Thursdays

11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Online

1/20, 1/27, 2/3, 2/10, 2/17, 2/24 & 3/3

Seven Sessions 

This course is offered online via the easy-to-use Zoom program.

Take a walk through Berkshire history with local historians. Each class session will feature a different community, whose historians will talk about significant events and people in their past, as well as their group’s planned programs. We hope this will be the first of a pair of courses that will feature other Berkshire communities in the future.

Session One, Jan 20 – Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican
Bonney Hartley is a cultural resources professional who is currently the Tribal Historic Preservation Manager of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation, of which she is also an enrolled member.

Session Two, Jan 27 – Lenox
Lucy Kennedy is on the board of the Lenox Historical Society.
Olga Weiss is the Chair of the Lenox Historical Commission.
Amy Lafave is the Local History Librarian at the Lenox Library.

Session Three, Feb 3– Great Barrington
Robert Krol is the Executive Director of the Great Barrington Historical Society & Museum 
Gary Leveille serves on the Great Barrington Historical Commission and as archivist for the Great Barrington Historical Society.  He is the author of seven history books, including the best-selling Old Route 7 – Along the Berkshire Highway.

Session Four, Feb 10 – North Adams
Justyna Carlson is secretary of the North Adams Historical Society and chair of the North Adams Historical Commission.  Her story was featured in Born in the Berkshires.
Gene Carlson is treasurer of the North Adams Historical Society, a supervisor and docent at the North Adams Museum of History and Science, and a volunteer archivist at the North Adams Public Library.

Session Five, Feb 17 – Sheffield
Jen Owens is the administrator/curator of the Sheffield Historical Society. She has worked at several historic sites and societies in the region, including as National Park Service ranger & museum technician at the Martin Van Buren Historic Site in Kinderhook, NY, and as director of the Sharon, CT, Historical Society. 
Jim Miller is a historian in the Mark Dewey Research Center of the Sheffield Historical Society.

Session Six, Feb 24 – West Stockbridge

Bob Salerno is President of The West Stockbridge Historical Society and Historical Commission. He has been involved in the restoration of the Old Town Hall and has a monthly column on West Stockbridge history. Bob also serves on the boards of the Edith Wharton Restoration and the Berkshire County Historical Society.

Session Seven, Mar 3 – Berkshire Historical Society

Lesley Herzberg is the Executive Director of the Berkshire County Historical Society. She has worked in the museum world for over 20 years, with posts at the National Gallery in Washington, the Jewish Museum in London, and several museums in the Berkshires such as Hancock Shaker Village, the Bidwell House Museum and the Frelinghuysen Morris House and Studio.

Moderated by John Dickson, chair of the Pittsfield Historical Commission and board member of the Berkshire Historical Society and of OLLI at BCC. He is the author of Berkshire County's Industrial Heritage (2017) and History Shock: When History Collides With Foreign Relations (2021), and has taught a variety of OLLI at BCC courses on local history and foreign relations.

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