Dear Supporters,
As we approach Connecticut Explored’s 25th year of publication in 2027, we are reflecting on our past quarter century—and looking ahead to the next. We are grateful for your intellectual curiosity and your shared passion for the stories that define our state. To celebrate this upcoming milestone, we want to ensure that our pages continue to capture your interests while also welcoming a new generation of readers into our community.
Whether you love exploring local history or want to read more about Connecticut’s emerging culinary scenes, environmental preservation, or the arts, your voice matters to us.
Please take 2–3 minutes to share your thoughts in our brief, anonymous survey. Your insights will directly shape the future direction of our magazine!
Thank you for your invaluable feedback, which will help us continue bringing you one good story after another!
Warmest regards,
Katherine Hermes, Publisher
FEATURED ARTICLES
Judith Lines and the Women the Revolution Forgot
Imagine if your presence and service was only acknowledged in distant pension files. When the Western Connecticut State University archaeology program investigated one of three winter encampments in Redding, findings uncovered that many civilian female camp followers provided vital and important labor such as cooking, cleaning, and nursing.
One such camp follower was Judith Lines, born in 1756 in Windham, Connecticut, surviving both the war and smallpox. Weinstein writes,“Judith’s survival in the historical record rests not on military rank or battlefield heroics, but on her need to persuade the state that her suffering counted as service.”
Read about women who moved with the army and later struggled to have their service recognized in our Summer 2026 issue.
Does our newsletter inspire you to want to dive deeper into Connecticut’s fascinating history? Connecticut Explored has options for everyone to enjoy.
Subscribe to our quarterly print magazine, delivered straight to your door. You’ll also have access to a digital PDF library of our magazines, right at your fingertips!
Our biweekly premium e-newsletter subscription ensures you never miss out on the latest stories! A great option for a slice of history: one to two full stories from our current issue, places to visit, plus the latest Grating the Nutmeg episode dropped directly into your email inbox. (If you subscribe to the magazine, you do not need the premium e-newsletter.)
From the Archives: Grating the Nutmeg
Connecticut’s Very Pink House-Roseland Cottage
This episode is on Connecticut’s own Victorian Barbie Dream House - Roseland Cottage in Woodstock. How many shades of pink has Roseland Cottage been? We’ll find out!
Listen: Connecticut’s Very Pink House-Roseland Cottage
Connecticut history matters - be part of it! You can help us celebrate our 10th anniversary and keep the podcast alive by giving a one-time donation or pledging $10 dollars a month. Support GTN today!
On Our Reading List
A number of local authors purchased ads in the Summer 2026 issue promoting their books and we can’t wait to read them all!
The Narrative of Primus: A Lineage Woven into American History, by John Mills
Awakenings and Revolutions: The Harts, Saybrook, and the New Nation, by Elizabeth J Normen
Travel Guides and History Books by Martin Podskoch
If you are an author or business and would like to inquire about advertising please email admanager@ctexplored.org.
Out and About: The 21st Annual Green Corn Festival
On Sunday, August 9th, CT Explored tabled at the 21st Annual Green Corn Festival, organized by the Institute for American Indian Studies. We enjoyed speaking with visitors while listening to flute music by Allan Madahbee (Ojibwe) and Traditional Native American Stories by IAIS Educational Outreach Ambassador and Storyteller Darlene Kascak. Afternoon performances by the Native Nations Dance Troupe were both educational and captivating.
Read Darlene Kascak and Irene Norman’s story, “Building Community Across Generations: Native American Storytelling Traditions” in our Winter 25-26 issue!
UPCOMING: Join us on Thursday, August 20th at 7:00 pm for a presentation by our publisher Kathy Hermes. The talk will explore how women contributed to the American Revolutionary effort politically, economically, intellectually, and even militarily. Using original sources like newspapers, court records, letters, and pension records, Dr. Hermes will show how Indigenous, Anglo-European, and African-descended women all helped to further the Patriot cause.
The talk will be held on Thursday, August 20th at the Wilton Historical Society at 7:00 pm. The event is free for Historical Society members. For non-members, there is a $10.00 fee. Find more info here.
Programs and Exhibitions to Enjoy This Season:
Uncivil Education
With generous support from Historic New England, the Institute for American Indian Studies was able to adapt Uncivil Education: Federal Indian Boarding Schools in America into a traveling exhibit, which is currently available to book. Uncivil Education addresses the history of Federal Indian Boarding schools in America and the assimilationist policies that led to their creation. Drawing directly from firsthand accounts and primary documentation, this exhibit uses lived experiences to tell the hard truth of life at boarding school at this time. Only once the devastating impacts of this history are acknowledged can this story be reframed as one of strength and resilience of Native individuals and communities against harmful, dominant forces. For further questions or booking inquiries, please call the Institute for American Indian Studies at (860) 868-0518 or email klarkin@iaismuseum.org.
Institute for American Indian Studies, 38 Curtis Road, Washington. Iaismuseum.org; 860-868-0518
Beyond the Ideal: Landscape, Likeness, & Belonging in the 19th Century
In recognition of the 250th Anniversary of American Independence, Slater Memorial Museum is pleased to present Beyond the Ideal: Landscape Likeness & Belonging in the 19th Century. This showcase of 19th-century American works explores how artists used landscapes, portraits, and still lifes, to articulate identity, belonging, and sense of place. The show will primarily focus on qualities of the Hudson River School movement and how local artists experimented with depicting traditional New England scenes.
This exhibition also introduces voices of artists traditionally marginalized within American art including Connecticut Black artist, Charles Ethan Porter (1847-1923). Together these works invite visitors to reflect on how American identity was shaped visually through place, perspective, and opportunity.
Slater Memorial Museum, 108 Crescent Street, Norwich. Slatermuseum.org; 860-887-2506
A Big Announcement
Preservation Connecticut is celebrating America 250 | CT and has a BIG announcement. In honor of our semiquincentennial theme, Town Greens, we are upgrading and relaunching our Town Greens Survey website! Established in 2001, the website is long overdue for an upgrade. With a target date set for the Fall, the new website will house over 170 documented town greens and remind us of the important role greens play as civic spaces for public activism, catalysts for discussion about community identity and values, and as places for informal gatherings and community building. The link will be made available at www.preservationct.org.
Preservation Connecticut; PreservationCT.org
Editor’s Picks:
Kathleen Eagen Johnson, “Greenwich Women Face the Great War,” Connecticut Explored, Winter 2014-2015.
Nicholas F. Bellantoni, “State Archaeologist on 30 Years of Great Finds,” Connecticut Explored, Summer 2014.