BRATTLEBORO — Richard Michelman, a retired high school teacher, fine arts appraiser, and former Brooks Memorial Library trustee, will offer his expertise in history and art in a talk about one of the library's crown jewels - the Loud Collection.
Michelman, who served as a library trustee from 1973 to 1982, has special insight into the people and culture in Brattleboro in the early years of the 20th century. He is a co-author of “Before Our Time: A Pictorial Memoir of Brattleboro, Vermont, From 1830 to 1930,” which was published by Stephen Greene Press in 1974.
The talk is Wednesday, Jan. 9, at 7 p.m. in the Meeting Room of the Brooks Memorial Library. Light refreshments will be served, and some of the Loud Collection artwork will be on display.
The talk is part of an initiative by Brooks Memorial Library to encourage planned giving to the library.
Living history
The Louds' story is fascinating, says Michelman.
But, he adds, the story of how Michelman helped save the collection after years of neglect is fascinating in its own right.
Charles and Henrietta Loud were a prominent couple who lived in Winchendon, Mass., and summered in Brattleboro.
“Henrietta was one of the Proutys, a prominent Brattleboro family,” says Michelman. “She always kept strong ties with her hometown.”
In March 1911, she made a gift to Brooks Library of her late husband's collection of “books, oil paintings and bric-à-brac,” along with $2,500 to be used for a building expansion to house the collection. At a special Town Meeting later that year, Brattleboro citizens voted an additional $2,500 for the library expansion to house the Louds' artwork and a bust by the artist Larkin Mead donated to the library by his wife.
“She felt the collection would be an important resource to the people of the town, who might never have a chance to see much of the things like the objects that she and her husband had collected through their travels,” adds Michelman. “You should remember we are speaking of the old Brooks Library, which was constructed in 1886 and located on what is now the U.S. Post Office parking lot on Main Street.”
That building was razed in 1967, when the present Brooks Memorial Library moved into a new structure just up the street.
“The Louds' very substantial collection given to the library included several hundred books alone,” says Jerry Carbone, the current director of Brooks Memorial Library, “so it became imperative to add more space to the building. In a way, Brooks Memorial Library became more to the town than just a library: it also became Brattleboro's art museum. Of course, this was long before the establishment of the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center” [at 10 Vernon St.].
When Mrs. Loud died in February 1923, she bequeathed to the library a permanent fund of $2,500 to care for her husband's art collection. The interest from that fund is used to maintain the paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts that make up the Loud Collection.
A childhood discovery
Michelman well remembers the room in the back of the old library that held the Loud collection. “I initially knew the library from the children's room in the basement of the old library,” he says, “but when I got my first library card I was able to go upstairs into the main floor where I could go into the museum room. I always thought it quite remarkable.
“Regrettably much of the Loud collection was dispersed when the library moved to the new building in the Sixties. The then-director probably did not think it the mission of the library to keep all the collection together. A lot of things were even sold off, wonderful items like a feather cape from the Hawaiian islands and newspapers from the Confederacy: ephemeral things that were considered too difficult to store.
“I was in my first year in college when I heard this was happening and I was quite upset. But a lot of things like that occur in this world which has little use with its past. There remains a general failure to respect what has gone on before us. I suppose the then-director thought of Brooks Memorial as a library, [and] not an art museum.”
Tending to the works
When Michelman served on the board of the Brooks Memorial Library, he tried to resurrect what he could of the collection. Many pieces were scattered around the building, but much had to put away in storage. “Nothing had been done for their upkeep,” he said. “I tried to provide the care for them that they needed. I also set up a Loud display case to bring out to the public pieces from the collection in storage.”
He says he regrets that even now, much of the time this case is used for purposes other than the Louds' works. Nonetheless, Brooks Memorial Library Director Jerry Carbone insists that, at least once a year, the case is dedicated to items from the collection.
Carbone says he is proud of the library's art collection, which not only includes the Louds' gift, but works of art donated to the library by many caring people over the years. A free brochure near the front desk lets one take a guided tour of the prominent works on display in the library.
“We own over 300 works of art,” he says. “I believe that that is more art than there is in (BMAC). I am not trying to diminish that fine institution, which does not have a permanent collection but rather relies on a series of changing shows. However, I do want to emphasize what a valuable resource the library remains for art in our community.”
Push for planned giving
In addition to facilitating the telling of this part of Michelman and the Louds' intertwined stories, Brooks Memorial Library hopes attendees and the general public will be moved by the same spirit in which the Louds donated their art collection to benefit the entire community. The library wants to encourage people to step up and support an essential Brattleboro institution.
Carbone says that, in these difficult times, it is imperative to find new sources of income to keep the library alive and thriving. At the lecture, a brochure will be available explaining ways to help.
Michelson says he dreads the thought that the library will have to sell off pieces from its fine art collection to keep fiscally sound.
“Brooks Memorial Library has an amazing collection for this size of a town,” he says. “There are many fine pieces in the collection that places like the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be willing to pay substantial sums of money to own. We need to appreciate what we are lucky to have here, and be willing to support the library so that they will remain where they are for us to enjoy.”