Inside the CHS

Although we have an “American Revolution Collection”, there are still many important documents found in other collections or by themselves. Here are a few examples. From February 25, 1780, we have an account of the State of Connecticut with Joshua Elderkin, Commissary for cloth sent to the Northern Army and to the Ship O. Cromwell,…
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Things have been a bit hectic here as we reorganize the operation of the library and museum, and our accessions have not been as fast and furious as usual.  However, we did acquire in December a fascinating document related to a Revolutionary War prisoner.  Evidently William Dodd, of Falmouth, Maine, who had been held prisoner…
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I have been unnaturally quiet recently, working feverishly on cataloging at least 900 collections before September 2010.  I am not doing this alone, however.  I am ably assisted by Project Archivist Jennifer Sharp, several volunteers, and CHS’s Assistant Archivist Cyndi Harbeson.  Since September 1 we have created more than 150 catalog records.  We are off…
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“the War in which we are engaged, with Great Britain, is extensively unpopular”

Even after too many years to count being an archivist, I can still get a chill up my spine when I encounter certain documents. That happened this past month when I came across an admission of guilt by two men, Daniel Young and John Elderkin of Norwich, Connecticut. They admitted in June 1776 to the…
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Two receipts recently added to the collection indicate how towns in Connecticut supported the Revolutionary War effort. The town of Kent was able to gather 12 pairs of shoes and 14 pairs of stockings, valued at 9 pounds, six shillings. Abel Hines signed for the supplies February 1, 1779. In April 1779 Elijah Hubbard collected…
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Maps may lead us to buried treasure, but not all treasure is found below the ground. On Saturday, June 8, learn more about the map holdings of CHS at our Behind-the-Scenes tour. A map recently discovered in the Rudd and Holley Family Collection leads us to another kind of “buried treasure.” 

People frequently ask me what’s my favorite item in the CHS collection. Frankly, that’s a tough one, not only because there are so many great items but also because different objects tell different stories in different ways. So when asked this question recently (appropriately enough while I was watching our town’s Memorial Day parade) I…
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I recently returned from a mini-vacation to visit some friends in Colonial Williamsburg (and brought back a cold, which leads to my apology at this late posting!).  Even after living in New England for almost six years, I still think of Virginia and Massachusetts when I think of the American Revolution.  Being a Midwestern girl,…
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Our exhibit, Making Connecticut, showcases over 500 objects, images, and documents from the CHS collection. “What is this?” posts will highlight an object from the exhibit and explore its importance in Connecticut history every other week. What is this object? What is the story behind it? To find out more,

Our exhibit, Making Connecticut, showcases over 500 objects, images, and documents from the CHS collection. “What is this?” posts will highlight an object from the exhibit and explore its importance in Connecticut history every other week. What is this object? What is the story behind it? To find out more,

A photograph by Marie Kendall in the current exhibition at the Connecticut Historical Society depicts Sarah Bishop’s Cave, a hollow in the rocks overlooking a deep valley on West Mountain in Ridgefield, Connecticut.  Who was Sarah Bishop and what was she doing in this cave?  According to historian Samuel Goodrich, who remembered meeting Sarah in…
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Hurray! We just received our official award letter from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the granting arm of the National Archives. This $35,000 grant is going to fund the digitization of eleven manuscripts collections that have already been microfilmed. Microfilm is still the best option for preserving manuscript collections, but we all know…
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For the month of August I kept telling my husband nearly every day that I had been fighting the Revolutionary War all over again. And in a way, I was.

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

By Jill Padelford, Development Services Associate for the CHS Those of us of a certain age may remember the outrageous hijinks of the POWs in the 1960s comedy Hogan’s Heroes. (Some interesting trivia: Waterbury, CT native Bob Crane portrayed Colonel Hogan in that popular show.) Working from within a German stalag, the heroes of the…
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We invite CHS members to join us for a brown bag talk exploring the beginnings of paper money in the American Colonies with a focus on the Colony of Connecticut, which began its paper money in 1709 and tracing the development of this currency thru the American Revolution to 1780.

We invite CHS members and visitors to join us for a brown bag lunch talk with Shira Lurie, Doctoral Candidate at the University of Virginia.

An insider’s look at our favorite “hidden” treasures. Come behind the scenes and see them for yourself!

An insider’s look at our favorite “hidden” treasures. Come behind the scenes and see them for yourself!

Hamilton fans: have you ever wondered what’s fact and what’s fiction in the hit musical? Well, here’s your chance to find out!