(Image credit: Vermont Historical Society)
It is with heavy hearts that we report the passing of historian and former Vermont Historical Society Executive Director and VAAS Fellow, Michael Sherman. He was an enormous figure in the world of Vermont history, and for decades played a major role in the scholarship, organization, and study of the field. He was 81 years old.
Michael Sherman, historian, editor, and former director of the Vermont Historical Society, was one of the leading scholars of Vermont, its history, and its people. New to Vermont, Michael faced the challenge of leading an organization with a heavy commitment to public engagement and scholarly initiatives, while teaching himself about the peculiar ways of Vermonters.
In 1995 Michael transitioned from his role as director of the VHS to become editor of its scholarly journal, Vermont History, a role in which he continued until his passing. He brought to the job an understanding of the balance the journal needs to achieve between high-quality scholarship and appeal to an audience of wide interests within the study of Vermont. Subjects of articles published ranged from the exploits of Vermont’s early European settlers to the Green Mountain Parkway controversy; from early industrial enterprises to tourism and the back-to-the-land movement. There were special issues compiling papers presented at VHS conferences on antebellum Vermont, the future of Vermont history, and Champlain quadracentennial.
Over the last 25 years Michael edited an average of about seven scholarly articles per year for Vermont History, or some 175 pieces. This does not include such features such as “Archives and Manuscripts,” describing significant new collections at the VHS and UVM Special Collections, or “In Their Words,” historical accounts drawn from eyewitness manuscripts. Nor does it include the hundreds of manuscripts not accepted for publication, most of which elicited advice and suggestions from the editor.
Having to edit other historians’ work did not prevent Michael from producing his own scholarly articles. In 2001 he and Nancy Boone published a study of Vermont’s Civil War hospitals, and in 2013 he published a fine article on Vermont’s conscientious objectors, both in Vermont History.
As important as the Vermont History editing and writing have been, Michael’s greatest achievements may be the series of books he has edited, co-edited, and authored that address the enduring questions of what it means to be a Vermonter. These begin with the 1991 book A More Perfect Union: Vermont Becomes a State, 1777-1816 (the statehood bicentennial volume with numerous contributors) and continue with We Vermonters: Reflections on the Past, co-edited with Jennie Versteeg in 1992; The Character of Vermont: Twentieth-Anniversary Reflections, co-edited with three others in 1996; and Imagining Vermont: Values and Vision for the Future. Perhaps his single most important contribution to understanding Vermont’s past is the brilliant history he co-authored with Gene Sessions and P. Jeffrey Potash, Freedom and Unity: A History of Vermont. In acknowledging but not falling prey to the tradition of Vermont exceptionalism, Michael and his co-authors produced the most professional and readable history of Vermont in its more than 225-year history.
All of this work notwithstanding, Michael added on a second career several years ago: baker in a long-established Montpelier bakery. As one newspaper wryly announced in its headline, Michael’s “second career takes flour.”
The Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus and the Vermont Historical Society both provided obituaries to honor Michael’s life and legacy.
A public celebration of Michael’s life will be held at a later time in Montpelier this summer. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in his name to the Vermont Historical Society , the Montpelier Tree Board, the TW Wood Art Gallery, or the charity of your choosing.
(Image credit: The Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus)