How did Higganum’s Orrin Freeman House end up with a large American Revolution-themed mural, the Spirit of ’76, on its side?
ReadAllegedly defending her house during the American Revolution in 1781, New London resident Abigail Hinman made a name for herself as a patriot legend.
ReadRosa Ponselle etched her name in history as the first American-born and American-trained singer to star with the Metropolitan Opera Company.
ReadJohn Warner Barber chronicled 19th-century Connecticut history through his historical writing and hundreds of engravings—many of which still exist today.
ReadIn addition to his artistic pursuits, George Laurence Nelson lived in Kent, Connecticut, for over half a century and restored the historic Seven Hearths house.
ReadFor over 272 years, Kent’s Seven Hearths has lived many lives—from trading post to school to artist’s home to historical society.
ReadClare Boothe Luce became the first woman to represent Connecticut in the US House of Representatives and later became an ambassador to Italy.
ReadThe Lockwood-Mathews Mansion provides a glimpse into the opulence of the Gilded Age when railroad tycoons built summer homes along the New England shoreline.
ReadOn March 2, 1932, the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, founded by Harriet Upson Allyn in New London, had its grand opening.
ReadGwen Reed was an actress and educational advocate who grew up in Hartford in the early 20th century.
ReadOn February 27, 1936, William Gillette made his last appearance on any Connecticut stage at the Bushnell Memorial auditorium in Hartford.
ReadIt took over a century to solve the mystery of Ammi Phillips’ identity—one of the most prolific folk portraitists in 19th century America.
ReadA pair of 19th-century prints provides a virtual road map to the human heart, illustrating contemporary male and female attitudes towards courtship and love.
ReadIn addition to his famous works of art, Alexander Calder lent his talents and reputation to support political campaigns in the 1960s and 70s.
ReadCharles Ethan Porter was a prolific still life painter in the 19th and early 20th century.
ReadIn the mid-19th century, Orramel Whittlesey founded a music conservatory in Salem, Connecticut.
ReadOn January 11, 1817, Timothy Dwight (theologian, educator, poet, and eighth president of Yale) died in New Haven, Connecticut.
ReadFor over four decades, Japanese-born Yukitaka Osaki worked for Gillette, becoming a recognizable neighbor in the Hadlyme community.
ReadA. Everett “Chick” Austin Jr. and his wife, Helen, designed one of the most unique homes of the 20th century in Hartford.
ReadFounded in 1842, this ever-evolving institution is the oldest, continuously operating public art museum in the United States.
ReadThe remarkable resilience of Connecticut’s native cultures can be seen in the tribes’ social networks, political governance, commitment to educating others about native history, and their ongoing work to sustain their traditions.
ReadJohn Frederick Kensett was a landscape painter now identified with Luminism—a style of painting utilizing delicate brushstrokes to capture subtle natural light.
ReadOn October 24, 1877, the Goodspeed Opera House on the Connecticut River in East Haddam officially opened to the public.
ReadOn October 24, 1877, the Goodspeed Opera House on the Connecticut River in East Haddam officially opened to the public.
ReadBorn in Hartford, Laura Wheeler Waring was an eminent portrait artist of prominent African Americans of the Harlem Renaissance.
ReadKenneth Lynch was an accomplished blacksmith who was a longtime resident of Wilton and created memorable pieces of metalwork found in the Northeast.
ReadThe Florence Griswold House, once a private residence, also served as a finishing school for girls in the 19th century and the center of the Lyme Art Colony.
ReadIn the 1800s, watercolor portraits painted on small pieces of ivory were in vogue and miniaturists like Dickinson found a ready market for their craft.
ReadKensington-born Moore took “on the spot” photographs that documented life and events during the 1850s and 1860s.
ReadIn the 1890s Clark Coe created an attraction of life-sized moving figures called the Killingworth Images on his farm on Green Hill Road.
ReadFrom Windham to Branchville, peaceful Connecticut locales provided Julian Alden Weir the inspiration to create hundreds of paintings and become one of America’s leading Impressionists.
ReadThe State Theater in Hartford brought residents of all different backgrounds together in the 1950s and ’60s through the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll.
ReadMusical instruments, once scorned as ungodly, found a place in Congregational services at the turn of the 19th century.
ReadElbert Weinberg was a Hartford-born sculptor who earned international fame for his works, many of which were influenced by his Jewish faith.
ReadIn the early 1900s consumers bought photographs, furniture, and books from a former minister who sold the fantasy of simpler times as an antidote to modern life.
ReadHartford’s own leading lady was a lively entertainer whose career spanned over five decades and whose generosity spilled over to various and numerous charities.
ReadWalnut Grove received a listing on the National Register of Historic Places for its contribution to furthering the understanding of nearly 200 years of history.
