Billings Farm, located in Woodstock, Vermont, has a long history, starting in 1871, when it was first established by Frederick Billings, noted lawyer, financier, and conservationist. He acquired the former estate of George Perkins Marsh, the author of the book Man and Nature, and considered by some to be America’s first environmentalist and conservationist. A native Vermonter, Billings was concerned with the failing state of Vermont farming, and he purchased the Marsh estate and founded the farm with the intent of putting his conservationist ideas into practice. His efforts led to the reforestation of many parts of the state of Vermont, especially in the Woodstock region, as well as a rejuvenation of farming in the state. The farm has operated consistently since its founding, and has won numerous awards for its Jersey cattle at various exhibitions nationwide.
The farm eventually passed to Mary French Rockefeller, a descendant of Frederick Billings, and she and her husband Laurance took a great interest in the town of Woodstock. The home of Marsh and Billings and now Rockefeller, simply called “the mansion,” was dedicated as a National Historic Landmark in 1967 by Lady Bird Johnson, and the following year the Rockefellers created Woodstock Foundation, Inc., a philanthropic organization dedicated to the preservation and betterment of the town of Woodstock. Now a part of the Woodstock Foundation, exhibits using artifacts from Billings Farm’s history were developed and the historic farmhouse was renovated and restored to how it may have looked when it was built in the 1890s. The farm reopened as a farm and museum in 1983, and the forest across the street, along with the mansion, were turned into Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in the 1990s.
Since its opening, Billings Farm and Museum has acted as the “gateway to Vermont’s rural heritage,” and developed programming, events, and exhibits that explore farming in Vermont, both in the 1890s and presently, as well as the history of the conservation movement as spearheaded by Marsh, Billings, and Rockefeller. The main permanent exhibit, “The Vermont Farm Year in 1890,” is housed in four historic connected barns, and takes the visitor through farm life in Vermont in 1890. Historic hand tools, farm machines, oral histories, historic photographs, and oral histories tell the story of Vermont farmers’ connection to the land and their day-to-day activities through four seasons of work and home life. The exhibit is self-guided, with information provided through wall text and recordings as well as the visual representation of the artifacts and life-size recreations.
The secondary permanent exhibit is a small introductory exhibit titled “Upon This Land,” and chronicles the history of the farm from the days of the Marsh family to the present-day farm and museum. Information is provided in wall text and recordings, with additional photographs and artifacts provided for illustration.
The farmhouse, called the “1890 Farm House,” was originally built to be the home of the farm manager’s family. It was lived in and renovated consistently, and was at one point split into separate apartments for farm hands. In the 1980s, the house was renovated and restored to its original 1890 layout, and filled with period artifacts to resemble an 1890s home. There are two floors that can be toured. The basement floor, where the visitors’ entrance is located, houses the restored dairy, laundry room, and cistern. The first floor has a sitting room, a living room, a guest bedroom, a bathroom, a dining room, a pantry, a kitchen, and an office. There is a second floor, which was not restored and is not open to the public. Six days of the week the house can only be viewed on a tour presented by Interpretive staff, but on Tuesdays the museum opens the house for exploration for a weekly event they call “Time Travel Tuesdays.” Costumed interpreters are stationed throughout the house and guide visitors in activities and answer questions. Food is cooked in the kitchen, but because of state sanitary guidelines, it can’t be sampled by guests. In an effort to maintain the atmosphere of an 1890 farmhouse, there is no wall text in any part of the house, but Interpretive staff is trained to answer questions and provide information.
There are a couple other small exhibits, including a display of historic wagons and an ice house, both of which include wall text to explain artifacts and history. The rest of the museum is a working farm, and visitors are invited to explore the cow barn, the horse barn, and see the sheep and the other animals in pasture. The barns contain brief wall text explanations, but farm staff and Interpretive staff are also available to answer questions. Programs are held throughout the day, and visitors can attend them to learn more about animals and various farm activities both historical and present-day.
In addition, the museum has two videos they show in a theater, one, the Academy Award nominated A Place in the Land, directed by Charles Guggenheim, is a half-hour documentary shown daily, and follows the history of the conservationist movement in America from the perspective of the Billings Farm property and its three most significant owners: George Perkins Marsh, Frederick Billings, and Laurance Rockefeller. There is also an 8-minute video called A Thing Worth Doing, which plays in the “Vermont Farm Year” exhibit and describes the evolution of Billings Farm and responsible land use using historic photographs and voiceovers.
The museum holds frequent events, from the weekly events such as “Time Travel Tuesdays,” “Wagon Ride Wednesdays,” “Foodways Fridays,” and “Ice Cream Sundays,” to special event days like “Sheep Shearing Day” and their most popular annual event, “Old Vermont Fourth.” These days have special programming and activities. There is also an annual “Quilt Exhibition,” where quiltmakers from the area send in recent homemade quilts to be shown in a special exhibit hall. The quilts are judged by a panel of quiltmakers, who choose the best in show and their personal favorites. The curator of the museum also chooses a favorite, and the visitors get to vote on their favorite. The winners receive ribbons, and the exhibit is displayed for a month.
