Exhibition Reviews

"Freedom and Unity: One Ideal, Many Stories." Vermont Historical Society Museum, 109 State St., Montpelier, VT 05609.       Permanent exhibition, opened March 20, 2004. Tu–Sa 10–4 year round; Su 12–4 May–Oct. Adults $5, students and seniors $3, children under 6 free, family day pass $12. 5,000 sq. ft. Jacqueline Calder, chief curator and project director; Amy Cunningham, director of education; Mara Williams, project manager; Shadows & Light Design, designers.       Freedom and Unity: A History of Vermont. By Michael Sherman, Gene Sessions, and P. Jeffrey Potash. (Barre: Vermont Historical Society, 2004. xix, 730 pp. Cloth, $34.95, isbn 0-93472-048-7. Paper, $24.95, ISBN 0-93472-049-5.)       Debates in the Peoples' House (video); 18 mins. "Conversation Station," taped conversations with various Vermonters.       Internet: brief descriptions of this exhibition, 4 online exhibitions, directions, hours <http://www.vermonthistoricalsociety.org>, "Museum" (Sept. 12, 2005).
From a standpoint of square miles, Vermont is one of the smallest states in the union. Yet from its beginnings Vermont and its people have taken to heart the outsize ideal, set forth by this country's founders, of balancing individual freedom with living and working for the common good.	1
Here then, happily, comes a new, permanent museum that takes its cue directly from the state motto. "Freedom and Unity: One Ideal, Many Stories" has opened recently at the Vermont Historical Society's renovated space at the Pavilion Building in downtown Montpelier. This highly interactive exhibit presents stories of Vermonters who have worked to achieve that ideal.	2
What unfolds over the course of the exhibit is twelve thousand years of peoples' presence here. Beginning with the arrival of the Paleoindians and proceeding through the Archaic and Woodland eras, the movements and achievements of native cultures—Algonquin, Iroquois, and Abenaki—are highlighted. A replica of an Abenaki wigwam, built for the exhibit under the supervision of an Abenaki native, lends a degree of authenticity to this section.	3
Entrance to the Vermont Historical Society Museum's interactive exhibit on the history of Vermont and its people, "Freedom and Unity: One Ideal, Many Stories." The mural depicts a pastoral town, a speaker addressing a small crowd, and stoneworkers. Courtesy Jacqueline Calder, Vermont History Center, Barre.
Proceeding to the arrival of white settlers, the narrative stresses the early cooperative nature of the native tribes with the French and English and their eventual scattering to northwestern and eastern Vermont by the close of the Seven Years' War. The years leading up to the colonial revolution are illustrative of the conflicts of land ownership, spurred by Gov. Benning Wentworth's New Hampshire grants and the resultant dispute with New York, all of which gave rise to the creation of the Green Mountain Boys to protect land from "Yorkers" and, soon afterward, the British.	. . .