Mystic — The Old Mystic History Center will host a presentation on the Pequot War of 1637, a pivotal event in local and U.S. history, at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Old Mystic Methodist Church, 44 Main St., Old Mystic.

An academic, a historian and a playwright will take part in the event.

Kevin McBride, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Connecticut and former research director for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, will lead the discussion. McBride, a recognized authority on the Pequot War, will provide details of the May 26, 1637, attack in which English forces burned a Pequot fort in Mystic, killing hundreds of men, women and children.

McBride also will talk about the English forces’ withdrawal, a focus of his research over the past 15 years.

McBride provided input last year to a state commission considering whether a statue of Maj. John Mason, who led the attack, should be removed from the State Capitol’s exterior.

Dale Plummer, Norwich’s city historian and a Mason descendant, also will speak Saturday, while playwright Nick Checker will perform a brief reading from a one-actor adaptation of his play about the Pequot War, “Elegy for an Icon,” which premiered years ago at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.

The state Department of Economic and Community Development's Office of the Arts recently awarded a grant for the adaptation project.

The Old Mystic History Center, at 39 Main St., previously known as the Indian & Colonial Research Center, changed its name in 2020 to reflect the growth in its archival collections, which include manuscripts, publications, photographs and physical objects connected to the history of the area.

Donations to the center will be welcome at Saturday’s event.