Shelburne Museum facts for kids

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Shelburne Museum
Shelburne Museum's Round Barn
Established	1947
Location	6000 Shelburne Road Shelburne, Vermont, U.S.
Type	Museum of art and Americana
Collection size	>150,000
Founder	Electra Havemeyer Webb

The Shelburne Museum is a special place in Shelburne, Vermont, United States. It's a museum that shows off art, cool designs, and things from American history. Imagine a whole village filled with amazing collections!

The museum has more than 150,000 items. These are shown in 39 different buildings. Twenty-five of these buildings are historic. They were moved here from other places! The museum covers 45 acres, which is like 34 football fields. It's also close to Lake Champlain.

You can see many different things here. There are beautiful Impressionist paintings and unique folk art. You'll also find quilts, old fabrics, fancy decorations, and furniture. The museum has American paintings and many items from the 1600s to the 1900s. It's especially known for its 19th-century American folk art, quilts, and decoys. There are also many old carriages.

The museum was started in 1947 by Electra Havemeyer Webb. She was one of the first people to collect American folk art. Her parents were famous art collectors too. But Electra loved American art and history. She had a special vision for her museum.

To show her collections, she moved old buildings to the museum grounds. These buildings came from New England and New York. There are 20 historic structures in total. They include houses, barns, a schoolhouse, a lighthouse, and even a jail! One of the coolest things is the 220-foot steamboat Ticonderoga.

Electra Webb wanted the museum to be "an educational project, varied and alive." The collections are set up like a New England village. The grounds are beautiful too, with over 400 lilac bushes and lovely gardens.

In 2013, the Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education opened. This new building has galleries, an auditorium, and a classroom. It helped the museum stay open all year. Before, it was only open from May to October.

In 2023, the museum started a new project. It's called the Native American Initiative. They plan to build a new space. This space will show and explain Native American items. It will include items the museum already has. It will also feature the Perry Collection, which has 200 pieces from Plains, Prairie, and Southwest groups.

How Shelburne Museum Started
What You Can See: The Collections
Buildings to Explore
Images for kids
See also

How Shelburne Museum Started

The Shelburne Museum began with Electra Havemeyer Webb. She was a very important collector. She was one of the first to see the beauty in everyday American objects. These were things made by people in the countryside.

Electra loved American folk art. She started the museum in 1947. Her big idea was to move historic buildings. She brought them from New England and New York. This way, she could show her collections inside these special old buildings.

What You Can See: The Collections

Grainstack, White Frost Effect by Claude Monet, 1890-91

The main part of the museum's collection came from Electra Havemeyer Webb. She was a pioneer in collecting American folk art. Mrs. Webb shared ideas with other big collectors of her time. One of them was Henry Francis du Pont. He started the Winterthur Museum. He even said Mrs. Webb inspired him to collect American decorative arts.

Since Mrs. Webb passed away in 1960, the museum has kept growing. It focuses on folk art and modern art that connects to the collection. The artifacts here show the skill and art of things made by Americans. These items were used over three centuries. Visitors can see them in galleries and rooms set up like old homes. You can also enjoy interactive exhibits and demonstrations.

The museum has items about transportation, farming, and trade. These show how America grew from the 1700s to the early 1900s. These collections are very important. They help people understand how communities change.

Shelburne Museum wants to make people's lives better. It does this through art, history, and culture. The collection has about 150,000 objects. It's one of the biggest and most varied collections in the U.S. It's known for its wide range, quality, and depth. The amazing collections of fine, folk, and decorative art celebrate American creativity.

Folk Art and Circus Fun

The museum's folk art collection is huge. It includes 1,400 wildfowl decoys. These are models of birds used for hunting. There are also miniature carvings. You can see 150 trade figures and signs. These were used by shops long ago. There are 120 weathervanes and 50 carousel figures. This includes all 40 animals from an old Dentzel carousel.

The circus collection is also very exciting. It has 600 old posters and letters from P.T. Barnum. You can also see the hand-carved Kirk Brothers Miniature Circus. It has 3,500 tiny pieces! The Roy Arnold Circus Parade is another amazing display. It shows 112 attractions from famous circuses in miniature. This display is 525 feet long!

Textiles and Decorative Arts

The textile collection has 770 bed coverings. This includes 500 beautiful quilts. There are also 400 hooked and sewn rugs. You can see early household textiles like 1,800 samplers, laces, and linens. The museum also has 2,800 costumes and accessories.

The decorative arts collection has 6,650 pieces. These include glass, ceramics, and metalwork. There's also scrimshaw, which is art carved into bone or ivory. The museum has one of the best collections of painted furniture from the 1700s and 1800s.

More than 1,000 dolls are on display. There are also 27 dollhouses and 1,200 doll accessories. These tiny items are like miniature versions of the museum's other collections. They show ceramics, furniture, and other household items. The collection of American and European toys dates back to the early 1800s.

Paintings and Fine Art

The museum has about 3,200 American prints, paintings, and drawings. These show scenes from daily life. Famous American painters include Bierstadt, Cassatt, Homer, and Grandma Moses.

There's also a special group of European paintings. These come from the famous Havemeyer collection. You can see works by artists like Degas and Monet. These are the only Impressionism paintings you can see in public in Vermont. They are shown in rooms that look like the Webbs' New York apartment from the 1930s.

Tools and Trades

The collections also include 225 horse-drawn vehicles. Experts say this is one of the best collections in the country. There are 1,000 farming tools and 5,000 hand tools. These tools show how people worked with wood, metal, and leather. They also show how people wove and spun thread.

You can watch craftspeople at work in some exhibits. They demonstrate blacksmithing, printing, spinning, and weaving. There's an old apothecary shop and doctor's office. It has 2,000 old medicines and medical tools from the early 1900s.

Front view of the Ticonderoga (steamboat) at Shelburne Museum

The collections are shown in 38 exhibition buildings. Twenty-five of these buildings were moved to the museum. You can see the 1871 Colchester Reef Lighthouse. There are also three historic barns and three replica barns. One is a 1901 Vermont round barn.

Other cool buildings include an old carousel that still works. There are shops for blacksmiths and wheelwrights. You can see a weaving shop with an operating Jacquard loom. There's also a working exhibit of printing equipment from the late 1800s.

You can visit an 1840 one-room schoolhouse. There's an 1890 Vermont slate jail. An 1840 general store shows what shopping was like long ago. You can also see a rare 18th-century sawmill. A 19th-century covered bridge has two lanes and a footpath.

The museum has the reconstructed office of a famous Vermont doctor, D. C. Jarvis. There's an 1890 railroad station. You can also see a 1914 steam locomotive and an 1890 private rail car. And don't forget the 1906, 220-foot steamboat Ticonderoga. This steamboat is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.