The League of American Wheelmen and Hartford’s Albert Pope Champion the Good Roads Movement
June 16, 2013
How the 19th-century cycling craze led to improved roads and paved the way for future federal highway construction. …[more]
CHD Turning Points
Connecticut’s First Female Telephone Operator – Today in History
March 24, 2013
On March 24, 1879, Marjorie Gray became Connecticut’s first female telephone operator. Working for the Telephone Dispatch Company of Bridgeport (which was taken over by the Southern New England Telephone …[more]
Categories: Bridgeport, Business and Industry, CHD Turning Points, Women
Early Anti-slavery Advocates in 18th-century Connecticut
February 9, 2013
Ideals advanced during the American Revolution inspired many of the state’s religious and political leaders to question and oppose slavery in the late 1700s. …[more]
Categories: CHD Turning Points, Law, Politics and Government, Slavery and Abolition, Social Movements, Timothy Dwight
James Mars’ Words Illuminate the Cruelty of Slavery in New England
February 1, 2013
Mars’ landmark memoir of the mid-1800s reveals how enslaved men and women suffered—and resisted—the injustices of bondage. …[more]
Categories: Canaan, CHD Turning Points, Norfolk, Slavery and Abolition
First Commercial Telephone Exchange – Today in History
January 28, 2013
On January 28, 1878, the Boardman Building in New Haven became the site of the world’s first commercial telephone exchange, the District Telephone Company of New Haven. The exchange was …[more]
Categories: Business and Industry, CHD Turning Points, Invention and Technology, New Haven
Rails and Paper Trails
January 17, 2013
From the first tracks laid in 1830 to a system that fueled the growth of the Industrial Revolution and became the primary means of travel by the end of the …[more]
Categories: CHD Turning Points, Transportation
The Public Library Movement: Caroline Hewins Makes Room for Young Readers
January 2, 2013
This Hartford librarian played a leading role in national efforts to transform libraries from private, limited-membership institutions into public centers that welcomed patrons from all walks of life. …[more]
Categories: CHD Turning Points, Hartford, Social Movements, Women
Gradual Emancipation Reflected the Struggle of Some to Envision Black Freedom
January 1, 2013
Connecticut enacted gradual emancipation in 1784 but the abolition of slavery would not occur until 1848. …[more]
Categories: Belief, CHD Turning Points, Law, Slavery and Abolition, Social Movements
Farmington Canal Designed to Give Connecticut Commerce a Competitive Edge
December 31, 2012
Commerce for the United States of America in the early 1800s was firmly anchored in the farms and small towns along the Eastern Seaboard, yet travel among the new country’s …[more]
Categories: Business and Industry, CHD Turning Points, Farmington, New Haven, Transportation
From Frontier Town to Capital City: Collection Traces Hartford’s Transformation
December 29, 2012
How does a colonial town become a modern city? A unique collection, with documents dating to the 1630s, helps provide answers. …[more]
