On Saturday, October 13 at 2:00 p.m. William Hosley, historian, writer, photographer, and more, presents Adventures on the Prowl for Early Vermont Furniture.

Saturday, October 13, 2018
2:00 – 3:30 PM

William Hosley, historian, writer, photographer, and more

presents
Adventures on the Prowl for Early Vermont Furniture
Picture Show and Lecture

In this program, Hosley shares discoveries he attained from 40 years of sleuthing around small museums, private estates and estate auctions in search of Vermont-made furniture treasures. Beginning in the 1970s, curator and author Bill Hosley, conducted the first statewide survey of Vermont furniture and has been turning over stones in search ever since. $7 for members and $10 for not-yet-members includes Hosley’s talk and admission to the Early Vermont Gallery at Bennington Museum.

Vermont is a place where “Locally Grown” is alive and doing very well, and has been since the late 1700s.  Vermont cabinetmakers, operating amidst abundant raw materials and liberated from the shadow of major cities, continue to provide convincing evidence of an emerging American artistic culture. Vermont supplied its own needs for furnishings and housing from the time of first settlement well into the 19^th century when railroads brought imported goods from distant markets. Using local materials and design to satisfy local tastes, Vermont cabinetmakers, chair makers and joiners produced furniture of distinctive quality.

This important chapter in the art history of early Vermont is the focal point of Early Vermont, Bennington Museum’s most recent permanent gallery installation.  The Early Vermont Gallery presents life in Vermont from the time when the earliest European settlers arrived in 1761 with only the bare necessities to the early 1800s when Vermont craftsmen achieved a level of sophistication rivaling Boston and New York. (1760s to early-1800s) Explored through stories and vignettes, this gallery showcases over 85 major pieces and smaller items from the Museum’s extensive historical collection of over 30,000 objects. Housed in the former Decorative Arts Gallery, this 866 square foot space includes beautiful pieces representing the sophistication achieved not long after Vermont was first settled.  In addition, this important chapter in the art history of early Vermont and Vermont-made is kept alive today by the Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers and several prominent Vermont-based furniture manufacturers.

William Hosley

Hosley discovered his passion for art, architecture and local history prowling around Vermont during his years as a student at Vermont Academy and Middlebury College. By the age of 25, he’d visited – camera in hand – all 251 towns in Vermont. He was formerly Director of the New Haven Museum and Connecticut Landmarks, where he cared for a chain of historic attractions. Prior to that, as a curator and exhibition developer at Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Hosley organized major exhibitions including The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut Valley (1985), The Japan Idea: Art and Life in Victorian America (1990), and Sam & Elizabeth: Legend and Legacy of Colt’s Empire (1996), that spawned the Coltsville National Park. As an expert in heritage tourism, he has studied, lectured and advised museums and heritage destinations around the country. Hosley has also served as a content specialist for PBS, BBC and CPTV film documentaries.