“I’ve been in White River Junction since 1992, but I grew up in Boston and lived and worked in New York City for ten years. The Main Street Museum is my life’s work, and it is a small collection of curiosities very much in the style of the old kunstkammer or ‘cabinet of curiosities’. The kunstkammer began in the 18th century based on the enlightenment idea that we can discover everything there is to be discovered in the world. In that sense, they are the birth of science as we know it. There are sometimes problematic issues with these cabinets, but they are foundational in Western cultural history. The museum exists in the old 1893 White River Junction fire station, which was a fun renovation project.
I had a storefront on South Main Street and had always collected things. People just started bringing me things. For instance, a picture of the Virgin Mary that had survived the 1927 flood. While some objects may have very little monetary value, they mean a lot to the families, such as the family that also survived the 1927 flood. Many artifacts from people’s lives were delivered to my doorstep. One friend brought me a pebble from the Palace of Versailles. A friend of mine whose parents had left China in the 1960s brought me a small statue of Guanyin. We have what we refer to as ‘things from across the world’ in the Main Street Museum, things that can tell a story. It may just be a small figurine, but it can tell the story of a family’s suffering and their eventual arrival and success in the United States.
One thing I love about White River Junction is that when I moved in there were local railroad workers who would frequent the local bars. It was a very inclusive place. South Main Street was a collection of French, Italian, Black, brown, and Irish immigrants. In Vermont, it was very much a sea of old Protestant families who were primarily farmers. They were Democratic with a different religious and political outlook and were extraordinarily welcoming. These old guys who grew up in a tough end of town couldn’t have cared less that I was a gay man living in White River Junction.
I am big on the Main Street Museum being something that is civic, something that is open to the public, and something that is non-exclusive. If someone comes in and says, “I have never been in a museum before,” I always tell them they have come to the right place.” David Fairbanks Ford, White River Junction, VT.
