What We Do
Brattleboro Historical Society volunteers strive to bring factual stories and historical photos from our town’s past to the public with talks, tours, social media, and soon, our displays.
- Our collections include hundreds of information files including ephemera, photos, original documents, maps, artifacts and so much more which is kept up to date with ‘current’ history and well organized to ease access.
- Digital collections include audio and video, podcasts, photographs, and reproductions of printed matter.
- Our research room enables people to consult records and receive help with historical questions, including genealogy.
- Our walking tours and history events invite visitors to interact with historical artifacts -- and each other.
Volunteers make all that happen as well as helping people research information in our room, working with items in the collection, and answering email questions and telephone calls. We are a lively place to visit and learn about our town’s storied history.
Physical Collections
Our artifact collections are stored in the Municipal Center for ease of access when we are making displays.Historic Brattleboro photos, letters, posters, maps, records, newspapers, postcards, business records, and other items are part of the collections. Our bigger objects such as furniture and large signs (among many other things) are stored off- site in one of the Estey Buildings on Birge Street.
We have objects as small as a 1/2 inch enameled Brattleboro pin from the late 1800s, to the old wooden sign that hung on the original American Building. Clothes, shoes, tools, scrapbooks, books, broadsides, many framed items and so much more fill our spaces on the third floor of the Municipal Building, safe and sound.
Digital Collections
Although the BHS has lots of boxes and filing cabinets full of physical artifacts, there is also a large digital collection. We're most proud of our photo collection of which a growing number are available on this web site. In addition, there are videos, pdfs, and reproductions of printed matter.
One of the parts of the collection of which we're most proud is Joe River's long-running series of history articles published in the Brattleboro Reformer. Joe contributed over 30 podcasts to the BHS as well, covering a variety of topics including the American Revolution and Womin in Brattleboro History.
Research Room
Our center of operations for volunteers and the public remains on the 3rd floor of the Brattleboro Municipal Center, in an original, unmodernized classroom dating back to the time when this building was the Brattleboro High School. We call it the Research Room, and that's where we go to do all sorts of research from our own collections.
If you have questions about Brattleboro history or your family's genealogy, the Research Room is the place to go. Here you will be guided to the appropriate person, place, document, or institution to help you with your question.
In Person Events
The Brattleboro Historical Society puts on a number of events each year, to present history matters in an informative and enjoyable way.
One such event is the walking tour, repeated several times a year with different themes. Recent tours have focused on the Centerville neighborhood (now gone to make way for I91), printing in Brattleboro, and other cool subjects of interest.
The BHS have also put on lectures, presentations, and pop-up exhibits, to much public interest and acclaim.