BETHLEHEM — History maintained through photographs, newspapers, and letters has been collected in a new book called “Historic Tales of Bethlehem, New York,” by Susan E. Leath.

The History Press publication came out on Monday.

“It’s very exciting to finally have it and hold it in my hands,” Leath told The Enterprise.

Her latest book adds text and depth to the pictorial history she prepared for The History Press’s parent company, Arcadia Publishing, in 2011, entitled “Bethlehem.”

Leath has been the Bethlehem town historian since 2007.

“I’m still finding stuff to get excited about in Bethlehem’s history,” she said.

“Historic Tales of Bethlehem, New York” combines Leath’s updated versions of her “Then and Now” columns that ran in the advertising publication Our Town Bethlehem with local newsletter items she wrote as town historian. The work also includes new materials not previously published in either forum, she said.

Leath did graduate work in anthropology and museum studies at Brown University. Afterward, she served as director of the Florence Museum of Art, Science, and History in South Carolina.

Leath left her position and moved here 20 years ago to raise her children, she said. She quickly became active in the Bethlehem Historical Association, to which all of her author’s royalties will be donated.

“I came at history through objects,” Leath said. “That morphed into documents, old photographs, and general history.”

In her latest book, she writes about the people involved in Bethlehem’s history: When approaching a subject, she said, she would ask, “Who lived in that old house? What did they do?

“We were impacted by national events...like World War I, the Civil War, and the Industrial Revolution,” she said. “It’s fascinating to me to get the local people who may have experienced that.”

Leath put the book together in about eight months, she said.

“Most of the articles had been written,” Leath said. “I had to edit them, and carefully go through each one.” Some of the chapters from previous articles needed updating, she said.

All of Bethlehem’s hamlets are covered in the history, she said.

“I used a lot of old Altamont Enterprise newspapers,” Leath said. “That is a treasure trove. I do quote the Altamont Enterprise a lot.”

Leath, in her book, delves into histories linked to Bethlehem names that have graced the pages of The Enterprise for more than a century, like LaGrange, Frueh, and Slingerland, and explores the possibilities of how Delmar may have been named.

“So where did Delmar come from?” Leath writes. “My opinion is that somewhere in the rolls of the D&H is a person with the first or last name of Delmar. Stops on the railroad were often named for the local railroad agent or station master. It seems logical to me that that is what happened in Delmar because we are certainly not near the sea, as the name could imply.”

The book includes church histories, tales of local farms, and segments on the defunct ice industry and blacksmithing.

“I hope it’s very accessible to people,” she said. “It’s about local Bethlehem. They’ll recognize places and names.

“I love it all,” Leath continued. “I cannot pick out a favorite part. That’s why I so enjoy my job — I’m always finding things. Someone will tell me a story, and I’ll learn something new.”

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“Historic Tales of Bethlehem, New York,” by Susan E. Leath, is available at I Love Books, in Delmar; Tattered Pages, in Glenmont; and at the town clerk’s office, in Bethlehem. The 190-page paperback sells for $21.99.