BRATTLEBORO — Did you know that the first United States edition of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” was printed in Brattleboro? Or that the author of the first known poem by an African-American lived in Brattleboro? Or that Harriet Beecher Stowe bathed in the “healing waters” of the Brattleboro Hydropathic Institution? Or that the first Bible printed in Vermont was printed in Brattleboro?

Windham County has a rich history with words, at least that’s what the folks at the Peoples, Places and the History of Words in Brattleboro say. The organization is a coalition of different Windham County groups aimed at exploring the area’s history through literature and words.