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Gifford Pinchot: Bridging Two Eras of National Conservation
“The conservation of natural resources is the basis, and the only permanent basis, of national success,” wrote this Connecticut-born forester who oversaw the rapid expansion of national forest land holdings in the early 1900s.
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Ironclad Commissioned – Today in History: April 21
On April 21, 1862, the USS Galena was commissioned. New…
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Danbury Baseball History Covers All the Bases
From the hometown teams to the 1903 World Series, Danbury has surprising connections to America’s favorite pastime.
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Vietnam Veterans Against the War – Today in History: April 19
On April 19, 1971, Vietnam veterans groups from Hartford, New…
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Child Labor in Connecticut
While Connecticut proved to be one of the more progressive states when it came to child labor laws, it still took federal legislation to protect children in the workplace.
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Carl Sandburg, Poet from the Grassroots, Reaches Connecticut Audiences
Popular poet, singer, and activist Carl Sandburg had numerous connections to Connecticut and promoted social reform throughout the state in the early 20th century.
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Blacksmith Isaac Glasko Challenges the State Constitution
Isaac Glasko was a blacksmith of mixed African American and Native American descent who challenged 19th-century voting rights in Connecticut.
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Bridgeport Women Answer the Call – Today in History: April 15
On April 15, 1861, the women of Bridgeport created the…
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Witamy to Little Poland! – A Thriving Neighborhood in New Britain
A bustling ethnic neighborhood along Broad Street in New Britain is home to such a vibrant Polish population that it earned the nickname “Little Poland.”
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Colt’s Submarine Battery – Today in History: April 13
On April 13, 1844, Samuel Colt blew up a schooner…
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The Hartford Whalers: Connecticut’s Last Major League Sports Franchise
Major league hockey debuted in Hartford in 1975 and the Hartford Whalers remained a staple of the Connecticut landscape for twenty-three years.
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Battling Bat Battalino: One of Hartford’s Heroes
A tenacious and long-lasting boxer, Battalino went on to win the world professional featherweight championship.
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Litchfield’s Revolutionary War Soldiers’ Tree
The first Arbor Day was held on April 10, 1872, and became an international event 11 years later when Birdsley Northrup of Kent, Connecticut, introduced the concept to Japan.
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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…
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New Canaan’s Pioneering Female Physician
Long-time New Canaan resident Dr. Emily Dunning Barringer was the…
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The “Father of American Football” is Born – Today in History: April 7
A native of New Britain, Walter Camp helped revolutionize the game of American football while a student and coach at Yale and for several years afterward.
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Swinging for the Fences: Connecticut’s Black Baseball Greats
In Connecticut, African Americans played organized baseball as early as 1868. In the years that followed, some of the game’s biggest stars played for teams throughout the state.
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The Thimble Islands – Little Islands with a Big History
While initially uninhabited because of their rocky soil, the Thimble Islands in Branford evolved into both a popular tourist destination and an exclusive residential community.
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A Tale of Shad, the State Fish
This aquatic inhabitant has a long history of influencing foodways, income, and culture in the region.
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Bradley International Airport Transforms Windsor Locks into Regional Gateway
Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks is Connecticut’s largest airport and the second largest in New England.
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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.
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Quinnipiac: The People of the Long Water Land
The Quinnipiac still live in Connecticut and across the country, but the community is not presently one of Connecticut’s recognized tribes, nor is it federally acknowledged.
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From Bombs to Bras: World War I Conservation Measures Transform the Lives of Women
A shortage of metal during World War I encouraged women’s clothing manufacturers (such as Bridgeport’s Warner Brothers Corset Company) to switch from producing corsets to brassieres.
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The Litchfield Law School: Connecticut’s First Law School
The Litchfield Law School, founded in 1784 by Tapping Reeve, became the first professional law school in Connecticut.
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Steamboat Accident – Today in History: March 29
On March 29, 1876, the steamboat City of Hartford, of…
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Much Good Might be Accomplished: Catharine Esther Beecher and the Pursuit of Domestic Economy
Thanks to this 19th-century educator and reformer, home economics is standard fare in schools today.
