Community History Project

Click here for COVID-19 visiting rules. Click here for the CHS’s digital programs.

Your support helps us continue to collect, preserve, and share history and culture. Support the CHS

CREATING THE ARCHIVE OF TOMORROW

What is the Community History Project (CHP)?

  • The Community History Project at the Connecticut Historical Society (CHS) is community-driven history-making made possible by a Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
  • Over two years the CHP will use contemporary collecting practices to strengthen communities and document the diverse experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Community members are invited to document and preserve their experiences as residents of Connecticut for themselves and their community, and for future historians and future exhibits at the CHS.
  • CHP ensures that stories from the most impacted and historically marginalized communities during COVID are not lost to time.

Who is working on the CHP?

  • The CHS in collaboration with Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), the Connecticut Digital Archive (CTDA), public libraries in Hartford, New Haven, and Norwich, and diverse communities across the state.
  • Community members are at the heart of the CHP and we need your help to:
    •  Identify possible oral history participants
    • Participate in an interview
    •  Conduct an interview
    • Donate pictures and objects related to the pandemic experience

How can you be a part of this project?

  • Join a Community History Council in your hometown: councils will meet regularly to guide oral history collecting in Hartford, New Haven, and Norwich.
  • Serve as a Community Historian and conduct an oral history interview. Training will be off­ered virtually and in-person in Hartford, New Haven, and Norwich through each Community History Council.
  • Volunteer to be interviewed. Interested individuals and organizations can contact any CHP sta­ff member. Community Historians and sta­ff will conduct oral history interviews with individuals selected by Community History Councils.

Interested? Contact Samariya Smith, Community History Project Manager

(860) 236-5621 x279

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Museum Hours:

Tuesday-Friday 12pm-5pm, Thursday nights until 8pm
Saturday 9am-5pm
Sunday 12pm-5pm

Research Center Hours:

Tuesday-Saturday 12pm-5pm, Thursday nights until 8pm
Always by appointment only.

Location

One Elizabeth Street
Hartford CT, 06105

860.236.5621