Founded in 1974, the Center for Research on Vermont (CRVT) works through a vibrant network of scholars, experts, and community partners to create meaningful learning opportunities for students that also deepen knowledge and appreciation for this place.
What is research on the Green Mountain state? According to new director Holly Painter, it’s ‘any sort of research into anything that happens in Vermont or to/by Vermonters.’
With that wide view, we were excited to learn about the Center’s work, and Holly’s priorities and upcoming projects. Here are some of the highlights from that conversation:
1. New Director Holly Painter is a Deeply Curious Person
And that curiosity leads the English senior lecturer to try to illuminate our shared understanding of Vermont. As she puts it:
I’ve been here 10 years. I'm not from Vermont, which I know is a is a point against me in some people's books, but I still notice that after all this time, I fundamentally don't really understand how Vermont works. I’m from Michigan, where we all understand that the cars make the economy go, and when the cars stop, the economy stops going. I’m married to an economist and neither of us has really been able to figure out how Vermont functions. Is it tourism? Is it dairy? Is it maple? How does Vermont continue to work? There are infinite questions we could ask about the state, and I do.
2. The Center is about Connecting People
Social interactions are abundant in every aspect of their work; from the research and scholarship the Center is involved with to the enthusiastic involvement of their partners and fans.
Holly recalled one of her early days in her new role.
When I first started as director, I sent out an email to the 400+ people who are signed up for our list, just to say hello and introduce myself. I got so many responses from people who were just so eager to connect. It was an early emphasis on how much the Center means to people who are part of it.
There used to be so much more in-person activity, pre-COVID.
I’d like to bring back that spirit of finding ways to connect people more. I’m excited to return to events like the former “Research in Progress” seminar series.
Over time, there were over 200 of these in-person seminars that gave people a chance to get together not just to socialize but to delve into their own research and what they’re energized by.
I hope to revive that series within the next year. I especially think about reaching people outside of Vermont’s Chittenden County, where there are fewer people and it can be harder to find community with other history buffs.
Holly already knows that that sense of community can last across generations.
I heard from a person in Middlebury whose father had died the previous week. That dad had been a member and had requested that his son contact me when he passed, to send the Center his obituary to be distributed on our email listserv so everyone would be informed of his death. And that was another early lesson in how important the Center is to the people who are involved with it. It’s a really important part of their lives and their sense of place.
Directors of the Center for Research on Vermont
Holly Painter (2025- )
Richard Watts (2013-2025)
Cheryl Morse (2010-2013)
Robert Rodgers (2006-10)
Dona Brown (2003-06)
Paul Eschholz (1995-2003)
Richard Sweterlitsch (1992-95)
George Bryan (1986-92)
Marshall True (1983-1986)
Frederick Schmidt (1980-83)
Samuel Hand (1977-1980)
Harold Meeks (1976-77)
Samuel Hand (1975-76)
Lyman Gould (1974-75)
3. History is Important, and so are Innovation and Inclusion
Over time, the Center has been a partner, a publisher, and a place of convening.
Just a few of the CRVT's published books include Discovering Black Vermont: African American Farmers in Hinesburg, 1790-1890 (first edition in 2010), Green Mountain Scholar: Samuel Hand (2017) and By the Wand of Some Magician: Embracing Modernity in Mid-Nineteenth Century Vermont (2020).
Under Holly's leadership, an already-expansive scope and vision are growing.
For example, the Landscape Change Program is a highly valued resource established by Paul Bierman of UVM’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources 25 years ago.
This visual archive documents changes to land, including UVM's campus, over time and now has well over 70,000 historical photos of Vermont.
It has become incredibly important to people in a wide range of fields, she says, from historical preservation folks to researchers seeking to understand climate change by looking for the presence of certain plant species across time. A new partnership between the Landscape Change Program and the Center for Research on Vermont will bring this resource to an even wider audience through social media and, hopefully, a website upgrade. Holly notes:
The website has been a huge boon for researchers across Vermont., but it was made 25 years ago so we are trying to figure out how to get it updated so it can serve the people who need it, permanently and well. Our part of the work has been to help even more people find and use the archives.
These two pictures of UVM's Billings Library, taken decades apart, show the sorts of differences that the Landscape Change Program documents. The image on the left was taken sometime between 1885 and 1925, that on the right is dated 1985. Historians, architects, land use planners, ecologists, transportation planners and others make note and use of the details and changes in evidence in the archive of more than 70,000 images. (In this case, the appearance of the walking path, the bus, street signs and fire hydrant all show changes in the way UVM's green was used, and in the society that implemented those changes.)
And on top of maintaining the resources and output that so many across UVM and across Vermont and beyond have come to rely on, Holly and the Center are building a team to explore and share the history of Vermont’s LGBTQ community through comics.
It's a project with an origin right in recent programming, building on a 2018 queer histories event hosted by the Center, at which Vermont Queer Archives curator Meg Tamulonis led a discussion about those archives. Still, Holly noted that over the course of 50 years, there hadn't been a lot of engagement with queer topics.
This seems like it could be a good time to do queer history. So I thought, ‘let's fill that gap!’ And, when I approached them, the folks at Vermont Folklife Center said, yeah, that sounds great, and we brought Meg on as a consultant to work with us on the archives. So now she and somebody at Vermont Folklife are sketching out the narrative for our first issue that we're hoping to get out in the spring. That one will be on the 1983 Pride March, which was the first one in Vermont.
Getting Involved with the Center
With the energy of both traditional and new programs enlivening the work, it’s a terrific time to get in touch and get involved. Whether you’re a UVM student, a faculty or staff member, or a member of any Vermont community, there’s likely to be some element of research in Vermont that you can connect with. It’s a terrific way to deepen your connection with this special place that is the Green Mountain state.
And keep your eyes open for that new comic in the coming months!
Learn More:
Three Things to Know about UVM’s Center for Research on Vermont
Cheryl Carmi
Nov 4, 2025