Crash to Creativity: The New Deal in Vermont

A Bennington Historical Society Presentation

During the Great Depression, frugal Vermonters—already used to pinching pennies—are claimed to have asked “What Depression?” But the reality is that Vermont’s economy was cut in half during the first three years of the Depression, which began with the Stock Market Crash of 1929. This was a period of desperation in Vermont—and yet also one of enormous creativity. Much of that creativity was due to Federal New Deal programs, which provided work and financial assistance to both laborers and creative professionals during the decade from 1933 to 1943. These Federal programs sponsored creative projects that were wide and varied, from state guide books, easel paintings, post office murals, and civic buildings, to the most comprehensive archives of documentary photographs and oral histories in our nation’s history, and a vast network of state parks. Federal programs also shaped the tourist industry and helped create the popular image of Vermont as a place of idyllic towns, untouched farmland, and skiing. Much of this cultural and civic infrastructure still enriches our lives today. Seen together, these products of the New Deal provide a window onto what it was like to live in Vermont during the Great Depression, and onto the role the New Deal had in shaping Vermont—both literally and in the mind’s eye.

Jamie Franklin has been curator at the Bennington Museum since 2005. His scholarship has focused on American art of the early to mid-20th century, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of modernism and self-taught art. He has organized exhibitions and written books, essays and articles featuring artists and topics including Erastus Salisbury Field, Grassroots Art, Impressionism, Rockwell Kent, Anna Mary Robertson Grandma Moses, and Alice Neel. His 2014 exhibition Alice Neel/Erastus Salisbury Field: Painting the People was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the most memorable exhibitions of the year and his 2016 exhibition Milton Avery’s Vermont was lauded as being “as close to a perfect show as mere mortals can mount.”

The Bennington Historical Society is a volunteer-run program of Bennington Museum. The BHS offers its programs at no charge with support from Williams Financial. You can support the efforts of the BHS to share the history of our region by making a donation.