events
The Bridgewater Historical Society provides special events throughout the year including rotating exhibits, lectures and presentations, a community open house and educational programs.
UPCOMING EVENTS
2025 Programs are in the works
Yesteryear Car Club Visit October 5, 2024
The Historical Society opens the Old Brick Schoolhouse for the season on May 27th. The current exhibit, “The Message Gets Through,” shows the actual telephone switchboards, along with photos and material on the Southern Vermont Telephone Company. Visitors to both the Historical Society and the Coolidge Museum will be able to visualize the excitement on the night of August 2nd, 100 years ago.
The museum is open 10am-2pm every 2nd and 4th Saturday from May 28th to October 8th.
The following programs are available on YouTube.
Click the titles to learn more about each program.
Thank you to Woodstock Community TV for filming our events and delivering quality programming to our community and beyond.
John Atwood – 19th Century Vermont Pipe Organs
John Atwood discusses how pipe organs have developed in Vermont from 1814 to 1900, and working with them makes the nineteenth century real, often in unexpected ways. The presentation also includes the difference between the pipe organ and a reed organ. The program is...
Cynthia Bittinger – Vermont Women, Native Americans & African Americans
Cyndy Bittinger, presents her book “Vermont Women, Native Americans & African Americans: Out of the Shadows of History”, will speak to this topic on August 25th. The book takes a fresh look at Vermont’s history, uncovering hidden stories, from the earliest...
Howard Coffin – Ancient Standing Stones and Chambers in Vermont? Once upon a Time with Barry Fell.
Are the ancient stone structures and chambers in Vermont evidence that Europeans, Africans and Asians visited America at least 3,000 years prior to Columbus. That was the conclusion of Harvard University professor Barry Fell’s research. Mr. Fell wrote three popular...
Cynthia Bittinger – Grace Coolidge
Cyndy Bittinger is faculty, The Community College of Vermont where she teaches Vermont History. She has given lectures for OSHER, the Lifelong Learning Institute of the University of Vermont, over many years. She is a member of the Center for Research on Vermont...
Howard Coffin – “The President I Thought I Knew”
Howard Coffin will open the season with “Calvin Coolidge as I understood him, a complex and somewhat mysterious human being”. Howard knew and wrote about many people who remembered Coolidge. He has done considerable research over the years and was a member of the...
Elisha Lee – “The Gold Mines Of Bridgewater 1851-1924”
Elisha Lee discusses his research on where the mines were, who the miners were, and, most importantly, why they undertook such a difficult task? https://youtu.be/KLPuXJHK-oM
Charles Shackleton – “Finding Endurance”
The story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his ship, the EnduranceCharles Shackleton will present a talk on Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance. He will discuss not only the remarkable discovery of the wreck, but will also include stories of the entrepreneurial exploits of...
Howard Coffin – “Stories from a Newspaper Reporter”
Vermont Civil War historian Howard Coffin was a reporter for the Rutland Herald for twelve years and the Christian Science Monitor for six years. Howard will cover interesting stories he reported on, including being the first reporter on the scene of the 1967 Mt...
Howard Coffin – “Vermont Women and the Civil War’’
“Vermont women enlisted for the duration.” So said a Vermont historian assessing the war years 1861-1865. Vermont’s remarkable Civil War battlefield record is well documented, but little is known of how Vermont women sustained the home front. Historian Howard Coffin...
Erwin Fullerton – Every Tool Has a Story
Mr. Fullerton is a long time South Woodstock resident, tree farmer, historian, author, collector of tools will talk about farm life artifacts from a day long gone by and how our society has changed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i56wecXT8R0
Cassie Horner – “Lucy E. -‘The Road To Victory’”
Meet Lucy E. a tough driven woman, born in the mountain town of Mount Holly, Vermont about 1826. This is the story, based on fact, of her survival through increasing hard times in Vermont and New Hampshire, beginning with the deaths of her father and husband, and her...
