On Friday, August 5th at 6:30pm the Noyes House Museum will host a talk by Vergennes boatbuilder and author Douglas Brooks. As part of his visit, he will lend his expertise and assess the museum’s dug-out canoe that the organization has highlighted in their new exhibit “The Mystery of Joe’s Canoe.” His talk, From Skiffs to Sail Ferries: The Story of Vermont’s Small Boat Traditions, is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s Speakers Bureau series. The Series supports Vermont non-profit organizations by offering lectures on art, culture and history.

Brooks’ talk will focus on the history and culture of boatbuilding in the Lake Champlain region. While the larger ships that historically plied Lake Champlain, from the gunboats of the Revolutionary era to the steamboats of the 20th century, have been the focus of extensive research and archaeology, the small boats of the Lake Champlain have never been comprehensively studied.

The talk will feature historic photographs of the lake, which show a myriad of small boat types, both finely-built craft and their simpler, “carpenter-built” cousins. Many of these are working boats, for fishing, hunting and trapping. In addition there are pleasure boats, including a series of rowboats from the Waterhouse shop on Lake Dunmore. Brooks will also share research from his work with high school students. In two separate projects he led students studying the region’s various small boats, including oral interviews with trappers and the descendants of boatbuilders. Historic boats were identified and measured for detailed drawings and, under Brooks’ direction, students built several replica boats.