Fish and Game

(March 13-July 26, 2027)

Works on Paper Gallery

This exhibition will explore the history and culture of hunting and fishing in Vermont, from its necessity for survival by our state’s indigenous peoples and early colonial settlers in the 1700s, through their popularization as recreational pastimes through the 1800s and 1900s, and concurrent concerns about about the conservation of fish, wildlife and their habitats.This exhibition will feature historic objects, such as early Orvis fly fishing rods and photographs, as well as numerous examples of hunters and fisherman with their catches from the Museum’s historic collection of photography and artwork. It will also feature works by Ogden Pleissner, John Atherton, and Horace Brown, and archival materials that tell the intertwined stories of hunting, fishing, and conservation in the Green Mountain State.

Hunting Party (Henry Shields, John Davis, William Bradford, Charles Dewey, and Unidentified Man) with Deer, c. 1895,
Photographer unknown
Gelatin silver print, 5 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches
Bennington Museum Collection, Gift of Mrs. Daisy Smith Bradford
1973.68