The Vermont Historical Society is collecting firsthand accounts, artifacts and documents from the back-to-the-land movement. The curators of the project will link the pivotal 1960s and 1970s cultural shift in Vermont’s history to the current political, economic and cultural climate of the state.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services last month awarded a $117,500 grant to the society for “Colleges, Communes and Co-ops: 1970s Counterculture and Its Lasting Influence on Vermont.” The first phase of the project includes research, community forums, and the compilation of anecdotes, ideas, and artifacts. The historical society will produce 50 oral histories from the era and work with academics to interpret the material. In the second phase, the society will present the findings around the state.
“Colleges, Communes and Co-ops: 1970s Counterculture and Its Lasting Influence on Vermont” is a two-year project that will culminate in an exhibition at the Vermont History Center in Barre and an academic symposium.
Jackie Calder, the curator for the project, hopes to solicit as much participation from the public as possible. “We’re looking for all sorts of input,” she says, “both good and bad responses.” Though a schedule of the meetings has not yet been set, Calder reports that they will likely hold them in the Burlington, Plainfield, Brattleboro and Rutland areas, as well as a fifth meeting in a location yet to be determined. “Primary accounts from recent history can be very powerful,” she adds. “It’s so moving to speak with someone who has been through an experience and to hear the emotion in their voice. There’s nothing better than that.”
The project will also recruit the talents of University of Vermont historian and professor Dona Brown, author of “Back to the Land: The Enduring Dream of Self-Sufficiency in Modern America.” Professor Brown will work with the society to frame the findings within a larger geographical and historical context.
“One of the best things about it,” she says, “is that they’ve really brought in all of the participation of a lot of folks who are firsthand witnesses — people who were here at the beginning, who were involved in the foundation of some of the early cooperatives and communes in the state.”
The germ of an idea
The idea for the project took shape over several years, as Calder and the society noticed a common thread woven throughout their discussions about Vermont’s local food movement. A small exhibit on Vermont co-ops at the Vermont History Expo in 2012 highlighted the connection that many of Vermont’s co-ops, including the Plainfield Co-op, Hunger Mountain Co-op, Buffalo Mountain Co-op, and the Onion River Co-op (now City Market in Burlington), had roots in the 1970s homestead period.
The historical society then worked with farmer/photographer John Nopper and agricultural writer Susan Harlow to compile oral histories and photos from organic farmers throughout the state.
“There was another connection back to that era,” says Calder. “Many of the founders of the organic farm movement of the 1970s came to Vermont originally to live in communes or homesteads as part of the back-to-the-land movement.”
While many have surmised that Vermont’s current cultural, political and economic environment has its roots in the influx of young, like-minded back-to-the-landers in the 1960s and 1970s, the new project will look to officially record and archive the stories within an academic context. “Right now it’s a hypothesis,” says Calder. “We’re just starting to do the research and it will be interesting to hear what people are talking about and what people remember.”
Brown points not only to sophisticated business models and infrastructure for local food, but to many Vermont businesses and policies that reflect progressive ideals. Her studies have found that many of the people who arrived from out of state stayed in Vermont long after moving on from the communes, helping to build institutions and redefine the state.
“They built food cooperatives,” she says, “and organized all kinds of grassroots campaigns. They went into politics, they started businesses, they went back to law school, and really had an impact that went far beyond the moment of the founding of the communes and cooperatives.”
In addition to the historical and academic value of archiving firsthand accounts of the time period, the project aims to provide Vermonters with a better understanding of their lives within a historical context. “A lot of people don’t think about their own personal stories as part of history,” Calder says, “so maybe if we can get some public interest and a whole range of people to come to these meetings, they can start thinking in those terms. Hopefully they’ll realize that their story is just as interesting as the next person’s, and it’s part of a bigger idea or movement.”
Brown says the same spirit of self-reliance persists in Vermont.
“That’s a continuing thread in our society. So is that something we can turn into a cultural advantage? Is that something that the whole state can use in a productive way? Is it something that the overall health of our communities and the environment of our state are served by, or is it just a dream?” she asks.
The Vermont Historical Society is soliciting stories, documents, artifacts and photographs. For more information, email Jackie Calder at Jackie.Calder@state.vt.us.
