National Spotlight Shines on Billings Farm & Museum During 25th Anniversary Year

WOODSTOCK, VT…2008 has been a watershed year for Billings Farm & Museum, which has welcomed more than one million visitors since opening to the public in 1983. Recognized as a gateway to Vermont's rural heritage, the outdoor history museum features an operating dairy farm that dates back to 1871, a meticulously restored and furnished 1890 Farm House, and a collection of over 14,000 agricultural implements, household furnishings, and decorative arts from the 19th century.

Many of the artifacts comprise the exhibits on view in the farm's 19th-century barns, which depict the home, community, and work that shaped the lives and culture of rural Vermonters. The displays are enhanced by a variety of interactive and educational programs to help visitors of all ages experience late 19th-century farm life first-hand.

On the heels of celebrating its 25th anniversary year with a major visitor appreciation event in July, the Billings Farm & Museum received a planning grant of $40,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to further develop its role as an interpretive gateway to Vermont's agricultural history and rural life. The museum will match the grant funds to support a five-year planning process called the “Gateway Initiative.”

David Donath, president of The Woodstock Foundation, Inc., which owns and operates the Billings Farm & Museum, describes the initiative as an expansion of the historic site's interpretation and programs beyond the farm's boundaries to the working landscape of east central Vermont. “By showing our visitors how the state's rural landscape has shaped and re-shaped itself, we hope to inspire them to follow their Farm & Museum experience with an exploration of the surrounding countryside.”

Under the NEH grant, humanities scholars, interpretive specialists, and creative consultants will collaborate with the Billings Farm & Museum staff to revise its on-site activities and its 11,000 sq. ft. permanent exhibit, “The Vermont Farm Year in 1890,” which will become the centerpiece of the gateway experience.

The current exhibit leads museum visitors through the annual cycle of life and work on family-based Vermont hill farms, circa 1890. Donath, who has a 30-year career of managing historic sites and museums, says, “Our retooled exhibit will offer visitors a variety of interactive experiences that show the changes to the land brought about by climate, nature, farming, geography, and rural society from 1870 to the present.”

In September, Donath's appointment to a two-year term as Chair of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) brought more attention to the Billings Farm & Museum. The first history professional from Vermont to hold this position, Donath will oversee a 104-year old national organization with over 6,200 members, ranging from small volunteer-staffed historical societies to larger institutions such as Colonial Williamsburg, the Smithsonian Institution, Plimoth Plantation, and the National Museum of American History.

Donath, who moved from academia to a career in public history with the support of AASLH's management training and network of leaders in the field, has held various volunteer positions of responsibility in the organization since 1984.