Silver Special Collections stewards and shares our collective story. We provide access to research materials relating to the study of Vermont, the history of the University of Vermont, and the history of the book as a form of humanistic expression.
48 University Place, Room B201
Burlington, VT 05405
uvmsc@uvm.edu
(802) 656-2138
Like all UVM Libraries, Special Collections welcomes students, faculty, staff, visiting researchers and the general public. Visit our reading room to use library materials or study in the historic Billings North Lounge.
Librarians curate guides to courses, topics and more. Find your course guide for a specific semester or learn where to start your research within a specific subject area.
Read the stories behind our collections. 'Silver Stories' features blog posts about our collections, events, exhibits and news.
Special Collections librarians are available to help you access materials in the Vermont Research Collection, the University Archives, and the Rare Book collections. We can also suggest resources about our collections and provide research consultations for students and scholars.
Often, the best way to get started working with us is to just reach out. Research assistance is available in Special Collections during our open hours. We also provide remote reference service via email or by phone at (802) 656-2138.
We try to answer about hours and availability of materials the next business day. We answer other questions within two weeks.
There are many ways Special Collections helps UVM faculty and instructors.
Special Collections librarians provide introductions to archival research and teach or co-teach class sessions focused on our holdings in a particular subject area.
Class instructors may reserve our classroom to teach with Special Collections materials. We can help you locate materials to support your teaching.
Special Collections librarians visit your classroom to introduce students to our resources, research tools, and procedures and give presentations on specialized topics.
We create digital guides to help students identify Special Collections resources and tools useful for a class or assignment.
We identify and reserve material that students use on their own time in our reading room. Students can also make their own requests.
Special Collections librarians meet with individual students or small groups to discuss research strategies and suggest resources.
Learn more about the library instruction program.
Because working with Special Collections' materials can take some planning, we always suggest that the best way to work with us is to bein touch. Email or call us (802) 656-2138.
Special Collections welcomes students, faculty, staff, visiting researchers and the general public. Learn more about visiting Silver Special Collections.
Special Collections recently acquired a group of handwritten and hand-drawn pages that show calculations and diagrams for twelve solar and lunar eclipses between 1821 and 1854. Ephraim Walker of Springfield, Vermont did the calculations and made the diagrams between 1830 and 1838. Walker may have consulted the instructions and tables in Uzziah Burnap’s Youth’s Ethereal Director, or Elements of Astronomy, published in Middlebury in 1822. Visit Special Collections to see Walker’s diagrams and our copy of Burnap's astronomy textbook.
"Along the Banks of My River" displays artist books and textile pieces by Vermont artist Stephanie Wolff connected to weather, history and language. Much of the exhibit is form a body of work about Anna Blackwood Howell (1769-1855), who kept yearly almanacs to track the weather and the cyclical nature of the seasons and to "profit from the experience of the past year." They detail the challenges of living close to the land, expressed in the emotions that accompany dismal skies, or difficulties in travel, or more crucially, her livelihood. Other books are stand alone pieces that feature weather in different ways.
