Sylvia first set foot in Senegal in 1966 thanks to a personal invitation from the country’s president, Leopold Sedar Senghor. Originally from Washington D.C. and a graduate from Dunbar High School, Sylvia went to Trinity College for women in 1954 just months after the Brown v. Board of Education decision integrated the college, making Sylvia one of the first four... Read more »

Join us for a new History book club at the Saratoga County History Center at Brookside Museum.This year, in honor of America’s 250th, we will be reading books that explore the unfolding and impact of the American Revolution. Each meeting will take place in the historic Long Room at Saratoga County History Center, and tea and coffee will be served.... Read more »

Join us for a fundraiser to support local film! Meet the filmmakers and stars of a new short film, filmed in the galleries and archives of SCHC! In 1842, Sarah Aldridge murdered her Father then removed her own head; a century and a half later, a curious filmmaker digs through Sarah's writings seeking inspiration, but finds her life and Sarah's... Read more »

Meet Angela E. Douglas, the biologist and author of Near the Forest, By the Lake, a collection of essays about the natural world, and the wonders of life in her little corner of Upstate New York. I am fortunate to live close to a natural world dominated by forests and woodlands, and by lakes and ponds. Being a writerly sort... Read more »

Kelly Hopkins is an Assistant Professor of early American history at the University of Houston. Her book, Iroquoia: Haudenosaunee Life and Culture, 1630-1783 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2025), highlights the innovative strategies of Haudenosaunee men and women to retain their culture, sovereignty, and control of their homelands through more than seven generations of unprecedented social and environmental change that followed... Read more »

From sea serpents to seaweed, slimy things have long tended to lurk among the frontiers of natural knowledge, reflecting not only the anxieties of each age but also, in many cases, new possibilities. At once generative and destructive, mysterious and manifest, and masculine but sometimes feminine, slime flowed through oceanic understanding and welcomed new people to contribute to it, thereby... Read more »

Historian and author Sandra Weber presents a compelling talk about her newest book, John Brown in New York: The Man, His Family, and the Adirondack Landscape. Weber offers a fresh and intimate look at the famed abolitionist, focusing on the years of the Brown family’s connection with North Elba, Essex County (1848–1863). The intertwining story of sublime Adirondack scenery, farm... Read more »

Isaac Murphy won three Kentucky Derbys and every other major American stakes race of the nineteenth century. He was among the jockeys inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in its inaugural class. He was also born enslaved in 1861, the son of a Civil War widow, and he lived through the violent conflicts of Reconstruction to... Read more »

Save the date for our first barbecue of 2026!  Check back soon for more information!

The Saratoga County History Center is thrilled to announce a county-wide craft fair!  The family-friendly free event will be held at beautiful Brookside Museum on Saturday, June 20, 2026 from 10am to 3pm. Guests will be able to shop a wide variety of locally handcrafted collectibles, antiques, and farm products.  No mass-produced or commercially-made items will be permitted.  This is... Read more »