Archives & Collections
The Shelburne Farms Archives, located in the lower level of the Inn at Shelburne Farms, is a repository for materials related to the history and evolution of Shelburne Farms and members of the Webb family associated with the estate. The collections span the period from Shelburne Farms’ inception as a private country estate in the late 1880s through its evolution to a nonprofit organization. The Archives contains over 700 cubic feet of manuscripts, photographs, printed materials, and other items.
Visit the Archives:
Open to the public by appointment, year-round. Contact Julie Eldridge Edwards, Curator of Collections, 802.985.0410 or jedwards@shelburnefarms.org.
Major collections include:
Architectural Blueprints, Drawings & Maps
A comprehensive collection of 1,047 plans and maps dating from the 1880s through the 1960s. The most significant portion of this collection is the large group of blueprints and drawings for Shelburne House and other farm buildings rendered by the office of Robert Henderson Robertson (1849-1919), the architect for Shelburne Farms, dating from about 1885-1910.
Books
Printed volumes dating from 1750 to 1990 and collected by members of the Webb family, including Lila Osgood (Vanderbilt) Webb, William Seward Webb, James Watson Webb, Sr., and Derick Webb for their libraries.
Family Papers
Correspondence, journals, guestbooks, schoolbooks, scrapbooks and other personal papers created by members of the Webb family, dating from about 1870-1960. Highlights include diaries kept by estate founder Lila Osgood (Vanderbilt) Webb from about 1877-1936; her eldest son James Watson Webb, Sr. from 1904-1960; and eldest and only daughter Frederica Webb Pulitzer Jones from 1897-1935.
Farm Managers’ Papers
Correspondence, financial records, some employee records and trade catalogues from the offices of the estate Farm Managers, dating from about 1888-1940.
Photograph Collection
Over 10,000 images of the estate and family members in photographic prints, photographic albums and negative forms, dating from about 1886 to the present.
Scrapbooks
Twenty folio volumes of newspaper clippings about the estate and the Webb family’s social activities, business ventures, and other residences collected by a press-clipping agency, dating from 1878-1906.
Shelburne Farms Reference Collection
Secondary sources related to the history of Shelburne Farms and the Webb family in manuscript and printed form.
James Watson Webb, Jr. Collection
Photographs, framed works of art, and objects related to the early history of the estate collected by James Watson Webb, Jr., a grandson of estate founders William Seward Webb and Lila Osgood (Vanderbilt) Webb.
William Seward Webb Business Papers
Manuscripts pertaining to the St. Lawrence and Adirondack Railroad, the Herkimer, Newport, & Poland Extension Railroad, the Mohawk & Adirondack Railroad, the Mohawk Valley & Northern Railway Company, the Raquette Lake Railroad, the Railway Construction & Equipment Company, and the Rutland Railroad and a small collection of correspondence (mostly dating to 1902).