ReadHervey Brooks was an American potter and farmer who made red earthenware domestic products in Goshen for more than half a century.
ReadDave Brubeck was one of the leading jazz pianists and composers of the 1950s and 60s and made his home in Wilton.
ReadOver the five decades Edith Watson traveled around North America, her keen eye and box camera lens captured the otherwise untold stories of women.
ReadHer 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.
ReadAmerican Impressionists looked to a New England countryside like that in Connecticut for evidence of a stable, timeless order beneath the dazzle of the ephemeral.
ReadMarian Anderson performed and traveled in segregated spaces and emerged as one of the great singers of the 20th century.
ReadMarian Anderson performed and traveled in segregated spaces and emerged as one of the great singers of the 20th century.
ReadSamuel Lovett Waldo was an early 19th-century portrait artist who worked among such famous colleagues as John Trumbull, Benjamin West, and John Singleton Copley.
ReadMusic played a central role in fraternal rituals and sense of community.
ReadHer younger brother may be the better-known artist today, but it was her accomplished needlework pictures that inspired his youthful imagination.
ReadHartford’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.
ReadOn February 7, 1934, the Wadsworth Atheneum debuted the modernist opera Four Saints in Three Acts in its new Avery Memorial Theater.
ReadAfter growing up in Hartford, Charles Dillingham explored numerous career paths including newspaper publishing, politics, and—most famously—theatrical managing and producing.
ReadFrom jazz album covers to magazines and children’s books, Rowayton artist Jim Flora created works that helped document life in 20th-century America.
ReadCharles Stratton, born in Bridgeport on January 4, 1838, toured the world with P. T. Barnum under the name, General Tom Thumb.
ReadConnecticut-born Adrian, the American clothing designer who found success in Hollywood, designed Dorothy’s ruby slippers for The Wizard of Oz.
ReadThis Mohegan Chief is remembered for successfully guiding the Tribe through the final stages of Federal Recognition, which it obtained in 1994.
ReadBetween 1964 and 1971, the famous puppeteer and creator of Sesame Street, Jim Henson, lived in Greenwich and created many of his most recognizable characters.
ReadArthur Everett “Chick” Austin Jr., director of the Wadsworth Atheneum from 1927 to 1944, put Hartford on the cultural map.
ReadAn artist best known for his wood engravings that accompany Robert Frost poems, Nason blended classic and modern styles to capture a vanishing rural landscape.
ReadBenjamin Hutchins Coe helped teach Americans how to draw through the publication of numerous art manuals, many focused on Connecticut-inspired landscapes.
ReadA significant wave of immigration to the United States from the West Indies began in the 1940s, spurred by labor shortages during World War II.
ReadAlso known as the Picture Gallery, the Trumbull Gallery holds the distinction of being the first art museum at an educational institution in the United States.
ReadThe Danbury Museum & Historical Society’s Huntington Hall honors the memory of a famed US sculptor, Anna Hyatt Huntington.
ReadBruce Rogers was a book designer who settled in New Fairfield. Considered one of the great typographers of his time, his masterpiece was the 1936 Oxford Lectern Bible.
ReadOn October 10, 1973, Alexander Calder’s sculpture, Stegosaurus, was dedicated in Hartford.
ReadThe story of Mariann Wolcott and Ralph Earl captures much of the complexity the Revolutionary War brought to the lives and interactions of ordinary citizens.
Read“Industry,” also known as “The Craftsman,” by Evelyn Longman, resides in Hartford and is a celebration of the working class and their contribution to society.
ReadOne of the more controversial cartoonists of the early 20th century, Art Young lived much of his life in Bethel. Residents later founded the Art Young Gallery in his memory.
ReadCompleted in the 1700s, “The First, Second and Last Scene of Mortality” is considered to be one of the most spectacular pieces of needlework in US history.
ReadMartha Hill established the School of the Dance on the campus of the Connecticut College for Women in 1948, and hired such renowned instructors as Martha Graham.
ReadIn addition to some of the earliest Revolutionary War battle scenes, Ralph Earl painted prominent figures of the colonial period.
ReadBetween 1934 and 1943, the federal government placed murals in twenty-three Connecticut post offices.
ReadFavoring local cherry and pine woods, this furniture maker introduced Philadelphia-style flair to New England consumers.
ReadHerbert Abrams was an American painter whose portraits hang in some of the most prestigious institutions in the country.
ReadMost renowned for his invention of the mobile, an abstract sculpture that moves, Calder is considered a pioneer of kinetic art.
ReadWorking as an illustrator at DC Comics for over 30 years, Aparo drew for such legendary series as Aquaman, The Brave and the Bold, Green Arrow, and The Spectre.
