pros, and the Henry Sheldon Museum is featuring photos of Addison County kids with their collections in this summer exhibit. Photos will be added through the summer. The Vermont Children’s Museum is creating fun gallery activities for the exhibit.
Artists in the Archives: Community, History & Collage September 2, 2022 – January 7, 2023
How does one create a visual representation of history? What is retained and what is forgotten in historical repositories?
Local history museums and archives are vital to building healthy communities and to anchoring our understanding of the world around us. Collage artists have unique skills that are particularly useful in our historical moment. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Sheldon Stewart-Swift Research Center, an international network of collage artists was invited to engage the Sheldon archival collections. Under the curatorial direction of Kolaj Institute Director Ric Kasini Kadour, and with the support of the Research Center staff, twenty-three artists from seven countries created collage prints that reflect upon the idea of community in the 21st-century world.
Archiving History: Stewart-Swift Research Center at 50 (1972-2022)
June 15, 2022 - January 7, 2023
In 2022, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Museum’s Stewart-Swift Research Center, an archive of such exceptional depth that Middlebury has been called the best-documented community in New England.
The Elephant in the Archives: Silences, Erasures & Relevance
June 15 - August 31, 2022
An experimental exhibit reexamining Sheldon Museum archival materials with a critical eye toward silences, erasures, and contemporary relevance.
Sculptures of Perseverance: Ukraine-Inspired Carvings by Chuck Herrmann
June 15, 2022 - January 7, 2023
Seven poignant sculptures by Shoreham wood carver Chuck Herrmann who created the pieces in response to the ongoing Ukrainian tragedy.
Henry at 200: Collector, Museum Founder & More
July 13 - December 31, 2021
Henry Luther Sheldon, founder of the Henry Sheldon Museum, was born on August 15, 1821. This year we celebrate his birthday and his collecting passions.
“ … I have spent all my leisure the past year trying to benefit future generations…” wrote Henry in his 1881 diary referring to his extensive collecting of local, regional and national historical materials. This exhibit explores his life, myriad of collecting pursuits, the establishment of what has become known as the oldest community-based Museum in the country, and an outstanding archive, the Stewart-Swift Research Center. Henry amassed one of the richest but little known historical collections in all New England, rendering Middlebury perhaps one of the best documented towns in the entire region. On view will be variety of historical documents, photographs, scrapbooks, autographs, Middlebury imprints, diaries, music ephemera, relics, a lock of Napoleon’s hair, and more.
Faces of Addison County: A Trent Campbell Retrospective
July 13 — December 31, 2021
The Sheldon Museum is pleased to honor Trent Campbell in this retrospective exhibit. Campbell, a longtime resident of Middlebury, learned photography at his grandfather’s knee in his home state of Minnesota. He became the Addison Independent photographer in 1998 and he took award-winning photos around the county for more than 20 years. Campbell spent many hours on assignment and even more wandering the back roads of the county, meeting and getting to know countless residents. He became a fixture at events and was an expected sight with his trademark camera and warm smile.
Sightlines: Picturing the Battell Wilderness
October 5 - December 31, 2021
Through their art, Madden and Kenna explore the Joseph Battell and Breadloaf Wilderness areas of the Green Mountains. The exhibit emphasizes the importance of these wilderness areas to our recreation and environment, and traces the legacy of Joseph Battell, who donated the land.
Kate Pond From the Heart: A Sculptor’s Process
July 13 - September 11, 2021
Vermont sculptor Kate Pond grew up on a hill farm in Montpelier, Vermont and studied art at Skidmore College and in Paris, France. She resides in Burlington and has installed public sculptures in the United States, New Zealand, Canada, Norway, and Japan. Her Sheldon Museum exhibit From the Heart features maquettes and drawings that reflect her artistic process plus three robust sculptures (two metal, one wooden) installed in the Museum’s garden. “My sculpture isn’t precious; it invites participation: with people, and with the sun, shadows and alignments at different seasons of the year. The position of the sun, moon and stars creates a structure, as a painter uses a rectangle for a frame of reference. Inspiration also comes from curves seen in nature.” Watch an interview with Kate here.
