Green Mountain Chronicles

Episode 9: Traveling Entertainment: The Chautauquas

In the early years of the twentieth century, before the days of radio and movies, an annual entertainment and cultural highlight for rural Vermonters was “Chautauqua Week.”

The tent Chautauquas were traveling groups that operated in many parts of the United States from 1904 to 1930, usually in villages and towns of 500 to 10,000 people. Each stop lasted approximately three to seven days during which audiences could enjoy a diversified program of lectures, music, drama, and humorous entertainment.

For more background on this episode, visit: //vermonthistory.org/traveling-entertainment-chautauquas-1915

Episode 8: 4-H in Vermont

With the decline of the Grange movement during the early part of the twentieth century, new instruments were developed to sustain the vitality of Vermont’s agricultural community. The Smith-Lever Act, passed by Congress in 1914 to provide for “the advancement of agriculture,” funded the fledgling Vermont Extension Service, operating under the aegis of the University of Vermont. Monies were channeled into three broad program areas, each to be administered by the Extension Service. The first was designed to promote extensive agricultural experimentation, the second sponsored “home demonstrations” across the state to acquaint farm families with innovations in “scientific” farming, and the third organized boys’ and girls’ clubs to “teach them how to manage, grow, and prepare market crops and animals and to demonstrate how to save surplus products by home canning.” Lest this language prove somewhat less than alluring, 4-H clubs, specifying “head, heart, health, and hands,” were born.

For more background on this episode, visit: //vermonthistory.org/4-h-in-vermont-1914

Episode 7: Early Aviation

Following news of the Wright Brothers’ exciting success at Kitty Hawk, exuberant Vermont youths took to their garages and workshops to construct their own flying machines.

For more background on this episode, please visit: //vermonthistory.org/early-aviation-1910

Episode 6: The Long Trail

Preparations for hiking Vermont’s 270-mile Long Trail, the first long-distance wilderness hiking trail in America, have changed considerably since the first Long Trail Guide was published in 1917. Men were advised to wear “ordinary height shoes with hobnails, felt hat, ‘generous sized’ silk bandana, inch-wide leather belt with cup attached, wool underwear, wool shirt and stout wool trousers,” while female hikers should have high-laced boots with “Hungarian nails,” and wear bloomers.

For more information on this episode, visit: //vermonthistory.org/long-trail-1910

Episode 5: The Telephone Comes to Vermont

For more information about this episode, visit: //vermonthistory.org/number-please-telephone-comes-to-vermont-1910

Episode 4: Dorothy Canfield Fisher

For more background on this episode, visit //vermonthistory.org/dorothy-canfield-fisher-1907

Episode 3: Early Autos in Vermont

Prior to World War I, automobiles in Vermont functioned by and large as novelties or objects of curiosity. They were few in number (in 1906, there were 373 registered vehicles) and, according to William Wilgus (The Role of Transportation in the Development of Vermont), usage was confined to “individual pleasure and convenience.”

For more background on this episode, visit //vermonthistory.org/early-autos-in-vermont-1902

Episode 2: The Age of Trolleys

In the years before the First World War, the electric trolley, spitting blue sparks, saw its heyday in Vermont, also its decline. The little four-wheel “bobbers” and the big eight-wheel, two-trucked interurbans carried 10 million passengers a year.

For more background on this episode, visit: //vermonthistory.org/age-of-trolleys-1901

Episode 1: Dewey Day

The “Dewey Day” celebration in Vermont occurred in Montpelier on October 12, 1899. On that day Vermonters staged a historic welcome home for native son Admiral George Dewey, whose success in destroying the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War made him the nation’s number one naval hero. Dewey’s exploit in the Philippines seemed to bring glory to Vermont and it became one the highlights of standard histories of the state.

For more background on this episode, visit //vermonthistory.org/dewey-day-a-century-ends-1899