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The Bryan-Andrew House: Still Standing After All These Years
Believed to be the oldest house in Orange, the Bryan-Andrew…
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Surveying Connecticut’s Borders
After some 350 years, the matter of where exactly some of the state’s boundaries lie continues to be debated.
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Farmington’s Hospital Rock Dates Back to 18th-Century Smallpox Inoculation
Deep within the woods of Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington are…
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Sophie Tucker, The Last of the Red-Hot Mamas
Hartford’s own leading lady was a lively entertainer whose career spanned over five decades and whose generosity spilled over to various and numerous charities.
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Washington Didn’t Only Sleep Here: George Washington at Wethersfield’s Webb House
The first time this founding father traveled through Connecticut, he was an ambitious Virginia colonel hoping to advance his career in the British military. When he last visited Connecticut, he was the first president of the new United States.
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“Gentleman’s Farming” Comes to Waterford
Walnut Grove is the former estate of the Hammond family,…
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Frank Duryea Drives the First Automobile in Connecticut
Frank Duryea was a long-time Madison resident who helped develop…
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Portland Puts Its Stamp on an Architectural Era
The brownstone quarries in Portland, Connecticut, owe their existence to…
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John Howard Hale: Glastonbury’s Peach King
John Howard Hale came from a family of fruit growers in Glastonbury and developed a new type of peach that flourished in the harsh New England climate.
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Hervey Brooks’s 19th-Century Pottery Barn
Hervey Brooks was an American potter and farmer who made red earthenware domestic products in Goshen for more than half a century.
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The Incident of the Stonington Schooner ‘Breakwater’: A View from Indian Country
Hundreds of American Indians served as mariners, including on the Stonington schooner ‘Breakwater,’ which survived capture in the Falkland Islands.
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John Brown: A Portrait of Violent Abolitionism
John Brown of Torrington used violence to oppose the spread of slavery prior to the Civil War, ultimately leading a bloody raid on the armory in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.
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The “Fancy Chair” Craze of the 1800s: Lambert Hitchcock and the Story of the Hitchcock Chair
More than something to sit on, “fancy chairs” were emblems of social mobility for middle-class Americans.
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Edwin Land Inventor of the Polaroid Born – Today in History: May 7
On May 7, 1909, Edwin Herbert Land, founder of the…
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Ruth Hovey: Heroic Battlefield Nurse
A 28-year-old nurse from Hartford, Ruth Hovey served on the battlefields of World War I.
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Louis’ Lunch and the Birth of the Hamburger
In 1900, in answer to a customer’s rush order for something “quick and delicious,” Louis Lassen of New Haven served up a meal that is credited as being the first hamburger.
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Barn Design in Connecticut
Most barns still on the Northeast landscape are New England-style barns from the 19th century and later.
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Canon Clinton Jones: A Revolutionary Figure in Connecticut’s LGBTQ+ History
Canon Clinton Jones was a central figure in Connecticut’s LGBTQ+ community and a pioneer for compassionate care, queer visibility, and gender affirmation in the mid-20th century.
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Tradition and Transformation Define Hartford’s Jewish Community
From the mid-1800s to the present, Jews have called Connecticut’s capital city home and enriched it with their cultural traditions and civic spirit.
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Yung Wing, the Chinese Educational Mission, and Transnational Connecticut
In their respective tragic but inspiring final American acts, Yung and the Mission reflect the worst and best of the Chinese Exclusion Act era.
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“Take Five” with Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck was one of the leading jazz pianists and composers of the 1950s and 60s and made his home in Wilton.
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Arbor Day’s Roots in Connecticut – Who Knew?
…that Connecticut’s Reverend Birdsey Grant Northrop popularized Arbor Day celebrations…
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World-renowned Maker of Axes: The Collins Company of Canton
The New England factory town of Collinsville, which can still be toured today, once supplied the world with axes, machetes, and other edge tools.
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Jared Eliot Calls on Colonists to Change their Agricultural Practices
In 1760, this Killingworth minister and farmer published the first agricultural advice book in the British American colonies.
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Edith Watson: Camera Artist
Over the five decades Edith Watson traveled around North America, her keen eye and box camera lens captured the otherwise untold stories of women, providing a unique perspective on the humblest of lives.
