Spotlight on Records

While the Archives record series database informs the researcher about the records we hold, the "spotlight on records" presents a selection of information from different series to encourage research interest.

• The Right of Privacy
  
  1 V.S.A. § 315 states that "all people . . . have a right to privacy in their personal and economic pursuits, which ought to be protected unless specific information is needed to review the action of a governmental officer." There is no further elaboration of a right to privacy in the open meeting/open record provisions of Title 1.
  
  Vermont, like the federal and other state governmetns, created laws guaranteeing the right to inspect and copy public records following the Watergate scandal and resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. At the same time federal and state governments became concerned with the protection of the growing volume of personal information contained in public records.
  
  In October 1974, the Committee on Administrative Coordination presented a reprot to Governor Tom Salmon on " Confidentiality, Privacy and the Security of Information." Its reccomendations were incorporated into Senate Bill 33 of 1975. The bill died in committee, leaving our right to privacy largely undefined. (posted 2010-03)

• Rural Health After the War, July 1944
  
  As World War II moved to its last bloody stages the Vermont Rural Policy Committee began to plan for post-war Vermont. One issue that attracted their attention was “the development of adequate health and medical facilities in Vermont after the war.”  The Committee examined what health services were needed, “how medical and hospital care can be made available to all,” and how to provide for these services.  County sub-committees looked a wide range of health-related issues, including “socialized medicine.”  The results of their work were published in the “Report of the Fourth Meeting of the Vermont Rural Policy Committee.” (The Vermont Rural Policy Committee records, including the Report, can be found in Record Series PRA-063 , Commissioner of Agriculture records, 1933-1961, Box PRA-00301.)
  
  Also in the folder for the Rural Policy Committee is a report on “A Social Security Program for Rural Vermont,” produced by a sub-committee chaired by long term Vermont Farm Bureau leader Arthur Packard.  The report weaves Christian ideals with the belief that “in no true democracy should any substantial portion of the human personality be forced to live weighted down” by the fear “of want and of insecurity.” While the report envisions a broad social safety net it also addresses health care in post-war Vermont. Preventive care is addressed in both reports, including the role of good nutrition.  The folder also includes the “Nutrition Report For Vermont Post-War Planning.” 
  (posted 2009-09)

• The Committee on the Costs of Medical Care, circa 1932
  
  On March 17, 2009 Governor Douglas, along with Governor Patrick of Massachusetts and White House representatives, held a regional White House forum on health care reform at the University of Vermont. In the late 1920s and early 1930s Burlington was also the site for a national look at health care and its costs. From 1926 to 1932 the Rockefeller Foundation helped fund the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care. Vermont, as a typical rural state in the eyes of the Committee, was surveyed on how health care was provided and paid for. A summary of the survey can be found in the records of the Vermont Commission on Country Life (PRA-005). The Country Life Commission went on to consider a Canadian health care plan as one possible solution to costs (see the June 2005 Voice From the Vault.) See also the 1933 national report of the Costs of Medical Care.
  (posted 2009-03)

• Vermont Emergency Relief Administration
  
  State government is currently exploring the impact and potential projects associated with the federal stimulus package. Over seventy years ago Vermont also implemented programs associated with federal stimulus opportunities, those of the New Deal. The Vermont State Archives and Records Administration holds the records of some of these New Deal programs in Vermont. The records of the Vermont Emergency Relief Administration (PRA-145), for example, provide information on the scope of relief projects launched around the state. A folder marked “Woman’s Division” includes records outlining “manual” and “professional” jobs created under VERA.
  (posted 2009-03)

• Governor's Commission on Environmental Control
  
  Governor Deane Davis' Executive Order number 7, May, 1969, created the Governor's Commission on Environmental Control. The commission, known as the Gibb Commission, was chaired by Representative Arthur Gibb. From the Gibb Commission final report came the framework of Act 250 (1970), the landmark legislation created to control irresponsible development in Vermont. In November 1970, an analysis was done on the initial Act 250 process in terms of number of permit applications, number processed, etc.  (See the records of Governor Deane Davis, Box 3A, Folder 3, for additional records on the commission.  The copy of the final report and the November 1970 analysis is located in the reference file under "Act 250".)
  (posted 2009-02)

• Governor's Commission on Vermont's Future
  
  The Vermont Governor’s Commission on Vermont’s Future was established by Governor Kunin by Executive Order No. 50 in 1987. The purpose of the commission, also known as the Costle Commission, was to “assess the concerns of Vermont citizens on the issue of growth, to establish guidelines for growth, and to suggest mechanisms to help plan Vermont’s future.” The commission issued its final report, Report of the Governor’s Commission on Vermont’s Future: Guidelines for Growth, in January 1988. The Vermont Growth Management Act, Act 200 of 1988, was passed in response to the commission’s recommendations. (See Record Series A-194, Governor's Commission on Vermont's Future records, and Record Series A-185,Governor Kunin’s records, for materials relating to the commission.)
  (posted 2008-10)

• Government on Government
  
  Currently the Joint Legislative Government Accountability Committee is looking at the various functions of government. Such studies are common in times of economic uncertainty. In 1977, Governor Snelling issued an executive order establishing the Vermont Council for Effective Government. The council organized a task force called the Governor’s Cost Control Council which was charged with studying the efficiency of state government; the council issued a report with its recommendations in July 1977. (See Governor Snelling's records, Record Series A-184, for materials relating to the council.)
  
  The Blue Ribbon Commission on State Government Performance and WorkforceNeeds was established by executive order in 1998. The executive order implemented section 272a of No. 147 of the Acts of 1998. The commission was charged with recommending a five-year state workforce plan designed to increase the efficiency of state government while controlling costs. The commission produced an executive summary and appendices in December 1998. (See Governor Dean's records, Record Series A-187, for materials relating to the commission.)
  
