SARANAC LAKE — The Women’s College Scholarship Club is inviting Adirondack history buffs to join them today at 7 p.m. in the Cantwell Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library.

The club’s guest speaker will be Great Camp Sagamore Historian Connor Williams, whose topic will be “Greetings from the Great Camps … the History of the Adirondack Vacation.”

In the years between 1850 and 1900, the Adirondack region transitioned from a “blank” spot on the map to an opulent vacation destination for some of the wealthiest families in America. How and why did this transition occur? And just what was a “Great Camp”? In his role as camp historian, Williams speaks on how environmental history, industrial society, social inequality and ideas of nature intersect in our past and present.

A scholar, teacher and writer, Williams earned an MA from Dartmouth College and is soon to be awarded his Ph.D. from Yale University, where he is currently on leave from the departments of History and African American Studies. He has taught at Yale, Southern Connecticut State University and the Yale College Writing Center.

Women’s College Scholarship Club welcomes members from the community to come and listen to Williams discuss the various historical factors that contributed to the Adirondack Park and the Adirondack vacation.