Photographs of Vergennes (Vt.)
Collection Overview
This collection contains 788 images comprising 122 years of history in Vergennes, Vermont’s oldest city. Featuring a wide range of topics, which date from the 1866 Civil War parade to the 1988 Bicentennial, the collection provides a comprehensive and unusual look at small town life in northern Vermont. These photographs document the full visual spectrum of history in Vergennes, from businesses, industries, and transportation to natural scenery, paintings, and portraits of people who once walked the city’s streets.
These images were scanned from 35mm slides located in the Bixby Memorial Free Library archives in Vergennes. The slides were made around 1987 from color photographs taken of the original images. The originals, mainly of the Vergennes area but including several from Ferrisburgh and Lake Champlain, had accumulated over the years in the library’s historical materials repository. Many of these photographs, along with the slides and accompanying inventory notebook, can be viewed with permission at the library.
The authors of these photographs remain undocumented and anonymous, except for a selection of photographs by local artist Harvey Custer Ingham (1863-1931), a personal friend of local businessman and library founder William Gove Bixby (1829-1907).
Mr. Bixby left funds from his estate for the founding of a public library in the city of Vergennes, including the construction of the imposing Greek revival library building on Main Street. The library opened on November 4, 1912, and in 2012 celebrates a century of continued service to Vergennes and the surrounding towns of Addison, Panton, Waltham, and Ferrisburgh.
Published: May 06, 2011, University of Vermont, Bailey/Howe Library, Special Collections
Rights: No part of the material may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, broadcasting or by any other information storage and retrieval system. Direct all inquiries and requests to the Bixby Memorial Free Library, Vergennes, Vt. 802-877-2211.
Browse Options
Place(s)
- Otter Creek (Vt.) [20]
- Vergennes (Vt.) [17]
- Ferrisburgh (Vt.) [2]
Format(s)
- image [20]
Genre(s)
- color slides [20]
Topic(s)
- Boats and boating [20]
- Steamboats [10]
- Transportation [10]
- Industries [6]
- Buildings [5]
- Ingham, Harvey C. [1]
- Landscape photography [1]
- Streets [1]
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Place: ("Otter Creek (Vt.)")
Topic: ("Boats and boating")
Title: Barge below falls Nails shipped to N.Y. returned with ore
Resource type: color slides
National Horse Nail Co.
Title: Boats in harbor Horse Nail Factory
Resource type: color slides
Basin below Vergennes falls, Horse Nail Factory in background.
Title: Reindeer
Resource type: color slides
The Str. Reindeer, built at St. Albans in 1882 (181' x 27' x 9'), was the largest to navigate Otter Creek. This picture shows her at Vergennes in her trimmer and more youthful days, before the life of an Excursion boat made her sag in the middle. In the gay Nineties, it was a common sigh to see her staggering up and down the lake, her decks weighed down with crowds who often flocked to one side or the other giving her a careening look, her guards on one side almost at the water's edge and the paddlewheel on the opposite side fanning the air. She would then stop until the crew could restore equilibrium among passengers and boat. She sank at her dock in Burlington in 1902 from causes not known.
Title: Vergennes Falls 1850
Date: 1850
Resource type: color slides
Vergennes was incorporated a city in 1788. There was a sawmill at The Falls as early as 1765. In 1766, Donald MacIntosh, a soldier under Wolfe at Quebec, erected a cabin below the Falls and high up on the North bank. He became the first permanent settler, dying in Vergennes in 1803. The Falls, with a drop of about 35 feet has furnished power to many industries since the first sawmill of 1765 and those shown in the engraving of 1850 gave some idea of the business around them at the that time. The picture does not include all the mills as there were many on the North bank which are not shown. The name "Robinson Del" in the lower right hand corner of the engraving may refer to Rowland T. Robinson as he was a capable artist in addition to being a famous Vermont writer.
Title: Water Lily 1867
Resource type: color slides
The Str. Water Lily, Capt. Louis Daniels, Master, on her way up Otter Creek. The Water Lily, a small steamer built about 1867, plied between Vergennes and Port Henry, later between Vergennes and Westpot. She left Vergennes in the morning around 8 A.M., making intermediate stops and landing at Westport around 10 A.M. in time to connect with the Str. Vermont going South. She left Westport after the return of the "Vermont" from Ticonderoga, with passengers for Vergennes.
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