ReadHartford native Dwight Tryon enjoyed a long, successful career as a landscape painter and teacher with studios in New York City and Massachusetts.
ReadWestport resident Stevan Dohanos was one of America’s top realist illustrators, producing more than 125 popular magazine covers, and over 300 designs for commemorative postage stamps.
ReadLippincott, Inc., in North Haven, was one of the most highly respected fine-arts metal fabricators in the country in the second half of the 20th century.
ReadOn June 17, 1930, the Ivoryton Playhouse opened with a production of the play Broken Dishes, which had just closed in New York.
ReadOn June 3, 2003, the Connecticut General Assembly designated The Nutmeg, Homeland of Liberty by Dr. Stanley L. Ralph as the State Cantata.
ReadIn colonial times, tavern signs beckoned weary travelers to places of rest and entertainment, but by the early 1900s collectors prized them as folk art and relics of a bygone era.
ReadOn the morning of June 17, 1910, over a thousand Connecticut residents descended upon Westport for a patriotic, event-filled unveiling of The Minute Man monument.
ReadAuthor Charles Dudley Warner penned significant volumes of work, leaving an impact through his enduring social commentary in the second half of the 19th century.
ReadOn May 4, 1826, the great American landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church was born to a wealthy Hartford family.
ReadJohn Brewster Jr. was one of the preeminent portrait artists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
ReadPlaywright Eugene O’Neill drew inspiration for much of his work from his childhood hometown of New London.
ReadPopular poet, singer, and activist Carl Sandburg had numerous connections to Connecticut and promoted social reform in the early 20th century.
ReadConnecticut artist Amelia Watson’s works adorn some of the most elaborately designed and treasured volumes of the 19th and 20th century.
ReadIrish 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.
ReadWilliam Gillette was an American actor, playwright, and stage director most famous for his stage portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and for the stone castle he built in East Haddam.
ReadThis actress earned acclaim for her portrayal of an African American woman who chooses to pass as white in order to escape racial discrimination but, in real life, she embraced her heritage and worked to end inequality.
ReadErnest Borgnine, a native of Hamden who served ten years in navy, became one of the world’s most recognized and revered actors.
ReadDrawn to the landscapes of the Farmington River Valley, artist Aaron Draper Shattuck reinvented himself as a gentleman farmer and inventor.
ReadEllis Ruley, the son of a slave who escaped to Norwich, rose to prominence as an artist, but prosperity and racial tensions created resentment among members of the local population.
ReadOn January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, declaring more than three million African Americans in those states in rebellion against the United States to be forever free.
ReadA political cartoon lampoons radical members of New England’s Federalist party by poking fun at their motivations for gathering in Hartford to end the War of 1812.
ReadLeroy Anderson, a long-time resident of Woodbury, was one of the most popular composers of light concert music in the 20th century.
ReadThe Wadsworth Atheneum contributed to home front morale and fundraisers during World War II.
ReadHis mobiles, stabiles, and constellations are featured in museum collections around the world.
ReadHartford-born William Gillette, known best for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in film and theater, was also a successful playwright.
ReadThe Westport Country Playhouse is meant to provide artists, students, and entertainers with a place to create and produce live theater experiences away from traditional big city theater districts.
ReadHartford’s Louis Peterson was a groundbreaking African American playwright in the 20th century.
ReadHartford’s Anna Sokolow became one of the most important figures in modern dance during the 20th century.
ReadTwo hundred years ago, on September 10, 1813, the US captured six vessels from the British Royal Navy, the most powerful maritime force in the world.
ReadSol LeWitt, whose work includes drawings and sculptures, is identified with the late 20th century Minimalist and Conceptual art movements.
ReadOn July 28, 1996, ornithologist and artist Roger Tory Peterson died in Old Lyme.
ReadWeir Farm, located in Ridgefield and Wilton, Connecticut, resulted from the trade of a painting and ten dollars.
ReadIn the summer of 1976, Colt Park offered rock and roll fans an escape from troubled times through a series of concerts by some legendary acts.
ReadAs a smaller, quieter alternative to Broadway, New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre overcame an unconventional location to become a smash success.
ReadThe Famous Artists School in Westport once provided the premier correspondence training for those interested in an art career.
ReadFor a variety of reasons, the Eastons were one of New England’s most notable 19th-century African American families.
ReadBased in Hartford, “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar” was one of America’s most popular radio shows during the 15 years it aired.
ReadThe Colonial Revival was national in its scope, but as a state rich in historic resources, Connecticut became inextricably linked with the movement.
ReadRenderings of the terrain served a variety of purposes, from supporting colonists’ land claims as well as tribal counterclaims to settling religious disputes and even adorning the homes of the well-off.
