Inside the CHS

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…
Read More »

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…
Read More »

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…
Read More »

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…
Read More »

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.

Like many people, I always used to drive home for Thanksgiving. Home was always Connecticut, even when I lived in Massachusetts or New Jersey or New York.

When was the last time you saw a bootblack—or shoe shiner—anywhere?

Kids in the 1940s were not all that different from kids today. They don’t always get along with their parents, don’t always want to go to school, want to go to the movies (or play on their X-boxes today) instead of doing homework. Most of all, though, girls get crushes on boys!

Hundreds of families and dozens of businesses were moved out to make way for urban renewal projects in Hartford.

What would Hartford have looked like if three proposed building developments had been realized in the 1980s? See Richard Welling’s depictions of these modern edifices that were sure to bring added vibrancy to our capital city’s downtown core.

Don’t worry, the educators haven’t left – they’re just on the road teaching!

How do we mark where things come from in our storage areas….read on to find out!

CHS has an extensive array of account books ranging in date from the early 18th century to the later 19th century and covering every part of the state.

It’s comforting to think that certain basic things don’t change and to a certain extent it’s even true.

The CHS is proud to once again host Open Studio Hartford on November 15 &16, 11:00 am–5:00 pm, when we will welcome 17 local artists to display their work and offer it for sale.

Book your dinner reservations. We’ve just installed a new exhibit at Firebox Restaurant.

Connecticut has had a long and close association with this type of aircraft, harkening back to Igor Sikorsky’s pioneering work in the 1930s.

Monday, October 27, was World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, sponsored by UNESCO. We did nothing to publicly mark the occasion, but we are taking an inventory of our audiovisual collections in preparation for writing a grant proposal to get them digitized.

The plaza was considered a model for urban renewal in the 1960s, replacing the Front Street neighborhood, which consisted of 18th- and 19th-century buildings, housing mostly Italian immigrants.