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The Pike Family Lived a Life of Dyeing
The history of textile manufacturing in eastern Connecticut is well…
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Frances Laughlin Wadsworth: Sculpting the Past
Her statues honor the famous, from Thomas Hooker and Helen Keller to Alice Cogswell, the first pupil of what became The American School for the Deaf.
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A History of Libraries Speaks Volumes About Southington
While it is not uncommon in the modern era for…
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A Public Responsibility: Conservation and Development in the 20th Century
The seemingly contradictory calls to use or preserve the state’s natural resources are, in fact, closely related efforts that increasingly work in tandem—but not without conflict.
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UConn and the Evolution of a Public University
From farming and war work to physics and sports, the University of Connecticut has diversified over the years and become New England’s leading public university.
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Connecticut and American Impressionism
French Impressionists celebrated their new modern lives, but American Impressionists looked instead to a New England countryside like that in Connecticut for evidence of a stable, timeless order beneath the dazzle of the ephemeral.
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Shakers Revolutionize Garden Seed Business – Who Knew?
…that the Shakers of Enfield first packaged seeds in small…
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Vivien Kellems Takes On the IRS
Reformer Vivien Kellems fought her most famous battle against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as she sought tax reform for businesses and single people.
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Marian Anderson’s Role in the Civil Rights Movement
She performed in concert halls where blacks could not be seated, traveled to performances in segregated Jim Crow railroad cars, and, despite it, emerged as one of the great singers of the 20th century.
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Aldrich Free Public Library: Dedicated to the Dissemination of Knowledge
Over 100 years ago, residents of the Moosup section of…
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Soldier, Patriot, and Politician: The Life of Oliver Wolcott
Oliver Wolcott served in military in the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution, but was also a popular member of the Continental Congress and governor of Connecticut.
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Road Signs of the Air
In the 1920s, when aviation was still in its infancy, most pilots navigated using road maps and by following highways, rivers, and other landmarks that they could see from the air.
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Humble Beginnings of the Dow Jones: How a Sterling Farmer Became the Toast of Wall Street
The life of Charles Dow, in many respects, follows the…
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George Griffin: “Devoted Friend” to Samuel Clemens
Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and used his “good-natured” and “devoted” servant, George Griffin, as a likely model for one of literature’s most memorable figures—Jim, the runaway enslaved man.
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Abraham Ribicoff: Kennedy Confidant and Connecticut’s First Jewish Governor
Abraham Ribicoff rose from a New Britain tenement to become Connecticut’s first Jewish governor and a confidant of President John F. Kennedy.
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The Park Movement in Hartford
The Hartford City Parks Collection comprises a rich archive, documenting Hartford’s pioneering effort to establish and maintain a viable system of municipal parks and connecting parkways between them.
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Mad about Shad: Connecticut’s Love Affair with an Oily Fish
Some Connecticut River towns continue to hold an annual shad festival, replete with a “Shad Queen” and a feast known as a “shad planking.”
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Mounds Candy Bar Involved in Espionage – Who Knew?
…that a storied Naugatuck business had its own “navy” and…
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Muzzy Field: A Historic Ball Park Survives in a Post-Industrial City
After over one hundred years, Bristol’s Muzzy Field continues to welcome ball players and fans of sports history.
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Samuel Waldo Born – Today in History: April 6
Samuel Lovett Waldo was an early 19th-century portrait artist who worked among such famous colleagues as John Trumbull, Benjamin West, and John Singleton Copley.
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Connecticut’s Naval Contributions to the Civil War
From makers of gun boats to bakers of ship biscuits, companies across the Nutmeg state helped keep the Union navy afloat while sea-savvy leaders and sailors from the state kept it in fighting form.
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The Slaters Go Round the World
In 1894, a well-to-do Norwich family set sail from New London on a ship outfitted with Persian rugs, oil paintings, a library with hundreds of titles, and 75 cases of champagne.
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The Lebanon Grange Followed a Different Tune than National Movement
Music played a central role in fraternal rituals and sense of community.
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Where the Wild Things Are: Maurice Sendak
Authoring and illustrating dozens of books, such as ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and ‘In the Night Kitchen,’ Maurice Sendak redefined children’s literature throughout the 20th century.
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