Dutchess County Historical Society Executive Director Bill Jeffway will speak about the free Black community that resided in the Town of Washington in the early nineteenth century and put it into the broader context of the Black communities in the Hudson Valley.

Join Stephen Masri as he discusses the life, career, and home of the celebrated nineteenth-century historian and artist Benson Lossing, a Dutchess County native who lived much of his life on Chestnut Ridge in the Town of Dover. Mr. Masri lives in - and restored - Lossing’s old home.

FDR Library Education Specialist Jeff Urbin will speak on Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s contributions to the Civil Rights Movement as well as examples of New Deal policies that exacerbated racial inequality. The talk is in conjunction with the exhibition now open at the FDR Library.

Author Tonia Shoumatoff relates stories from her recent book on local history, including the tale of Timothy Leary’s time in Millbrook. Books will be available for purchase at the event.

A talk by Ezekiel Sanger.

A talk by Will Tatum, Dutchess County Historian.

From 1864 until 1998, Dutchess County government operated a facility to care for indigent and ill residents in the town of Washington. Initially consisting of a poor house, insane asylum, and pest house, this facility transformed into an almshouse in the 1870s, then into an infirmary in the 1930s. Drawing on surviving poorhouse records, newspaper accounts, and scrapbooks kept by residents, this presentation will explore how life for denizens of the poorhouse changed over its 134 years of operation.

This month’s program will focus on a collection of material from the Duncan/Anthony Family that was donated to the historical society last summer.  The material includes many family photographs, postcards, letters, datebooks, and ephemera.  The presentation will cover multiple generations of the family beginning in the middle of the 19th century and going up to the late 20th century, but will revolve around a Black woman, Sarah Duncan, who worked as a laundress and cook in the houses of many of the prominent Gilded Age families that made Millbrook their home around the turn of the20th century.  The program will be an opportunity to examine Millbrook’s history during that period from a different perspective than the one many of us are accustomed to and examine what is possible to discover – and what remains hidden - from a trove of family artifacts. 

Meeting spot: Quaker Meeting house. Entrance on Chruch St.

Meeting spot: Library parking lot on Friendly Lane. This is a walking tour that will last roughly 45 minutes.

This event has been cancelled, but for more information on this topic please go here…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lXygz0h42Q&t=7s

Meeting Spot: Friendly Lane parking lot.

Meeting spot: Library lawn on Franklin Avenue

A talk by Ed Gerrard, Orvis Sandanona General Manager.

Note: Event will be held at Orvis Sandanona at 3:30.

This program has been postponed due to personnel changes at Orvis. It will be rescheduled for a later date.

A talk and tour led by Kate Kerin, Landscape Curator.

Note: Meet at the Innisfree parking lot at 4:30.

A talk by James Hanna, Author and VP of the Catholic Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.

Note: Program will be held at St. Joseph’s parish hall.

A conversation with David Greenwood. If you can, please bring a favorite artifact relating to Millbrook history to the program to share with the audience.

A talk by Rev. Matthew Calkins and Brianne Van Vorst.

Justice Mark C. Dillon will speak about the personal, professional, and political life of John Jay, and the manner that his life influenced his role as the first Chief Justice of the United States from 1789 to 1795.  Some emphasis will be placed on Jay’s law practice and Revolutionary War intelligence activities in the Hudson Valley generally and in Dutchess County specifically.  The discussion will be supplemented with visual images of people, places, and things.  Jay’s life experiences affected how he later viewed and decided the earliest cases of the US Supreme Court that had enduring legacy.

Meet at corner of Church St. and Franklin Ave.

Meet at Grace Church.

Learn about the lives of some of the famous residents of the Nine Partners Burial Ground and their impact on Millbrook’s history. The Quaker meeting house will also be open for visitors wanting to see inside. Park at Quaker meeting house.

Meet at the entrance to the Tribute Garden.

A brief walking tour with author Patrick Wing to learn about the influence of architect James Ware on the village. Meet at the library steps on Friendly Lane. (Rescheduled from July 2.)

This event will take place on Sunday June 26 at the Sandanona Kennel at Thorndale. Only historical society members are eligible to attend and all must RSVP prior to the event at millbrookhistoricalsociety@gmail.com or 677-4381. If you are not currently a member and would like to attend, please consider joining.

In the middle decades of the 18th Century, Quaker communities – such as the Creek Meeting – were spreading across eastern Dutchess County and to points beyond. The area would go on to boast the largest settlement of Quakers outside of Philadelphia. Almost from the beginning, these Quakers – along with their neighbors – found themselves at the forefront of the slavery-antislavery debate. We’ll explore some of the cultural and political aspects of this development, which link our local history to national events.

Within the collections of the Millbrook Historical Society is a rare and vital survival from the years immediately before the Revolutionary War: the store ledgers of Joseph Mabbett. Though many pages have been torn out, what remains details the purchases of residents throughout central Dutchess—and occasionally their enslaved laborers—in 1773 and 1774. An inscription on the inside of the front cover suggests that someone involved in keeping the ledger may have harbored Loyalist sympathies. Is that why so many pages are torn out?

Join Dutchess County Historian Will Tatum for a careful reading of the ledger’s entries that will reveal how people lived, worked, and clothed themselves in early Dutchess. Attendees will leave with an expanded understanding of what Dutchess County residents consumed and how their lives may have been impacted by the trade embargo with Great Britain and the war that soon followed after the ledger entries concluded.