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News & Updates
Benjamin Silliman and Soda Water – Who Knew?
Yale’s first professor of chemistry, Benjamin Silliman, was also the first American to produce soda water in bulk.
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Women of the Prison Brigade
These women from all walks of life had one thing in common: they had been jailed for demonstrating in support of women’s right to vote.
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Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett Helps Found Greenwich
In the middle of the 17th century, Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett played an integral part in purchasing the land that became Greenwich, Connecticut.
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A Night to Remember: When the Steamboat Took on the Railroad—and Lost
A case of mistaken identity causes a vessel to crash into a bridge and results in new a rule for marking safe passage with red lights.
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Emily Holcombe Pioneered to Preserve Connecticut’s Colonial Past
Emily Seymour Goodwin Holcombe was an activist and preservationist who took pride in the state’s history, particularly its colonial past.
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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.
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The Unsteady Meaning of “The Land of Steady Habits”
Connecticut’s description as “the land of steady habits” has been used to stand for a wide list of subjects, from beer drinking to sushi to hair bobbing.
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The Story Trail of Voices
Mohegan history and religion have been preserved by many different voices in many different families through Mohegan Oral Tradition. However, since before the American Revolution, four women in particular have passed on Mohegan stories.
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Hartford’s Sex Trade: Prostitutes and Politics
Union organizer Rebecca Weiner was among the few who proposed to address the social and economic conditions that enabled the world’s oldest profession to thrive in the capital city during the 1800s.
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Helen F. Boyd Leads the Charge for Better Public Health
A long-time Connecticut resident, Helen F. Boyd Powers was a national advocate for greater public access to nursing and healthcare education.
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A Voice for Veterans: A Civil War era ‘Whistle-Blower’ – Who Knew?
Her obituary stated that “Mrs. Ambler was always expected to say something” on behalf of those who had fought for the Union.
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The Industrial Might of Connecticut Pegmatite
Connecticut has a complex and compelling geologic legacy with substantial mineral riches, including pegmatite that has historically been a boon to industry.
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Faith Trumbull: The Artist Was a Young Girl
Her younger brother may be the better-known artist today, but it was her accomplished needlework pictures that inspired his youthful imagination.
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Early 20th-Century Immigration in Connecticut
Connecticut played host to new, vast populations of Italian, Polish, and French Canadian immigrants who helped reinvent the state’s cultural identity.
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Benedict Arnold: America’s Most Famous Traitor
Benedict Arnold of Norwich was one of the great Continental army heroes of the American Revolution before committing treason and joining the British army.
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The Reader’s Feast: A Bookstore Ahead of Its Time
For over two decades, The Reader’s Feast was the most progressive independent bookstore in the Hartford area and provided a space for literature, community, food, and affirmation.
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The Pie Man from Georgetown and the Connecticut ~ Copperthite Pie Company
More than just a wagon driver and Civil War veteran, Henry Copperthite built a pie empire that started in Connecticut.
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Playing with Time: The Introduction of Daylight Saving Time in Connecticut
Despite both formal and informal attempts to regulate the observance of Daylight Savings Time in Connecticut, it still remains a controversial topic for many state residents.
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The Sole of New Canaan’s Shoe Industry
New Canaan, now largely a residential suburb of New York City, was once a leading producer of US footwear.
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Ezra Stiles Captured 18th-Century Life on Paper
Among Ezra Stiles’ greatest contributions to history are the journals and records he kept detailing daily life in 18th-century New England.
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Miss James, First Woman Pharmacist in CT Right in Old Saybrook
Remembering Anna Louise James, the first woman pharmacist in the state of Connecticut.
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Medicine Woman Gladys Tantaquidgeon and Mohegan Cultural Renewal
Gladys Tantaquidgeon dedicated her life to perpetuating the beliefs and customs of her tribe and championed the protection of indigenous knowledge across the United States.
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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.
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Connecticut Pocketknife Firms
Connecticut pocketknife production began around 1840. Over the next two decades, Connecticut became the earliest state to have a burgeoning craft.
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America’s First Ordained Woman Minister: Olympia Brown and Bridgeport’s Universalist Church
Long-time Bridgeport resident Olympia Brown was the first woman ordained as a minister in the United States and campaigned vigorously for women’s suffrage.
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Providing Bundles for Britain and News for America
Janet Huntington Brewster Murrow was a Middletown native who grew up to be one of America’s most trusted news correspondents, philanthropists, and the wife of Edward R. Murrow.
