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Search results for: women suffrage
Elizabeth W. Coe Demands the Right of Jury Service
…the duty of women to serve on Connecticut juries. House Bill 429 An Act Concerning Jury Service for Women More than 150 women from all parts of Connecticut joined several…
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Rosamond Danielson: Windham County Suffragist and Community Leader
…her progressive mindset. Women Suffrage March, ca. 1913 – Hahn Family photo album. 2009.382.0 – Connecticut Historical Society Becoming a Notable Local Suffrage Leader Danielson became active in the women’s…
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Catharine Beecher, Champion of Women’s Education
…about women’s suffrage. Her reputation as an advocate for women’s education, as well as the suffrage work of her younger sisters, makes her position on securing the vote for women…
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A Feeling of Solidarity: Labor Unions and Suffragists Team Up
…State Federation of Labor. Although its national body was on record in support of women’s suffrage, local labor leaders balked when a suffrage resolution reached the Hartford gathering. Abbie O’Connell,…
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Emmeline Pankhurst’s “Freedom or Death” Speech Energizes Connecticut Women in 1913
By Emily Clark In the early 20th century, women in both the United States and the United Kingdom fought for the right to vote. While remaining distinct, the suffrage movements…
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Connecticut Attorney General John H. Light and His Fight for Woman’s Suffrage
…progress and that “women who believe in suffrage are fortunate in such a champion.” Yet, Light’s contributions to the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association’s (CWSA) fight for political equality, like that…
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A Day for Women – Today in History: March 8
…International Conference of Socialist Women when it met in Copenhagen, Denmark. The conferees agreed that the “foremost purpose” was “to aid the attainment of women’s suffrage.” The earliest observances took…
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Votes for A Woman: Sara Buek Crawford
…Such forays into civic activism offered women a new-found political voice and platform. Once women had the vote, Crawford joined the Republican party and League of Women Voters and helped…
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19th Amendment: The Fight Over Woman Suffrage in Connecticut
…of the fight for woman suffrage often traces its roots to the “Declaration of Sentiments” drawn up at the women’s rights conference in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. The…
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Connecticut College for Women: The State’s First All-Female Institution of Higher Learning
…liberal arts education for women. An Opportunity to Educate Women Preliminary Plot Plan for the Connecticut College for Women, 1914 – Internet Archive In the United States, women’s colleges began…
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A New Source of Farm Labor Crops Up in Wartime
…Women’s Land Army and successful state-run programs like the one in Connecticut. Poster from the Committee of Food Supply, Connecticut State Council of Defense, Women of Connecticut, are you helping?,…
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Trolley Campaigners Storm Small Towns and Votes for Women is the Battle Cry
…on March 2, 1912. The suffrage drive being extolled was the “Votes for Women Trolley Campaign,” the tactical innovation of CWSA state organizer Emily Pierson. For three months—from January 24…
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Women Win the Right to Vote
…vote in 1920, women in Connecticut and the United States have seen their rights as citizens evolve and change greatly. Votes for Women. A postcard made by the Suffrage Educational…
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Women of the Prison Brigade
…women from all walks of life who had one thing in common—they had all been thrown in jail for demonstrating in front of the White House in support of women’s…
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Senator Brandegee Stonewalls Women’s Suffrage
…Frank Brandegee and the fight for women’s suffrage, read Christopher A. Griffin and Henry S. Cohn’s article, “Senator Brandegee Stonewalls Women’s Suffrage“ in Connecticut Explored magazine. Also, check out the…
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Josephine Bennett: Hartford’s City Mother
…D.C. jail), Bennett shed her family’s class privilege and became a model of tireless advocacy. Working for Women’s Suffrage Bennett’s suffragist activity centered on transitioning Connecticut’s women’s movement “from philosophical…
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Hartford’s Sex Trade: Prostitutes and Politics
…published in 1910, was a clear-headed analysis of why women ended up selling their bodies. “What is really the cause of the trade in women?” she wrote. “Exploitation, of course……
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Crisis Management during the American Civil War: The Hartford Soldiers’ Aid Society
…such example came from Connecticut’s women in the form of a massive charity organization—the Hartford Soldiers’ Aid Society. Composed almost entirely of women, the Hartford Soldiers’ Aid Society banded together…
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Emma Hart Willard: Leader in Women’s Education
…her interests in institutionalized education for women and Willard eventually founded the Middlebury Seminary Academy in her home. Willard’s curriculum included mathematics and history, subjects typically not taught to women,…
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A Godmother to Ravensbrück Survivors
…the women being used for these lab experiments. The young women were subjected to up to six operations each, including having the bones and muscles in their legs broken, cut…
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Mary Townsend Seymour: Hartford’s Organizer, Activist, and Suffragist
…American suffrage movement had a long history of systematically and intentionally excluding Black women. Southern states were the most challenging opponents to women’s suffrage and passing the 19th Amendment—white suffragists…
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The Smith Sisters, Their Cows, and Women’s Rights in Glastonbury
…abolitionist beliefs. Sisters Wage a New Fight Once slavery had been abolished in the United States, the Smith sisters focused their attentions on women’s suffrage. Before they could concentrate much…
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Katharine Houghton Hepburn, A Woman Before Her Time
By Jessica Jenkins Committed to the suffrage movement, Katharine Houghton Hepburn, known as “Kit,” not only campaigned for women’s right to vote she also advocated for access to birth control…
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Looking Back: How the Vote Was Won
…Club. Cicely Hamilton (1872-1952) was an English writer and advocate for women’s rights. She co-authored “How the Vote was Won” as a one-act comedy specially written to support women’s suffrage….
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Charlotte Perkins Gilman
By Amy Gagnon Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a noted writer, lecturer, economist, and theorist who fought for women’s domestic rights and women’s suffrage in the early 1900s. Born in Hartford…
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Dr. Mary B. Moody Challenges Victorian Mores About Women in Medicine
…men, and president of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Mt. Carmel Children’s Home and of the local chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. To her patients, Dr. Moody was…
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The Gettysburg Address and Heroic Fathers Bronze Tablets at the State Capitol
…his remarks, Colonel Wildman lauded “the part women had always played in times of national emergency, and the work being done by Connecticut women to keep alive the memory of…
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Waterbury’s Radium Girls
…work seven days a week. The company called for women with “nimble fingers” to paint the dials and numbers onto watches in assembly-line fashion. To speed up the process, women…
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From Bombs to Bras: World War I Conservation Measures Transform the Lives of Women
…themselves through the use of more non-restrictive clothing. The emergence of different styles and sizes of bras coincided with a growing women’s movement in the country that witnessed women finding…
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Looking Back: Tempest Tossed, the Story of Isabella Beecher Hooker
…in-line with them, either. Convention program of the First International Woman Suffrage Conference and the 34th Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Washington, DC, 1902, where Isabella…
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The Most Famous American in the World
…Cabin Title page of “An Affectionate and Christian Address of Many Thousands of Women of Great Britain and Ireland to their Sisters, the Women of the United States of America”…
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Rewriting the Norm: How Two East Haddam Women Revolutionized Nonsexist Language
…countless articles and two books—Words and Women and The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing—that explored nonsexist language and promoted more equal opportunities for women. Before Connecticut Casey Miller was born on…
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Hebron’s Josephine Sophia (White) Griffing and a Vision for Post-Emancipation America
…belief that it was unbecoming for women to work in public positions. Griffing found this unacceptable and petitioned the US Congress to allow women “to share more fully in the…
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Hilda Crosby Standish, Early Proponent of Women’s Reproductive Health
…College, where she majored in zoology. After graduating in 1924, she earned her medical degree at Cornell Medical College, graduating third in her class—and one of only 11 women in…
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Women and Defense: World War II on the Connecticut Home Front
…gift of Virginia Grover Bulkeley On December 2, 1941, five days before Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, 1,000 women attended the first Connecticut Conference on Women in Defense in…
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UConn and the Evolution of a Public University
…Manchester, women worked late shifts so that they could attend class. Through the Connecticut Women’s Land Army, they tended farms. Four women, making a strong statement regarding equality, joined 22…
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Bridgeport Women Answer the Call – Today in History: April 15
On April 15, 1861, the women of Bridgeport created the nation’s first soldiers’ aid society. News of the April 12 attack on Fort Sumter had quickly reached the citizens of…
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America’s First Ordained Woman Minister: Olympia Brown and Bridgeport’s Universalist Church
…the cause of women’s equality during her years in Bridgeport. She worked with Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and other leading figures of the suffrage movement, and…
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Celia Burleigh, Connecticut’s First Female Minister
…Brooklyn Woman’s Club, and became its first president. Burleigh also worked diligently to create the first women’s business union. During this time, she frequently attended women’s suffrage conventions, like the…
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Women
…long after, barred them from the same rights as men. Among those pioneering national and local change in the 1800s are educator-abolitionist (and state heroine) Prudence Crandall and women’s suffrage…
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Clare Boothe Luce Changed Perceptions about Women in Business and Politics
…perceptions of women in the realms of politics and society, Luce later became the United States Ambassador to Italy—the first woman to hold such an appointment to a major European…
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Albert Pope Pioneered Bicycles for Women
…his bikes to women and children—and he was not slow to advertise that fact. Women in the late 19th century were quick to embrace the freedom and mobility that came…
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Connecticut Suffragists 1919
Despite the fact that the women in this well-known photograph are unidentified, Connecticut was home to many important figures in women’s struggle for equal rights. One of the most prominent…
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Mary Hall: Connecticut’s First Female Attorney
…1866 she graduated from Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and became a teacher. A believer in equal opportunities for women, she attended a woman suffrage convention in Hartford that set…
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The Inventive Minds of Connecticut Women: Patents in the 19th Century
In 1809, a Connecticut resident received the first US patent issued to a woman, but it would not be until after 1840 that women’s patents made their mark in the…
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Marietta Canty House
…League; president of the Hartford Council of the National Council of Negro Women; and regional director for the National Conference of Women. She also served as a co-chair of the…
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Munitions Assembly Line 1943
…a chance for women to serve their patriotic duty, in addition to providing an escape from women’s traditional role in the home. More than six million women across the country…
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Witchcraft in Connecticut
…patriarchal views of women as second-class citizens sometimes manifested itself in accusations of witchcraft. The majority of those executed as witches, both in Connecticut and elsewhere, were poor women, sometimes…
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Colonel Ruth A. Lucas: Literary Advocate
…is the result of a collaboration between the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame and Connecticut Humanities and is based on original research conducted by the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame….
