Shelburne Museum, VT

The features that are in the Shelburne Museum were inspired by a woman named Electra Havemeyer Webb. She and her husband owned The Brick House which was given to them as a wedding present. The home has splendid views of the Adirondack Mountains and Lake Champlain. It has forty rooms and is a mere two miles from the museum. Mrs. Webb showcased her art work, textiles, furnishings and other home d,cor in a most unusual manner for the time period and it was visited by many famous people because of it. Many of the decorating schemes and exhibition themes were displayed in the Shelburne Museum beginning in the late 1940's. There are tours of the home so visitors to the Shelburne Museum can take advantage of it.

The museum is open from May through October. The hours are 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Thursday evenings until 7:30 pm in June, July and August. The price of admission is twenty dollars for adults, teachers and students over eighteen are eighteen dollars, children 5-18 are ten dollars and children under five are free. Vermont residents are ten dollars for adults and five dollars for children older than five. Museum members are allowed into the museum for free. A family pass that includes two adults and their children ages 5-18 will pay fifty dollars. The admission price is cut in half after 3:00 pm except on Thursdays. Visitors can reach the museum from I-89 in Vermont, take Exit 13 and go south on Route 7. The museum is seven miles from the town of Burlington, Vermont.

Upcoming exhibits include Ansel Adams and Edward Burtynsky: Constructed Landscapes, Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece and Circus Day in America. Families are welcome at the Shelburne Museum with many special activities planned. The Owl Cottage Family Activity Center features a craft and activity center where everyone can read, work on arts and crafts, play with toys, games, puzzles and dress up in costumes. There is a 1920's carousel that is close to the museum entrance for families to ride on. Circus music is one of the highlights of this delightful ride. A nineteenth century garden has a playground for children located adjacent to the Vergennes School house.

The museum holds daily demonstrations during their season. These demonstrations are of trades that would have been used in the eighteenth and nineteenth century in New England. Visitors can see a weaver, printing demonstration and blacksmithing in the Blacksmith Shop. There are also walking tours of the Ticonderoga twice a day from Mid June through Mid August.

Some of the collections that can be seen at the Shelburne Museum include: Miniature Circus figures and Circus Posters, American Paintings, Impressionist Paintings by Monet, Manet, Degas, Cassatt and others, Folk Art, Historic House interiors from 1790 to 1950, Decorative Arts, a 1906 passenger steamboat, The Ticonderoga, Quilts, Hooked Rugs and Textiles, Decoys, Carriages and Sleighs with more than two hundred on display, tools and more than four hundred antique dolls along with other toys. There is a caf, on the museum ground that is open the same hours as the museum.