Carrie Brown – Rosie’s Mom, Forgotten Women of First World War
A Vermont Humanities Council Speakers Bureau Sponsored Event.One hundred years ago, a full generation before Rosie the Riveter, women rolled up their sleeves and entered war industries where they had never been welcome before. They ran powerful machinery, learned new...
Steve Taylor – History of the Grange Movement
This program will be held at the Bridgewater Grange located on Route 100A in Bridgewater Corners. Much of rural New England in the late 19th century was locked in a downward spiral of population decline, abandonment of farms, reversion of cleared land to forest and...
Terry Richards and Bill Kaigle – Vermont in theCivil War Heritage Trail
The Vermont in the Civil War Heritage Trail follows US Route 7, South to North. Each site is a link to the crucial contributions Vermont made to the preservation of these United States in the American “War Between the States.” https://youtu.be/A3B8xBZfGxE
Howard Coffin – VT and 1816 The Year Without A Summer
The year 1816 was the coldest in Vermont's history, as a frost hit every month. Crops failed, food was scarce, people left the state by the thousands. That year of suffering, known in Vermont as "1800 and froze to death." was actually part of a worldwide disaster...
Gordon Tuthill – Bridgewater’s Unique Land Division after the Charter of 1761
Gordon Tuthill, long time Woodstock resident, surveyor and historian, will give a presentation on Bridgewater’s Unique Land Division after the Charter of 1761. https://youtu.be/d9bH3j9WX_0
John Atwood – North Bridgewater Cemetery
John Atwood, a long time Bridgewater resident, will present a program on the North Bridgewater Cemetery. Started as a private burying ground, it was transferred in 1827 to the town of Bridgewater. John will discuss its development, tombstone and epitaph style changes,...
Leslie Askwith – “Thunder-Struck Fiddle, The Remarkable True Story of Charles Morris Cobb and His Hill Farm Community in 1850s Vermont.”
Leslie Askwith, author of "Thunder-Struck Fiddle, The Remarkable True Story of Charles Morris Cobb and His Hill Farm Community in 1850s Vermont." Learn about Charles Morris Cobb growing up on the road he called Rum Street. https://youtu.be/tiVJs1KBX_s
Bill Mares – “Bees Beseiged: A History of Beekeeping”
Bill Mares, writer and beekeeper for 45 years, tells of The origins and evolution of beekeeping, with particular emphasis on his research in Vermont. “Bees Beseiged: A History of Beekeeping” is sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council....
Stephen Butz – “Shays’ Settlement in Vermont a Story of Revolt and Archaeology”
Stephen Butz, author of “Shays’ Settlement in Vermont a Story of Revolt and Archaeology”, will discuss his research into Shays” Rebellion and his surprising findings. There will be a book signing. Stephen is heading up the first formal archaeological excavations of...
Thomas Giffin – Maintaining Old Cemeteries
Thomas Giffin, President of Vermont Old Cemetery Association (VOCA) will talk about the services they offer to towns to assist with the maintenance of cemeteries. For more information the website is http://www.voca58.org. https://youtu.be/OkLPMNlUGYE
Linda Radtke – “Vermont Civil War Songbook”
Singer and researcher, Linda Radtke, dressed in period costume and joined by Arthur Zorn will share songs popular in Vermont during the Civil War as well as letters from Vermonters from the era. Video not available.
Howard Coffin – Vermont and the Civil War
This focuses on Company E, the Second Regiment United States Sharpshooters and the Berdan rifle that they used. There were 12 soldiers credited to Bridgewater and others from nearby towns that were buried here that fought in this regiment....
Jeff Leich – “Tales of the 10th: The Mountain Troops and American Skiing”
BHS will be hosting a presentation on the 10th Mountain Division by Jeff Leich, Executive Director of the New England Ski Museum in Franconia, NH. He is the author of 2 books, Over the Headwall: The Ski History of Tuckerman Ravine and Tales of 10th: The Mountain...