Drawing On The Past By Miriam Adams
Through the juxtaposition of natural and man-made objects, Miriam Adams creates images of striking intimacy. . Adams places these household items in conversation with objects from nature—including flowers, feathers, fruit, leaves, and stones. “I draw on nature for shapes and rhythms,” wrote Adams. “It is a point of departure to explore line, movement, relationships, emotions.” The soft graphite and watercolors contribute to the meditative quality of her work.
A Neighbor Project: The Downtown Middlebury Portrait
Visit the virtual exhibit A Neighbor Project: The Downtown Middlebury Portrait by local artist Rebecca Kinkead. The Downtown Middlebury Portrait includes over a hundred 7 x 5 inch oil portraits of local community members created during twenty-minute portrait sessions throughout the town. The works are exhibited together in the Sheldon Museum to form a singular portrait of the downtown Middlebury community.
Annual Holiday Train Exhibit
What has become an annual holiday tradition in Middlebury, the Sheldon Museum’s electric train layout is sure to delight all ages. Over the years, the assemblage has grown and now stands 3 levels high, with two tracks running Lionel O gauge trains and the upper track running HO trains.
Conjuring The Dead: Spirit Art In The Age Of Radical Reform
September 20, 2019 - January 11, 2020
The exhibition “Conjuring the Dead: Spirit Art in the Age of Radical Reform,” on view from September 20 through January 11, 2020, will present spirit photographs and original spirit artwork from the Henry Sheldon Museum’s collections acquired by Solomon Wright Jewett (1808-94).
The Language Of Trees By Chuck Herrmann
Summer 2019
After coming to Vermont as a teacher at the Bristol Elementary School, Chuck Herrmann supplemented his income by opening Woodware on Route 7 South in Middlebury, where he sold wood products manufactured or crafted locally. Soon Herrmann’s historian and artistic instincts led him to study the native woods of Vermont, the lives of the craftsmen, and the history of the wood industries in the Green Mountain State.
The Landscape Architecture Legacy Of Dan Kiley
May 14 - September 1, 2019
The Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in partnership with The Cultural Landscape Foundation of Washington, D.C. and its presenting sponsors, The Davey Tree Expert Company and Victor Stanley, Inc.; the Vermont Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects; and the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation present a retrospective exhibit to honor and recognize influential and internationally-acclaimed Vermont landscape architect Daniel Urban Kiley (1912 – 2004) from May 14 to September 1, 2019. Kiley’s practice and home were in Charlotte, Vermont, where he was inspired by the fields, forests, and magnificent waters of the Lake Champlain Valley.
Whimsical Wonders: Fairy Houses from Nature by Sally J Smith
May 14 - September 1, 2019
The Sheldon Museum presents a selection fairy houses created by environmental artist Sally J Smith. Many of her sculptures are made out of materials that she finds and gathers herself in the forests near her Westport studio, located between the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain. From a Japanese-style teahouse made with ferns and flowers to a cottage using delicate autumn twigs, grasses and milkweed pods, all of her homes are created with an equal level of precision and detail. Smith aims to invoke “a deeper respect and love for the Earth,” stressing the need for us to “reconnect with the Earth” in order to survive.
Waterfowl Wonders And Amusing Animals By Three Self-Taught Addison County, Vermont Carvers
March 22, 2018 - January 12, 2019
Carvings by Gary Starr, Chuck Herrmann, and William Holway greet delighted visitors to the Henry Sheldon Museum. Their work will be on view through January 12, 2019.
Ho Ho Historical Holidays to You
Winter 2018
Curated by the Sheldon’s archivist Eva Garcelon-Hart and Sheldon trustee and archives volunteer, Lucinda Cockrell, featuring classic Christmas images, antique postcards, seasonal cards, written holiday memories, and toys from the Sheldon’s collections and archives.
Doughboys And Flyboys: WWI Stories By Vermonters From The Home And Battlefront
July 31 – November 11, 2018
November 11, 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War One. The Sheldon Museum has combed its collection and archives along with the help of Addison County private collections to mount an exhibit that features roles played by Vermonters in what was called the “War to End All Wars.” The exhibit concentrates on Vermont’s Addison County residents who were in the service during WWI.
