Vermonters have strong ideas about the importance of their mountain topography. Where did our pride in Vermont’s landscape come from, and why is it that we see our shared identity as rooted in the land? Evolving human ideas about the Vermont mountains form the base of this lecture. The story begins with the state’s founders and moves forward through Vermont history to explain how environmental understandings changed over time. This timely, relevant, and interdisciplinary program offers us tools to understand the origins and meaning of our own strongly-held attachments to the Vermont landscape.

This lecture by historian Jill Mudgett is a Vermont Humanities Council program hosted by Southern Vermont Arts Center and held in conjunction with For the Love of Vermont. This exhibition features more than 200 works of art that capture Vermont’s unique character, people, traditions, and landscapes during the early- and mid-20th century.

Jill Mudgett is a cultural historian with an interest in the connection between the people and the environment of northern New England. She holds a Ph.D. in American history and is interested in public history outreach.

Event image: Asa Cheffetz (1896-1965), In Deep Vermont, wood engraving, from the Lyman Orton Collection