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I-95 Reaches New London
The arrival of I-95 to New London brought tremendous change to the city’s infrastructure, as well as to its businesses and neighborhoods.
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Joseph Alsop: Cunning Political Columnist of Mid-Century America
Joseph Wright Alsop was one of the country’s most well-known political journalists of the 20th century and was drawn into some of the most influential power circles in the world.
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Anna Elizabeth Dickinson at Touro Hall – Today in History: March 24
On March 24, 1863, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, a 20-year-old Quaker…
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Joseph Taborsky and the “Mad Dog Killings”
Joseph “Mad Dog” Taborsky earned his nickname for the brutal…
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An Artist and Her Books: Amelia Watson, 1856–1934
Thought not traditionally a book illustrator, Connecticut artist Amelia Watson’s works adorn some of the most elaborately designed and treasured volumes of the 19th and 20th century.
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J. Frederick Kelly: Constructing Connecticut’s Architectural History
J. Frederick Kelly was both a well-known architect and preservationist, as well as an architectural historian, whose works chronicled the intricacies found in many of Connecticut’s historical properties.
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The 29th Leaves for War – Today in History: March 19
On March 19, 1864, as the 29th (Colored) Regiment Connecticut…
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Paleontologist Othniel Marsh dies – Today in History: March 18
On March 18, 1899, America’s first professor of paleontology, Othniel…
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Fighting Sons of Erin: Connecticut’s Irish Regiment in the Civil War
Men with names like O’Brien, Kennedy, Mahoney, Murphy, Donnelly, Fitzpatrick, and Sullivan flocked to enlist in what a recruiting poster confidently described as a “destined to be gallant Regiment.”
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The Wearing of the Green: 19th-century Prints of Irish Subjects by Hartford’s Kellogg Brothers
Irish immigrants arrived in Connecticut in great numbers during the 1800s and, while anti-Irish sentiment was widespread, Hartford’s Kellogg brothers viewed these new Americans as potential customers.
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Connecticut Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home
In 1866, the Connecticut Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home opened in Mansfield to house and educate boys and girls left parentless by the Civil War.
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Celia Burleigh, Connecticut’s First Female Minister
In 1871, Celia Burleigh, a life-long activist and reformer, became…
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Dr. Mary B. Moody Challenges Victorian Mores About Women in Medicine
New Haven resident Dr. Mary Moody the first female graduate of the medical school at the University of Buffalo, and the first female member of the American Association of Anatomists.
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The Smith Sisters, Their Cows, and Women’s Rights in Glastonbury
By refusing to pay unfair taxes, these siblings became national symbols of discrimination suffered by women and of the struggle of the individual against government.
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The Blizzard of 1888 – Today in History: March 11
On Sunday, March 11, 1888, a blizzard came unexpectedly to…
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Hilda Crosby Standish, Early Proponent of Women’s Reproductive Health
A pioneer of sex education and family planning, this physician directed the state’s first birth control clinic in 1935.
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Charles Goodyear’s Machine for Making Rubber Fabrics
Credited with discovering the vulcanization process that fortified rubber against extreme temperature changes, Charles Goodyear received several patents over his lifetime, including one for a machine that made rubber fabrics.
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The Telescoping Fishing Rod – Today in History: March 8
On March 8, 1887, Everett Horton, a Bristol mechanic, patented a fishing rod of telescoping steel tubes.
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Gideon Welles, US Secretary of the Navy and Lincoln’s “Neptune”
“He was a man of no decorations; … but he understood his duty and he did it efficiently, continually and unwaveringly,” said a contemporary of this Glastonbury-born leader.
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Elihu Burritt Dies – Today in History: March 6
On March 6, 1879, Elihu Burritt “the learned blacksmith” died…
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Looking Back: Tempest Tossed, the Story of Isabella Beecher Hooker
Isabella Beecher was a suffragist and spiritualist who shunned traditional female roles while alienating large parts of her famous family during her brother’s adultery scandal.
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Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Rally – Today in History: March 5
On March 5, 1860, Abraham Lincoln addressed the Republicans of…
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