Vermont Fairbanks Museum
Ok., So I might be a little bias as a Vermonter but my opinion of the Vermont Fairbanks Museum is a HUGE thumbs up!
Honestly, the tiny state of Vermont gives proper respect to the tiny hummingbird with one of the largest hummingbird exhibits in the country.
They have 132 known species of hummingbirds and 10 undetermined.
Most are on display either individually or on two separate bird trees displayed in circular cases. The Victorian era gave birth to the "cabinet of curiosities", which every gentleman of means wished to acquire. Franklin Fairbanks, the founder of the museum, was no different in his desire to amass newly discovered oddities from around the globe; but what made him unique was his deep appreciation for the natural world and his desire to share it with the community that advanced his wealth.
The hummingbird collection was initiated by his own “cabinet of curiosities” and broadened with later acquisitions from Edward Gerrard, a London taxidermist who acquired specimens from other collectors/adventurers, and Count Hans Ludwig van Berlepsch, a noted German Ornithologist with a huge collection of his own. The two circular case-contents were mounted by William Everard Balch, using the later acquisitioned specimens to adorn the trees.
Balch was Franklin Fairbanks’ “taxidermist in residence”, who was responsible for the Victorian “cutting-edge” dioramas displayed throughout the museum. I have used vocabulary that can be unfamiliar to most of us who are not scientists.So let me explain just a little:
A diorama is an exhibit set in a naturalistic foreground.
A taxidermist is someone who preserves specimens for exhibit. Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium
1302 Main Street
St. Johnsbury, Vermont
http://www.fairbanksmuseum.org (Yes, the museum has a Planetarium – an added bonus of a wonderful museum with a range of exhibits.) St. Johnsbury is a quaint Northern Vermont town worth the visit in itself. It has a main street of beautiful historic houses.
The trip to St. Johnsbury is a delightful one through Vermont countryside and the beautiful Green Mountains.
Maybe, we’ll see you there!
Return from "Vermont Fairbanks Museum" to "Hummingbird Travel"
Go to "Tranquility Lodge
Go to "Tingalayas Retreat
Go to "Butterfly World Park
Go to "Hummingbird Festivals
Go to "Hummingbird Beach Resort
Go to "Arizona Sonora Desert Museum
Go to "Museums with Hummingbird Speciman Exhibits
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