Via Community News Service Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Winooski News
In the dim light of the Winooski Senior Center last month, Bernard Fishman depicted history in 3D.
Fishman, a former Egyptologist and current director of the Maine State Museum, walked the April 10 audience through his vast collection of 18th- and 19th-century stereoscopic images. The old-school tech lets people look through special devices at two photos taken from slightly different angles; the effect gives the illusion of viewing the scene in three dimensions.
That night with Fishman, folks donned 3D glasses to see and discuss digitized versions of the images.
The event was presented by the Heritage Winooski Mill Museum with funding from Vermont Humanities — from which the Trump administration recently slashed almost $729,000, about a third of its annual budget, Seven Days reported.
Heritage Mill Museum Executive Director Miriam Block pointed that out to the audience prior to the screening, hoping to raise awareness of the Department of Government Efficiency’s defunding organizations like Vermont Humanities.
“This program is funded by a grant that we received from Vermont Humanities. We really do depend on this funding — we’re a small museum,” Block said.
She encouraged people to tell the government that funding for museums like hers is important to them — “especially if you like the presentation tonight.”
DOGE, a project of billionaire Elon Musk, has spent the first half of the year in a defunding blitz. Places like the Winooski museum face job cuts, lost grants and even closure.
Where do you turn when your funding gets cut off by the federal government?
One answer: directly to the community. People piled into the senior center to watch Fishman present his stereoview works.
Afterward, attendees shared their enthrallment with the experience and their dismay over the news around federal funding.
“It just seemed like a fascinating topic, and I’m a history buff — I work with the Williston Historical Society,” said Richard Allen, a retired teacher. “Very unique how you can sit there and study those images: Pick out the clothing, the objects and the location, and it tells a story about our history like no other. Programs and organizations like this are threatened by funds being cut, and it’s just a shame.”
Vermont Humanities has long received a significant part of its budget from the National Endowment for the Humanities. So far into his second term, President Donald Trump has overseen massive cuts to the endowment, which for decades has sent support to museums, state humanities councils, libraries, historical sites and more nationwide.
“The stereoview images are important markers of our past, and we can learn from them,” said Katie Grant, the collections manager at the Vermont Historical Society.
Grant said the society had received a letter saying its funding for a two-year project working with local historical societies had been terminated.
“Without that funding, we won’t be able to do programs like this,” Grant said. “To say it’s upsetting is the understatement.”
That seemed to be a common feeling among the guests.
“It’s all about our past, and it’s devastating what’s happening at a federal level, funding cuts to organizations like the Institute of Museum and Library Services that sponsor programs similar to this event tonight,” said Adriene Katz, a librarian at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum.
Katz said events like that night’s give people a chance to bond over a common experience and talk to each other.
The community showed out in hefty numbers that evening, a sign of support for the organizations involved and Fishman, whose passion for history was evident.
“We’re a much more visual culture than we used to be, and these images show an enormous amount about social and historical changes,” he said.
“They show the prejudices of the time, and they show the progress of the time. I think history is the best teacher,” he said, lamenting the administration’s decisions.
Some of the progress shown in those images, he said, could be “wiped out and pushed backwards so that we lose that opportunity to understand the progress that we’ve made.”