Special Collections

   1 linear ft.

Scope and Content

Includes rosters from the Chamberlain Post, the Dept. of Vt. GAR, and the 1917 national encampment; a book of by-laws dated 1883; four copies (1890, 1906-1907) of a booklet entitled Services for the Use of the G.A.R., containing approved services for use at Memorial Day, member burials, and other public ceremonies; five copies of a booklet entitled Rituals (1891-1907), containing the guidelines for conducting Post meetings and internal rituals, which were entrusted to the sole keeping of the Commander. Rituals was a very closely held secret document, disclosure or loss of which was sufficient cause for dishonorable discharge.

Related Collections

The Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium Archives currently houses the Chamberlain Posts book containing personal remembrances of members (Accession #: 9885), which formally formed a portion of the St. Johnsbury Athenaeums Chamberlain Post No. 1 records.

   .25 linear ft.

Scope and Content

Applications for membership in the GAR, which includes the applicants name, address, occupation, brief service record, signature. Folders are chronological by year.

   2 linear ft. (6 volumes & 3 folders)

Scope and Content

Minutes of meetings of the Post describing business transactions, election of new members, events and patriotic activities sponsored by the Post, and, particularly in later years, the health and welfare of the membership. The minutes continue through 1940 when only a handful of members remain and meetings are attended by Sons and Daughters of Union Veterans. Clippings from 1941about the death of Civil War veterans conclude the final book. Clippings are interfiled and pasted throughout the volumes. Loose clippings have been removed and photocopied and are foldered separately.

   1 linear ft. (6 volumes)

Scope and Content

Five volumes (1895-1941) are ledgers recording moneys received and expended by the Post. There are three dues receipt books (1895-1930, 1933-1939).

   .75 linear ft. (4 volumes, 4 folders)

Scope and Content

Various records including proceedings of encampments in other states (1938-1939), a survey of war veterans buried in St. Johnsbury (ca. 1916-1920), a description of Libby prison, and blank forms.

   25 linear ft.

Scope and Content

An album originally belonging to Ephraim W. Harrington contains carte-de-visite photographs of notable Civil War personages - including Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Generals Rickets and William F. Baldy Smith - and members of the Second Vermont Regiment. Harrington had a distinguished career in the Second Vermont, rising from the ranks of Sgt. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallantry carrying the colors at the second battle of Fredericksburg and was subsequently brevetted to Major for gallantry at Petersburg. The album was presented to the Chamberlain Post by Mrs. Sarah D. W. Harrington on April 19, 1919.