7 Best Things to See at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont

To someone who has never visited Shelburne Museum: Forget what you think a museum is. Instead, imagine driving a winding country road. Encountering sights both stunning and unexpected, you want to stop around every curve. You planned to go for an hour or two, but—not wanting to miss anything—you keep driving. And in the end, you’re sorry when it’s time to turn for home. That is what exploring Shelburne Museum’s campus of awe-inspiring art and history feels like.

Founded in the town of Shelburne in 1947, the museum is the singular creation of Electra Havemeyer Webb, who was driven to collect—and display—everything and anything that caught her eye. Raised in an opulent New York home with European masterworks on the walls, she found inexhaustible delight in carvings, decoys, and dolls. She loved whimsy (where else can you see the world’s largest collections of glass canes and trivets?) and exquisite crafts. In creating what she called “a collection of collections,” she pursued art, architecture, and artifacts until her death in 1960. “Some people have the place and find the piece,” she once said. “Not I. I buy the piece and find the place.” Her vision. Your gift. 

7 Best Things to See at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont

Circus Building miniatures.

Behold two magnificent obsessions with making a tiny world. Roy Arnold’s 500-foot-long circus parade showcases his 30-year devotion to hand-carving 4,000 tiny figures in intricate detail (the wagon wheels even have working brakes). Sharing space is Edgar Kirk’s 3,500-piece miniature three-ring circus, crafted with a penknife and a jigsaw over nearly half a century.

Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building.

A “masterpiece” theater unfolds in an intimate setting. In these seven rooms re-created from Webb’s Park Avenue apartment, you can get close to works by the likes of Monet and Rembrandt. (Art lovers will also want to drop into the nearby Webb Gallery of American Art to spy one of Webb’s final acquisitions, Andrew Wyeth’s heart-stopping Soaring.)

Ticonderoga. Yes, that is a real 220-foot-long paddle-wheel steamboat that plied Lake Champlain more than a century ago. In one of Webb’s most improbable pursuits of an eye-catching relic, the “Ti” arrived in 1955 after a months-long journey of being hauled, foot by foot, across two miles of rugged terrain.

The Dana-Spencer Textile Galleries at Hat and Fragrance. If quilters and embroiderers had a hall of fame, it would look a lot like this. In addition to more than 700 quilts, the collection includes fine examples of samplers, hooked rugs, and woven coverlets, revealing how women used uncommon talents to make their way into a male-dominated world of arts and crafts. One highlight among many: Patty Yoder’s contemporary hooked rugs portraying life on her Vermont farm.

Stagecoach Inn folk art. Grandma Moses herself celebrated her 100th birthday at this temple of folk art—Webb’s truest love—set in a 1783 Vermont inn. Beginning with a cigar-store figure she bought at age 19, Webb acquired a lifetime trove of weathervanes, trade signs, and regional artwork long before they were considered collector’s items.

Dorset House decoys. Nature and art become one in these 1,400 wildfowl decoys created by the most accomplished 19th- and 20th-century crafters. Webb’s collection played a major role in such decoys being recognized as unique American art.

Round Barn carriages. Inside the 1901 Shaker-style Round Barn lies Shelburne Museum’s origin story: After her husband’s family gifted her 28 elegant horse-drawn carriages in 1946, Webb wanted to preserve and display them for the public. Gaze at the gold satin-lined interior of an 1890 Million et Guiet Berlin Coach, and imagine riding like royalty. Then stroll among the barn’s nearly 200 horse-drawn wagons, stagecoaches, and sleighs to see how ordinary New Englanders moved around, too. shelburnemuseum.org

Mel Allen

Mel Allen is the fifth editor of Yankee Magazine since its beginning in 1935. His first byline in Yankee appeared in 1977 and he joined the staff in 1979 as a senior editor. Eventually he became executive editor and in the summer of 2006 became editor. During his career he has edited and written for every section of the magazine, including home, food, and travel, while his pursuit of long form story telling has always been vital to his mission as well. He has raced a sled dog team, crawled into the dens of black bears, fished with the legendary Ted Williams, profiled astronaut Alan Shephard, and stood beneath a battleship before it was launched. He also once helped author Stephen King round up his pigs for market, but that story is for another day. Mel taught fourth grade in Maine for three years and believes that his education as a writer began when he had to hold the attention of 29 children through months of Maine winters. He learned you had to grab their attention and hold it. After 12 years teaching magazine writing at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he now teaches in the MFA creative nonfiction program at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Like all editors, his greatest joy is finding new talent and bringing their work to light.

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