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Hannah Bunce Watson: One of America’s First Female Publishers
Hannah Bunce Watson was one of the first female publishers in America and helped the Hartford Courant survive one of the most challenging times in its history.
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Nellie McKnight Promotes History and Literacy throughout Ellington
Nellie McKnight was a teacher, librarian, and historian who served the town of Ellington for most of her life.
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Katharine Houghton Hepburn, A Woman Before Her Time
This Hartford suffragist and reformer fought for women’s rights in the first half of the 20th century.
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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.
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Marking Time: Early Connecticut Innovations Transform Clock Making
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Connecticut played a major role in transforming clock making from a time-intensive handcraft into a mass-production industry.
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Charles Ritchel and the Dirigible
An entrepreneur’s design for a lighter-than-air vehicle takes flight in the late 1800s and inspires a new state industry.
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The Corbin Cabinet Lock Company and Patent Law: A Lesson in Novelty from a CT Perspective
New Britain, fondly known as the “Hardware City,” had numerous companies that contributed to modern industrialization.
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James Mars’ Words Illuminate the Cruelty of Slavery in New England
Mars’ landmark memoir of the mid-1800s reveals how enslaved men and women suffered—and resisted—the injustices of bondage.
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Emma Hart Willard: Leader in Women’s Education
Berlin-born Emma Hart Willard used her passion for learning to create new educational opportunities for women and foster the growth of the co-ed system.
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Luna Park: A 20th-century Story of Amusement and Morality
The story of Luna Park in West Hartford provides insight into the battles between entertainment and ethics in Connecticut during the Progressive Era.
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Connecticut’s Only US President – Who Knew?
43rd President George W. Bush was born in New Haven at the Grace-New Haven Community Hospital on July 6, 1946.
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A Different Look at the Amistad Trial: The Teenager Who Helped Save the Mende Captives
James Benajmin Covey, a former slave, was only 14 years old when asked to serve in one of the most publicized trials in American history.
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Samuel Colt: From Yankee Peddler to American Tycoon
Hartford native Samuel Colt built a financial empire on his design and automated production of the revolver.
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Marietta Canty House
Hartford’s Marietta Canty House is primarily significant for its association with actress Marietta Canty, who received critical acclaim for her performances in theater, radio, motion pictures, and television as well as for her political and social activities.
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Richard Reihl: The Hate Crime That Became a Turning Point for LGBTQ+ Civil Rights
The 1988 murder of Richard Reihl, a gay man from Wethersfield, galvanized and mobilized communities to organize and transform LGBTQ+ civil rights legislation in the state for decades to come.
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Roger Griswold Starts a Brawl in Congress – Today in History: February 15
On February 15, 1798, Roger Griswold, a US House Representative from Connecticut, attacked Matthew Lyon on the floor of the House of Representatives.
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History in a Heart
A set of old Valentine’s Day cards, kept safe in a cloth-covered scrapbook, provide a look back at the sometimes humorous art of expressing heartfelt sentiments.
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The Lives of Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus Told Through their Loving Letters
Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus were two free Black women whose lives intersected in Hartford, Connecticut in the 19th century. Letters written between them imply their relationship was more than friendship.
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Edward Alexander Bouchet: The First African American to Earn a PhD from an American University
Edward Alexander Bouchet was a physicist who was among Yale’s first African American students, and reportedly became the first African American in the United States to earn a PhD.
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A Valley Flooded to Slake the Capital Region’s Thirst
From 1927 to 1948, the Metropolitan District Commission built the Saville Dam and flooded the valley to create the Barkhamsted Reservoir, displacing over a thousand people.
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“Free Bobby, Free Ericka”: The New Haven Black Panther Trials
In 1969, the Black Panther Trials brought national attention to New Haven as prosecutors charged members of the radical movement with murdering one of their own.
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The Cheney Brothers’ Rise in the Silk Industry
Building a business on the back of an insect may seem foolish but for Manchester’s Cheney Brothers silk mill, it became the ticket to global success.
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LGBTQ+ Mental Health Treatment in the 20th Century
The simultaneous development of accepted mental health practices and LGBTQ+ visibility over the decades offers a chance to examine how psychological research contributed to the discrimination of LGBTQ+ individuals and communities.
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Four Saints in Three Acts Debuts – Today in History: February 7
On February 7, 1934, the Wadsworth Atheneum debuted the modernist opera Four Saints in Three Acts in its new Avery Memorial Theater.
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