VT 250: Ira Allen and the Green Mountain Frontier

Name: VT 250: Ira Allen and the Green Mountain Frontier
Start: 2026-03-14T13:00:00-04:00
Location: Manchester Community Library

Schedule

Sat, 14 Mar, 2026 at 01:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Manchester Community Library | Manchester, VT

Land speculator, revolutionary, pamphleteer, politician, and empire-builder, Ira Allen was a key figure on the late eighteenth-century Green Mountain frontier. Based on his new book, Ira Allen: A Biography, J. Kevin Graffagnino’s lively talk evaluates Allen’s checkered career and makes the case for including him in our picture of Vermont’s formative decades.
Born on Long Island and raised in Montpelier, Vermont, Kevin Graffagnino is a historian, author, and library leader with decades of experience in American and Vermont history. A graduate of the University of Vermont (B.A. 1976; M.A. 1978) and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Ph.D. 1993), he has held major leadership roles at historical institutions across the country, including the Vermont Historical Society, the Kentucky Historical Society, the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan.
He is the author or editor of 25 books on Vermont and American history, book collecting, and antiquarian maps and prints. His Vermont-focused works include The Shaping of Vermont, Vermont Voices, The Vermont Difference, Vermont Heritage, and most recently Ira Allen: A Biography and Vermontiana: An Annotated Checklist, 1764–1899 (2024). His scholarship has made a lasting contribution to the study and preservation of Vermont’s cultural and historical legacy.
This event is a part of the celebrations commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the Vermont Republic.
Bennington Regional 250th Anniversary Committee
We are a component of the overall statewide 250th commemorative effort being led by the Vermont 250th Anniversary Commission created by Governor Phil Scott in 2021. Two of our members, Martin Mahoney and Jonah Spivak, were appointed by the governor to serve on that commission. The Bennington 250th Committee is also working with neighboring states and the Federal American 250th effort as part of our work.