Museum Exposes Vermont Critical Times In Vermont's Past Displayed in Black and White Photography Exhibition at the College Museum of Art

Author: Abbie Beane

If you were to climb the stairs of the Middlebury College Museum of Art today, you would find the daunting modernism of the Center for the Arts (CFA) contrasting a dusty, deteriorating barn house, your brand-new tennis shoes contrasting a pair of worn leather boots and an experience lived in color opposed to 69 moments captured in black and white.
This opportunity to steal a glance at the past was made possible on Sept., 12, as the Museum opened one of its newest exhibitions, "Looking Back at Vermont," a collection of 69 historical photographs taken from nearly a quarter of a million images stored in the U.S. government's archives, now housed in the Library of Congress.
Nancy Graff, curator of the exhibition and author of the manuscript, "Looking Back at Vermont," written concurrently with the exhibition, chose the photos from six reels of film, given to her by Museum Director Richard Sandars, the man who came up with the idea for this exhibit.
The display is relevant, as it presents a plethora of images lost to Vermonters for more than 60 years. They are collectively recognized as one of the most accurate and expressive documentaries of American life, and Vermont life in particular, during the Roosevelt era.
The photos tell of the latter years of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II, the effects of the dust bowl and Vermont's struggle to persevere through economic hardship while helping in the war effort.
In the background churns a history rich and controversial, as Franklin Roosevelt was pushing to implement New Deal programs while the Farm Security Administration (FSA), created during the mid-1930s within the Department of Agriculture, looked to extend rehabilitation loans and other forms of aid to farmers devastated by the problems mentioned above.
Between the winter of 1936 and the fall of 1942, nine different photographers from the FSA's Historical Section were sent to take more than 1,600 pictures, which would demonstrate the state's undeniable need for new programs to ameliorate their economic and agricultural grievances.
As Musum Coordinator Doug Perkins, explained it, the idea was not only to display proof of Vermont's dire situation but also to later "justify the business of the (public relations) program and show America that it was working."
Perkins continued, "The goal was to show how the economic depression was affecting people and how the FSA was helping their situation, [yet it also showed that] Vermont was a good example of hardworking people."
Walking through the exhibition, filled with many faces who were seeing an annual gross income of less than $400, it is interesting to sense the persistence with which these Vermonters stubbornly clung to their land. The exhibit highlights photos of progress, candid moments of relaxation and stunning images of a wide and vaulted landscape.
The collection includes images of communities big and small, from St. Albans to Rutland and Sheldon Springs to Brattleboro. The common thread that runs through towns is the sense of humanness portrayed through the photos, sentiments which will always remain essentially the same — defying space and time.
All of these little moments combine forces to stake one large claim: human suffering, perseverance and pride, working to evoke empathy for these people, unknown to most who pass them.
Despite the historical distance and the sobering quality of many of the images, they almost make one wish that he or she was there, with the old cars, the Feltson hats and the 10-cent Cokes.
Jack Delano, an American of Ukrainian descent and one of the photographers who traveled to Vermont with the FSA, captured scenes in at least 51 communities between the late summer and early fall of 1941. He adored the landscape and was enthralled by the developments transforming quotidian Vermont life; his photos capture sensitive moments and are some of the only images to incorporate humor.
Yet many of the images make plain Vermont's extreme work ethic; such photos include pasteurizing units at the United Farmers' Co-op Creamery in Sheldon Springs, cider press workers and FSA clients operating rusty equipment in an effort to maintain their farms.
On the other hand, Delano's many photos of side shows at the Vermont State Fair, such as the "Fattest Family," display hardship and loss that left the state, as he put it, "spiritually bankrupt."
However, Delano's work seems to be most popular with the crowds, where many have deemed it, "timeless, while grounded in the times."
"She [Graff] doesn't get into politics," claimed Sara Gregg '97, currently a Columbia graduate student and fellow at the Smithsonian who has written on Vermont farmland in the 1930s. "She just uses these images to show what was going on in the 1930s and how public photographers responded to life then."
Also among the photographers was Marion Post, who worked through March and April of 1940, during a period "generally reserved for men only."
Her photos of Woodstock's town meetings represent democracy's continual manifestations amidst Vermont's hardships, while her pictures of novice skiers capture Vermont on the brink of success in the tourist industry, which changed its economic and national image forever.
Photographs were chosen on the basis of their "necessary 'wow' element," as Perkins explained it, as well as "on the amount of time each photographer spent in the state," where the ones dedicating the most time would have an equal proportion of their photos displayed.
Jim Ralph, professor of history at the College, commented in regards to the museum's choices, "they are wonderful," explaining, "because they depict the not-too- distant Vermont, their overall effect portrays classic Vermont — that is, the Vermont that comes into the minds of many when Vermont is mentioned.".
Attesting to the credibility of the exhibition, Gregg claimed, "it is well-balanced because it is not exclusively nostalgic It includes factories run without human power, recreational images and cultural events as well."
Travis Jacobs, Fletcher D. Proctor professor of history, agreed. "It is an important sideshow for Vermont history, small town rural life and the state's environment."
Its quality may be enhanced by the fact that "the museum has let the pictures speak for themselves," Gregg elaborated, "as artifacts of history as well as images of art."
As for Perkins, he described the exhibit thus far as, "favorably received" with "an overwhelming response from the local area," including some who are in the photos.
For further information on the exhibition, Graff will be giving a free public slide lecture on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 11 a.m. in room 221 of the CFA, or you can visit the Museum's Web site at www.middlebury.edu/~museum or call at (802) 443-5007. The exhibit is free and open to the public Tuesday through Sunday. The museum is closed on Mondays.