Tour Historic Buildings and Gardens at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont

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If you enjoy viewing art and Americana, visiting historic villages and touring beautiful gardens, you will love the Shelburne Museum in Burlington, VT. A visit to the Shelburne Museum in the Lake Champlain valley is like touring three attractions at once.

A huge collection of art and artifacts from American history are exhibited in 39 buildings at the Shelburne Museum, 25 or which are relocated, historic New England structures. The Museum grounds are beautifully landscaped and include a variety of herb, vegetable, flower and heirloom gardens.

Shelburne Museum’s Village

The historic buildings and structures at the Shelburne Museum recreate a New England town reminiscent of the 19th century. Historic buildings and structures from the 18th and 19th centuries were relocated to the Shelburne Museum by its creator Electra Havemeyer Webb with the express purpose of displaying her vast art collection.

The buildings at the Shelburne Museum Village include houses, a schoolhouse, a jail, a general store, and several barns. Each building features artifacts and artwork appropriate to its original function and setting, and many feature demonstrations. The Blacksmith’s Shop for instance displays blacksmithing tools from the 19th and early 20th centuries, and demonstrations of the early blacksmithing trade are held here daily.

Some very unique buildings and structures are located at the Shelburne Museum. These include a covered bridge, a circus building with carousel, a lighthouse and the National Historic Landmark, the steamboat Ticonderoga.

The Collection at the Shelburne Museum

The Shelburne Museum collection contains more than 150,000 items. Impressionist paintings by Monet, Manet, Degas, Cassatt and others as well as pre-impressionist paintings are displayed at the Museum. You can also see a wide variety of American folk art from the 18th and 19th centuries on display, including weathervanes, scrimshaw, frakturs, sculptures and much more.

The Shelburne Museum exhibits American decorative arts including ceramics and glass, brass, pewter and cast and wrought iron items. The Museum also holds and impressive selection of quilts, hook rugs and textiles. Tools, decoys, toys, dollhouses, and automata can be seen here, and a variety of

Native American artifacts are exhibited at the Museum’s Beach Gallery. Pottery, clothing, baskets and beadwork from Native American Indian cultures throughout North America are included in this exhibit.

Shelburne Museum’s Gardens    

The variety of beautiful garden areas throughout the Village and grounds at Shelburne Museum are a delight to tour. There is a peony garden featuring more than 25 varieties of these fragrant and colorful flowers, a formal garden reflecting the colors of a painter’s palette, and a plant and herb garden featuring plants that have traditionally been used for fragrances and to create dyes. Throughout the grounds, more than 400 lilacs create a stunning and fragrant display for springtime visitors.