Shannon Butler was born in Poughkeepsie and educated at local schools and universities. She began her career in museums by working at the Senate House State Historic Site in Kingst...view moreShannon Butler was born in Poughkeepsie and educated at local schools and universities. She began her career in museums by working at the Senate House State Historic Site in Kingston, New York. While there, she decided to go to college to pursue her passion for history, first attending SUNY-Ulster, followed by SUNY-New Paltz and finally earning her master's in history from SUNY-Albany. She worked with the National Park Service at Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic sites for eight years, where she found her interest in Roosevelt history. In 2018, she became the town historian of the Town of Hyde Park and a year later was also made the historian of the Poughkeepsie Public Library. She is the coauthor of Hyde Park in the Gilded Age, and this is her first solo work.view less