Blending her aviation and journalism careers, Wethersfield’s Mary Goodrich Jenson pushed the boundaries of both fields.
ReadUntil the 19th century, the red onion trade supported Wethersfield as the first commercial town along the Connecticut River.
ReadWethersfield’s Sophia Woodhouse Welles made a name for herself as an inventor and a businesswoman in antebellum America with her bonnets.
ReadFrom Huguenots to French Canadian mill workers to modern immigration, Connecticut has always been a place shaped, in part, by a steady French influence.
ReadThe Fundamental Orders, inspired by Thomas Hooker’s sermon of May 31, 1638, provided the framework for the government of the Connecticut colony from 1639 to 1662.
ReadAlmost every Connecticut town has an Elm Street, named for the popular trees that grew in abundance until a fungal infestation greatly diminished their numbers.
ReadThe ocean’s bounty has been savored along the Connecticut coastline for as long as humans have been around to bring it on shore.
ReadKnown as “Gasoline Alley” during the 1950s, the Berlin Turnpike boasts a heady visual mix of neon, brand names, logos, and 1960s’ motel Modernism.
ReadThe first time George Washington traveled through Connecticut, he was an ambitious Virginia colonel hoping to advance his career in the British military.
ReadThe 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.
ReadThe Wethersfield Volunteer Fire Department is the oldest continually operated fire department in Connecticut.
ReadConnecticut Protestants wanted to cleanse the church of what they saw as corruption, and to return to the simplicity and purity of early Christian worship.
ReadOn June 18, 1895, Jabez L. Woodbridge of Wethersfield patented an automated gallows.
ReadOn May 26, 1647, Alse Young of Windsor was the first person on record to be executed for witchcraft in the 13 colonies.
ReadThe Fundamental Orders represent what many consider to be the first written constitution in the Western world.
ReadThis profitable exchange brought wealth and sought-after goods to the state but came at the price of supporting slavery in the bargain.
ReadFollowing his drop in status as one of the town’s wealthiest men, William Beadle murdered his entire family.
ReadBenjamin Wright helped build transportation and canal systems in the United States and served as the chief engineer on the construction of the Erie Canal.
ReadEsteemed by his fellow patriots as a savvy diplomat who helped cement a strategic alliance with France during the American Revolution, Deane spent his final years under a cloud of suspicion.
ReadIn September 1827, the newly constructed Connecticut State Prison in Wethersfield opened its doors to 81 inmates once housed at Newgate Prison.
ReadGovernment formed with the consent of the people was a radical idea in the age of nations ruled by monarchs, emperors, and tsars.
ReadIn 1698 the General Court reorganized itself to deal more effectively with Connecticut’s complex new problems.
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.
ReadIn the mid-17th century, Connecticut was considered the most literate place on earth, primarily due to the early Puritans’ insistence that everyone be able to read and write.
ReadCensus data, from colonial times on up to the present, is a key resource for those who study the ways in which communities change with the passage of time.
ReadDespite Deane’s role in securing French supplies and support for the American Revolution, his accomplishments have long been obscured by whispers of treason, a spy’s double-dealing, and his own sudden death.
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