Showing 5851 - 5860 of +10000 Records

U.V.M. Notes vol. 05 no. 02

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Creator: University of Vermont
Date Created: 1908
Parent Collections: University of Vermont Alumni Publications, U.V.M. Notes

U.V.M. Notes vol. 05 no. 06

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Creator: University of Vermont
Date Created: 1909
Parent Collections: University of Vermont Alumni Publications, U.V.M. Notes

U.V.M. Notes vol. 05 no. 08

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Creator: University of Vermont
Date Created: 1909
Parent Collections: University of Vermont Alumni Publications, U.V.M. Notes

U.V.M. Notes vol. 06 no. 06

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Creator: University of Vermont
Date Created: 1910
Parent Collections: University of Vermont Alumni Publications, U.V.M. Notes

U.V.M. Notes vol. 08 no. 01

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Creator: University of Vermont
Date Created: 1911, November
Parent Collections: University of Vermont Alumni Publications, U.V.M. Notes

U.V.M. Notes vol. 07 no. 06

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Creator: University of Vermont
Date Created: 1911, April
Parent Collections: University of Vermont Alumni Publications, U.V.M. Notes

Porter C. Thayer Photographs

1264 Objects

Description:
This archive contains 1300 photographs made by Porter C. Thayer,scanned from silver gelatin prints, held in the collection of the Brooks Memorial Library. The prints were made in 1980 from the 5x7 glass plates negatives created by Porter Thayer. These images are also available on microfilm at the Brattleboro library.

Porter Thayer was born Porter Charlie Thayer on January 6, 1882 on Main Street in Williamsville, Vermont. He grew up in the red house called the Tillotson Place in the Parish section of Newfane, Vermont.

He photographed Windham County, Vermont, beginning in 1906 through around 1920. Like most Vermont men of his generation he was a farmer, specifically an apple orchardist, managing his 50 acre apple orchard on Baker Brook Farm in Newfane. He turned to his apple business after ending his photographic career.

The postcard craze that most likely reached Vermont by about 1905, was perhaps the impetus for Porter Thayer starting up a photographic business. His diaries tell that he sold 1,197 postal cards during a six-month period at the height of his career. The cards were for sale as souvenirs to summer tourists at small general stores, local inns, boarding houses and hotels. Local folks purchased his photographs as well, especially around the Christmas season, to send to distant relatives. A Brattleboro, Vermont directory of 1909 lists Porter as advertising that he would come to anyone’s home and make images for a reasonable fee. Around 1911 he recorded that he had 720 customers. Eventually he photographed in all the towns within a 25 mile radius of his home in Newfane.

Porter Thayer perfectly fits the archetype of the town photographer. He traveled the narrow dirt roads in his buggy, behind his faithful mare Lady, who accompanied him daily. He could apparently take extended naps while Lady brought him safely home, as she always knew the way. He used two cameras: a 5 x 7 and a 6.5 x 8.5 view camera and made glass dry-plate negatives. He traveled with stacks of postcards to be delivered at stores along the way to his days work.

Working continually through seasons and years, Porter Thayer left an archive that is a cultural treasure for southeastern Vermont. The quality of his work shows that he was able to combine business needs with aesthetic ones. During the time period Porter worked, Vermont was extremely poor and rural, yet held a close-knit population that shared the labors of life. Farmers helped one another to survive in a subsistence and barter economy. For women, men, and children, life meant constant work. Thayer’s images describe the work and the tools involved. His landscape images reveal this working landscape, which today is mostly hidden by trees. The fruits of his labor as a photographer have grown in importance, as both the landscape and culture of Vermont has shifted into modern spheres of living.

Written by Jessica Weitz and Forrest Holzapfel, 2010.

Steeplejack, Williamsville, Vt.

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Date Created: 1906
Parent Collections: Porter C. Thayer Photographs

Mary Susan Davis Kelley Diary, 1883-1893

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Creator: Kelley, Mary Susan Davis, 1866-1917.
Date Created: 1883-1893
Description: Mary Susan Davis was born on January 10, 1866 to Benjamin Webster and Susan Adelaide (Young) Davis in Fairlee, Vt. Davis grew up in a large household consisting of her parents, her three siblings (John, James, and Rosalene), and her uncle, David Young, who suffered from epilepsy and erratic behavior due to a traumatic brain injury. After she graduated from secondary school in 1884, Davis helped her mother at home and with taking care of the boarders who occasionally resided in their home; she also taught in local schools and occasionally performed housework and childcare for hire in other households in the community. Prior to her first marriage, Davis moved to Orange, Massachusetts, where she was eventually employed by shoe manufacturer Jay B. Reynolds as a skiver. Davis was married three times over the course of her life: her first marriage was to Fred Mason on October 25, 1888, her second to Fred Sheldon Pickett in 1897 (following her divorce from Mason in January of that year), and her third to Harry Kelley on April 16, 1906. Davis suffered from chronic health issues, especially heart and reproductive ailments, throughout her life and had at least one miscarriage as a result. Davis died in Fairlee on March 30, 1917. Topics in this diary include women’s health and other subjects relating to health and medicine; the experiences of working women circa 1890, turn-of-the-century courtship and marriages, and the local social and cultural history of Fairlee, Vermont.
Parent Collections: Diaries

Chester Way Diary, 1919

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Creator: Way, Chester Murray, 1897-1973.
Date Created: 1919
Description: Chester Murray Way was born on November 12, 1897 to Harry Abel and Helen (Phelps) Way. He attended Burlington High School and later enrolled at the University of Vermont, graduating in 1922 with a degree in economics. During his time at UVM, Way was a member of the Alpha Lambda chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, the Burlington chapter of the YMCA, and the editorial board for The Vermont Cynic. He also took part in UVM’s Student Army Training Corps, completing part of his service during the 1918 influenza pandemic. After college, Way ran a farm and became involved in several Vermont businesses, including the Green Mountain Mutual Fire Insurance Co. in Montpelier, the Fli-Rite School of Aviation in Swanton, and his father’s business, the Porter Screen Company, in Burlington. In 1944, Way purchased an inn in Middlebury, Vt. and renamed it the Waybury Inn; the inn was later used as a location for exterior shots for the television show Newhart. Way and his wife, Marjorie Holbrook Scott (m. 1928) were living in Middlebury at the time of Way’s death on October 4, 1973. Topics in Way’s diaries include the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, fraternities at the University of Vermont, Kake Walk, World War One and UVM’s SATC program, Vermont farm life, and male friendships and relationships in the early twentieth century.
Parent Collections: Diaries

Showing 5851 - 5860 of +10000 Records

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