Drawing on the Archive: Tillie Walden’s Charity & Sylvia

Step into the world of Tillie Walden’s highly anticipated graphic novel, Charity & Sylvia, selected by Vermont Humanities as the 2026 Vermont Reads.

Drawing on the Archive invites visitors into a layered conversation between past and present, pairing the Museum’s archival and object collections with Tillie Walden’s contemporary illustrations. Together, these materials illuminate the lives of one of America’s earliest documented same-sex couples, who built a shared home, tailoring business, and life in early Vermont.

Through original documents, 19th century artifacts, and Tillie’s artwork, the exhibition reveals not only Charity and Sylvia’s story, but also the creative process behind bringing history to life in graphic form. Drawing on the Archive invites visitors to consider the power of archives to inspire new ways of seeing the past.

To learn more about Tillie’s research and writing, check out Tillie’s bibliography and notes.

Curated by Julia Breckenridge, Allison Cardon, Rev. Caryn Eskridge, Ellery Foutch, Coco Moseley and Tillie Walden