A Program Of
Major Support Provided By
Other CT Humanities Programs
Search results for: labor unions
A Feeling of Solidarity: Labor Unions and Suffragists Team Up
The voting booth and the shop floor were two important arenas in the fight for women’s equality.
Read
Labor Day at the Turn of the 20th Century
In February of 1889, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a…
Read
Laboring in the Shade
Thousands of Black Southern students, including a young Martin Luther King Jr., came north to work in Connecticut’s tobacco fields.
Read
The Hartford Wheel Club: Disparity in the Gilded Age
Despite the wealth found in some sections of the city, the economic volatility of the Gilded Age produced hard times for residents of Hartford.
Read
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: Connecticut Lessons from a Tragedy
While the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York City is one of the most famous tragedies behind the organized labor movement, Connecticut had its share of equally dangerous work environments in the early 20th century.
Read
They Also Served: Chinese, Southeast Asians, and Hawaiians in the American Civil War
There were a substantial number of Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islanders who fought in the Civil War—many of whom served in Connecticut regiments.
Read
General Joseph R. Hawley Helps Commemorate Connecticut’s Civil War Soldiers
“Let monuments be raised in every town, let songs be sung and orations delivered,” urged this state politician and skilled speechmaker.
Read
Aetna Helps Make Hartford “The Insurance Capital of the World”
Aetna started out as fire insurance company in Hartford in 1819, but spread into life insurance and is now a global leader in the health insurance industry.
Read
Mary Townsend Seymour: Hartford’s Organizer, Activist, and Suffragist
Mary Townsend Seymour was a leading organizer, civil rights activist, suffragist, and so much more in Hartford during the early 20th century.
Read
How the Wobblies Won Free Speech
Denied the right to free assembly in public spaces, Connecticut workers joined in a larger national movement of civil disobedience.
Read
Serving Up Justice: Hartford’s Black Workers Organize
The earliest labor union for African American workers in Hartford appeared in 1902 with the birth of the Colored Waiters and Cooks Local 359.
Read
The Danbury Hatters
References to the hat making industry abound in Danbury and continue to shape much of the city’s identity today.
Read
Vera Buch Weisbord’s “Radical” Life
Vera Wilhelmine Buch Weisbord was a labor activist who helped organize trade unions and strikes that shaped the labor movement of the 1920s and 1930s.
Read
The Rise and Fall of Manufacturing in Bridgeport: The Case of Bryant Electric
For one hundred years Bryant Electric was a staple of Bridgeport industry, adapting to the challenges of the changing industrial landscape in America.
Read
The Sand Hogs Set the Foundation for the Bulkeley Bridge
Toiling in dangerous conditions beneath the Connecticut River’s surface for only $2.50 a day, African American workers dug the foundation for the Bulkeley Bridge.
Read
Trolley Campaigners Storm Small Towns and Votes for Women is the Battle Cry
In the wake of a 1912 trolley campaign, the woman’s suffrage movement rapidly gained ground across Connecticut.
Read
Union Brew
Brewery strike in 1902 leads some to drink ginger ale, rather than beer, as a sign of solidarity.
ReadMore