Inside the CHS

El Museo Textil e Histórico de Windham Nos Enseña a Compartir La Historia de Connecticut en Dos Idiomas By Gerson Escobar-Arroyo, Member Relations Associate, Connecticut Historical Society Author’s Note: This blog is the first of what will be regular bilingual (English and Spanish) posts that share Connecticut’s diverse history with its Hispanic/Latino citizens. Is your…
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Curiosity comes naturally to an engineer, and that is what sparked Lester Smith’s passion for history. A former trustee of the Connecticut Historical Society and now the historian and curator for the Suffield Historical Society, Lester has dedicated decades to research and the preservation of Suffield’s history. Although his initial curiosity veered towards cartography (his…
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By Jenny Steadman, Adult Programs Manager, CHS The costume and textile storage on the CHS’s third floor is my favorite space in the Connecticut Historical Society museum. Every time I go up there, I get a shiver down my spine thinking of all the stories that go with all the dresses and uniforms and even…
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By Corinne Swanson, Coordinator of Youth and Family Programs, Connecticut Historical Society I’m a huge fan of maps. When studying history, maps are essential for getting a visual, concrete understanding of the places where events take place. They can be incredibly powerful in influencing the way we think (Remember the episode of “The West Wing” where C.J….
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By Barbara Austen, Archivist, Connecticut Historical Society  CHS recently received the archive of Thomas Barber, a detective with the Hartford Police Department. In 1944, he was one of the men charged with identifying the bodies found in the Hartford Circus Fire that July. It always haunted him that no one identified or claimed a young girl;…
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By Sara Plante, Visitor Service Associate, Connecticut Historical Society.  As the winter finally wanes and spring unfolds, opportunities to explore our state and take pleasure in nature increase. As you venture out to enjoy the warming weather and general greenery, consider a stop at the Connecticut Historical Society’s gift shop. We carry many Connecticut-made items…
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By Mike Messina, Interpretive Projects Associate, Connecticut Historical Society. This post originally appeared on ConnecticutHistory.org (CT Humanities) and WNPR.org Stay tuned for WTNH-TV News 8’s in-depth series on Connecticut’s Italian communities, coming the week of May 4!  In the early 1900s, Hartford was a booming economic center. Italy, on the other hand, suffered both economically and…
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A lock of hair, a bloody bandage, a Treasury Guard flag “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will…
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The Connecticut Historical Society’s “From Bonnets to Bell Bottoms: A Century of Connecticut Fashion” road show has drawn people from all over the state who are interested in the history of style. On March 18, Karen DePauw, research and collections associate at Connecticut Historical Society, gave a fascinating presentation on clothing from the Civil War…
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Hartford, Conn., February 19, 2015: Continuing in its effort to bring the resources of its museum into the community, the Connecticut Historical Society has partnered with TheaterWorks to present a satellite exhibit that visually explores the presence of arts and culture organizations in downtown Hartford with an emphasis on how they were affected by urban…
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The Connecticut Historical Society’s (CHS) “Lincoln Flag, was one of five flags used to decorate President Abraham Lincoln’s box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D. C. the night he was assassinated, April 14, 1865. Two of the flags present that fateful night were borrowed from the Treasury Guard, a unit formed to defend the nation’s…
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Starting February 10, 2015, there are expanded hours at the Connecticut Historical Society (CHS). The new hours are Tuesday-Thursday 12:00 – 5:00 pm, and Friday-Saturday 9:00 – 5:00 pm. Full service will be offered in Waterman Research Center during all public hours. Click here for more information about the Waterman Research Center.