Our Town: Love, Joy, Sadness, And Baseball — 100 Years Of Photography From The Sheldon Museum
March 20 - July 7, 2018
The exhibit features single and group portraits of Vermonters – both the celebrated and the ordinary citizen, village scenes capturing disasters and daily life, landscapes of Vermont’s treasured mountains and lakes. Stunning aerial landscape photographs were taken by George N. Lathrop (1900 – 1983). An extensive collection of Lathrop’s photographs and negatives of Addison County taken between 1930s and 1960s is part of the Sheldon archives.
Everlasting Ephemera
July - October 2017
Henry Sheldon, a Vermont farmer’s son, born in 1821, chartered the oldest community history museum in the country in 1882 and amassed a rich collection of ephemera.
Draw Me A Story — Tell Me A Tale: Vermont Children’s Book Illustrators & Authors
June 13 - October 15, 2017
The Henry Sheldon Museum celebrates the imagination of 20 esteemed contemporary Vermont children’s book artists/authors. Their paintings, illustrations, and photographs, as well as books that feature their artworks are included to be enjoyed by visiting children and adults. Author readings, presentations, panel discussions, and hands-on activities are being planned throughout the run of the exhibit.
Focus On The Sheldon: Five-Point Perspective
March 7 - May 13, 2017
Beginning in the fall of 2016, five local Middlebury-area photographers have been exploring the collections of the Henry Sheldon Museum and found a wealth of inspiring material. Photographs of the objects they discovered will be on view at the Museum in the exhibition “Focus on the Sheldon” from March 7 through May 13, 2017.
World Challenges & Wooden Wonders, Two New Exhibits
November 15, 2016 - January 14, 2017
World Challenges is an intimate look at the consequences of climate change, war, and violence. Planned well before the outcome of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, the exhibit highlights concerns of many American voters and some candidates, but more importantly the challenges facing all the world’s citizens. The exhibit features works by local artists Chuck Herrmann and Sarah Ashe along a selection of Syrian textiles from local collector Sansea Sparling.
Fish On A Bike
June 21 - October 16, 2016
The Henry Sheldon Museum of Middlebury, Vermont has expanded its current bicycle exhibit Pedaling Through History from its interior galleries and historic rooms to the outside period flower garden with the installation of “Fish on a Bike,” a fanciful, masterful metal sculpture by Martin McGowan of Newark, Vermont. McGowan, a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, conceived the idea for the sculpture from the feminist saying “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,” often misattributed to Gloria Steinem, but authored by Patricia Irene (Irina) Dunn (born 1948) an Australian writer, social activist and filmmaker.
Addison County In Profile: Silhouettes From The Sheldon Archives
April 15 - September 3, 2016
This exhibit presents a selection of exceptional, rarely displayed silhouettes of early residents of Addison County spanning over a century from 1800s to 1900s. Many portraits are of prominent and accomplished personalities (mostly men), while others are of lesser known or unidentified individuals.
Pedaling Through History: 150 Years of the Bicycle, The Collection Of Glenn Eames
June 21 - October 16, 2016
2016 marks the 150th anniversary of the first pedal bicycle patent in the world. The Henry Sheldon Museum in Middlebury, Vermont celebrates this occasion by showcasing the extensive bicycle collection of Glenn Eames with the exhibit Pedaling Through History: 150 Years of the Bicycle. The exhibit traces the evolution of the bicycle from its inception until today, while spotlighting the bicycle’s golden era at end of the 19th century. This period is often referred to as the Gilded Age, a term derived from writer Mark Twain’s 1873 The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, which satirized the era. The exhibit will open on June 21, 2016 and run through October 16, 2016.
The Curious Cousins of Vermont Outsider Artist Gayleen Aiken
March 15 - May 21, 2016
As a child, celebrated artist Gayleen Aiken created a family of imaginary cousins. These invented Raimbilli cousins are seen here as cardboard cutouts and illustrated below in a painting of the cousins during a joyous meal.