Latest Episode: Call It a New Life
Technological improvements, from butter churns to electricity, transformed life on Vermont farms from the 1890s through the mid-20th century. Many of these changes eased the workload of Vermont’s farming families. But other changes – done in the name of modernity – had long-term impacts on the future of dairy in our state.
Image courtesy Vermont Historical Society, from Green Mountain Chronicles: https://vermonthistory.org/coming-of-the-bulk-tanks-1954.
About the Show
Before Your Time is produced by the Vermont Historical Society and Vermont Humanities. Every episode, we go inside the stacks at the Vermont Historical Society to look at an object from their permanent collection that tells us something unique about our state. Then, we take a closer look at the people, the events, or the ideas that surround each artifact.
Recent Episodes
Call it A New Life
Technological improvements, from butter churns to electricity, transformed life on Vermont farms from the 1890s through the mid-20th century. Many of these changes eased the workload of Vermont’s farming families. But other changes – done in the name of modernity – had long-term impacts on the future of dairy in our state.
A Foot in Both Worlds
People speaking Spanish as they milk cows may not fit our traditional image of a Vermont farm. But workers from Mexico and Central America are crucial to the state’s economy. And such migrant labor has a long history in Vermont.
The Curious Catamount
Though said to be extinct, catamounts live on in the minds of many Vermonters. In this episode we retrace a Barnard panther hunt from 1881 and consider the hold that these big cats continue to have on our imaginations.
A Town Solves a Problem
Town meeting is central to our identity as a little state on a human scale that does things differently. But what happens to town meeting when it needs to change during a pandemic? Or when it changes because Vermont itself has changed?
Send Me a Box
We examine some of the products that people have mailed from and to Vermont, from maple syrup to complete houses and almost everything in between.
Vermont on the Silver Screen
From “A Vermont Romance” to “Funny Farm,” our state has been featured in films for over a century. What are the myths that Hollywood creates about our lives in Vermont? And what are the myths that we create ourselves?
