Vermont Historical Society offers a number of resources for helping local historical societies and museums with their collections care.
Collections care lending library
The League of Local Historical Societies Manager at Vermont Historical Society maintains a Collections Care Library of more than 200 books that are available for any Vermont local society or museum to borrow, with a small shipping fee. Please click here for the full list. For more information or assistance, please contact Lisa Evans at the Vermont Historical Society: (802) 479-8522 or
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.
Special programs and assistance
The League offers participation in special programs, such as the Community History Partnership, Connecting to Collections, and the Alliance for Response. Additionally, the Vermont Historical Society occasionally hosts workshops designed to assist local historical societies and museums with a wide array of the challenges they may face, from collections care, strategic planning, volunteer recruitment, disaster management, creating exhibits, planning regional history fairs to PastPerfect cataloging.
Collections Care Mentoring Program
Collecting, preserving, and interpreting documents and artifact is an important undertaking. Local historical societies and museums do a remarkable job of this critical role in Vermont, often with severely limited resources. Now the Vermont Historical Society will carry forward the exemplary work previously undertaken by the Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance and offer the Collections Care Mentoring Program.
If you are a local historical society or museum and wish to find out more about the VHS Collections Care Mentoring Program, please click here. If your organization has expertise in collections care, please click here to find out how you can help with this new program at VHS.
Technical assistance
Questions concerning collections care and conservation are routinely handled by VHS professional staff. Assistance is often provided on the following topics:
- Incorporating a new local historical society
- Creating bylaws
- Applying for 501(c)(3) non-profit status
- Referrals to the Vermont Secretary of State’s website for questions on taxes, etc.
- Collections conservation
- Collections care
- Collections inventorying and cataloging
- Acquiring interns
- Educational outreach
- Hosting public events
- Publishing town histories
- Fundraising
- Finding volunteers
- Strategic planning
- Creating websites
- Applying for town financial support
- Purchasing insurance
- Preservation of buildings
For more information or assistance, please contact Lisa Evans at the Vermont Historical Society: (802) 479-8522 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Vermont Connecting to Collections Project
The Vermont Connecting to Collections Project was an IMLS-funded project of the Vermont Historical Society working in partnership with the Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance, the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, the Vermont Department of Libraries and the Vermont State Archives. Surveys were sent to public institutions with Vermont heritage collections including: museums, historical societies, historic sites, libraries, municipal offices, and probate courts. Of the 776 surveys sent out, over one-third were returned with answers to questions about who is responsible for and how they care for their collections.
To see summary of findings, go to Vermont Heritage at Risk. Please contact Jackie Calder, VHS Museum Curator (802) 479-8514,
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with any questions.
