MIDDLEBURY — The Henry Sheldon Museum is seeking World War I histories, photos, letters, diaries, scrapbooks and souvenirs for and upcoming exhibit.
If you have WWI memorabilia related to a Middlebury or Addison County WWI veterans, military or civilian, man or woman, please email Sheldon Executive Director William Brooks at [email protected] and outline what you have for him to review. Respond by Feb. 23.
The museum, located at 1 Park St. in downtown Middlebury will host an exhibit about the “Great War,” as it was sometimes called, from July 31 through Nov. 11. The latter date marks the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the war, thought then to be The War to End All Wars.
The exhibit will feature profiles of a selection of the men and women from Middlebury and Addison County who served in WWI either in the military or as civilians. The museum seeks names of these veterans, their histories, photos, letters, diaries, scrapbooks, and souvenirs they brought back from Europe to potentially borrow for the exhibit. A memorial plaque in Middlebury lists 141 area residents who served in WWI and the local Middlebury American Legion memorial honors three who died in WWI.
The exhibit will include wartime letters between Jacob Johnson Ross, M.D., who served as the flight surgeon for the 17th Aero Squadron, and his Middlebury family. Also on display will be French and German war memorabilia Ross brought home to Vermont.
Museum staff aim to make this exhibit a fitting tribute to the local men and women, but also a timely reminder of the multiple, complex consequences of war.
The Henry Sheldon Museum, founded in 1882 as a museum, archeological and historical society, offers a diverse, in-depth look at the history and art of the Mid-Lake Champlain region of Vermont. Museum hours are on its website: HenrySheldonMuseum.org.