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Where Mr. Twain and Mrs. Stowe Built Their Dream Houses
…her own right. A leader in the women’s suffrage movement, she organized a convention of the National Women’s Suffrage Association in Hartford in 1869 and in Washington, DC in 1871….
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Hartford’s Nook Farm
…much of her life to secure women the right to vote, a view that many of her day considered outrageous. Women’s suffrage was thought of as so radical that even…
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Connecticut Suffragists Appeal to the President – Today in History: July 12
On July 12, 1918, Connecticut suffragists—men, women, and children—rallied in Hartford and Simsbury to appeal to President Woodrow Wilson for help in getting women the right to vote. A telegram…
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The Education of Ella Grasso
…News, reminded the graduates that there was for women “a greater opportunity to serve than women had ever known.” And in one memorable phrase that would resonate with Ella Tambussi,…
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An Orderly & Decent Government: Making Self-Government Work, 1905-1929
Women Win the Right to Vote With war’s end, suffrage advocates stepped up their campaign for equal rights and finally saw Congress pass the 19th Amendment giving women the right…
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Vera Buch Weisbord’s “Radical” Life
…School and Hunter College, where she was a strong student and excelled in French. She began her activism in college by participating in a women’s suffrage march. Unexpected Illness Brings…
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Charlotte Perkins Gilman Born – Today in History: July 3
…men to gum chewing in public. She was also a lecturer and supporter of women’s suffrage and women’s economic independence in the early 20th century. Gilman’s paternal great-grandfather was Dr….
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Laura Wheeler Waring: Renowned African American Portrait Artist and Educator
…the result of a collaboration between the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame and Connecticut Humanities and is based on original research conducted by the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. …
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Video – Augusta Lewis Troup Tribute Film
…her life to fighting for better pay and working conditions for women, she founded the Women’s Typographical Union of New York to protect women’s interests within the industry. Augusta became…
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Hartford’s Commemoration of World War I Servicemen and Women
…the men and women who fought and served in the war by celebrating their courage through varying forms of commemoration. Many towns in Connecticut built rolls of honor—lists of local…
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Discovering the Mysterious Identity of the “Kent Limner”
…work of American portraitist—or “limner”—Ammi Phillips illuminates the role of women in society and culture, but not in ways that are straightforward or expected. From 1829 to 1838, Phillips lived…
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The Story Trail of Voices
…women in particular have passed on Mohegan stories. Some of their lessons are very ancient. They are beyond time and exist only in memory. Brief biographies of these major women…
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Oniontown: How Hard Work, Tall Tales, and Red Onions Built Wethersfield
…Newington and Glastonbury—incessantly teased the onion-farming Wethersfield women. These women soon discovered that the men from Hartford were “led astray” to Wethersfield where they smelled the red onions and were…
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Katharine Hepburn Born – Today in History: May 12
On May 12, 1907, stage and screen legend Katharine Hepburn was born to Hartford physician Thomas Norval Hepburn and women’s right activist Katharine Houghton Hepburn. In her six-decade-long career as…
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Much Good Might be Accomplished: Catharine Esther Beecher and the Pursuit of Domestic Economy
…branch of women’s formal education—“ for how can we expect women to have this knowledge if it is not taught to them?” She argued that although many believed that domestic…
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Ann Petry: Old Saybrook’s Bestselling African American Author
…Dollie Robinson and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. With Robinson, Petry co-founded Negro Women Incorporated, which was a consumers rights group for Black women affiliated with Powell Jr.’s People’s Committee. Several…
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Celebrating Civil War Men and Women – Today in History: April 9
Today marks the anniversary of not only one, but two Civil War anniversaries. On April 9th, 1927 the Woman’s Relief Corps (WRC) and Daughters of Union Veterans (DUV) joined together…
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Sophia Woodhouse Welles: Wethersfield’s World-Famous Bonnet Maker
…and Louisa Adams. Welles eventually hired other Wethersfield women and trained them to help her in the production process. She had a shop at home and gave women piecework to…
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When Elections in Hartford Were a Piece of Cake
…outlet in an era that prohibited women from voting. Through their production of Election Cake and other recipes, including Independence Cake, Franklin Gingerbread, and Democratic Tea Cakes, women projected their…
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Edith Watson: Camera Artist
…Canada. Her images, mostly of women and girls, reveal the routine of daily life and its grueling tasks of hoeing potatoes, caring for children, hauling water, and making soap. Such…
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Kate Moore: Lighthouse Keeper and Coast Guard Heroine
…the first non-secretarial jobs available to women at the time. Most of these women were considered assistants or assumed the role upon the death or illness of their husband or…
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An Artist and Her Books: Amelia Watson, 1856–1934
By Nancy Finlay In the years around 1900, “decorative design,” a branch of commercial art inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau, provided many talented women artists…
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Enfield’s Shaker Legacy
…there only a year after his conversion. Shaker women and buildings, Enfield, 1890s – Connecticut Historical Society Violence Greets Shakers’ Early Efforts in Enfield In 1781 Mother Ann set out…
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The Decorative Arts of Connecticut
…considered household goods to be the property of women. This included textiles made by girls in anticipation of marriage and furniture commissioned from local craftsmen at the time of a…
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Beatrice Fox Auerbach: Retail Pioneer Led Iconic Family Department Store
…students to pursue degrees in business and to provide greater educational opportunities for women. She served on the Board of Trustees at the Hartford College for Women, the American School…
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Video – Emily Dunning Barringer Tribute Film
YouTube – Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame pays tribute to long-time New Canaan resident, Dr. Emily Barringer, the first female ambulance surgeon and first…
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Ida Tarbell: The Woman Who Took On Standard Oil
…Allegheny College but science as a professional field was largely closed to women in the late 19th century. Tarbell instead pursued teaching and worked at a school in Ohio after…
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Taking on the State: Griswold v. Connecticut
…for an advertising agency and Estelle eventually became executive director of the PPLC. She continued the fight against the Barnum Act, and helped to stage “border runs,” taking women seeking…
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Hannah Bunce Watson: One of America’s First Female Publishers
…Women’s Hall of Fame. When her husband Ebenezer died, Hannah Bunce Watson took over the Courant, becoming one of the first women publishers in the country – Hartford Courant file…
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Medicine Woman Gladys Tantaquidgeon and Mohegan Cultural Renewal
…activist not only for her own tribe but for other tribes across the nation as well. Recognizing the need for cultural preservation, the tribal nanus (elder women) began Tantaquidgeon’s training…
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From Aprons to Lab Coats: The Art and Science of Home Economics
…College (the precursor to University of Connecticut) also trained women in what was first called domestic science and later home economics. Women were first admitted to the Storrs Agricultural College…
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The Merger That Was Not Meant To Be: Yale University and Vassar College
By Emma Wiley Today, students of all genders seem ubiquitous at Yale University. While Yale’s undergraduate school did not actually enroll women until 1969, few may know that it was…
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Alice Hamilton: The Nation’s Leading Expert on Industrial Diseases
…Library on the History of Women in America Alice Hamilton was born on February 27, 1869, in New York City and grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. For her early…
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“Girl Pilot”: Mary Goodrich Jenson Breaks Barriers in Aviation and Journalism
…founded the Women’s Association and was a longtime member of the First Church of Christ Congregational. In 1999, at age 91, she received induction to the Connecticut Women’s Hall of…
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Video – Rosalind Russell Tribute Film
YouTube – Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame pays tribute to Waterbury native Rosalind Russell, the legendary award-winning actress of stage and screen. Russell began acting…
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Dr. E. Irene Boardman Never Stopped Serving the Public
…She served as a regent of the Cheshire Daughters of the American Revolution as well as Director of Health and Medical Temperance for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, all while…
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The Smith Sisters and Their Cows Strike a Blow for Equal Rights – Today in History: January 8
…increase levied on the Smith sisters mirrored new higher taxes charged to a number of local unmarried women. These increases did not, however, affect most local men. Without representation at…
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Katharine Hepburn’s Love Affair (with Connecticut)
…a privileged upbringing. As a young girl she attended demonstrations with her mother, who was active in the movements for women’s suffrage and the right to obtain easy access to…
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Where It All Happened: Connecticut’s Old State House
…Women’s Suffrage Association, arrived at the Old State House to petition the general assembly for women’s rights to own property. After seven years of battling, she won the case and…
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Food Needed to Win the War Comes from Washington
…By the winter of 1916, the British people really began to feel the effects of the crisis, as food prices soared, shelves emptied, and hoarding became rampant. The Women’s Land…
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Video – Martha Parsons Tribute Film
YouTube – Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame pays tribute to Enfield native Martha Parsons, the first female business executive in Connecticut to earn her…
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New Canaan’s Pioneering Female Physician
…New York City hospital. Her 50-year career in medicine included serving as a surgeon at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children and as Director of Gynecology at Kingston…
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The Public Library Movement: Caroline Hewins Makes Room for Young Readers
…women created a synergism that radiated through the library and children’s literature professions. Among the women who called her a friend and mentor were the owner of the first children’s…
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Miss Huntley’s School Opens – Today in History: August 1
On August 1, 1814, a young teacher named Lydia Huntley opened a school for young women in Hartford. Daniel Wadsworth, the art collector and later founder of the Wadsworth Atheneum,…
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Educator Sarah Pierce Born – Today in History: June 26
On June 26, 1767, pioneering educator Sarah Pierce was born in Litchfield, and during her long life Pierce would open one of the nation’s first schools for young women, advance…
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Sarah Pierce’s Litchfield Female Academy
…born in Litchfield in 1767. She never married and instead dedicated her life to educating young women. Pierce’s father died when Sarah was 16, and her brother, John Pierce Jr.,…
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Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: Connecticut Lessons from a Tragedy
…forty-six workers perished, mostly young Jewish and Italian women, some as young as 14. Their escape from the inferno was blocked by poor building construction, a lack of adequate fire…
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Video – Florence Griswold Tribute Film
YouTube – Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame pays tribute to Florence Griswold, an Old Lyme native who fostered the impressionist art movement in Connecticut….
