Waterbury

Union Station Clock Tower, Waterbury

Waterbury, in New Haven County, is located in west-central Connecticut on the Naugatuck River. It was settled in 1674 as a part of Farmington (in what is now known as the Town Plot area), and was originally called Mattituck Plantation. Incorporated as a town in 1686 and a city in 1853, Waterbury is named for its abundant waterways. Nicknamed the Brass City, and once the center of the American brass industry, manufacturing declined after World War II from employing a peak of 50,000 brass workers to less than 5,000 by the 1980s. Connecticut’s fifth-largest city, Waterbury is home to the Mattatuck Museum.

Featured

Waterbury’s Radium Girls

In the early 20th century, girls working at the Waterbury Clock Company faced death and disease from exposure to radium in the workplace. …[more]

Learn More

Websites

Silas Bronson Library. “Genealogy & Local History,” 2017. Link.

Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. “Rosalind Russell,” 2017. Link.

Places

Connecticut Freedom Trail. “Hopkins Street Center,” 2017. Link.

“Mattatuck Museum,” 2017. Link.

Department of Energy & Environmental Protection. “Mattatuck State Forest,” 2017. Link.

“Palace Theater,” 2017. Link.

“Waterbury Button Museum.” Mattatuck Museum, 2017. Link.

Documents

Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries. “American Brass Company Records,” 2016. Link.

Illustrated Catalogue Waterbury Button Co.: Military and All Metal Buttons: Army, Navy, Police, Fire Department, School and Livery. Waterbury, CT: Waterbury Button Company, 1900. Link.

“Map - North Part of New Haven Co., Connecticut from Town and City Atlas of the State of Connecticut.” Boston, MA: D.H. Hurd & Company, 1893. University of Connecticut Libraries, Map and Geographic Information Center - MAGIC. Link.

“Map of the City of Waterbury, New Haven County, State of Connecticut.” Cadastral map. Boston, MA: Walker Lith. & Pub. Co., 1909. Connecticut Historical Society. Link.

Bailey, O.H. “Map: View of Waterbury, Conn. 1899.” Bird’s-eye. New York: Landis and Hughes, 1899. University of Connecticut Libraries, Map and Geographic Information Center - MAGIC. Link.

Fowler, T. M. (Thaddeus Mortimer). “Map: View of Waterbury, Conn. 1917.” Bird’s-eye. New York: Bailey, 1917. University of Connecticut Libraries, Map and Geographic Information Center - MAGIC. Link.

McGill, George W. “Object- Mcgill’s / Patent / Fasteners / Etc., Etc. / for Sale Here / Also Card and Calendar Suspending Devices.” Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, 2016. Link.

Warner, Ezra J. Patent Number 19,063 - Can Opener. 19,063. Waterbury, CT, issued January 5, 1858. Link.

Middlebrook, William D. Patent Number 636,272 - Machine For Making Wire Paper-Clips. 636,272. Waterbury, CT, issued November 7, 1899. Link.

“Waterbury Collection.” Connecticut Digital Archive, n.d. Link.

Books

Reynolds, Edith, and John Murray. A Brief History of Waterbury. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2009.

Brecher, Jeremy, Jerry Lombardi, Jan Stackhouse, and Brass Workers History Project. Brass Valley: The Story of Working People’s Lives and Struggles in an American Industrial Region. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1982.

Rockey, J. L., ed. History of New Haven County, Connecticut. Vol. 2. New York: W. W. Preston, 1892. Link.

Pape, William J. History of Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley, Connecticut. Vol. 1. Chicago; New York: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1918. Link.

Glasser, Ruth. “Mofongo Meets Mangú: Dominicans Reconfigure Latino Waterbury.” In Latinos in New England. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006. Link.

Bronson, Henry. The History of Waterbury, Connecticut the Original Township Embracing Present Watertown and Plymouth, and Parts of Oxford, Wolcott, Middlebury, Prospect and Naugatuck. Waterbury, CT: Bronson Brothers, 1858. Link.

Anderson, Joseph, ed. The Town and City of Waterbury, Connecticut. Vol. 1. New Haven, CT: Price and Lee Company, 1896. Link.

Chesson, Frederick. Waterbury. Dover,  NH: Arcadia, 1996.

Bassett, Homer F. Waterbury and Her Industries. Fifty Attractive and Carefully Selected Views, by the Photogravure Process, as Photographed from Nature, of the Many Leading Manufacturing Establishments, Public Buildings, Churches, Residences, Park, Street and General Bird’s-Eye Views of Waterbury, Conn., Together with a Historical Sketch of the City and Its Various Industries. Gardner,  MA: Lithotype Printing and Publishing Company, 1889. Link.

Wiehn, John. Waterbury Irish: From the Emerald Isle to the Brass City. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2015.

Mattatuck Historical Society, and Cornelius Maloney. Waterbury, 1674-1974: A Pictorial History. Chester,  CT: Pequot Press, 1974.

Wiehn, John. Waterbury: 1890-1930. Charleston,  SC: Arcadia, 2003.

Reynolds, Edith. Wicked Waterbury: Madmen & Mayhem in the Brass City. Charleston,  SC: History Press, 2009.

Articles

Glasser, Ruth. “The Farm in the City in the Recent Past: Thoughts on a More Inclusive Urban Historiography.” Urban and Community Studies Faculty Writing 1 (2017). Link.