Current Exhibits

This Place Called Home: A Photography Collaboration

Winter 2024-2025

This Place Called Home documents the beauty of Vermont today; and captures the essence of the geography, people, land and experiences that make this place our home. It is a joint project linking VUHS Vermont Studies Class taught by Becca Coffey and the Vergennes LEOS- a teen community service organization led by Cookie Steponaitis.

Biosphere in Your Backyard

Autumn-Winter 2024

Did you know the Bixby Library is in a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve? Assigned in 1989, the Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Network (CABN) is an internationally recognized network connecting people and organizations in an effort to build harmonious relationships between communities and the environment.

This Fall, the Bixby is showcasing an exhibit in the Kerr Room that links our wonderful outdoor scenery with our extensive historical collections. The exhibit, titled “Biosphere In Your Backyard” follows the themes of explore, enrich, enjoy and interprets our records through a biosphere lens, considering how the landscape around us can influence the history we create. The exhibit can be viewed in the Kerr Room, with accompanying book displays in both the Vermont Room and the Children’s Room. 

This project has been funded in part by the United States National Park Service (NPS) under assistance agreement (P23AC02038-00) to NEIWPCC in partnership with the Lake Champlain Basin Program.

Samuel Strong: War Hero and Local Legend

Summer-Winter 2024

When 14,000 British troops marched down from Canada toward Plattsburgh, N.Y. in the fall of 1814, the commander of the U.S. fort there put out a call to Vermont for help. Samuel Strong of Vergennes, a recently retired general in the Vermont Militia, was picked to lead the Vermonters who volunteered to cross the lake and join the fight.

A new exhibit in the Kerr Room tells the tale of that battle as well as the story of this important figure in Addison County history. Strong wore many hats throughout his life — sheriff, farmer, mayor, legislator, business investor, bank founder as well as soldier. The display features one of his actual hats and his golden epaulets on loan from the Vermont Historical Society. From the Bixby Library’s historical collection, there is also a handwritten account book and orders he issued requiring individuals to appear before him to settle disputes.

The Samuel Strong exhibit was curated by Nancy Remsen, Bixby Trustee and Chair of the Historical Collections Committee. The exhibit can be viewed in the Kerr Room on the second floor of the library through Spring 2025.

Building St. Peter’s Church

Summer-Winter 2024

The Building St. Peter’s Exhibit celebrates the 150th anniversary of St. Peter’s Church in Vergennes. Learn about the community effort to construct the local Catholic Church through antique photographs, newspaper clippings, handmade maps, and artifacts including a brick from the Ferrisburgh Brickyard and an antique organ pipe. This exhibit, found in the Half-round Room, connects with our ongoing display in the Bixby Hall about Josephine Meneely, whose husband, William Meneely, President of the Meneely Bell Foundry of Troy NY, gave two bells to the church.

Thank you to Susan Ferland, President of the Vergennes Historical Society, for researching and creating this wonderful new exhibit.

Josephine A. Meneely Paperweight Collection

Ongoing throughout 2024

The Josephine A. Meneely Paperweight Collection is now on display in Bixby Hall. Josephine Meneely was an art enthusiast and Ferrisburgh resident, and her gorgeous collection spans regions and years. Thank you to our Historical Collections Volunteers, Nancy Remsen, and Jamie Edwards-Orr, for curating this stunning physical and digital exhibit.

Check out our online database or visit the Bixby Library to see the complete paperweight collection.

Stone Tools Collection

Ongoing throughout 2024

Back in the ‘70s, the Bixby Library was a hotbed of ground-breaking archeological undertakings. Folks now known as luminaries in the field met here to form a highly active Vergennes Chapter of the Vermont Archeological Society. They stored and exhibited renowned collections of stone tools created by people thousands of years ago.

You can view an initial selection of these collections, along with 200-year-old objects unearthed on a dig at the homestead of Vergennes’ first European settlers, the McIntosh family, in the Half Round Room on the second floor. The Vermont Archaeological Society Papers, which document the early operations of the Society during the 1970s, are open for research in the Bixby’s archives. Please call or email us to make a research appointment.