| The
Rutland Historical Society is not a county society but services
the area of the "old" Town of Rutland which today includes the City
of Rutland and the towns of Rutland, Proctor and West Rutland. The
majority of the Society's collections are located on the second
floor of the historical society building. Upon request materials
are available for use on the main floor (handicapped accessible)
where a guide to the collections may be found. The Society's holdings
include over 1,000 books, over 125 boxes of documents and numerous
maps. There are also over 2,000 photographic images. The Society
has a modest collection of artifacts including textiles. There are
nearly 300 bound volumes of Rutland newspapers. Fortunately these
have all been microfilmed and microfilm copies are available at
the Rutland Free Library.
The Society
library does include Smith and Ryan's History of Rutland County
(1886), Hemenway's multi-volume Vermont Gazetteer with
index and Child's Rutland County Gazetteer and Directory
(1881), Rutland Town and City Annual Reports and
reports from the village of Rutland and the Towns of Proctor and
West Rutland. Published tax assessments for the City of Rutland
are also available. The collections include the Beer's Atlas
Map of 1869 which shows the locations of homes and the names
of the occupants, the Scott's Map of 1854 which offers
similar information, a map of Socialboro [a New York Grant
that included Rutland] from 1771 and the Plan of Rutland
[New Hampshire Grants] probably done in 1794. The Sanborn Insurance
maps of Rutland give the size and material of buildings as well
as their location. Used in conjunction with a directory, these can
be very informative about a building and its occupants. The 1890
map is currently on display. A 1925 map is also available.
Research
on any historical topic needs to answer the question of "who?".
The sources for information about people are numerous. One of the
easiest and quickest to use, particularly if you have an approximate
date, is the city directory. The Society has a collection of Rutland
directories from 1867 to 1986. It also has a collection of Rutland
telephone books from 1959 to the present. The Rutland Free Library
has Federal Census records from 1791 to 1930 on microfilm.
The Society has cemetery inscription books published by Margaret
Jenks for Rutland, West Rutland, and Pittsford and Proctor. The
Rutland City Public School attendance records provide teacher and
student names for all classes of all the public schools from 1899
to 1963. The high school yearbook collection is also a great source
of "people" information. There are Rutland Grand List property
tax records year by year from 1815 to 1870 which are on microfilm
at the Rutland Free Library. These are easier to use than the census
records because they are in alphabetical order. Dawn Hance's Early
Families of Rutland is particularly useful for seeking people
before 1850.
The Society's
collections include the Rutland Municipal Court Records from the
1870's-1960's, genealogical files of Marvel Swan, photocopies of
the Evergreen Cemetery records, numerous account books and ledgers,
a collection of Rutland trainmen's notebooks, some hotel registers
and numerous scrapbooks and photo albums. There are minute books
of some Rutland organizations and diaries and collections of letters.
There are a number of books providing military rosters for various
wars and a set of Vermont law books. The Society's serials collection
includes The Vermonter, Vermont Life and Vermont History.
The Society
library is not a circulating library but there are copy facilities
available at five cents per copy. The copy machine also produces
excellent copies of photographs. |