On February 7th, the Connecticut Historical Society (CHS), with support from Berkshire Bank, hosted a program for children and their families to create personal and unique Valentine’s Day cards inspired by Valentines from long ago. With snow falling on the ground, this event was well attended with many creative designs made.        …
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Last year, the Connecticut Historical Society (CHS) received a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to digitize microfilmed manuscript collections to make them available on the Connecticut Digital Archive. Highlights of online collections include: Samson Occom, Governor Thomas Fitch, John Trumbull (poet) and John Trumbull (artist) as well as parts of Silas…
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The Connecticut Historical Society’s Path Forward The values each of us hold dear, and the choices we make as free individuals, are heavily influenced by what we draw from experience. An informed appreciation of history enables each of us to appropriate the wealth of accumulated human experience beyond our own. Useful history provides context for…
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On January 31, 2015, will be Curtis Veeder’s 153rd birthday. Curtis Veeder received his first patent at the age of 18 for a new type of bicycle seat. He started his own company in 1895 in Hartford, the Veeder Manufacturing Company, to produce cyclometers – distance trackers for bicycles. The company soon expanded to other…
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Hartford, Conn, January 22, 2015 – Richard J. Tuchman has been named chief development officer for the Connecticut Historical Society (CHS). Tuchman, a prominent Connecticut fundraising professional, began in the position January 12. Before joining CHS, Tuchman served as vice president for university advancement at the University of New Haven. With nearly three decades of…
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I don’t know when we first started to visit Connecticut’s historic houses. My earliest memories are probably from the 1960s, but I think it began even earlier than that. I remember marveling at the massive stone walls of the Henry Whitfield House in Guilford, so unlike anything else in the state.

What is one thing that makes Connecticut, Connecticut? We’ve got a list going here, and you need to add your two cents.

As with most people, I suspect, finding time to take stock of the past year is always problematic during the holidays. Good times, bad times; things that worked, things that flopped; friends made and friends departed: it’s just a potpourri of life events.

January 1 is a day when people traditionally reflect on the year past and make resolutions about the coming year. It is also a time perhaps to get a jump on spring cleaning.

The wrapping paper has been discarded, and Christmas dinner consumed. Now what? December 26 can be just as special, and not just an afterthought.

Merry Christmas All! Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, I still wish you the same sentiment of joy and love this time of year.

There are three hard drives clustered around my desk. These days I look less like an archivist and more like a computer geek.

“All are well. Wish you all a Merry Xmas, Mother,” reads the scribbled message on the postcard, which is postmarked “December 24, 1906.” An additional stamped message reads “GREETINGS FROM HARWINTON.”

As we approach 2015, what things from 2014 should we keep and what things should we throw out? I thought of this as I finished reading “Twas the Night Before Christmas” to my son. It dawned on me how many things we pass on to the next generation in terms of traditions, stories and folklore…
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I have about a thousand Post-It notes piled together in a drawer in my desk.

As a history museum curator I am ever on the lookout for objects that tell a story (or maybe multiple stories if I am lucky).

The Williams sisters used every available spot on the paper to write their letters even when the paper was oversize.

Houses, apartments, businesses, schools, places of worship. Like all cities, Hartford’s built environment—its physical structures and shape—has changed over time for many different reasons.

I am coming to the end of the Richard Welling material I have left to catalog. This seems impossible considering how large the collection is, but I suppose everything ends sometime.

What can you do with three hundred toilet paper rolls?

In the nineteenth century, my father’s grandparents emigrated from Germany to work in the Cheney Brothers Silk Manufactory in Manchester. In many ways, Manchester was a classic mill town.

Give the gift of a special history experience! Unique Behind-the-Scenes Tours take visitors to hidden areas of the museum to see treasures not featured in public exhibits.

Your help is needed. The Connecticut Historical Society is on a “treasure hunt.” If an object could define Connecticut, what would it be?

The term consumption, particularly in the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, means something very different today than what it meant in the 19th century.

Urban renewal changed the face of Hartford by removing homes, movie theaters, restaurants, and shops in the downtown area and replacing them with large-scale office buildings and parking lots.

While we associate the Thanksgiving holiday with turkey and cranberry sauce, the actual art of giving thanks has had a range of meanings throughout history.

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks…for all of you!

Fitz Green Hollister was a young farmer from Washington, Connecticut, when he joined the 18th Regiment, Connecticut Volunteers, in 1861. His letters home and his dairies evidence a keen intellect and an eye for detail.