Dorset Historical Society & Museum - Dorset, Vermont Genealogy, Marble Exhibit, Fenton Pottery, Artifacts, Artists

Welcome to Historic Dorset, Vermont

Bley House Museum prior to 2006 renovation

The Dorset Historical Society was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1963. The Society's purposes are: to discover and collect materials that will help establish or illustrate the history of Dorset, Vermont; to provide for the preservation of relevant collections; to exhibit archival materials and disseminate historical information; and to educate members of the Society and the public. Toward these ends, DHS collects and maintains artifacts, art, photographs, documents, books, manuscripts, and genealogical records pertinent to Dorset and its environs from the time the town was chartered in 1761 to the present.

The Society's home is the Bley House Museum, located on Route 30 at Kent Hill Road. Among the museum's featured exhibits are Fenton stoneware, paintings by Dorset artists, and in the Marble Gallery, a large display that showcases 130 years of quarrying, hauling, and finishing marble in Dorset and East Dorset—all part of the town's most historically significant industry. Two historic buildings using marble from Dorset quarries are the Old Customs House in Erie, Pennsylvania—the first major building in the U.S. to use marble (1839)—and the New York Public Library (1910).

Norcross-West Marble Quarry, earliest (1785) commercial marble quarry

New in the Collection

I am very pleased to announce that due to the generosity of Susan Richardson there are two new paintings by Arthur Jones in the collection: The Old School House and Bird's Nest with Flowers. Both paintings hung in the Jones Retrospective exhibition at the Elizabeth de C. Wilson Museum at the Southern Vermont Arts Center during the fall of 2008. Previously DHS had only one painting by Arthur Jones of the Dwight Barnard House in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Many readers have known Arthur for several years and have followed his career but I have just begun to get to know him and his paintings. I find his work genuinely unique and accessible to the viewer. Although he received advice and encouragement from many well-known Dorset artists, he is self taught and over the many years he has been putting brush to canvas he has developed a vernacular language that is truly his own. I find looking at his paintings an inviting and friendly experience much like having a conversation with him. The two new works are presently on exhibition in the Venetian-Red Gallery.

Arthur Jones: The Old
School House (1953)

Arthur Jones Painting

Arthur Jones: Bird's Nest With Eggs

Also worthy of mention is the fact that this year we have had two of our important paintings cleaned and conserved by Randy Smith of Middlebury: Church Street - Dorset (circa 1925)by Edwin B. Child and Untitled Landscape by Harriet de Sanchez (a gift from Libby Sturges). There are many good reasons to visit the Bley House Museum and I hope you will do so often.

Susanne Rappaport
Curator

Dorset Historical Society
Member of Vermont Historical Society and Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance

PO Box 52 · Route 30 at Kent Hill Road
Dorset, VT 05251 USA · 802-867-0331 · Fax 802-867-0412
E-mail: info@dorsetvthistory.org

Summer Hours (April 15 - October 15)
Wednesday: 10 a.m. to noon
Thursday through Saturday: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Winter Hours (October 16 through April 14)
Wednesday - Friday: 10 a.m. to noon
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Other days and times by appointment