  For another report on state government, see the Little Hoover Commission, featured below.
  (posted 2008-10)

• Little Hoover Commission
  (Record Series A-088)
  By 1957 there were fears that government had grown too unwieldy and inefficient. There was no way to project revenue, track expenses, or even understand the basis of department appropriations. There were over a hundred independent departments, boards, and commissions whose missions and productivity were unknown. While the governor had to sign all personnel changes for each employee, no one knew precisely how many employees there were or how many positions were vacant.
  
  Act 283 of 1957 appropriated $35,000 to fund a commission to study state government. The act was modeled after similar efforts in other states, collectively known as "Little Hoover Commissions" after a study of the federal government headed by former President Herbert Hoover. The Vermont Commission (also know as the Commission to Study State Government) was headed by Deane C. Davis of National Life. The Commission issued its final report to the General Assembly in January 1959. The 1959 legislature reorganized state government, incorporating many of the recommendations of the Commission.
  (posted 2008-07)

• Vermont and the Dred Scott Decision
  On March 6, 1857 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that people of African descent could never be citizens of the United States.  According to the Court the drafters of the U.S. Constitution believed African-Americans as “beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations…”
  
  The Dred Scott decision mobilized abolitionists and marked a significant step in the collapse of political dialogue that led to the Civil War.  In Vermont, whose 1777 Constitution not only prohibited slavery but also based citizenship solely on age and gender (not race or property qualifications), there were questions on Dred Scott’s impact.   In an 1857 letter to Vermont Secretary of State Charles Willard, J.J. Grindale of Baltimore asked whether, in Vermont, since “both white and coloured vote because they are men, the question of citizenship is not important…” (Manuscript Vermont State Papers, Vol. 95 Page 181.)
  
  The Vermont Legislature indirectly responded to Grindale’s letter through Act 37 of 1858 that declared, in part, that: “Neither descent, near or remote, from an African, whether such African is or may have been a slave or not, nor color of skin or complexion, shall disqualify any person from being, or prevent any person from becoming, a citizen of this State, nor deprive such person of the rights and privileges thereof.”   
  (posted 2008-02)

• The Preamble to the Vermont Constitution, 1777
  (Record Series PRA-077)
  The July 1777 constitutional convention, which met at Windsor, created the State of Vermont through adoption of a state constitution.  Ira Allen was instructed to draft a preamble to the Constitution which he completed by November 1777.  A second Windsor convention adopted the preamble as part of the Constitution in December 1777.
  
  The preamble was similar to the 1776 Declaration of Independence of the United States in that it set out grievances that in the eyes of Vermonters violated the social contract (Vermont’s grievances addressed not only Great Britain, but also the State of New York, which claimed Vermont). Therefore Vermont reverted to a state of nature, free to adopt a new governance charter. The opening of the preamble declared that ”…whenever those great ends of government are not obtained, the people have a right, by common consent, to change it, and take such measures as to them appear necessary to promote their safety and happiness.”
  
  The preamble was continued by the Vermont Constitution of 1786 but, following statehood in 1791, was dropped from the 1793 Vermont Constitution.
  
  A typescript of the 1777 Constitution, with preamble, can be found at:
  http://vermont-archives.org/govhistory/constitut/con77.htm
  (posted 2007-11)

• Commission to Investigate State Institutions, 1904-1906. ( Record Series PRA-077)
  
  The Commission was created by Act 163 of 1904 and was charged with investigating the "state hospital for the insane" and in the commission’s "discretion" the state prison, house of corrections, and industrial school. PRA-077 consists of the Commission’s hearing transcripts on the state prison.
  
  This series has it all: sex, drugs, possible malfeasance, and bureaucratic infighting. The transcripts include insights into daily life within the prison; for example, how many plugs of tobacco were provided prisoners since chewing but not smoking was allowed. They also include allegations that the prison warden put family members on the payroll without specific duties and misappropriated prison supplies for his personal use. There is discussion of the smuggling of morphine into the prison and on inappropriate sexual relations between prison officers, staff and prisoners. Many of the transcripts focus on such relationships with Mary Rogers who was awaiting execution for murdering her husband. The series is a rich resource for any one researching the state prison or the Mary Rogers case (Mrs. Rogers was the second, and last, woman executed by the State of Vermont).
  (posted 2007-08)

• The Governor's Task Force on Wood as a Source of Energy, 1975.
  
  The Task Force was created by Governor Thomas P. Salmon on May 24, 1974 in response to the energy crisis occasioned by the 1973 oil embargo launched by the Organization of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC). The Task Force records and report, issued August 14, 1975, can be found in the records of Governor Thomas Salmon (Box BBB, Folder 520 and Box DDD, Folder 534). The report looked at Vermont's renewable wood supply, the economic impact of increased reliance on wood-based energy, and the environmental impact of wood energy.
  
  An interesting point of comparison is offered by the June 21, 2007 study by the Biomass Energy Resource Center entitled: The Vermont Wood Fuel Supply Study; an Examination of the Availability and Reliability of Wood Fuel for Biomass Energy in Vermont. The study was conducted for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation and the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services. It can be accessed, as of July 9, 2007, at the Biomass Energy Resource Center website at: http://www.biomasscenter.org
  (posted 2007-07-10)

• Vermont Commission to Investigate the Taxation of Public Utilities, 1931-1932 (Record Series PRA-007):
  
  The Commission was created by Joint Resolution No. 304 of 1931.  The series consists of public testimony, financial information from public utilities, and studies on utility taxation.  The Commission's report was issued in 1933.  Within the series are three maps showing different views of the distribution of electricity in Vermont. For more information on the Commission's records see the Archives' Record Series Database.
  (posted 2007-06)

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