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Video – Mary Townsend Seymour Tribute Film
YouTube – Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame pays tribute to Hartford native Mary Townsend Seymour, a pioneering advocate for equal rights for African Americans and…
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Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses
…miles inland from Bridgeport. Born into freedom, the two women, who never married, became successful landowners. In 1848, the sisters purchased adjoining building lots in “Little Liberia” and utilized their…
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Video – Barbara McClintock Tribute Film
YouTube – Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame pays tribute to Hartford native Barbara McClintock, a famed geneticist and Nobel Prize winner. Her research laid…
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Video – Helen Keller Tribute Film
YouTube – Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame pays tribute to Easton resident Helen Keller, an inspirational champion for the disabled. As a lobbyist, fundraiser,…
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Video – Florence Wald Tribute Film
YouTube – Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame pays tribute to Florence Wald, founder of hospice care in the United States. Dean of the Yale…
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Video – Sophie Tucker Tribute Film
YouTube – Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame pays tribute to celebrated singer and actress, and long-time Hartford resident, Sophie Tucker. “The Last of the…
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Video – Dotha Bushnell Hillyer Tribute Film
YouTube – Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame pays tribute to philanthropist Dotha Bushnell Hillyer, patron of a living memorial to her father, the Reverend…
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Florence Griswold’s Home: A Story of Perseverance and Community
…In genteel poverty (later exacerbated by Robert Griswold’s death), Florence, her mother, and her sisters decided to convert their single-family home into a finishing school for girls and young women…
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A Pioneering Woman in Business: Martha Parsons of Enfield
…obliged to take jobs to help support their family. Juliaette worked as a nurse, Mary as a housekeeper, both traditional occupations for women. Martha Parsons – Courtesy of the Enfield…
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The Lives of Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus Told Through their Loving Letters
By Elizabeth Correia Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus were two free Black women whose lives intersected in Hartford, Connecticut. Brown was an orphan and supported herself by working as a…
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“Washburn Colonials”: Distinguished 1920s Homes Stand the Test of Time
…architect with no formal training but an eye for design. A Time of Growth for Women Born in Cheshire in 1870, Alice Washburn began her career as a high school…
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Sarah Boone: First Connecticut Black Woman to Receive Patent
…1892 – Chronicling America, Library of Congress Historically, the need for a flat surface for pressing clothes to eliminate wrinkles was not novel—in the 9th century, Viking women applied hot…
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Connecticut and the Comstock Law
…to both men and women. As a result, many women put off having children to focus on their professional careers. Lobbyists like Anthony Comstock of the New York Society for…
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Isabella Beecher Hooker
…she dedicated her life to both her family and to the enfranchisement of women. She founded the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association in 1869 and drafted a bill her state legislator…
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Past Perfect: Wallace Nutting Invents an Ideal Olde New England
…a world of “new” women—office girls, suffragettes, and flappers—Nutting’s female models were invariably posed in two extremely conservative modes, “the genteel” and “the productive.” They are “good wives,” spinning like…
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The Bull Moose Party in Connecticut
…formed Progressive Party. The Progressive Party supported organized labor against big business, was in favor of women’s suffrage, and even proposed a national health service. Most of the party’s followers…
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Miss James, First Woman Pharmacist in CT Right in Old Saybrook
…to to be licensed as a pharmacist. With the passage of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution in 1920 she became one of the first women to register to…
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Connecticut History Day 2024: Turning Points in History
…jobs to fight in the military. Even though companies laid off many women when the war was over, the experience redefined women’s societal roles and ability to pursue work outside…
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America’s First Woman Governor: Ella Grasso, 1919-1981
…to resign on December 31 of that year. She died at Hartford Hospital on February 5, 1981. She is buried in Saint Mary’s Cemetery in Windsor Locks. Women politicians were…
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Helen Keller in Connecticut: The Last Years of a Legendary Crusader
…Door (1957) One of the most famous women in the world lived the last years of her life in Connecticut—Easton, Connecticut, to be exact. In 1936, Helen Keller moved to…
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Bradley Airport’s Military Origins
…military personnel—among the most vital was the staff of the Women’s Army Corp. Known as Air WACs, these women did everything from driving vehicles, cooking, and performing clerical work, to…
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Helen F. Boyd Leads the Charge for Better Public Health
…forces during World War I. Boyd claimed: The battle to keep up the highest standard of public health must not be delayed for one moment. There must be women to…
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Colonial Revival Movement Sought Stability during Time of Change
…house museums promoted patriotism and respect for government institutions. Similarly, at a time when many women were organizing for the vote, Wallace Nutting’s popular photographic prints depicted women in traditional…
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First Woman to Receive US Patent – Today in History: May 5
…braid straw with silk and other threads in the making of women’s bonnets. In the early decades of the nineteenth century, many New England women were employed in the weaving…
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Prudence Crandall Fights for Equal Access to Education
By Diana Moraco Named Connecticut’s State Heroine in 1995 for her efforts to establish the first school for African American women in New England, Prudence Crandall stood apart from 19th-century…
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Anna Elizabeth Dickinson at Touro Hall – Today in History: March 24
…as the Loyal Women’s League, a pro-war movement made up entirely of women. It was thought by many that Dickinson’s fiery speeches revitalized the Republican party in Connecticut. For her…
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Miss Porter’s School in Farmington
…school’s tenure, it educated women such as Dr. Alice Hamilton, architect Theodate Pope Riddle, First Lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and many more. Miss Porter’s Curriculum Theodate Pope, Alice Hamilton, and…
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Washington’s Sister Susie Society
Three months after World War I began in Europe, a group of young women living around the town green in Washington, Connecticut, transformed their reading circle into an active society…
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Abigail Hinman: Heroine of the American Revolution or Legend?
…who had committed treason against the American colonies just a year earlier. While Hinman’s story may be legend, it helps represent the importance of women in the story of the…
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A Voice for Veterans: A Civil War era ‘Whistle-Blower’ – Who Knew?
…one of the first women to volunteer her services as a nurse and one of the first women to receive a pension from the Federal government for her service. Her…
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Site Lines: Fortresses of Faith, Agents of Change
…Women of the church, under the leadership of Clarissa Beman, created one of the first women’s abolitionist societies, known as the Colored Female Anti-Slavery Society of Middletown. Its goal was…
Read An Orderly & Decent Government: Business and Government, 1905-1929
…its newer immigrants escalated, while women grew increasingly impatient with a political system that so steadfastly refused them a voice. Finally, in 1919 after almost three centuries of struggle, women…
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Elizabeth Jarvis Colt Born – Today in History: October 5
…children of working mothers, meals, and access to a library and classes. Elizabeth was also the first President of the Hartford Soldiers Aid Society, an organizer of the first Suffragette…
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Providing Bundles for Britain and News for America
…London office of the Bundles for Britain campaign in which American women donated clothing, food, and other supplies for British families. The Murrows returned to the United States in 1946…
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Vivien Kellems Takes On the IRS
Vivien Kellems fought for numerous causes during her lifetime. While she believed in equality for women (in the workplace and in the home), and she proved an avid supporter of…
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Hall of Flags: Memorial to Connecticut’s Civil War Colors
…Bushnell Park. A call went out to the women of Hartford to cook and bake for the veterans for the celebration. The women donated an abundance of food. Businesses also…
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First Woman Elected as US State Governor Born – Today in History: May 10
…died just over a month later. Though Grasso acknowledged the fact that she’d benefited from the women’s movement, she asked for no special treatment and insisted on being judged by…
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A Woman Ahead of Her Time: Mabel Osgood Wright
By Barbara Austen Few professions were available to women in the second half of the 19th century and certainly not the medical profession. Although thwarted in her ambition to become…
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The Language of the Unheard: Racial Unrest in 20th-Century Hartford
…or women. The Hartford coalition attending the March on Washington for Freedom and Jobs in August 1963 included religious leaders, business leaders, men and women, blacks and whites – Photographer…
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Martha Graham, Connecticut College, and the American Dance Festival
…It was only natural, then, that when her friend and former student, Martha Hill, established the School of the Dance on the campus of the Connecticut College for Women that…
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Middletown’s Beman Triangle: A Testament to Black Freedom and Resilience
…the first Black women’s abolitionist societies. The Cross Street A.M.E. Zion Church also hosted prominent abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass and served as a stop on the Underground…
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The Sea in their Blood: The Portuguese in New London County
…and women worked in factories such as the Atwood Machine Company, the American Velvet Mill, and the Brown Cotton Gin Works. Women also ran boarding houses and worked as seamstresses….
