A project to update and automate the cataloging of the VHS manuscript collection is under way. Most maps are included in the card catalog. Prior to 1900 is available. The VHS should be considered a source of last resort for newspapers. Most of the oral histories were conducted in the 1970s.
Collection includes some historic speeches.
Collection also includes about 80 records. Cataloging is minimal for these materials although card files exist which can aid staff in locating items. The photograph collection may be the library's most popular holding. Among the most important images in the collection are the earliest known photographic views of Vermont, taken by Thomas Easterly about 1845. The library also has the glass plate negatives of Will D. Chandler and R. C. Bristol, the Civil War scenes of George H. Houghton, the covered bridge photographs of Edmund H. Royce, and the Vermont Album collection assembled by Ralph Nading Hill.