History Center trustees and staff working with Skidmore professors to develop new courses that utilize Brookside collections, as well as student internship opportunities. The fruits of that labor can be seen in the innovative class “The Social Life of Hats” (spring 2021), which is co-taught by Drs. Tillman Nechtman and Eric Bastress-Dukehart, and which analyzes and investigates Brookside’s historic hat collection. The course was so successful that it spawned an alumni event, an “Experts Next Door” episode (May 20, 2021), and a museum exhibit at Brookside (June 26- Oct. 31, 2021). The exhibit is part of the “All Together Now” public history coalition led by the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore.