Skip to main content

Hall Park McCullough's Extra-Illustrated History of Vermont

 Collection
Identifier: mss-1018

Scope and Content

"The History of Vermont, from Its Discovery to Its Admission Into the Union in 1791" was published by Hiland Hall in 1868 with 511 pages. In the late 1890s, Hall's great-grandson Hall Park McCullough began his extra-illustrated version of Hall's work. McCullough set about to collect relevant primary sources for each of the original 511 pages, acquiring 455 items he found suitable.

"The History of Vermont" contains documents, letters, maps, portraits, and prints. It also contains pen-and-ink sketches and pictures by McCullough. Special focus is paid to the Allen brothers, Jacob Bayley, Stephen Row Bradley, Thomas Chittenden, the Robinson family, and Isaac Tichenor.

Other topics include Lake Champlain, the Champlain Valley, the Hudson River Valley, colonists and Indigenous relations, the French and Indian War, Anglo-American relations, the Haldimand Negotiations, northern campaigns of the American Revolution (includes the invasion of Canada in 1775, Burgoyne's invasion of 1777, and manuscripts of Benedict Arnold, John Stark, Horatio Gates, Philip Schuyler, the Marquis de Lafayette), and the 1790-1791 land grant dispute between Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York.

A longer analysis about this extra-illustrated edition written by J. Robert Maguire and J. Kevin Graffagnino can be found in Hall Park McCullough: Americana Collector, 1872-1966.

Dates

  • 1872-1966

Language of Materials

English.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

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

Biographical / Historical

Hiland Hall was born on July 20, 1795 in Bennington, Vermont. On October 17, 1818 he married Dolly Tuttle Davis and the two had eight children. Hall was heavily involved in both local and state politics as clerk of Bennington County Court, state's attorney for Bennington County, state legislation representative, bank commissioner in Vermont, justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, state governor (1858-1859), a Vermont Representative in Congress (1833-1843), and Second Comptroller of the U.S. Treasury (1850). Following his retirement in 1861, Hall turned his focus to studying the history of Vermont, a study he contributed publications to as early as 1841. He served as the president of the Vermont Historical Society from 1859 to 1865. Hall died in December 1885, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Hall Park McCullough was born in 1872 in San Francisco, California to John C. McCullough and Eliza Hall Park, the great-grandson of Hiland Hall. He attended and graduated from Yale University in 1894 and later graduated from New York Law School in 1896. That same year, he married Edith Arthur (Artie) van Benthuysen (1881-1967) and the two had five children. McCullough worked as a corporate lawyer in New York City while developing his vast collection of historical documents and artifacts, including Vermont and the United States. McCullough died in August 1966 in North Bennington, Vermont. Following his death, the family house in North Bennington was registered with the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as the Park-McCullough Historic Governor's Mansion.

Extent

2.58 Linear Feet

Abstract

"The History of Vermont, from Its Discovery to Its Admission Into the Union in 1791" was published by retired justice, governor and congressman Hiland Hall in 1868. In the late 1890s, Hall's great-grandson Hall Park McCullough, attorny and collector, began his extra-illustrated version of Hall's work, acquiring documents, letters, maps, portraits, and prints he found suitable.

Physical Location

Silver Special Collections, Billings Library

Processing Information

Finding aid written by Sarah Wilds

Title
Guide to Hall Park McCullough's Extra-Illustrated History of Vermont
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is written in: English, Latin script.

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)