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Shelburne Museum
May. 25th, 2006 11:01 pmToday I went to the Shelburne Museum just south of Burlington, Vermont. When I first read about it, it didn’t sound that exciting. It’s supposed to be a large collection of American decorative and folk art. How long can you really look at cute painted things?
I ended up staying all day. The exhibits are set in 37 buildings spread out over 45 acres with gravel paths and plenty of bright green lawns and flowering trees running between them.
And the whole folk art bit is really because it’s not so easy to describe what’s there. Each building is different. For example, there’s the large round barn with weathervanes on display. Did you know these used to be installed basically as family crests as well as a way to figure out the direction of the wind?
There’s a steamship. It’s just huge compared to most boats I’ve toured. Even the crew’s bunks are in a room large enough to stand up in, though you still have to deal with the snoring of your coworkers. It took over two months to move it two miles inland to the site of the museum. They had to do a lot of crazy things to accomplish that, like build train tracks ahead of it as they went along.
There’s a room full of quilts. One is a crazy quilt where each piece of fabric is a solid color, but most of them are embroidered, painted, or something else I couldn’t even recognize. One had two corners cut out so you could get it to hang properly on a four-poster (or other) bed.
One bear rugs, animal heads, and entire stuffed animals, and also a bunch of canoes.
One long, horseshoe-shaped building was lined with carousel seats along one side and a really, really long circus parade done in miniatures along the other.
There was a covered bridge imported. A pond was dug out so it would have some water to span. Later a visit said that bridge wasn’t real bright--it would have been a lot cheaper to fill in that pond than to build that huge bridge.
And that’s just six of the 37 buildings. The best part was just walking around in the lovely weather though. It reminded me of going to a Renaissance Festival, only with no one screaming for you to buy their wares in a fun accent. Just quiet, cool, breezy, and sunny.
I also got to see a Conestoga wagon, which was much bigger than I had pictured. The driver didn’t even ride in it; he walked along side it holding the reins.
I saw a colonial dining room where every wall had several murals. It would be like picnicking every day.
I saw a house with walls decorated with stencils, once known as the poor man’s wallpaper. I’ve seen stenciling done along the top of a wall or around a doorframe before, like a wallpaper border. But I’ve never seen it done along a whole wall (and around a whole room). One thing about using stenciling instead of wallpaper is that you can make the design go perfectly with the exact size and shape of your walls.
After that visit, I had a few errands to do: laundry, eating, and RainX. I accomplished all of these. I won't go into any detail here except to say that I made $0.35 at the laundromat. I found $0.25 in the dryer change return thing. And when I gave a girl a quarter in exchange for two dimes and a nickel, she insisted on giving me three dimes and a nickel. Oh, also I learned that one thing you can fill a burrito with is another tortilla.
Tomorrow I leave this hotel with its worst shower known to man. Well, for a shower with an unlimited supply of clean hot water, perfect drainage, and no smell or rotting at all. Actually, there are only three problems. First, the temperature control is very sensitive. It’s easy to get it too hot or too cold, but not just right. Second, the temperature and volume decrease as time goes on, and at variable rates. So, you have to readjust it at least six times during your shower. Third, the towels are the least absorbent towels I’ve ever used. Rub one over your skin, and now the water droplets are small instead of big. Okay, I guess that helps.
All in all, a lovely day, and much better than I expected. And tomorrow Robin will be joining me!
I ended up staying all day. The exhibits are set in 37 buildings spread out over 45 acres with gravel paths and plenty of bright green lawns and flowering trees running between them.
And the whole folk art bit is really because it’s not so easy to describe what’s there. Each building is different. For example, there’s the large round barn with weathervanes on display. Did you know these used to be installed basically as family crests as well as a way to figure out the direction of the wind?
There’s a steamship. It’s just huge compared to most boats I’ve toured. Even the crew’s bunks are in a room large enough to stand up in, though you still have to deal with the snoring of your coworkers. It took over two months to move it two miles inland to the site of the museum. They had to do a lot of crazy things to accomplish that, like build train tracks ahead of it as they went along.
There’s a room full of quilts. One is a crazy quilt where each piece of fabric is a solid color, but most of them are embroidered, painted, or something else I couldn’t even recognize. One had two corners cut out so you could get it to hang properly on a four-poster (or other) bed.
One bear rugs, animal heads, and entire stuffed animals, and also a bunch of canoes.
One long, horseshoe-shaped building was lined with carousel seats along one side and a really, really long circus parade done in miniatures along the other.
There was a covered bridge imported. A pond was dug out so it would have some water to span. Later a visit said that bridge wasn’t real bright--it would have been a lot cheaper to fill in that pond than to build that huge bridge.
And that’s just six of the 37 buildings. The best part was just walking around in the lovely weather though. It reminded me of going to a Renaissance Festival, only with no one screaming for you to buy their wares in a fun accent. Just quiet, cool, breezy, and sunny.
I also got to see a Conestoga wagon, which was much bigger than I had pictured. The driver didn’t even ride in it; he walked along side it holding the reins.
I saw a colonial dining room where every wall had several murals. It would be like picnicking every day.
I saw a house with walls decorated with stencils, once known as the poor man’s wallpaper. I’ve seen stenciling done along the top of a wall or around a doorframe before, like a wallpaper border. But I’ve never seen it done along a whole wall (and around a whole room). One thing about using stenciling instead of wallpaper is that you can make the design go perfectly with the exact size and shape of your walls.
After that visit, I had a few errands to do: laundry, eating, and RainX. I accomplished all of these. I won't go into any detail here except to say that I made $0.35 at the laundromat. I found $0.25 in the dryer change return thing. And when I gave a girl a quarter in exchange for two dimes and a nickel, she insisted on giving me three dimes and a nickel. Oh, also I learned that one thing you can fill a burrito with is another tortilla.
Tomorrow I leave this hotel with its worst shower known to man. Well, for a shower with an unlimited supply of clean hot water, perfect drainage, and no smell or rotting at all. Actually, there are only three problems. First, the temperature control is very sensitive. It’s easy to get it too hot or too cold, but not just right. Second, the temperature and volume decrease as time goes on, and at variable rates. So, you have to readjust it at least six times during your shower. Third, the towels are the least absorbent towels I’ve ever used. Rub one over your skin, and now the water droplets are small instead of big. Okay, I guess that helps.
All in all, a lovely day, and much better than I expected. And tomorrow Robin will be joining me!