ReadOne of the most popular actresses of the 20th century, Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford and lived much of her later life in Old Saybrook.
ReadThe unique blend of American and Russian architecture found in Churaevka, along with the important part the village played in defining early 20th-century Russian immigration, earned it a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
ReadJohn Rogers was an American sculptor whose style and production methods made his art popular with middle-class art collectors in the 19th century.
ReadA rare set of prints by New Haven printer Amos Doolittle depicts the momentous events of April 19, 1775.
ReadBridgeport resident Walt Kelly was the creator of Pogo, a wildly popular comic strip during the middle of the 20th century.
ReadThe Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame pays tribute to celebrated singer and actress, and long-time Hartford resident, Sophie Tucker.
ReadAs one of the most well-known American realist painters of the late 19th century, James Abbot McNeil Whistler has intrigued art history enthusiasts for over a century.
ReadOn February 29, 1960, noted wildlife illustrator Rex Brasher died.
ReadCalled the “greatest mobilization of police in the city’s history,” the event that brought law enforcement out in force to Keney Park was not a riot, not a strike, but a concert by this singer-actor and activist.
ReadThis Charles D. Brownell painting from the mid-1850s epitomizes the importance that the Charter Oak tree held in the hearts and minds of Connecticut citizens.
ReadHardcore punk rockers occupied venue spaces, spectators became performers, pools became skate parks, and Xerox machines became the printing press in this underground renaissance.
ReadOn June 8, 1906, French stage and film actress Sarah Bernhardt appeared at Foot Guard Hall in Hartford.
ReadOn June 6, 1756, John Trumbull, painter, architect, and author, was born in Lebanon.
ReadOn February 14, 1952, American artist Louis Paul Dessar died in Preston, Connecticut.
ReadThis documentary clip showcases the heritage of New Haven’s jazz community, weaving the personal narrative of musicians and their families within the context of the city’s social and political history.
ReadThe Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame pays tribute to philanthropist Dotha Bushnell Hillyer, patron of a living memorial to her father, the Reverend Horace Bushnell.
ReadThe Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame pays tribute to Florence Griswold, an Old Lyme native who fostered the impressionist art movement in Connecticut.
ReadPublic sculpture has punctuated the state for three centuries, reflecting the values of our communities, their times, and their funders.
ReadOn the corner of Maple and Whiting Streets in Plainville, Connecticut, is a special place where the town honors its war veterans.
ReadThe Yale Peabody Museum is home to one of the world’s largest murals, which illustrates changes in the earth’s flora and fauna between the Devonian and Cretaceous periods.
ReadDecorative Arts—or, household furnishings— reveal past lifestyles and showcase the state’s best-known craftspeople.
ReadCharles Conrads, a German immigrant and George Batterson’s lead sculptor, helped design the initial shape of the Forlorn Soldier.
ReadNorfolk began hosting the Yale Summer School of Music and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival back in 1941.
ReadArt and culture have always played an important role in Connecticut’s long and diverse history.
ReadJames G. Batterson was an artist, inventor, and businessman. He helped commemorate the Civil War through his proficiency with stone.
ReadConnecticut’s Cultural Treasures is a series of 50 five-minute film vignettes that profiles a variety of the state’s most notable cultural resources.
ReadConnecticut’s Cultural Treasures is a series of 50 five-minute film vignettes that profiles a variety of the state’s most notable cultural resources.
ReadConnecticut’s Cultural Treasures is a series of 50 five-minute film vignettes that profiles a variety of the state’s most notable cultural resources.
ReadConnecticut’s Cultural Treasures is a series of 50 five-minute film vignettes that profiles a variety of the state’s most notable cultural resources.
ReadHow the Scandinavian design movement re-fashioned local industry in the mill town of Thompson during the 1960s and ’70s.
ReadConnecticut’s Cultural Treasures is a series of 50 five-minute film vignettes that profiles a variety of the state’s most notable cultural resources
ReadConnecticut’s Cultural Treasures is a series of 50 five-minute film vignettes that profiles a variety of the state’s most notable cultural resources.
ReadConnecticut’s Cultural Treasures is a series of 50 five-minute film vignettes that profiles a variety of the state’s most notable cultural resources.
ReadConnecticut’s Cultural Treasures is a series of 50 five-minute film vignettes that profiles a variety of the state’s most notable cultural resources.
ReadArtist, author, and influential conservationist Roger Tory Peterson pioneered the modern age of bird watching with his 1934 book, A Field Guide to the Birds.
ReadTorrington’s unique and historically significant buildings are the foundation on which local businesses and civic leaders built a revitalized economy.
ReadBartlett was the first gravestone carver in the upper Connecticut River Valley, and his headstones tell historians much about early life in the northeastern colonies.
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