Shelburne Museum

Electra Havemeyer Webb collected American folk art when almost nobody treated it as art, and from 1947 she assembled this: thirty-nine buildings, most of them moved here from elsewhere in New England, holding quilts, weathervanes, decoys, carriages, circus figures and a great deal else. The most improbable object is the Ticonderoga, a 67-metre side-wheel steamboat of Lake Champlain, floated onto a railroad carriage on specially laid track and hauled overland across highways, a swamp, woods and fields in the winter of 1955, and now sitting on dry land as an exhibit. There is also a lighthouse, a covered bridge, a round barn and a jail. A gallery holds her family's Impressionist paintings, which sit oddly and deliberately alongside the folk art.

What's there

• Thirty-nine buildings - most moved onto the site.
• The steamboat Ticonderoga - hauled overland in the winter of 1955.
• Folk art in quantity - quilts, weathervanes, decoys, carriages.
• Impressionist paintings - the family collection, shown alongside.

When to go

May to October for the full site; a smaller winter programme runs. A full day.

Things to know

Most buildings close outside the season. The site is large and involves a lot of walking. Some buildings open on rotation, not all at once. It is expensive for a family.

Nearby

Burlington and Lake Champlain are north; the Adirondacks are across the water.

Key facts