Second Annual Edible Books Festival!

These books are literally delicious

Swing by the main floor of the library this Wednesday, April 1st from Noon-3:30pm for the second annual Edible Books Festival! 

The Edible Books Festival an international, multi-media, participatory creative event which invites us all to a “world banquet where delicious, surprising bookish foods will be consumed.” Playful and provocative, the festival explores the integration of food with “text, literary inspiration or, quite simply, the form [of the book].” 

You can vote for your favorite and eat the books and other snacks at the serving celebration at 3pm! 

Prizes will be awarded in the following categories: 

• Prettiest 
• Punniest 
• Best Biblically Themed (in honor of the St. John's Bible)
• People’s Choice

Want to know more about edible books? Check out these links: http://www.books2eat.com/ and http://www.books2eat.com/index.php?page=albums. 

To see last year's entries check out our Facebook Album. 

Contact Stephen Wehmeyer with any questions. Bon Appetit!

Getting Around Town (and other places): How the People of Burlington Travelled

A new Special Collections exhibit has been set up at Roger H. Perry Hall depicting three main ways of travel in, around, and through Burlington, Vermont.

The most popular way to travel back in Burlington’s earlier days was by steamboat. It’s no surprise that mode of transportation was a huge hit because of Burlington’s location right on Lake Champlain. The most famous steamboat to run on the lake was the Ticonderoga, built in 1906, but sadly went out of business in 1950s due to more efficient ways to travel and has since retired to the Shelburne Museum.

Postcard of Steamship Ticonderoga docked in Burlington by Jesse Sumner Wooley, postmarked 1908
Llewellyn Collection of Vermont History, 2010.1.663

Another popular way to go from one place to another was by train. Even though the routes were mainly used for lumber transportation from the 1850s to the early 1900s, travelers used the Union Depot's services to travel from Burlington to other places in Vermont and New York. About fifty years later the Union Depot was replaced by the Union Station, built in 1915, and continued to carry passengers until passenger train service was discontinued in 1953.

Postcard of newly-completed Union Station by Charles H. Bessey, c. 1914-1915
Llewellyn Collection of Vermont History, 2010.1.664

The most recent way of transport introduced to Burlington is flight service. The Burlington Municipal Airport opened in 1920 and began to expand a few years later when flying became more popular. In
1960, the name was changed to the Burlington International Airport by the Board of Alderman, the
airport received its first commercial flight client, and more flights started to come in.

Stop by the postcard alcove at Roger H. Perry Hall to learn more about Burlington’s fascinating ways of transportation from the Llewellyn Collection of Vermont History.

-Adrian Taul, Class of 2018

Wells, Richardson, & Company: Master Advertisers

WELLS, RICHARDSON & COMPANY ranks as one of Burlington's most successful businesses ever. A new Special Collections exhibition in the historic conference rooms of Roger H. Perry Hall, on view through May 2015, profiles the company, its products, and its adept advertising methods. 

Founded in 1872, the pharmaceutical firm produced medicines, infant formula, fabric dyes, and other household products. By 1894, Wells, Richardson had $2 million in annual sales (some $51 million in today’s dollars), employed more than 200 people at its Burlington manufacturing plant and offices, and had branches in London, Montreal, and Sydney. 

Bottling Paine's Celery Compound at the Wells, Richardson manufacturing plant between College and Main Streets, from Burlington in Brief, c. 1890 (Llewellyn Collection #2010.1.456)

Wells, Richardson was a master of advertising, offering free samples, a satisfaction guaranteed policy, consumer testimonials, and cutie-pie images of babies and kids, among other techniques. The company's print department churned out hundreds of free publications designed to appeal to its target audiences, all of them loaded with product ads. This booklet containing a sentimental tale illustrated with sweet little girls, targeted female consumers in the market for fabric dyes such as the company's "Diamond Dyes":

Diamond Dyes: A Tale of Four Children Merry & Wise 

Wells, Richardson & Co., 1904 (Local History Collection #2014.15.1)

Stop by Perry Hall Rooms 274 and 271 to view these items from Champlain's Special Collections, and plenty more, in person.