Hervey Brooks's pottery wheel

Hervey Brooks’s pottery wheel. The wheel belonged to and was used by Hervey Brooks for making pottery in his shop in Goshen. Photograph by David Stansbury – Litchfield Historical Society

From Connecticut’s earliest agricultural commerce through the might of the industrial age to today’s leading companies, our state’s natural and human resources have shaped local and national history. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Connecticut brought diverse commodities, such as furs, produce, timber, and iron, to international markets. This skill for supplying and moving goods earned Connecticut the nickname “The Provision State” for its aid to the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. The 19th century brought mills and factories, manufacturing everything from textiles to edge tools and cars. Now, aerospace, bioscience, and other technological ventures add to an economic base that still includes farms and businesses more than a century old.

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20th-century photograph of shad nets

A Tale of Shad, the State Fish

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Websites

“All in a Day’s Work: Photographs of Women in Connecticut Industry.” University of Connecticut, Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, 2012. Link.
Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries. “Business History Collection,” 2012. Link.

Places

“American Clock & Watch Museum,” 2017. Link.
“Connecticut Museum of Mining and Mineral Science,” 2012. Link.
“New Britain Industrial Museum,” n.d. Link.
Department of Economic & Community Development. “Sloane Stanley Museum,” 2012. Link.
“The Connecticut Antique Machinery Association Museum,” 2017. Link.
“Waterbury Button Museum.” Mattatuck Museum, 2017. Link.

Books

Fuller, Grace Pierpont. An Introduction to the History of Connecticut as a Manufacturing State. Northampton, MA: Smith College, 1915. Link.
New Haven Preservation Trust. Carriages and Clocks, Corsets and Locks: The Rise and Fall of an Industrial City-New Haven, Connecticut. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2004.
Studley, Gerard L., and American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Connecticut the Industrial Incubator. Hartford, CT: American Society of Mechanical Engineers, History and Heritage Committee, Hartford Section, 1982.
Roth, Matthew, Connecticut Historical Commission, and Society for Industrial Archeology. Connecticut: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites. Washington, DC: Society for Industrial Archeology, 1981.
Gordon, Robert B., and Michael Scott Raber. Industrial Heritage in Northwest Connecticut: A Guide to History and Archaeology. New Haven, CT: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2000.
Mugford, Albert. Leading Manufacturers and Merchants of Connecticut: Historical and Descriptive Review of the Industrial Enterprises of Hartford, New London, Windham and Middlesex Counties. New York: International Publishing Company, 1887.
Mattatuck Historical Society, and Cecelia Bucki. Metal, Minds and Machines: Waterbury at Work. Waterbury, CT: The Society, 1980.
Decker, Robert Owen. Whaling Industry of New London. York, PA: Liberty Cap Books, 1974.
Grant, Ellsworth S. Yankee Dreamers and Doers: The Story of Connecticut Manufacturing. Connecticut Historical Society & Fenwick Productions, 1996.