Category:Tramps and Hobos

Exhibitions of Tramp or Hobo Related Artifacts Sponsored by the Main Street Museum

Our Publicity

Tramps, Hobos, and Transients at the Edge
Special Events and Special Exhibits At The Main Street Museum
May through July, 2009

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune
Here a great personal deed has room ... The road is before us! —Whitman

I'm a man of means, by no means - King of the Road —Miller

What is a hobo? We're all familiar with the ragged figure with a bundle on a stick, traveling by freight train. But a more interesting question might be, "who is a hobo, and why?"

The tramp, the hobo, the wanderer - the unemployed, uprooted American, or simply anyone who can't rest easy without knowing what's around the next bend in the road - have a social pedigree that runs from the wilderness and Walt Whitman's "Open Road," right through to the songs of Bruce Springsteen, and today's news headlines about migrant workers, homelessness and economic upheaval.

In a groundbreaking series of special events and special exhibits this May through July, the Main Street Museum will investigate and celebrate the American wanderer with readings, movies, concerts, cookouts, lectures and more.

We are located in White River Junction, Vermont, a gritty and historic railroad town that is easily reached by Amtrak and is just minutes from Interstates I-89 and I-91.

A full schedule of special events is attached and is also available on our website. Our special exhibits will be on display May 1 through July 31, 2009. You can learn more about our programs at www.mainstreetmuseum.org/wiki, or call us at 802-356-2776.

Supported in part by the Vermont Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Vermont Humanities Council.

The Curious Case of the Haitain Hobo of White River Junciton, Vermont, by James Sturm. 2009.

Tramp and Hobo Symposium was presented by the Museum May—August, 2009 For those presentations receiving support from the Vermont Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities, any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in those programs do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Vermont Humanities Council.

Artifacts from the Museum Collection Associated with Tramps or Hobos

• Food for a Hobo
  • Tomato Can with Improvised Handle

Tramps and their Cars. Denys Wortman 1930. From the collection of the Center for Cartoon Studies.

A Gallery of Hobo Images

Some of the images of the Tramp we have assembled over the course of a year or so. Some are real tramps, or documentary photos. Others are images from the popular media, and so represent our changing ideas of the tramp and the nostalgia of the hobo. Enjoy.

Images of the Tramp from the 19th Century Media

Harper's Weekly and Century Magazine all described the Tramp Scare of the 1870s—in lurid detail! See glimpses of it here.

Images from the pen and pencil of Denys Wortman

With thanks to our colleagues at the Center for Cartoon Studies, White River Junction, Vermont.

Tramps and Hobos in Postcards and Ephemera, 1900–1912

From the Harvey-Muhly Postcard and Ephemera Compendium.

The Tramp in 19th Century Popular Song

The Tramp as seen by Dorothea Lange in the 1930s.

Historic Background

"Such persons, brought before a committing magistrate, are sentanced to the work-house for twenty days. At the end of that time a certificate of discharge is given them, and this exempts them from arrests for vagrancy for a period of five days thereafter...That the railroads are useful in spreading the tramp nuisance is shown by the faithfulness with which these peripatetic vagabonds' stick to the railroad lines. A map of the tramp movement, projected on some such plan as Prof. Riley's chart of the locust movement, would be an exact reproduction of the railroad system of the country. Tramps do not move in large bodies. New York Times, 11 July, 1879.

Vermont History Expo, 2007. Tunbridge, Vermont

World Tours, Hobos and Gypsies; Artifacts from Transmigratory Cultures in Focus The Main Street Museum, White River Junction, Vermont, 2007

The Evolution of the Hobo; Images of a Non-threatening Wag

Tramps or Hobos; you decide...

Tramp Themes at the Museum

World Tours, Hobos and Gypsies; Artifacts from Transmigratory Cultures in Focus The Main Street Museum, White River Junction, Vermont, 2007

The Main Street Museum offers for your education and contemplation, an exhibit of transient objects and souvenirs of trips from our permanent collection — things brought back from abroad by Vermonters. World Tours were undertaken by middle and upper class Victorians for education, health, and in a more limited sense, cultural exchange. These same goals are often associated with Hobo life and the life of gypsie encampments to the present day. Just as there is a long history of Hobo life along the state of Vermont’s railroads, this culture continues today especially in our home town of White River Jct.

The Museum is a Tramp

Founded in 1992, the Main Street Museum has been located in four different locations in the town of Hartford. Therefore the museum itself can be seen as a kind of gypsie. We have been in motion but are now entering into a state of rest. Well, not rest really, but at least we can say that we are more composed now than we used to be.

History of Trampdom in the Area of White River Junction

Jack London as a tramp in White River Jct. rail yards.