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Connecticut and the Armenian Genocide
…They rounded up Armenian families and handed their homes and businesses over to Muslims. The Ottomans systematically executed many Armenian men, while many women and children perished on their way…
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Children of the Reconcentrados: Caroline Selden’s Cuban School
…parents, Sunday schools, and an industrial school where young women learned sewing. Cuban School In 1895, Caroline married Henry M. Selden of Haddam Neck, Connecticut, and the couple established a…
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Amy Johnson: A Mohegan Woman Who Survived Colonialism
…learned basic reading and writing in Wheelock’s home. Sundays they spent in church, sitting behind white women while absorbing Calvinist scripture. Johnson’s educators attempted to teach her that her old…
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History in a Heart
…decorative paper, and ribbons. Sending Valentines was so popular during the late 1800s and early 1900s that women often displayed their scrapbook-bound card collections in the parlor, and visitors were…
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Albert Augustus Pope, Transportation Pioneer
…bicycles lighter and easier to pedal, allowing him to expand the market for his bikes to women and children. Women in the late 19th century were quick to embrace the…
Read An Orderly & Decent Government: Searching for the Common Good, 1929-1964
…regulations, mass transit initiatives and a tightened administration of state agencies. Her status as Connecticut’s first woman governor underscored the growing power and political leverage of women. This article is…
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State Heroine Prudence Crandall
…for women’s rights. After her husband’s death in 1874, she moved to Kansas. For the last four years of her life (from 1886-1890) the Connecticut General Assembly granted her a…
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Theodate Pope Riddle: Connecticut’s Pioneering Woman Architect
…by the end of the 19th century, architectural programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris admitted women. She learned about the history…
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Ellis Ruley: Art that Celebrated Life
…exhibit brought renewed attention to Ruley’s work. His fanciful take on media imagery attracted collectors. Ruley freely borrowed depictions of white men and women from movie stills and magazine ads…
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Early 20th-Century Immigration in Connecticut
…the state’s prosperous industries afforded them abundant opportunities for employment. Many of the women who came to Connecticut from other parts of the world in the early decades of the…
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Maria Sánchez, State Representative and Community Advocate
…of Fame to commemorate Colón Sánchez as one whose “efforts have enhanced Hartford’s rich civic and cultural life.” In 1994, she was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame….
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An Inconvenient Season: Charlotte Cowles’s Letters from December 1839
…Street. Catherine. Hand-colored lithograph by E.B. & E.C. Kellogg, ca. 1840. Nineteenth-century women wrote a lot of letters. The young woman in this print was a contemporary of Charlotte Cowles…
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Emily Holcombe Pioneered to Preserve Connecticut’s Colonial Past
…heritage, along with the strides she made in giving women a voice in the public sphere, also resulted in the state honoring her memory by naming the Old State House’s…
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Nancy Toney’s Lifetime in Slavery
…next door in a three-story brick mansion and owned three enslaved women. In 1791, the elder Chaffee owned a “Negro Woman” who gave birth to a daughter, Betty Stevenson. Four…
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Prudence Punderson, Ordinary Woman, Extraordinary Artist: Needlework in Connecticut
…woman, although heartbreaking, is not much different from many other women in the 18th century who faced difficult lives and often died young. However, this woman’s name lives on and…
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Amelia Simmons Adds a Uniquely American Flavor to Cooking
…both a growing awareness of an emerging national identity and represented a new opportunity for women to promote nationalism and republican virtue through their roles in the domestic sphere. Though…
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Sarah Kemble Knight’s Journey through Colonial Connecticut
…white hand.” Such remarks remind us of the complex humanity of the men and women who lived our history. They remind us, too, that prejudices have shaped society in every…
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The Complicated Realities of Connecticut and the Civil War
…home suffered too. Women gave constant attention to the needs of the soldiers in the field, and a virtual river of supplies poured through Connecticut’s soldiers’ aid societies. Civil War…
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Connecticut’s First Female Telephone Operator – Today in History: March 24
…and were rude. To meet customers’ demand for patient, polite, and efficient service—qualities which the company decided were more likely to be found in women—female workers were recruited and trained…
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Reverend James Pennington: A Voice for Freedom
…25, 1847, the schoolroom at Talcott Street Church served as the meeting place for a discussion on suffrage. Pennington was part of an appointed three-member corresponding committee. The members at…
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“’No Taxation without Representation’: Black Voting in Connecticut
…battles over African American suffrage in Connecticut, read Katherine J. Harris’s article, “‘No Taxation without Representation’: Black Voting in Connecticut“ in Connecticut Explored magazine. Also, check out the Fall 2018…
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A Diversified Mind: Hiram Percy Maxim
…the Hartford Board of Education, served on the executive committee of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association and founded the Connecticut League of Women Voters. Explosive Engine patent, Hiram Percy Maxim…
Read An Orderly & Decent Government: Making Self-Government Work, 1866-1887
…and equality indeed ruled throughout the land, as is the boast of men.” Julia and Abby Smith, c. 1875 – Julia Smith, Suffragist, 1875 The Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association, founded…
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Transportation
…also contributed to women’s suffrage and the Good Roads Movement of the late 19th century. The state’s transportation history also includes early Native American trails that traced routes still in…
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Politics and Government
…the years, various political debates arose over such issues as slavery, temperance, religious influence on governance, women’s suffrage, and even where to locate the state capital. (Until 1875, Connecticut had…
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Henry Ward Beecher, a Preacher with Political Clout
…and prominence of his message. That message took on increasingly political tones as Beecher began using his pulpit more frequently to address social concerns. The issues of temperance and women’s…
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Map – Connecticut Landmarks of the Constitution
…Sisters’ House, NHL On this their life-long home, Abby and Julia Smith refused to pay real estate taxes in the 1870s, arguing that, as women, they were disenfranchised. Upon inheriting…
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The Kewpies Buy A House in Westport
by Kim Sheridan The Kewpies originally appeared as a comic strip in the Christmas issue of the 1909 Ladies Home Journal. Roly-poly cherubs with large heads, rosy cheeks, big eyes,…
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Mariann Wolcott and Ralph Earl – Opposites Come Together and Make History
By Rena Tobey Imagine a Loyalist to the British king sitting for hours opposite a rebel who fought to overturn British rule. The ratification of the United States Constitution in…
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The Deplorable History of Hartford’s Seyms Street Jail
…ventilation. The women’s section, located at the west wing, contained 36 cells and women prisoners did the jail’s laundry and mending. In 1904 the Seyms Steet Jail added a large…
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Lydia Sherman: The Derby Poisoner
Between 1864 and 1871 Lydia Sherman killed three husbands and several children, including her own. Authorities arrested her in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in June 1871 for killing a third…
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Connecticut Pocketknife Firms
…the Connecticut firms had become leaders in the craft. The Holley Manufacturing Company employed up to 85 men and women and had annual sales as high as $50,000 in its…
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The Hartford Wheel Club: Disparity in the Gilded Age
…unemployment meant more hobos roaming the city, which spurred the Rev. John J. McCook to lobby for restricting “tramps” to a limited section of Hartford where the almshouse resided. Women…
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A Revolution On Two Wheels: Columbia Bicycles
…easier to ride, but with simple design modifications like the “drop frame” and skirt guards on chain and rear wheels, they could be used by women. Almost overnight the market…
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Constance Baker Motley: A Warrior for Justice
By Andy Piascik The cover photo of Equal Justice Under Law, Constance Baker Motley’s 1998 autobiography, captures Motley, James Meredith, and Medgar Evers exiting a federal courthouse in New Orleans….
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Evelyn Beatrice Longman Commemorates the Working Class
By Steve Thornton Connecticut has no shortage of war memorials or statues featuring prominent business and political leaders. The celebration of the state’s ordinary working people, however, is almost nowhere…
Read Jackson v. Bulloch and the End of Slavery in Connecticut
by Andy Piascik In 1784, as the American Revolution drew to a close, the new government of Connecticut passed the Gradual Abolition Act to address the issue of slavery in…
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Colt Park and the Magical Summer of 1976
…Fleetwood Mac actually rotated opening and closing throughout that 1976 tour. The presence of Grace Slick and Stevie Nicks on the same bill brought a good dose of women’s power…
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Connecticut: Home to the Boxcar Children Mysteries – Who Knew?
