Shelburne Museum

Vermont

This is a pretty amazing museum a few minutes south of Burlington. Electra Webb founded the museum in 1947 – initially to persevere er family’s collection of horse drawn carriages but ended up with a huge collection of new England historic buildings, folk art, and a whole lot of other stuff – set on 45 beautifully landscaped acres. There is a enormous paddle wheel steamer that used to cruise nearby Lake Champlain – painstakingly transported here and preserved, an amazing collection of circus animal figures that goes on for hundreds of feet in a special built room (displaying what it was like when a circus came to tow)n, and a startling collection of French impressionist paintings (Monet, Cassat, Degas, Manet, etc) in a reproduction of her New York City apartments. There are collections of American paintings by Grandma Moses,, Wyeth, and Winslow Homer. There is a collection of duck decoys. Etc This is one cool and eclectic museum. Figure a half day and don’t miss it.