For the most part, there is not very much technology that goes into the museum and its exhibits and programming. The museum website is well-maintained and up to date, and provides a history of the farm and museum as well as visitor information and a link to their Facebook page. The Facebook page is also well maintained, and is updated daily with photos, videos, and news and events, but there is not a lot of interaction with visitors to the page. The museum itself is meant to give visitors something of a sense of stepping back in time to see a farm in 1890, and as such interaction with Interpretive staff is emphasized.
The museum also holds library and archival collections, both of which are only accessible by request. The library is a collection of over 9,000 bound volumes relating, as the website says, “in a very general sense to 19th and early 20th century agricultural practices and farm life in Vermont and New England.” The catalog for the library is digitized in Past Perfect, and only accessible on site. Also considered a part of the library’s collections is the audio and video holdings, including an extensive collection of oral histories as well as video recordings relating to farm life in the area in the mid-to-late 20th century.
I was able to contact Marianne Zephir, the Archive and Collections Specialist at Billings Farm and Museum to ask about the archival collections. The archival holdings are managed separately from the library collection and consist of two main collections, the Billings Family Archives and the Billings Farm Records. The Billings Family Archives are completely processed and cataloged in Past Perfect, with a PDF finding aid available to researchers upon request. The Family Archives is, in Marianne’s words, “a collection of household, personal, and business related documents, letters, diaries, and photographs, that record the history of the Billings family and provide a rich source of information about family relationships and activities.” The collection spans 128 years, from 1869 to 1997, is 244 linear feet, and was created by the Billings, French, and Rockefeller families who owned and operated the property during those years. The Billings Farm Records are currently being processed by Marianne, and consist of business records pertaining to Billings Farm from its establishment in 1871 through the present day, and have been collected from the Billings Farm offices and from outside sources. It’s estimated at 170 linear feet, and Marianne is attempting to process it to folder level and thinks it will take anywhere from 6 months to a year working two days a week. Once it’s complete, she will catalog it in Past Perfect and make the finding aid available in PDF format. Also, there are additional papers relating to Vermont farm agriculture and history, in particular agricultural practices, farm equipment, and capital improvement to farm lands and buildings. These papers were assembled by farm managers, farm employees, and family members.
One notable aspect of the collections that I found interesting is the inclusion of 57 Carleton Watkins mammoth photographs of Yosemite and California in the 1860s. This collection was originally owned by Frederick Billings, who knew Watkins. According to Marianne, Billings once commissioned Watkins to take pictures of the New Almaden Mine as part of a Supreme Court case concerning a land dispute for which Billings was one of the lawyers. An admirer of the work, Billings then acquired 30 prints of Watkins’ Yosemite photographs. The prints were a part of the collection donated by Laurance and Mary Rockefeller.
Overall, there doesn’t seem to be any immediate preservation issues, and Marianne says that it’s always a concern. A newly built facility, completed in July of last year, houses the collections, and is outfitted with state of the art fire suppression and environmental controls. Disaster planning is only in a draft stage and needs to be updated, but Marianne is aware of the need. The collections are only accessible by appointment and during Marianne’s working hours. The collection catalog is only available on site. Available services are basic: research, digital images, scans, and photographs. Many of the photographs in the collection are digitized, but Marianne admits it’s organized poorly, and proper organization is on her “to do” list. Other digitization is not a high priority. Outreach is also limited, as staffing doesn’t permit anything beyond the Facebook page. Most researchers find out about the collections through the website, word of mouth, and other research, but in 2015 there were 57 researchers and so far in 2016 there have been 22.
Preservation concerns don’t allow for exhibition of the collections, and in the exhibits only reproductions are used, but occasionally photographs will go on display. One of the Watkins photographs is being loaned to the New Bedford Art Museum for their exhibit Bierstadt, Nature & National Identity. Interpretive staff also use some primary source materials as research for programs and exhibits, and reproductions and facsimiles are used for educational programs and exhibits as well. The archives also provide digitized photographs for promotional use on Facebook and through other sources.
Billings Farm and Museum has significant collections in their area of interest, and their lack of technology and outreach is mainly due to a staffing shortage. Marianne works jointly for the museum and the neighboring National Historical Park, so her time is split between collections. Nonetheless, they make an effort to care for their collections appropriately and make them available to researchers and staff when needed. I would say that ideally their catalog and finding aids should be accessible from the website, so that researchers can have a better idea of what is available and potentially attract more researchers to the collections, but given the staffing concerns I believe they’ve done a good job.
Resources:
Interview with Marianne Zephir, Archive and Collections Specialist
The Billings Farm and Museum website: http://www.billingsfarm.org
Interview with Marianne Zephir, Archive and Collections Specialist
The Billings Farm and Museum website: http://www.billingsfarm.org
The Billings Farm and Museum Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BillingsFarmMuseum
The Vermont Standard article “Mary and Laurance Rockefeller’s Billings Farm and the Farm & Museum”: http://www.thevermontstandard.com/2010/05/mary-and-laurance-rockefellers%E2%80%99/
Frederick Billings on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_H._Billings
...And personal experience and research done while working for the Farm and Museum.
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