…that Gertrude Chandler Warner, a lifelong resident of Putnam, Connecticut, authored the popular series The Boxcar Children Mysteries? In 1924, Warner, a first-grade school teacher at the Putnam Grammar School,…
Read An Orderly & Decent Government: Making Self-Government Work, 1929-1964
…Government Members of the Organization of Women Legislators, 1945 In its 1938 reorganization of state government, the legislature combined 116 separate agencies into 17 executive departments, made the governor responsible…
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Alse Young Executed for Witchcraft – Today in History: May 26
On May 26, 1647, Alse Young of Windsor was the first person on record to be executed for witchcraft in the 13 colonies. Young was hanged at the Meeting House…
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The 29th First to Enter Confederate Capital When It Surrenders – Today in History: April 3
…President Abraham Lincoln arrived later that day to make his “triumphant entry into the city” A. H. Newton recounted how he turned to a nearby black women and said, “Madam,…
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Windsor’s “Murder Factory”
At the beginning of the 20th century, Amy Duggan Archer Gilligan operated a home for the elderly in Windsor, Connecticut. Having spent a significant portion of her professional life caring…
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Frances Laughlin Wadsworth: Sculpting the Past
By Karen DePauw Frances Laughlin Wadsworth certainly left her mark on the art world. She also left it scattered about the city of Hartford. Frances Laughlin was born in Buffalo,…
Read An Orderly & Decent Government: Crisis and Recovery, 1929-1964
…limited government, and one-party rule were gone forever. World War II brought a cascade of war orders into Connecticut and ended the Great Depression. Women found their lives transformed by…
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Slavery and the Pequot War
…pursued the remaining Pequot men, women, and children across southern New England until July when the last major engagement of the war took place in what is today the town…
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The Trailblazing Bessye Bennett
In 1974, nearly one hundred years after Mary Hall became the first woman to practice law in Connecticut, the state finally admitted its first African American female lawyer. Her name…
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Brass City/Grass Roots: Farming as Recycling: The Becces in the North End
…that the brick oven be placed near the road so that passers-by could see how industrious the family women were. Every week, Lucia and her daughters baked enormous loaves of…
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Early 19th-Century Immigration in Connecticut
…opening in the West created a demand for new sources of labor. Experienced Craftsmen Needed From the exhibit the “Irish Women in Domestic Service” – New Haven Museum In addition,…
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Rosa Ponselle: Meriden’s Famous Musical Daughter
By Christina Volpe Rosa Ponzillo (known better as Rosa Ponselle) etched her name in history as the first American-born and American-trained singer to star with the Metropolitan Opera Company. After…
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Derby’s Osbornedale Farms, Frances Kellogg, and the Dairy Industry
By Joseph M. DiRienzo Like many rural areas across the United States, the Lower Naugatuck Valley has had its share of dairy farms. In 1975, Connecticut had a little over…
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Photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White: “No Picture Was Unimportant to Her”
By Emily Clark What began as a stint with a used Ica Reflex camera, a cracked lens, and glass plates led to Margaret Bourke-White’s illustrious career as a war correspondent…
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Lillian Hoban: Beloved Illustrator of “I Can Read” Books
By Emily Clark A rich imagination, a childhood love of reading, and an early talent for illustrations led Lillian Hoban to become one of children’s literature’s most beloved artists of…
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Birthplace of the Gerber Baby – Who Knew?
…that the inspiration for the iconic Gerber Baby trademark was born in Bridgeport and grew up in Westport? Modilac Gerber Baby Formula – Smithsonian National Museum of American History In…
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Helen James Chisholm: A Hartford Teacher in Hawaii
By Nancy Finlay In the summer of 1901, a young Black woman from Connecticut stepped off the steamship Sonoma in Honolulu, Hawaii. Originally from Hartford, Helen James’ career took her…
Read Brass City/Grass Roots: Waterbury Farming in the Late 1800s
…enlarge Old maps tell us much about the numerous men and women farming or processing food in Connecticut in the late 19th and early 20th century. This 1874 map of…
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The Connecticut Poll Tax
…new tax law improved. After achieving the right to vote in 1920, women became subject to the tax a year later. The Old Age Assistance Tax (1936-1947) The old age…
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Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett Helps Found Greenwich
By Sophie Jaeger Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett is an integral part of Connecticut’s history for her work in the founding of Greenwich, Connecticut. Born to Thomas Fones and Anne…
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Skating Through Winter
…roller skating in the warmer weather months. Skating Deemed Suitable for 19th-Century Ladies Women, as well as men, enjoyed Hartford’s new skating facility. Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, more and…
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A Most Unusual Criminal Execution in New London
On December 20, 1786, a crowd gathered behind New London’s old meeting house to witness the execution of a convicted murderer. The condemned had beat and strangled 6-year-old Eunice Bolles…
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Wethersfield Prison Blues
…offered religious services and Sunday school classes. Cell block for women prisoners, Connecticut State Prison, ca. 1910-1920 – Connecticut Historical Society Both male and female prisoners were housed in separate…
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The First Hospice – Who Knew?
…that the first hospice home-care program in the United States opened in Branford. Founded by Florence Wald, a former dean of Yale University School of Nursing, Connecticut Hospice opened in…
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Gradual Emancipation Reflected the Struggle of Some to Envision Black Freedom
…following years. Connecticut’s gradual emancipation act freed children born to enslaved women after March 1, 1784. It did not free the mother, the father, or any other adults. Neither did…
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Overland Travel in Connecticut, from Footpaths to Interstates
…Working six days a week in noisy factories, many urban men and women made their living in one of the state’s many industries—all of which were now connected to a…
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Prudence Crandall
…admitted an African American student, Sarah Harris. Many parents removed their children as a result. Crandall stood firm, re-opening the school as an academy for young black women, the first…
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Wethersfield Academy Est. 1804
Connecticut is celebrated for its long-lasting commitment to education. In fact, in the mid-17th century, Connecticut was considered the most literate place on earth, primarily due to the early Puritans’…
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Helen Keller Dies – Today in History: June 1
On June 1, 1968, American author, political activist, and lecturer Helen Keller died at the age of 87. Keller contracted an illness at 19 months old that left her blind…
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Actress Gwen Reed Best Remembered for Dedication to Childhood Literacy
Gwen Reed was an actress and educational advocate who grew up in Hartford in the early 20th century. The daughter of a migrant farm worker, Reed lived in the city’s…
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The Cheney Brothers’ Rise in the Silk Industry
…approximately $30,000 into factory refits to facilitate the new production. Women weighing raw silk, ca. 1920 – Connecticut Historical Society This commitment to technology paid off: Cheney’s capital stock increased…
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The Lebanon Grange Followed a Different Tune than National Movement
…and educational needs. Although modeled after Freemasonry, a fraternal organization, the Grange offered equal membership to women. The Grange movement proved popular in the Midwest, West, and South but took…
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Anna Louise James Makes History with Medicine
Anna Louise James was born on January 19, 1886, in Hartford. The daughter of a Virginia plantation slave who escaped to Connecticut, she grew up in Old Saybrook. Dedicating her…
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Horace Wells Discovers Pain-free Dentistry
…the night of his 33rd birthday, Wells went out and threw acid on a pair of women in the street. Fortunately, the acid only burned their clothing and did not…
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Griswold v. Connecticut – Today in History: June 7
On June 7, 1965, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Griswold v. Connecticut. The case came before the court when the executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut,…
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Harriet Beecher Stowe Born – Today in History: June 14
On June 14, 1811, author Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield. The daughter of Reverend Lyman Beecher, Harriet was educated at the Litchfield Female Academy and the Hartford Female…
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Music Vale Seminary in Salem Credited as Being First in US
In the mid-19th century, Orramel Whittlesey founded a music conservatory in Salem, Connecticut. The conservatory served as a boarding school attended primarily by young women who came from all over…
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Elizabeth Bentley Born – Today in History: January 1
On January 1, 1908, Elizabeth Terrill Bentley was born in New Milford. Bentley is best known for her role as an American spy for the Soviet Union in the 1930s…
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Breaking the Myth of the Unmanaged Landscape
…“when women weed corn”) indicates. At this time, small bands broke off from the larger community to tend personal gardens near the coast, where they collected seafood and gathered rushes…
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Sophie Tucker, The Last of the Red-Hot Mamas
By Jeannine Henderson-Shifflett Brash, bold and her own woman, Hartford’s Sophie Tucker enjoyed a long and successful career as an entertainer, performing for almost 60 years. Nicknamed “the Last of…
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Connecticut’s Mulberry Craze
…the cocoons. Silk reels from A Manual Containing Information Respecting the Growth of the Mulberry Tree by J.H. Cobb, 1833 Women usually tended to the silkworms and also reeled the…
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Accidental Shooting Leads to Witchcraft Conviction – Today in History: October 3
On October 3, 1651, Henry Stiles of Windsor was killed when the gun of Thomas Allyn, also of Windsor, accidentally discharged during a militia exercise. Mr. Stiles was a boarder…
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Sanitary Fair – Today in History: July 25
On July 25, 1864, the Stamford Ladies Soldiers’ Aid Society held a Sanitary Fair. Sanitary Fairs were established in response to the needs of Civil War soldiers beyond what the…
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Marian Anderson’s Role in the Civil Rights Movement
Last Updated: March 19, 2024 By Anne Farrow Considered one of the great singers of the 20th century–and her life spanned nearly the entire century–Marian Anderson was an artist who…
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A Celebrated Artist and a Meaningful Space – Today in History: October 20
…she was one of only 12 American women earning over $50,000 a year. She received many honors and awards for her work including the Grand Cross of Alfonso XII of…
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Collections: Battle Flags
…Walker, who gave it to the women of the town to make into a new Confederate flag. Sometime during the next six months, their regimental flag was mounted on a…
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First Human Test of a Nylon Parachute – Today in History: June 6
On June 6, 1942, Adeline Gray made the first jump by a human with a nylon parachute at Brainard Field in Hartford. Her jump, performed before a group of Army…
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Andover’s Award-Winning Creamery
…America, butter-making usually fell within the scope of “women’s work” inside the home. Women made butter for their families, and any excess product found its way to local markets. By…
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A Woman Who Developed Tolerance: Leila T. Alexander
On Saturday, November 18, 1944, at noon after the meeting of the Connecticut War Council in the Senate Chambers of the State Capitol, Governor Raymond E. Baldwin, Jr. awarded certificates…
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Thanksgiving and Christmas at Long Lane, 1874
In 1874 Superintendent S. N. Rockwell and his wife were in their first year of running the Long Lane Industrial School for Girls. They had come from New York’s House…
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Luna Park: A 20th-century Story of Amusement and Morality
…25¢ to roller skate and $1 per couple to dance. Among the more popular events were automobile competitions for both men and women drivers. While men competed against each other…
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Living Rituals: Mohegan Wigwam Festival
…table and the items women made during the year. You could buy a nice gingham apron. There were quite a few baskets made by our Indian men, cooking utensils such…
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New Haven: What Was Everyday Life Like During the Civil War?
