“The Spirit of Invention: da Vinci to Vermont” at the Chaffee Art Center, Rutland

Abstract

Exhibit Review “THE SPIRIT OF INVENTION: DA VINCI TO VERMONT” AT THE CHAFFEE ART CENTER, RUTLAND VIRGINIA WESTBROOK “The Spirit of Invention: da Vinci to Vermont,” at the Chaffee Art Center in Rutland, brought together elements of art, science, and history in a satisfyingly broad look at inventive genius. The exhibit curators used models of da Vinci’s inventions as the starting point for an investigation of “Yankee ingenuity” in Vermont. Such a happy blend of technology and culture is rare enough in history museums and unique in my experience of small city art centers. But Vermonters enjoy a particularly articulate perception of their past and continue a long tradition of problem solving and learning. This exhibit’s sub­ stantial interpretation, following many threads of scientific creativity and rooted in the immediate vicinity, serves as yet another example of Vermont’s devotion to education. The IBM reproductions of da Vinci’s models of his inventions have been on the road a long time (see, e.g., Bert S. Hall, “ ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Engineer and Architect,’ an Exhibition at the Montreal Mu­ seum of Fine Arts,” Technology and Culture 29 [July 1988]: 606—12). The text has disappeared from some of the display panels, but the models themseves, glowing in the warm tones of well-oiled wood and polished brass, still stir an excitement I well remember from my first glimpse of them through the windows of the IBM Gallery in New York back in 1975.1 could get much closer to them in the Chaffee Art Center, but only in between the waves of passing students who flocked to see the exhibit before it closed in May 1991. The Chaffee Art Center occupies one of the grand Victorian man­ sions that line Route 7 in Rutland, a central Vermont city. Victorian domestic interiors may enhance a viewer’s appreciation of artworks whose meaning emerges from individual pieces, but the fragmented Ms. Westbrook, an independent historian based in Crown Point, New York, specializes in education and interpretation for museums and historical societies. She recently developed an exhibition, “Celebrating Vermont: Myths and Realities,” for the state’s bicentennial.© 1993 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/93/3401-0007$01.00 114 “The Spirit ofInvention: da Vinci to Vermont” 115 floorplan presents a difficult design challenge for an interpretive ex­ hibit. Fifteen da Vinci models, including the flying machine and the armored tank, filled the three main-floor gallery spaces. The “Vermont Inventors” component began in the entry hall, wound up the stairs, and filled the remaining exhibit space in the upstairs hall, bedrooms, and closet space. Henry Paynter of Pittsford volunteered his time to research and write the Vermont part of the story. He assembled objects from the Smithsonian, the American Precision Museum in Windsor, and the Pittsford Historical Society as well as private and corporate collec­ tions. Beginning with Samuel Hopkins’s 1790 patent for processing potash, Paynter traced the work of Vermont inventors up to the present. Thus, contemporary inventors of Velcro-making machinery and IBM digital-relay computers capped a 200-year saga of success (Precision Valley machine tools) and failure (Thomas Davenport’s electric motor). The curators of this show had an extraordinarily ambitious agenda, and their aspirations succeeded with the personal stories. The biog­ raphies had the power of fable, illustrating timeless truths—such as the relationship between diligence and bright ideas—that need re­ peating from one generation to the next. The time span demon­ strated that the inventive spirit lives on in Vermont today. But the background material, illustrated by a wide range of unspecified sources, suffered from a failure of focus. The array of personal connections that built the tool industries of Windsor and Springfield came across much more clearly than the mechanical and engineering details of either the processes or the products. To be sure, this complex set of connections has challenged historians and exhibit developers with more space than that available at the Chaffee. Enlightened educational programming compensated some audi­ ences daunted by the exhaustive text. The center articulated “making connections” as the primary goal of the exhibit and emphasized that theme in the tour...