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

Howard Coffin

Sunday June 9th at 2pm at the Bridgewater Grange

“Ancient Standing Stones and Chambers in Vermont? 
Once upon a time with Barry Fell.”

Bridgewater Cairn

Cindy Bittinger

Sunday August 25th at 2pm at the Bridgewater Grange

“Vermont Women, Native Americans & African Americans”

Vermont Women, Native Americans & African Americans

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.

Cynthia Bittinger – Grace Coolidge

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 – “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...

Charles Shackleton – “Finding Endurance”

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”

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’’

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

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’”

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...

Steve Taylor – History of the Grange Movement

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...

Howard Coffin – VT and 1816 The Year Without A Summer

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...

John Atwood – North Bridgewater Cemetery

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,...

Thomas Giffin – Maintaining Old Cemeteries

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

Howard Coffin – Vermont and the Civil War

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....