…be a good starting point to answer questions such as: what types of occupations would women have held? What goods were being sold? And what types of services were available?…
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America’s Most Devastating Conflict: King Philip’s War
…freezing conditions to attack the Narragansett camp, a fortified village of five acres housing about 1,000 men, women, and children. After hours of battle, the colonists gained control of the…
Read Theodate Pope Riddle Dies – Today in History: August 30
On August 30, 1946, Theodate Pope Riddle, one of the nation’s first successful woman architects, died at the age of 79. The daughter of wealthy Ohioans Alfred Atmore Pope and…
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Nellie McKnight Promotes History and Literacy throughout Ellington
Nellie McKnight was a teacher, librarian, and historian who served the town of Ellington for most of her life. Born July 22, 1894, on her father’s farm in Ellington, she…
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The Civil War Commences: Connecticut’s Involvement in the Civil War
…prisons. The women of Connecticut stood by their men at war by creating Soldiers Aid Societies. The Hartford Ladies Aid Society was one of the largest in the nation during…
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A Special Place to Honor Military Veterans in Plainville
…top of the inscription that honors the men and women who served. Funding for the monument came largely from the work of veterans groups like the Brock Barnes Post of…
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Video – Connecticut’s Cultural Treasures: Hill-Stead Museum
YouTube – CPTV – Created by the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network and the Department of Economic and Community Development….
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Faith Trumbull: The Artist Was a Young Girl
By Kate Steinway for Your Public Media In 1754, eleven-year-old Faith Trumbull (1743–1775), the daughter of Governor Jonathan Trumbull of Lebanon, Connecticut, was sent to boarding school in Boston. In…
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The Unsteady Meaning of “The Land of Steady Habits”
…by women (against); gangland murders (against); manhood (for); proven innovation (for); frugal government (for); corruption in government (against); suspicion of government (for); and fireworks (for), Socialist mayors in Bridgeport (for…
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Laboring in the Shade
By Dawn Byron Hutchins for Connecticut Explored At the height of shade tobacco’s popularity in the first half of the 20th century, more than 16,000 acres of this premium cigar…
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Remembering Fredi Washington: Actress, Activist, and Journalist
By Nancy Finlay for Your Public Media Fredericka Carolyn “Fredi” Washington was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1903 and died in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1994. Fredi began her career as…
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Video – Connecticut’s Cultural Treasures: Prudence Crandall Museum
YouTube – CPTV – Created by the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network and the Department of Economic and Community Development….
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Social Movements
…and universal suffrage to the Good Roads movement championed by Hartford bicycle innovator Albert Pope in the late 1800s. Often the struggle is long, as witnessed by indigenous groups’ quest…
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Early Civil Rights and Cultural Pioneers: The Easton Family
…an organized effort for black men’s suffrage led by James Mars, a church deacon and former enslaved man born in Connecticut. Rev. Hosea Easton died on July 6, 1837, at…
Read Hiding the Charter: Images of Joseph Wadsworth’s Legendary Action
…more democratic, liberal faction, that demanded wider suffrage, an end to the official support of the Congregational church, elimination of the practice of returning the same men to office year…
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Hope for the West: The Life and Mission of Lyman Beecher
…as advocates for educational reform and suffrage respectively. His daughter, Harriet, however, became perhaps the most famous of his offspring after her authorship of the renowned abolitionist tract, Uncle Tom’s…
Read An Orderly & Decent Government: Searching for the Common Good, 1776-1818
…the state that embodied their reforms. “The very principle of admitting everybody to the right of suffrage prostrates the wealth of individuals to the rapaciousness of a merciless gang who…
Read An Orderly & Decent Government: The Rise of the Factory, 1866-1887
…and poverty. Businessmen and entrepreneurs urged legislators to allow free enterprise and economic growth to move forward unhindered. Women and African Americans, long excluded from the political process, intensified their…
Read An Orderly & Decent Government: Making Self-Government Work, 1776-1818
…women as voters by explicitly limiting the franchise to white males. This article is a panel reproduction from An Orderly and Decent Government, an exhibition on the history of representative…
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Benjamin Spock: Raising the World’s Children
…be more nurturing. In the era that he wrote, he directed his message almost exclusively at mothers and he encouraged women to be more responsive to the needs of their…
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Connecticut Pin Makers
…of plentiful supplies of brass wire, skilled and unskilled labor (men and women), and waterpower. Pins made by Howe Manufacturing Co., Birmingham – Connecticut Historical Society By 1841 Howe had…
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Muzzy Field: A Historic Ball Park Survives in a Post-Industrial City
…baseball games, Muzzy Field accommodated soccer teams, rodeos, and football teams, including the Green Bay Packers who played there in 1943. The Field also hosted women’s baseball teams as well…
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Postwar United States 1945-1970s
…over women’s reproductive rights, while racially charged riots brought life in major cities, such as Hartford, to an alarming standstill. Despite a terrible flood in 1955, Connecticut expanded its infrastructure…
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Emergence of Modern America 1890-1930
…the devastation wrought by mankind’s first “world war,” it was an era of hope characterized by the granting of voting rights to women, the birth of Hollywood and acting legends…
Read An Orderly & Decent Government: Significant Events & Developments, 1929-1964
…sweatshops, outlawed the employment of minors under 16, limited the work-week for women and children and passed programs of unemployment insurance and old age pensions. Lights ablaze and dark curtains…
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Collis P. Huntington: The Boy from Poverty Hollow
…The little Gothic chapel, with lovely stained glass windows, reached completion in 1887. At its dedication, Huntington, then 66 years old, recalled how his mother, “one of the best women…
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Danbury Hangings: The Executions of Anthony and Amos
…the death of a convicted black rapist. Reports of black-on-white rapes in post-Revolutionary America often focused on the “ruined innocence” of white women. This not only fueled the “myth of…
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Emile Gauvreau and the Era of Tabloid Journalism
…coverage of scandal and its prominent use of photos of scantily clad young women. When there was not enough sordid news, Graphic reporters and photographers staged photos and stories of…
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Aldrich Free Public Library: Dedicated to the Dissemination of Knowledge
…donated by the Young Women’s Christian Temperance Union. In addition to lending out these books, the library served a variety of social and community functions. Among these was providing a…
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Art Young, Radical Cartoonist
…known and loved primarily as men and women of action, pushing at the outer edges of society. Cartoonist Art Young, ca. 1910-15, glass negative – Library of Congress, Prints and…
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The Hartford Wits
…called for the abolition of slavery and full education rights for women. The latter theme is already on display in “The Progress of Dulness” in the characterization of Harriet Simper,…
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James Lindsey Smith Takes the Underground Railroad to Connecticut
…South, black and white people, men and women, worked together to assist fugitives on the road to freedom. One of these fugitives was James Lindsey Smith, who fled slavery in…
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Charles McLean Andrews and Evangeline Walker Andrews
By Shirley T. Wajda Charles McLean Andrews was one of the most distinguished historians of his time, generally recognized as the master of American colonial history. A graduate of Trinity…
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The 29th Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Flag and Display
…tour guide with the state’s League of Women Voters, in 1985, Caughman was effectively appointed caretaker of the flags when the Hall of Flags was emptied as part of a…
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Up from the Ashes: Fire at the Meriden Britannia Company – Today in History: July 16
…ware, in Meriden, Connecticut. The 700-foot-long building employed over 900 people, including 100 women, all of whom were left temporarily without work. However, the building was fully insured, the loss…
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A Day of Celebration – Today in History: September 17
…to dine in tents where abundant with food made and donated for them by local Hartford women. Tara M. Cantore is an adjunct professor teaching English and public speaking at…
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Capital Punishment in Connecticut: Changing Views
…citizen, including women and children, attended the state’s public executions. By the middle of the 1800s, however, a great reform movement altered public views on the appropriateness of public executions…
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A Connecticut Nazi Spy Has a Change of Heart
…to Boston and then to New York City. Without any clear directives for accomplishing his mission, Colepaugh began spending recklessly on food, wine, and women. After spending $1,500 of Nazi…
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Imagining Connecticut
…African Americans and women rest on the 19th century labors of individuals like James Mars and Prudence Crandall and the courage and determination of decades of suffragists. Old traditions have…
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Hidden Nearby: The Morris Academy
…significant discussion, as many believed that education would cause women to lose sight of their more traditional roles. In 1794, a town hearing was held about the situation, and any…
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G. Fox and the Golden Age of Department Stores
…on providing customers, particularly women, with the opportunity to turn shopping into a day-long social experience. The store included a post office, beauty salon, restaurants, and a tea room. In…
Read An Orderly & Decent Government: Making Self-Government Work, 1965-Now
…Denied the vote for almost three centuries, women won leadership positions in the General Assembly in the 1970s and 80s. A Building for the Public Cramped conditions at the Capitol…
Read An Orderly & Decent Government: Significant Events & Developments, 1965-Now
…long dissatisfied with Connecticut’s unbalanced and often paralyzed political process, the League of Women Voters sued the state in federal court. The court found Connecticut’s system grossly unfair and ordered…
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LGBTQ+ Mental Health Treatment in the 20th Century
…the law. Between 1909 and 1963, Connecticut sterilized approximately 557 people—92 percent were women—with 74 percent identified as mentally ill and 26 percent considered “mentally deficient.” While much of the…
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A Baltic Mill Helps Found a New Town
…mill doubled its employment in the 1860s, bringing new populations of largely Irish and French-Canadians to the area. By 1870, 804 men, 396 women, and 210 children worked in the…
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The Rise and Fall of Manufacturing in Bridgeport: The Case of Bryant Electric
…times over the years, with the first strike of note taking place in 1915. Women assemblers not welcome in the American Federation of Labor’s craft unions led the strike and…
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Building an Armenian Community in New Britain
…1900s, New Britain had a flourishing Armenian community. Some Armenian women and children had joined their husbands, and while many men continued to work at Stanley Works and other local…
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Connecticut’s Official State Flag – Who Knew?
