Hello, friends of the Center for Research on Vermont, 

There has been lots happening at the CRVT this fall! Our September and October events included:  

• Screenings of the Vermont adaptive cycling documentary Best Day Ever 
• "Meanwhile in Vermont..." panel exploring Vermont’s role in the American revolution and American founding using primary sources from UVM’s government documents collection 
• The return of the annual Samuel Hand Lecture featuring Roger Allbee’s talk on 250 years of Vermont agriculture 
• Religion and the American Founding Conference with public roundtables with top scholars of religion in colonial and early America  
• The Montpelier launch of our second Proud Little State comic, drawn by Juniper Kim, on the topic of Vermont Civil Unions 

You can watch a recording of the "Meanwhile in Vermont" panel or see us discussing Proud Little State on Across the Fence.  

Or better yet, catch CRVT at our last event of the semester, “Comics at the Museum,” on Friday, November 13, 4-5:30pm at the Fleming Museum on the UVM campus! Grab a copy of the new Proud Little State comic, explore the Fleming’s collections after hours, see comics-related objects from the museum’s holdings and civil-unions-related objects from the Vermont Queer Archives, and learn more about using comics in research and inquiry with a workshop from Luis Vivanco of UVM’s Comics-Based Research Lab. Plus, good food and conversation in a welcoming creative space! We hope to see you there.  

Read on for a roundup of news on research on Vermont, followed by a resource spotlight on UVM’s Pringle Herbarium. 

Thanks for reading,  

Holly Painter  

Director of the Center for Research on Vermont  

P.S. Have a tip about Vermont research news? Send it our way at CRVT@uvm.edu. 

At the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, scientists in Desirée Narango’s lab are tagging monarch butterflies with solar-powered, ultralight transmitter backpacks. These tracking devices use Bluetooth to transmit location data to cell phones, as the team hopes to find out where the butterflies are going as they migrate south and how to better protect them. The findings from this project have already begun to challenge long-standing assumptions about migration patterns, with many eastern monarchs spending their winters in urban areas in Florida and the Caribbean. People interested in following these patterns are encouraged to download the Project Monarch app, which displays where Vermont monarchs are traveling in real time. 

Vermont Public's 2026 Poll gathered interview data from 817 people to provide a summary of Vermonters' perspectives on leading issues in the state. Key findings include increasing approval for governor candidate Amanda Janoo, support for a statewide ban on large-scale data centers in Vermont, and dissatisfaction with public schools. Issues of affordability also remain a primary concern for Vermont residents, with property taxes and rent still increasing, and young people continuing to leave the state. For the study's full results, methodology, and margins of error, see the detailed summaries embedded at the bottom of the article.  

Two new historical novels, titled The Ides of Vermont and How Long a Shadow, are available now for purchase. The Ides of Vermont by Cynthia Osborne Hoskin is a historical biographic novel inspired by the life of Henry Clay Ide, a Vermont lawyer, diplomat, and public servant whose work carried him to Samoa, the Philippines, and beyond. How Long a Shadow by Cheryl Ossola follows the life of Rosina Bottinelli, an immigrant in early-1900s Vermont whose life was shaped by the granite industry, civil unrest, and family conflict. Together, these novels blend historical fiction and non-fiction based on deeply researched family history, as both authors are related to the characters of their respective books. 

The 2025 Vermont Climate Assessment (VCA) is a publicly accessible report assembled by UVM's Gund Institute for Environment that documents how climate change is impacting the state. Created by UVM students and faculty in collaboration with universities, government entities, companies, and nonprofits, the VCA is a decision-making tool for Vermont residents, municipalities, and natural resource managers. The report, which was also released in 2014 and 2020, highlights water and warming temperatures as central challenges for the state, with increased precipitation promoting flood risks and extreme heat affecting agriculture and infrastructure.  

The Bennington Museum has been working to complete a project started in the early 1940s, when the WPA assigned scholars to create a definitive list of everyone who fought at the Battle of Bennington. The researchers’ efforts produced a great deal of data, but the WPA researchers stopped researching the veterans after the letter "M." But their records, including over 3,000 index cards and supporting materials, reside in the Museum's collection. Now, the Museum has marshalled a small army of volunteers to finish the job, including transcriptions of the WPA records and a database that they're working to streamline and enhance for accuracy, ease of use, and searchability. The result could alter our understanding of who exactly fought at the Battle.  

Conservationists have been struggling to restore lake trout populations for decades, and Thiamine Deficiency Complex (TDC) is a common disorder that can hinder these efforts by causing behavioral changes, neurological abnormalities, and increased mortality in newly hatched fish. A new study by UVM's Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Lab in collaboration with SUNY Brockport and Oregon State University found that embryos developing in Lake Champlain accumulated substantial amounts of thiamine compared to those developing in hatcheries, resulting in significantly lower rates of TDC among lake-raised populations. These results illuminate previously unknown pathways for thiamine acquisition in the wild, opening the door for new conservation practices that may better restore populations of lake trout and other fish in Vermont and beyond.  

Many Wonders: Stories of the Fairbanks Museum is a collection of essays that capture the experience and history of the Fairbanks Museum, a natural history and science center in St. Johnsbury. Presented by Fairbanks directors Anna Rubin and Adam Kane, along with The Way Things Work illustrator David Macaulay and meteorologist Mark Breen, Many Wonders contains an array of photographs and commentary that celebrate the people and collections, and inspirations behind their exhibits. Together, these stories encourage us to be curious and caring about the animals, plants, geology, and weather that make up the world around us. The book is available for purchase exclusively from the Fairbanks Museum Store. 

An article by Vermont author and researcher Elizabeth A. Allen titled "The Mystery of Hannah Taft's Son: Poor Relief and Child Custody in 1840s Vermont" tells a story of poverty relief, social control, and adoption in Williston. Hannah Taft, a young woman in the early 1840s, lost her parents and her home and was forced to give up her son for adoption by the family of his father. Her experience illustrates one of the many methods of social control that pervaded Vermont in the 1800s, as people in poverty were frequently forced to give up custody of their children to wealthy families, and those children were often subject to indenture.  

The Pringle Herbarium at the University of Vermont is home to 3000 plant specimens and over 380,000 sheets that support flora research both regionally and internationally. Named after the plant breeder and botanist Cyrus Guernsey Pringle (1838-1911), the Pringle Herbarium’s archives chronicle 200 years of New England’s botanical history through photographs, correspondence, and field notebooks. As the largest collection of Vermont flora in the world, the herbarium’s library and archives are open to researchers during regular hours or by appointment, and their vast digital collections can be searched online. Specimen loans are also available to established herbaria for study by their staff and associated professionals and students. 

The Center for Research on Vermont Newsletter is a monthly curated
collection of Vermont research, resources for researchers, CRVT member
news, and updates on the Center's project and events.

Send your news items to newsletter editors Noah Kirshenbaum and Holly
Painter at crvt@uvm.edu.

Find out more about the Center for Research on Vermont at our website or
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