Special Collections web site celebrates
Robert Frost's connection to Middlebury
MIDDLEBURY, Vt.—Special Collections at the Middlebury College library recently developed and launched an online exhibit titled "Robert Frost at Bread Loaf." The Web site commemorates the poet's Vermont legacy and includes transcripts, letters, photographs and manuscripts proprietary to Middlebury's Special Collections, but it is particularly remarkable for its rare selection of more than 30 audio recordings that accompany several of the transcripts.
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Robert Frost speaks at Bread Loaf's Little Theatre in 1956.
— From the online exhibit, 'Robert Frost at Bread Loaf.' |
Robert Frost has long been associated with Bread Loaf and Middlebury College. He first arrived at the School of English in 1921, and in 1926 was instrumental in founding the Writers' Conference. The mountain campus became a welcome retreat for him, and he returned nearly every year until his death in 1963. The audio recordings included at the new web site are digitized versions of reel-to-reel tape recordings from lectures and readings Frost gave in Mead Chapel and at Bread Loaf from 1950 to 1962.
Curator of Special Collections & Archives Andrew Wentink oversaw the creation of the site, with support from Assistant Curator Danielle Rougeau, Project Managers Patty Hornbeck and Anne Callahan, sound editors Charlie Conway and Scott Witt, and student assistants Iskandar Aminov '06, Niyama Rai '06 and Liz Vazquez '07. The site was unveiled on Oct. 6 following the first lecture in the 2005-2006 Abernethy Lecture Series and is intended for both scholarly and mainstream audiences with an interest in Frost, Vermont and Bread Loaf.
Visit the site at http://go.middlebury.edu/frost
— Blair Kloman