…the proposed cornstalk imagery. The legislature then included a provision that allowed the women of the Anna Warner Bailey chapter to present to the state the first flag created under…
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At the Sign of the Yellow Dragon: Hartford’s First Chinese Restaurants
…father, Kang Tongbi was a staunch advocate of reform—but also of Chinese women’s rights. After attending Hartford Public High School, she studied at Radcliffe, Trinity, and Barnard Colleges before returning…
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Maritime History: The Founding of the United States Coast Guard Academy
…duty as Coast Guard ensigns. As per their mission statement, the academy strives “to graduate young men and women with sound bodies, stout hearts and alert minds, with a liking…
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Julian Alden Weir: The “Heart” of American Impressionism
…Art Students League and Cooper Union Women’s Art School, helped establish the Society of American Artists, and befriended a group of other promising young artists—including Winslow Homer. Windham and Branchville…
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Kalos Society: Connecticut’s First Modern LGBTQ+ Activist Organization
…such issues as the women’s dress code at The Park West bar in Hartford and the lack of protection of LGBTQ+ individuals by Bridgeport police. Sometimes these protests led to…
Read Brass City/Grass Roots: Remnants and Revivals
…populations such as those eligible for WIC (The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) and low-income seniors, all of whom can trade coupons for fresh fruits and…
Read Brass City/Grass Roots: Bucks Hill: Waterbury’s Rural Holdout
…over the course of the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s – Photo courtesy of John Wiehn, click to enlarge Most women were listed as having no occupation in the census or…
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Hartford’s “Little Italy”
…Yet, old world traditions also sparked the entrepreneurial spirit of some Italian immigrants, and businesses like shoe-repair, carpentry, selling fruit, and barbering thrived. Italian women also worked but usually strictly…
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First Connecticut Carpet Mills Emerge in Simsbury and Enfield
…wholesale dealers. As a result, total employment at the mill grew quickly; by 1832, the factory employed 136 men, women, and boys. After the Panic of 1837, the new owners…
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Connecticut Domestic Oil Lamp Makers
…Most tallow candles were fashioned by women in the home, while candle-makers (chandlers) produced these and more expensive candles in larger population areas. More expensive types of candles came from…
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Connecticut Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home
…and Minerva’s daughter Edwina (1868–1970) served as UConn’s librarian from 1900 to 1934. A women’s residence hall was named in her honor in 1938. The former orphanage became Edwin Whitney…
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Ruth Hovey: Heroic Battlefield Nurse
…brave men and women serving in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and administering to the injured as war raged on around them. One of the most heroic – and youngest…
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Rock-Solid Industry in 19th-Century Bolton
…Industry’s Demise Unfortunately for the men and women who benefited from the local quarry industry, it was at this time that numerous factors, including a number of dramatic weather events,…
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The Sandemanians
…congregation to lead Danbury’s Sandemanians as their Elder. He founded a firm that for 35 years sold its ornamental combs of shaped cattle horn that proved popular with women in…
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West Indians in Hartford
…Hartford region by the surplus of available jobs in the tobacco fields along the Connecticut River Valley. Men worked in agriculture while women often found work as housekeepers, teachers, nurses,…
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The Wallingford Oneida Community
…the breeding of children with special characteristics; significant changes in the role of women (e.g., communal childcare and participation in community activities); and the sharing of all possessions and resources….
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Hartford’s Les Payne, Trailblazing Journalist
…Payne was a leader in efforts to get Newsday to hire more women and people of color as reporters and to ensure that those who were hired and already employed…
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DN-1: The US Navy’s First Airship
…contract, the company hired four engineers to assist Boyle, as well as a number of women to sew balloon envelopes in the company’s factory at 136 Haven Street, New Haven….
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Quinnipiac: The People of the Long Water Land
…the 17th century are uncertain, but possibly over four thousand Indigenous men, women, and children lived within Quinnipiac homelands. That number declined by up to 90 percent after waves of…
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Timothy Dwight Dies – Today in History: January 11
…educated both young men and women. The school, seen as unorthodox for applying the same curriculum to both sexes and eliminating corporal punishment, soon began to draw students from across…
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The Ghost Ship of New Haven Sets Sail Shrouded in Mystery
…men and women who watched the departure of the ship from the shore saw it slip away unpromisingly into the quickly thickening fog. Months passed and no word of the…
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A Fair to Remember in Brooklyn
…household items produced by local women. After 11 years of operating the fair, the group (now numbering over 100) incorporated as the Windham County Agricultural Society. Several decades later, in…
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Amateur Radio Comes of Age in Connecticut
…of community, one where men and women from all circumstances and walks of life meet as equals on the airwaves. Michael Marinaro holds a Masters degree in History and is…
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The Joshua Hempsted Diary: A Window into Colonial Connecticut
…child in 1716, Abigail died; five days after that their oldest son, aged 17, also died. Hempsted never remarried, bringing up the children with the help of relatives and women…
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Saddles Fit For a Shah
…Smith marketed many of his products to women—a segment of the riding population sorely under served at the time. In the 1830s, Smith opened a shop in New Orleans, and…
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Henry Bacon Helps Beautify Naugatuck
…of this article was originally written for a Women’s Study Club project and first appeared in the Naugatuck Historical Society’s Newsletter. Elaine Russell is a longtime resident of the area…
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The Connecticut Town Green
…evolved into landscaped parks with trees, paths, street lamps, and benches. Greens also began to serve as places in which to erect war memorials. In smaller towns, residents—mostly elite townswomen—established…
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Eighty-Five Hundred Souls: the 1918-1919 Flu Epidemic in Connecticut
…were young adults, servicemen, and others with their lives still ahead of them. This enormous loss of young men and women, following hard upon the bloodletting of World War I,…
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“U.S. Troops in Viet Nam, but none in Selma” – Today in History: March 9
…In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act outlawing discrimination against African Americans and women. The law was supposed to ensure the equal application of voter registration…
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Work
…required of a growing nation. While the state worked to provide important opportunities for women and immigrants, it also produced legislation to regulate child labor, the length of work days,…
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Historic Preservation
…in the state’s historic places. Early preservation focused on houses, often restored by women’s organizations and made into museums. The Works Progress Administration drove preservation efforts in the early 20th…
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Health and Medicine
…Army General Hospital, treated 25,340 soldiers. Twentieth-century advances include Dr. Hilda Crosby Standish’s work to improve women’s reproductive health and the nation’s first hospice home-care program, which opened in Branford….
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Education
…1833, established the first academy in New England for African American women, and the American School for the Deaf, which has served the hard of hearing and deaf since 1817….
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Sarah Bernhardt Performs in Hartford – Today in History: June 8
On June 8, 1906, French stage and film actress Sarah Bernhardt appeared at Foot Guard Hall in Hartford. She performed the part of Marguerite Gautier in the play La Dame…
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Sylvester Poli, Negotiating Cultural Politics in an Age of Immigration
…a short distance from his home. Poli, moreover, understood that his clientele, the people who made him what he was, often were not men and women of means. Movie-going in…
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Built on Innovation, Saved by Nostalgia: Hitchcock Chair Company
…Partners Save Debt-ridden Business By 1826, Hitchcock’s company had grown to about 100 workers, including many women, who were responsible for painting the intricately etched patterns on the furniture. The…
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Tradition and Transformation Define Hartford’s Jewish Community
…Society, for women. Not only did these groups provide places where the members could gather for social events based on the culture and language of the old country, but they…
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James Mars’ Words Illuminate the Cruelty of Slavery in New England
…children born to enslaved parents would be free upon reaching their age of majority—25 for men, 21 for women. While the enslaved could not be sold out of state, they…
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Blizzard of 1888 Devastates State
…Two women workers at a Bridgeport factory were not as lucky; they tried to make it home through the storm on Monday and were found, dead in each others’ arms,…
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Osborn Correctional Institution
…State Prison had housed both men and women (in separate parts of the prison) and operated as a state-of-the-art facility focused on changing the prison experience from one of punishment…
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Ivory Cutting: The Rise and Decline of a Connecticut Industry
…keyboards, and sounding boards as well. Employment rose rapidly, so that by 1900 these two factories employed more than 1,400 men and women. A few smaller ivory shops, such as…
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World War II
…war’s end brought job loss (particularly for women), food shortages, and strikes. Today, memorials honor those who served and several archives work to collect letters, oral histories, and other first-hand…
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Civil War
…a strategic manufacturing advantage in arms, munitions, and other provisions. Women’s innovations included soldier’s aid societies, with Bridgeport’s being the nation’s first. The societies supplied essential items to troops and…
Read The League of American Wheelmen and Hartford’s Albert Pope Champion the Good Roads Movement
…of cyclists in the United States doubled to 150,000, many of whom were women. As a travel writer passing through Saybrook, Connecticut, in 1902 noted of that community: An odd…
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Samuel L. Clemens Receives Scrap-book Patent – Who Knew?
