Shelburne Museum

We visited the Shelburne Museum and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is hard to capture it in pictures (especially not using flash).

A sawmill (1787 up-and-down saw and related machinery)  and a settler's house (from East Charlotte, VT, @1800)

Vegetable garden outside the settler's house

Sign on the covered bridge

Another sign on the covered bridge

Covered bridge - when Patti visited the Shelburne Museum in the early 1980s, she thinks that the entrance was through this bridge - one of the docents confirmed that had been the case.

Pierced Wedgwood dinnerware

There was a special exhibit of wind sculptures on the grounds - this one was outside the quilt / textile / weaving house and it was turning merrily as we went in.

A cat doormat

Beautiful Love Apple Applique quilt

The Passumpsic Round Barn - built in 1901. The decorative cap to the building also served as ventilation into the silo. The roof is of cedar shingles - 8000 sq ft. The barn is 80' in diameter, 67' tall from lightning rod to basement. This door is to the top level (hay floor)

Exterior skin has two thicknesses of 5/8" pine planks bent and nailed to 2"x5" vertical studs. Double layering prevented rain and snow from entering. Hay was stored on the top floor, the middle floor was the dairy floor where the cows were fed with hay from the floor above and manure fell through opening to pit below. Being built on a hill allowed walk-in access at all levels.

The structural core of the building was a silo. Originally it was designed for hay storage, but used mostly for hay silage.

This was the support for the ceiling on the bottom floor.

Heavy beams and metal screw trusses allowed clear span. Absence of support posts made it possible to drive a team of horses and manure spreader into the basement for loading.

It is hard to see, but this is a horseshoe shaped building

Beautiful flowers all over the grounds - here outside the horseshoe shaped building

Inside the building...

Along one side were carousel animals - horses, giraffes, tigers, deer, goats... along the other side - a circus parade in miniature

 Carousel animals...

Roy Arnold's Miniature Parade

Carved on a scale of one-inch to one-foot, Roy Arnold's miniature circus parade recreates the pomp and pageantry of the extravagant procession that once heralded the show's arrival and kicked off the day's festivities. Measuring 525 linear feet, the Arnold parade is the equivalent of a two-mile long procession similar to those that used to travel routes up to 10 miles long.

Inspired by his memories of attending circus parades while growing up in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, Roy Arnold spent 25 years carving his miniature with the help of five assistants. Using detailed drawings and old photographs, Mr. Arnold painstakingly replicated in miniature the most ornate parade wagons owned by America's biggest circuses. Mr. Arnold's attention to detail extended to the wagons' fully functioning brakes and beautiful sunburst wheels, which are constructed of more than sixty separate parts.

Roman Chariots

Grizzly Bear, Kodiak Bear, Sideshow Band

The Golden Age of Chivalry - with a photo from a circus parade

The Rail Locomotive No. 220, built in 1915 by the American Locomotive company of Schenectady, New York, was the last coal-burning, steam ten-wheeler used on the Central Vermont Railway. As a medium-sized 4-6-0 engine (4 leading wheels, 6 driving wheels, and 0 trailing small wheels), commonly known as a "ten wheeler", it served double duty in Vermont pulling both freight and passenger trains. No. 220 became known as "The Locomotive of the Presidents" because of its use on special trains carrying Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. In addition, the 220 was used on a special train for Winston Churchill during his visit to Canada and the US in late 1941.The Central Vermont Railway retired No. 220 from service in 1956 and presented it to the Museum for preservation.

Ticonderoga - 1906 - Shelburne, Vermont - Original Owner: Champlain Transportation Company - Moved to Museum: 1955
The 220-foot Ticonderoga is America's last remaining walking beam side-wheel passenger steamer, and a National Historic Landmark. Serving a daily north-south route on Lake Champlain, the boat transported passengers as well as local farm produce, livestock, and dry goods. The Ticonderoga was used as a troop ferry during both World Wars and in later years had a brief career as a floating casino. In 1955, the steamer was moved two miles overland on specially laid tracks from Shelburne Bay to the Museum.

 Other than it being unseasonably hot for both of the afternoons of our visits, we had a great time at the Shelburne Museum!