Brookside Museum
VISION
The Saratoga County Historical Society at Brookside Museum inspires community memory and tells the story of Saratoga County. SCHS is vital to the growth of our community because it unifies and strengthens communal bonds, fosters exploration and discovery about shared heritage, exercises imaginations, and provides inspiration for societal growth. SCHS promotes a deeper understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of Saratoga County’s past for an audience of diverse backgrounds and levels of interest through interactive education programs, innovative exhibits, ambitious web programming, personal experiences, and enduring relationships.
MISSION
The Saratoga County Historical Society at Brookside Museum leads Saratoga County in the preservation of local history and in educating our community’s broader audience, making the rich history and community memory both relevant and accessible.COMMITMENT
We are committed to conducting ourselves in all that we do according to the highest professional and ethical standards. We strive to create educational opportunities for visitors while accommodating a wide range of experiences and learning styles. We are dedicated to managing our finances and resources prudently and to valuing and developing our staff and volunteers.
National Bottle Museum
The National Bottle Museum’s mission is to preserve the history of our nation’s first major industry, bottle making. Well-planned museum exhibits allow visitors to view a myriad of beautiful and colorful glass bottles, and Museum docents are available to provide guided tours of the exhibits. The Museum is an international resource for information about bottle-making, and includes a research library, as well as free information on identifying, collecting and preserving antique bottles. Exhibits frequently change as the Museum takes advantage of its access to collections all over the United States and borrowed objects from members’ collections. The Museum also sponsors an antique bottle show and sale every June, which draws visitors and antique dealers from across the United States and Canada.
The Museum Glassworks offers classes in lampworking, a process of working with glass rods and tubing to create smaller objects from hot glass. A full-sized glass furnace has recently been installed so that students and visitors are now able to experience for themselves techniques employed by glassblowers of the past, and still employed by the glass artists of today.
Anyone interested in becoming a Museum member may contact the Museum for rates and additional information. Members regularly receive a newsletter, well-researched articles on antique and collectible bottles and their history, and a calendar of upcoming bottle shows in the US, Canada, and England.