…Court. It was also at this time that Clemens patented three inventions. One, “Mark Twain’s Elastic Strap,” could be used to tighten men’s trouser waistbands or women’s corsets. Another, “Mark…
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Middlebury
…also home to the Westover School for girls, founded in 1909 by Mary Robbins Hillard, and designed by Theodate Riddle Pope, one of the first women architects in the US….
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Columbia
…meadowland it had purchased from Columbia. Today, this water shed is again Columbia-owned. Town notables include women’s rights advocate Fannie Dixon Welch (1873-1947) who held several local and state posts….
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Burlington
…retains its rural character. Contributors to history with Burlington connections include early American balloonist Silas Brooks and Ludella Peck, one of the first American women educators at the college level….
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Canterbury
…private school for girls but when she allowed—and then focused exclusively on—education for young African American women, informal and legal protests began. A mob attack forced the school’s closure in…
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An Overview of Connecticut’s Outdoor Sculpture
…War memorials continue to be commissioned in Connecticut towns. Often these list local men and women lost in conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries. Victory of Mercy (1947) at…
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Roosevelt Rides in an Electric Car – Today in History: August 22
…greeted men, women, and children who lined the streets to witness what would become a familiar sight: the first presidential motorcade. Columbia Electric Victoria Phaeton The model in which Roosevelt…
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Get Out Your Paper Dress, Gal! – Who Knew?
…as Peter Max custom designed paper dress yardage, artists painted solid colored paper dresses for display, and some of the Atheneum’s women designed their own gowns. A description of “The…
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Hartford Wide-Awakes – Today in History: July 26
…salute, after which the New Jersey visitors were escorted by carriages to city hall. The hall had been decorated lavishly by the women of Hartford with flowers and political mottoes…
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Hooker’s Journey to Hartford
In early June of 1636, prominent Puritan religious leader Reverend Thomas Hooker left the Boston area with one hundred men, women, and children and set out for the Connecticut valley….
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World War I
…the men and women who worked on the home front, roughly 63,000 state residents served in the US or Allied forces. Among those remembered today are flying ace Raoul Lufbery…
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Vietnam War
…the war, Connecticut increased its efforts to recognize the sacrifices of its men and women in Vietnam. Memorials include a monument in Coventry, as well as numerous parks and structures…
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What’s a Puritan, and Why Didn’t They Stay in Massachusetts?
…L Mencken), sexually repressed (Arthur Miller), pathologically superstitious (Marion Starkey) folk who liked nothing better than to mind other people’s business and to hang their neighbors (especially women) for no…
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A Bird’s-eye View of Bridgeport
…residences, and industries of Bridgeport and dominate the proportionately smaller view. Best known for women’s apparel, sewing machines, and seamless brass tubing, the industries were almost as celebrated as Bridgeport’s…
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Amos Bronson Alcott Changes the Way Connecticut Children Learn
…of public schools in Concord, Massachusetts, but it was not until almost 10 years later, when his daughter Louisa May published Little Women, that the family received some financial relief….
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Capital Community College Students Explore Hartford’s Immigrant History…In Their Own Words
…of North Hartford and spent the night with them, talking and consoling. One of the first women in America to be elected mayor of a major city, “Mayor Ann” famously…
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P. T. Barnum: An Entertaining Life
…men and women as proposed in the Fourteenth Amendment and worked to limit the power of the New York and New Haven Railroad lobby. Barnum’s successes got him reelected a…
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Hidden Nearby: Bethlehem’s Joseph Bellamy Monument
…would be arranged for “men not to infringe on women’s pues.” It has been stated that no theologian of the time—except for Edwards—had the impact that Bellamy had. This was…
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Warren Congregational Church, a Longstanding Community Center
…does not fall into the dilapidated state of its predecessor, while other fundraising activities support families affected by natural disasters, provide educational opportunities for women, and support famine-relief efforts worldwide….
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Lake Pocotopaug Shapes the Growth of East Hampton
…pm, avoid sounding fog horns, and cease making sharp turns that might cause “women passengers to scream,” but this did little good. Changing economic conditions throughout the 20th century brought…
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Grounds for Divorce – Who Knew?
…unmarried.” This equitable treatment of both men and women in the matter of divorce was rooted in the Puritan belief, prevalent in the New England Colonies, that marriage was a…
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The White Mountain Express Derails in Greenwich
…of the side, rescuers finally removed the young girl; she died a few minutes later. The stone cut where the train derailed soon filled with men, women, and children eager…
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Connecticut’s Christmas Town
…women. Despite these attractions, what perhaps draws most visitors to Bethlehem is its designation as “Connecticut’s Christmas Town.” Each year the Bethlehem Post Office processes hundreds of thousands of letters…
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Gifford Pinchot: Bridging Two Eras of National Conservation
…times, without success. Pinchot’s wife, Cornelia Bryce Pinchot, whom he married in 1914, was a wealthy woman interested in such progressive causes as birth control, the vote for women, and…
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A True Dog of War: Sergeant Stubby
…and boosting morale wherever he went. Later that summer, Stubby was back in action for the recapture of Château-Thierry. Grateful women of the town made him a chamois blanket, complete…
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The “Fancy Chair” Craze of the 1800s: Lambert Hitchcock and the Story of the Hitchcock Chair
…filled in with oil paint or inexpensive metallic powder. Men made the chairs, children painted them, and women applied the stencils. Hitchcock and his family later relocated to Unionville (a…
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Hartford Times – Voices of Change
…and national attention on the civil rights of African Americans, the war in Vietnam, and the inequalities facing women. “This exhibition was made possible through the generous contributions of individual…
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The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918
…at greater than 100 million. An estimated 675,000 Americans perished, including some 9,000 men, women, and children in Connecticut—nearly 1% of the state’s population. Origins of the Spanish Flu Influenza…
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The Steady Evolution of a Connecticut Family Business
…was the headline in the Hartford Daily Courant on December 21. The article described the explosion and fire that burned eight girls and young women to death and injured several…
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Road Signs of the Air
…markings in Connecticut and nationwide as part of the WPA’s program to improve the nation’s airports. The Boy Scouts of America, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the organization of women…
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Hartford Circus Fire: “The Tent’s on Fire!” – Who Knew?
…away. The Bristol Press reported that neighboring homes had “lines of men, women and children from the sidewalks to the telephone, patiently awaiting their opportunity to convey the good news…
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From the State Historian: The Final Journey of Nathaniel Lyon
…very far between. But 150 years ago, on September 5, 1861, thousands of men, women, and children ringed the hillside surrounding this small graveyard to witness the interment of native…
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Connecticut’s Black Civil War Regiment
…Norwich). On March 19, after receiving a United States flag from a group of black women from New Haven, the regiment assembled on the New Haven Green. As they paraded…
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Ella Grasso
…age 61 from ovarian cancer. President Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981, and in 1993 she was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Hall of…
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Establishing Roots in Oxford
…farmer Charles W. Nix proposed the grange idea to his neighbors. Later that year, 24 men and 24 women founded Oxford Grange #194. At the meetings that ensued, local farmers…
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Causes of the Pequot War
…to an area called Weekapaug in Charlestown, Rhode Island. During the early 17th century approximately 8,000 Pequot men, women, and children lived within this territory. Following the smallpox epidemics of…
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Lion Gardiner Helps to Fortify Early Old Saybrook
…as no less valid. Winthrop hired Lion Gardiner to build the fort the following March. Gardiner arrived at Saybrook Point on November 24, 1635, with 18 men and several women…
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Labor Day at the Turn of the 20th Century
…In his speech, King also urged the working women of Hartford to organize. Other events marking the state’s first official Labor Day included a picnic in West Winsted attended by…
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Connecticut Draws the Curtain on Public Executions
…acted as a macabre form of entertainment for the community. Large crowds of men, women, and even children gathered at the scaffold to cheer, joke, and taunt the condemned. Authorities…
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John Ledyard, Connecticut’s Most Famous Traveler
…inhabited the far reaches of the Russian Empire. He was, as in his earlier travels, attentive to the women he met, observing in the journal that he kept, “the Woman…
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Connecticut Discovered Lyme Disease – Who Knew?
…Judith Mensch—who advocated for more investigation after their children’s inadequate diagnoses of juvenile arthritis. Both women contacted state public health officials who directed them to Dr. Allen Steere at Yale…
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