Bennington Museum

08/30/2026

This threshing machine was photographed on Union Street in Bennington in the 1890s by Madison Watson. The mustached man sitting in center appears to be William Hawks, Jr. The tower in the background is part of the courthouse on South Street.

Glass plate negative, 1892-1899
Madison E. Watson
Weichert-Isselhardt Collection, Gift of Tordis llg Isselhardt and Museum Purchase
https://bennington.pastperfectonline.com/photo/ED064475-9100-4624-88CC-825163465069

08/29/2026

Last week we invited you to write a 6-Word memoir for this portrait, and now let's see who they are.

This drawing was sent to folk artist Grandma Moses by Jean Gambotti, a fan of her work, all the way from Paris. Moses was among the most famous artists in America from the mid-1940s until her death in 1961. Her reverent visions of a rural, agrarian past represented the promised land to millions of Americans and Europeans coping with the horrors of World War II and reeling from an onslaught of technological progress. After three of her paintings were included in a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1939, Grandma Moses' first solo exhibition, "What a Farm Wife Painted," was organized by Otto Kallir at his Galerie St. Etienne in 1940. Within a few years Moses had become a household name and her art was instantly recognizable to millions of Americans and to people all over the world. She was known for her unorthodox technique, and although she never did paint a bed (that we know of) she did appear on Edward R. Murrow’s show “See it Now” using a tilt top table that she had painted scenes on. The table and this drawing are on display in our Grandma Moses Gallery.

If you can’t visit the museum in person, you can see our online collection here: http://bennington.pastperfectonline.com/byperson?keyword=Moses%2C%20Anna%20Mary%20Robertson%20%28Grandma%29

The next 6-Word Memoir will be posted Tuesday afternoon. Stay tuned!

08/28/2026

The weather looks good for a FREE concert in the courtyard this evening!

CONCERTS IN THE COURTYARD We are pleased to announce that Bennington Museum has received an anonymous grant once more for 2026. Performances are free of charge. All events take place from 5-7pm. The Museum will remain open until 7pm on these days, regular admission applies. Please bring your own bla...

08/27/2026

Like many manufacturers in Bennington, the Enos Adams Company changed their wares many times over the years. The elder Enos Adams sold boots and shoes in Bennington and purchased a tannery on North Street in 1854. His son, Enos Jr., later turned the building into a pottery and added grinding wheels for manufacturing crystallized quartz for polishing materials. In 1865 his nephew Orin Adams joined the business under the name Enos Adams & Co. and they enlarged the factory on County Street and turned it primarily into a machine shop where they manufactured Snow's steam and water wheel governors.

Governors were attached to water wheels in order to keep the speed of the wheel at a steady pace. As the shaft holding the two metal balls spun faster, centrifugal force brought them outward and up, pushing down the plunger inside, which throttled water going to the wheel. Hervey Dwight Snow (1830-1881) moved his young family to Bennington in 1865 and worked with Enos Adams to manufacture his steam engine governors. He patented a new and improved water wheel governor in 1868. In 1873 Snow moved to a larger factory in Cohoes, NY.

Enos Adams Co. then concentrated on manufacturing patented mop sticks and mineral soap.

https://bennington.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/5A10B84B-D35F-4240-922B-202727093881

08/26/2026

To celebrate National Dog Day we're sharing these poodles made by the United States Pottery Company in Bennington in the mid 1800s. The pottery in Bennington was known for their affordable and beautiful utilitarian wares. Glazed press-molded sculptures included lions, poodles, cows, and deer intended for average, middle-class homes. Shredded clay, called "coleslaw," was used to mimic the long curly hair on the dog's head, front, and tail tip.

Bequest of Mrs. E.H. Johnson
https://bennington.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/A217A60E-CC2A-4651-976E-641941989447

08/25/2026

Take an Art Break and write a Six-Word Memoir. Spend at least one full minute looking deeply at this portrait. Then, in SIX WORDS (no more, no less) write the subject's memoir in the comments.

08/23/2026

Did you know that past Bennington Historical Society presentations are recorded and available through our YouTube page? Here's a look back with our curator and Jackson's eldest son, Laurence Hyman, in a conversation about Jackson's literary legacy.

Shirley Jackson, perhaps the greatest writer of the gothic fiction genre, lived and worked in North Bennington for most of her renowned literary career, from 1945 until her untimely death in 1965. She rose to national prominence in 1948 with the publication of her chilling short story "The Lottery,” about which she explained, "I suppose I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village, to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives."

This program was presented by the Bennington Historical Society on October 15, 2023 at Bennington Museum.

Shirley Jackson, perhaps the greatest writer of the horror/gothic f...

08/22/2026

Last week we invited you to write a 6-Word memoir for this portrait, and now let's see who they are.

This is Martin Greene (1870-1921), the “Hermit of Sucker Pond.” He was a large man standing 6 feet, 6 inches tall and could “strike a blow from his mighty shoulder that would stagger and ox.” He was well known in the area for his hunting and trapping prowess and also worked as a farm laborer. Unfortunately, he suffered from severe mental illness. In December of 1891 he shot two men (not fatally) and forced one of them to perform deeds so disturbing that the newspaper wouldn’t even describe them. He was confined to the Brattleboro Asylum for a couple of years, declared “cured,” and then retreated to a log hut on Sucker Pond (better known today as Lake Hancock) where he was advertised as an eccentric hermit to wandering tourists.

See other photos of Greene in our collection here: https://bennington.pastperfectonline.com/byperson?keyword=Greene%2C%20Martin

If you want to know what the Banner did report about the incident, you can find the article here: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84022639/1891-12-11/ed-1/?sp=4&q=martin+green&r=0.576,0.099,0.414,0.243,0

The next 6-Word Memoir will be posted Tuesday afternoon. Stay tuned

08/20/2026

The Great Fire (The Burning of Troy in 1862), 1959
Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses (1860-1961)

On May 10, 1862 a massive fire destroyed 500 buildings and claimed 5 lives in Troy, New York, less than 30 miles southwest of Grandma Moses' childhood home. Over a period of twenty years beginning in 1939, Moses created six versions of this scene depicting a covered bridge engulfed in flames, which was believed to be the origin of the fire. Her paintings were all based upon an image of the Troy fire that appeared in an ad for a local bank, which she had clipped for reference. Her earliest version of the scene followed the somber black and white illustration source quite closely, while this last version is filled with vibrant color and the frantic activity of figures carrying buckets of water in an unsuccessful attempt to douse the flames before they spread.

Museum purchase, funds provided by Lyman Orton and by exchange from Mr. and Mrs. James A. Warren, the Gertrude D. Webster Collection, and Mr. and Mrs. Stanley B. Ineson
Copyright © Grandma Moses Properties, New York

http://bennington.pastperfectonline.com/Webobject/A5ABF6C7-6315-45DB-B8E5-448896596500

08/19/2026

Our curatorial intern, Laina Siclari, completed her final project this morning! If you visit the museum's Regional History Room be sure to check out her case devoted to the Kiddie-Kar, a children's ride-on toy manufactured by the HC White Co. in North Bennington.