History Museum exhibit holds up a 20th-century mirror to Vermont through year’s end
June 19, 2024 | By Waterbury Roundabout 
'Pillars of Vermont' by Luigi Lucioni
An exhibition of Vermont artwork collected over the course of a lifetime opens in Montpelier at the Vermont History Museum in July and runs through the end of this year.
Lyman Orton with some of his collection. Courtesy photo
Titled, “For the Love of Vermont, the Lyman Orton Collection,” the show is from the largest private collection of 20th-century paintings, prints and drawings by Vermont artists amassed over the last 45 years by Orton, proprietor of the Vermont Country Store in Manchester.
Three of the museum’s galleries will be used to showcase more than 80 works of art depicting Vermont’s landscape and people.
“The exhibition will be organized along themes (such as barns, churches, sugaring, etc.) and will formally open to the public on July 3rd,” said Andrew Liptak at the museum.
Run by the Vermont Historical Society, the Vermont History Museum is located in the Pavilion Building at 109 State St. in Montpelier. A special pre-opening reception for society members that will include a talk by Orton is scheduled for June 27 with the opening to the general public on July 3.
This is the first Central Vermont showing of works from the Orton collection, curated by the historical society, Orton, and the collection’s own curator Donnel Barnum. The pieces in the exhibition are scenes created between 1910 and 1970 by some 50 artists including Luigi Lucioni, Walton Blodgett, Francis Colburn, Cecil Bell, Rockwell Kent, Emile Gruppe, Ruth Mould, Mitzi Goward and Paul Sample.
The show debuted in 2023 at two southern Vermont museums – the Bennington Museum and the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester – where it broke prior attendance records.
Orton said that his goal in collecting Vermont art was to retain and repatriate works from the Golden Age of Vermont art for Vermonters and visitors to enjoy.
The companion book to Orton exhibit. Courtesy photo
“Every painting has a story, and stories are history, and so we curate each exhibit to relay visual and written experiences that express and even inspire the love of Vermont,” Orton said. “Unlike most art shows organized by individual artists, I have organized the collection into eleven themes of Vermont life. This way, viewers can enjoy how different artists may capture scenes from barns, churches, country fairs, and sugaring, to logging and even laundry drying on an outdoor clothesline. In the descriptions of the paintings, I want to tell stories to the viewers using everyday language, skipping all the academic ‘art talk.’ I want people to tell us their stories most of all.”
Orton said his hope is for the exhibit to appeal to a wide variety of people, especially “folks who perhaps have never attended an art exhibit.” He related a comment from a woman who attended the exhibition in 2023. “[She] said, ‘I had to drag my husband to the see the art show, and then I had to drag him out!’”
Stephen Perkins, executive director of the Vermont Historical Society, said the works that will be on exhibit offer a variety of unique perspectives on Vermont. “In addition to the stunning beauty of the art collection, it provides an insight into the Vermont scene from specific points in time through a lens that only an artist can provide,” Perkins said.
Along with the exhibition, the collection’s 2023 companion hardcover book, “For the Love of Vermont: The Lyman Orton Collection,” co-written by Orton and Vermont author Anita Rafael is on sale at the Vermont History Museum bookstore and at The Vermont Country Store.
The Vermont Historical Society plans to hold staff and guest programming during the six months the collection will be on view.
More information on the exhibition is on the Vermont Historical Society website. Membership details are online as well.
'Derby View' by Dean Fausett