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Herbert W. Congdon Papers Collection

 Collection
Identifier: mss-095

Scope and Content

The Herbert Wheaton Congdon Papers at UVM consist of five cartons, one document box, and eleven boxes containing hundreds of photographs, negatives, and notecards. Much of the collection relates to Congdon's part in the Old Buildings Project and his later, individual work on early Vermont buildings. Included here are correspondence, notecards, five 8 x 11 and 11 x 14 photographs, drafts of Congdon's writings, black-and-white and color glass slides, and miscellaneous other materials. There are also papers, maps, glass slides and photos from Congdon's work on the Long Trail and the Green Mountain Club, as well as 36 volumes of his diaries and a typescript of his unpublished 1400-page autobiography. The collection has been arranged by type or subject of material, with some chronological breakdown in each grouping. There is another sizable Congdon collection at the University of Oregon. For an inventory of the Congdon Papers there, see folder 1-1 of the UVM collection.

Dates

  • 1914-1972

Creator

Access:

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Manuscripts.

Biography

Architect, photographer and pioneer Vermont historic preservationist, Herbert Wheaton Congdon was born in West Brighton, New York on May 9, 1876, the son of Henry and Charlotte Greenleaf Congdon. After earning a B.A. at Columbia University's School of Architecture in 1897 (with an M.A. eight years later), Congdon joined his father's New York City architectural firm. He worked actively as an architect for twenty- five years, specializing in Episcopal churches along the eastern seaboard. Congdon also served in the New York State National Guard for much of this period, and participated in the 1916 Army expedition against Pancho Villa along the Mexican border as a Captain in company A, 23rd New York Infantry. Congdon moved to Arlington, Vermont in August 1923, and made his home there the remaining forty-two years of his life. He served in the Vermont Commission on Country Life in 1928, as a trustee of the Green Mountain Club for many years, and as a trustee of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont. However, Congdon's main interest after moving to Vermont was in photographing and documenting the early architectural heritage of the state. He began as official photographer of the University of Vermont's Old Buildings Project in 1936-1938, and when the Old Buildings Project ended Congdon continued the work on his own until his death in 1965. The result was a unique collection of hundreds of photographs and notecards on early Vermont structures, as well as several related books and monographs-- Old Vermont Houses, The Covered Bridge, Dake of Castleton, and Early American Homes for Today. Herbert Wheaton Congdon died on August 14, 1965, at the age of eighty-nine, survived by his wife, Helen Warrington Jones Congdon (m. June 28, 1927), and two sons.

Extent

8 Linear Feet (6 cartons, 1 box, assorted photos)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The Herbert Wheaton Congdon Papers at UVM consist of five cartons, one document box, and eleven boxes containing hundreds of photographs, negatives, and notecards. Much of the collection relates to Congdon's part in the Old Buildings Project and his later, individual work on early Vermont buildings. There are also papers, maps, glass slides and photos from Congdon's work on the Long Trail and the Green Mountain Club, as well as 36 volumes of his diaries and a typescript of his unpublished 1400-page autobiography.

Physical Location

Library Research Annex; contact uvmsc@uvm.edu for access.

Separated Material

  1. 1. Revised By-Laws of the Green Mountain Club, Inc. and List of Members 1930 (Rutland:A. J. Novak, 1930).
  2. 2. O'Kane, Walter Collins, The Long Trail of the Green Mountain Club (n.p., n.d.).
  3. 3. Long Trail News (serial), February 1941-April 1944; twelve issues.
  4. 4. Revised By-Laws of the Green Mountain Club, Inc. and List of Members 1922 (Rutland:Tuttle Company, 1922)
  5. 5. The Green Mountain News, (serial), December 1922-April 1925; six issues.
  6. 6. The Pleiad Knapsack (serial), April 1926 and August 1926.
  7. 7. The Long Trail News (serial), December 1925-May 1963; twenty-seven issues.
  8. 8. The Modern Health Crusader of Vermont (serial), December 1920.
  9. 9. Covered bridge Topics (serial), Summer 1945-Fall 1952; twelve issues.
Title
Guide to the Herbert W. Congdon Papers Collection
Status
Completed
Date
1998
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the University of Vermont Libraries, Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Silver Special Collections Library
48 University Place, Room B201
Burlington Vermont 05405 U.S.A. US
(802) 656-2138
(802) 656-4038 (Fax)