For 44 years Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake lived together as life partners in small town Vermont.
Bryant and Drake ran a tailoring business from their Weybridge home and are considered one of the earliest documented same-sex couples in the US. They are buried together under the same headstone in Weybridge, where a new Vermont Historical Marker honoring them was erected in June 2025.
Their letters, poems, journals, and other objects from their lives are part of the collection at the Henry Sheldon Museum in Middlebury.
The Sheldon Archives and Middle School Curriculum
The Sheldon Museum’s open-source middle-grade curriculum unit, Charity & Sylvia: Identity, Community & Love, explores how people’s stories, both past and present, can help us understand ourselves and one another.
By inviting students to become curious historians and delve into an archival collection, this multi-lesson unit is available for all to use.
