During the late 1700s and early 1800s, scores of villages and towns were established throughout Vermont. Selected artifacts, artwork and documents from the Bixby Library historic collections explore community building through the lens of real people (adult and youth) who lived in the Bixby Library five-town region. What kind of people helped to make the Vergennes area a good place to live? What roles did art, music, and literature play in everyday life?

Artifacts: George Grandey epaulets and silver “presentation” cup, Patent Road Maker flyer, Herbert Hoover campaign button, Vergennes Lending Library 1793 book, lace cap, sampler, photograph and painting (copy) by H. Custer Ingham, plaster medallions purchased by Lois Foley,

Documents (actual, digital, or copy): Excerpts from the Journal of W. W. Hawkins, “Women’s Right to Vote” speech, Diary of Eugene Field (age 9), A Little Girl’s Diary, The Vergennes Vermonter (Volume 35, Number 16. Friday July 12, 1889), Eleanora Bradbury sketchbook (selected pages), Vergennes City Band photography (1906.)

Curriculum Connection: CIVICS
Note for teacher: This Mobile Museum aligns with the following College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. Artifacts and supporting documents will give students and teachers the opportunity to pose questions and consider perspectives while supporting articles provide historical context. 

• K-5: identify and explore community roles across time; learn about the principles and processes of democratic government, including the importance of citizen participation
• 6-12: identify important stakeholders in society and within government systems (voters, entrepreneurs, etc.); explore the impact of policy & law and interactions between the public and private sector

Beginning with the Abenaki and French explorer Samuel de Champlain, human interaction with the land is told through the history of the Abenaki people; Vergennes’ first white settler; land acquisition and the charters of Vergennes, Waltham, New Haven, Panton, Ferrisburgh and Addison; steam travel on land and water; early tourism and a history of schools in Vergennes.

Artifacts: Abenaki stone tools (gouge, drill hand protector, arrow shaft scraper, hide scraper), astrolabe, pewter platter, hat box belonging to Capt. R.W. Sherman, Stevens House key, Lennox House nail. 

Documents (actual, digital, or copy): McIntosh photographs, 17th-century land transfer document, Water Lily advertisement, 1864 Rutland & Burlington Rail Road Timetable, Railroad Track and Scales booklet, Extracts from the Journal of W. W. Hawkins, framed birds-eye-view panoramic map, Vergennes maps (Sanborn, 1885, 1892), Vergennes Union High School Dedication booklet, Vergennes City Charter booklets.

Curriculum Connection: GEOGRAPHY 

Note for teacher: This Mobile Museum aligns with the following College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. Artifacts and supporting documents will give students and teachers the opportunity to pose questions and consider perspectives while supporting articles provide historical context.

• K-5: identify familiar places in the local community; explore the relationship between place and activity.
• 6-12: identify changes to place and the use of place over time; identify and explain economic and cultural values impacting place and use of place.

As was the case throughout America, the first towns and cities were located where water power, transportation, and natural resources were readily available. The story of Vergennes’ development, from 18th-century sawmills and grist mills powered by the Otter Creek falls, to a thriving 1880s port city connecting local products to world markets, presents a vivid example of how America grew. Vergennes was, at times, the epicenter of various trades and businesses. Many of these fascinating stories are explored.

Artifacts: cannonball, Horse Nail Factory box, Horse Nail Factory print, iron wood-burning stove model, tapping Gouge, Island Mills Flour Sack.

Documents (actual, digital, or copy): “Iron Works for Sale” (October 2, 1817 Newspaper Announcement), J.J. Urquhart Tin Peddler broadside, Excerpts from the Diary of W. W. Hawkins, assorted historic photographs (copies)

Curriculum Connection: ECONOMICS

Note for teacher: This Mobile Museum aligns with the following College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. Artifacts supporting documents will give students and teachers the opportunity to pose questions and consider perspectives, while supporting articles provide historical context. 

• K-5: learn about how the local economy has functioned and changed over time; identify and explore types of resources and their role in the local economy
• 6-12: identify different stakeholders and systems in the local economy over time; explore the role of technology and innovation in the local economy; determine the nature and impact of interactions between government and the marketplace

This kit explores wars fought in the Champlain Valley and beyond – the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, American Civil War, WWI, and WWII – and the roles Vermonters played in them. Artifacts and documents challenge students to think about the development of warfare and its effect on the local economy, soldiers, citizens, and veterans. Personal stories of Addison County residents illuminate these topics.

Artifacts: canteen, caltrop, hand grenade, gas mask, Grand Army of the Republic memorial ribbon, Verdun Cathedral building trim, World War I German soldier’s helmet, World War I American gas mask, World War 1 German sandbag paper cloth, World War 1 American hand grenade, Purple Heart awarded to Pilot Wilfred H. Davis, Air Medal Gold Star Medal awarded to Pilot Wilfred H. Davis. 

Documents (actual, digital, or copy): GAR Post #3 Application for I. F. Hatch (Ferrisburgh), “Welcome Home” Vergennes parade photograph; photograph of Wilfred H. Davis, Army Air Force Navigation School Class 43-3 graduation program, postcard from Wilfred H. Davis to his mother.

Curriculum Connection: HISTORY

Note for teacher: This Mobile Museum aligns with the following College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards.  Artifacts supporting documents will give students and teachers the opportunity to pose questions and consider perspectives while supporting articles provide historical context.

• K-5: compare the past to the present; generate questions about the past; put key events from the past in chronological order; consider how past perspectives impact what we can learn from primary sources;  make claims about the past
• 6-12: consider events within their historical context, including causes and short/long term effects;  critique and integrate multiple sources in the process of making claims about the past

To help teachers make good use of the Bixby History Kits, consulting educators worked with the Bixby Library to develop a Mobile Museums History Kits teacher’s guide and a unique Classroom Inquiry Guide for each kit. 

The Teacher’s Guide provides an overview of the kits with strategies for working with artifacts and documents in the classroom. Each kit’s Classroom Inquiry Guide presents classroom-ready plans for inquiry-based student learning that include: 

• background information about kit topics
• information about the kit’s artifacts and primary resources
• skill-building activities for examining these artifacts and documents
• student prompts for critical thinking and research. 

Each Mobile Museum Kit is aligned with curriculum standards developed by the National Council for the Social Studies’ College, Career, and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies (known to educators as C3.)  

Teacher Guides:

• Teacher’s Manual
• Community and Culture Classroom Inquiry Guide
• Centuries of Settlement Classroom Inquiry Guide
• Early Industrial Growth Classroom Inquiry Guide
• War and Its Aftermath Classroom Inquiry Guide

Please submit the following form to request to borrow a kit. A staff member will respond to your request in 1-2 business days.