Vermont Inventors: Opening March 1, 2008 for one year!

As a tribute to some of Vermont's early creative geniuses whose ideas were sparked in Vermont and have contributed to far-reaching change, the Museum will focus on Vermont Inventors. Take a peek into the minds and workrooms where innovation triumphed and let your hands and imagination be guided by innovators whose ideas live with us today.

Cold Harvest

Ice-cutting in the Kingdom

Until the mid-twentieth century, ice harvesting was an important industry in the Northeast. In the early 1900s, ice was cut and packed tightly in an ice shed and would last all spring, summer and fall, ensuring that everyone with an icebox had a steady supply to keep food and milk from spoiling. Blocks of ice were delivered to households and shipped to urban areas in the south throughout the year. With the introduction of the electric refrigerator in 1929, the days of ice harvesting were  numbered. The Newport Ice Company, run by the Handy family since 1913, enjoyed a monopoly on the ice business in northern Vermont, from Burlington to Newport. Photographs of the Newport Ice Company showing the tools and process of this labor-intensive work are on view in the Museum's upper gallery. These images were given to the Museum in memory of Ned and Sarah K. Handy by their children, Virginia, Marianne, Edward and Thomas.