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SPRING 2025: The Power of Words. Welcome to your bi-weekly newsletter from Connecticut Explored with the latest stories, the newest Grating the Nutmeg podcast, programs/exhibitions from our partners.
The Latest From Grating the Nutmeg
Artistry, Charm, and Whimsy: Connecticut’s Carousel Museum
Carousels are marvels of brightly painted animals, mechanical excellence, music and lights. Located in a historic mill building in Bristol, the Carousel Museum houses well over 100 antique wooden carousel animals including white rabbits, pigs, lions and even an alligator. Guest for this episode is Morgan Fippinger, Executive Director.
Listen: Artistry, Charm, and Whimsy: Connecticut’s Carousel Museum
Thanks to the Connecticut Museum of Culture & History for their financial sponsorship of Grating the Nutmeg, helping us bring you a new episode every two weeks.
Announcing Our Newest Partner
We are thrilled to welcome the Bruce Museum as our newest Organizational Partner!
Located in Bruce Park and overlooking Greenwich Harbor, the Bruce Museum is a world-class institution that offers a changing array of exceptional exhibitions and educational programs that cultivate discovery and wonder through the power of art and science. Ahead of its time for taking this multidisciplinary approach over a century ago, the Bruce Museum is at the heart of contemporary efforts to bring together art, science and education to spark conversation, connection and creativity. The Museum welcomes over 100,000 visitors annually, playing an integral role in the area’s cultural life.
1 Museum Drive, Greenwich. brucemuseum.org; 203-869-0376
Henry Barnard and the Common Schools
How did Henry Barnard’s personal experiences influence his desire to establish public education at the center of American culture? As the first U.S. Commissioner of Education, Barnard helped lead a campaign to reform the common schools, the 19th-century equivalent of today’s public school. Leach writes, “Of all the social ills that cried out for common schools, the one that most troubled Barnard was the deepening division of classes, especially in Connecticut’s burgeoning cities and mill villages.”
Barnard’s legacy as a persistent and visionary reformer continues to influence American public school education today.
Discover more Connecticut history by subscribing to Connecticut Explored!
Programs and Exhibitions to Enjoy This Month
New Haven Museum
Join historian and CT Explored publisher Dr. Katherine Hermes and learn fascinating histories of women in the Revolution. “Working for the Revolution: Patriot Women’s Lives During the War” will explore how women contributed to the American Revolutionary effort politically, economically, intellectually, and even militarily.
“Working for the Revolution: Connecticut’s Patriot Women” Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 6:00 PM. In person. Register for the free NH250 event here.
114 Whitney Avenue, New Haven. newhavenmuseum.org; 203-562-4183
Lyman Allyn Art Museum
Inuit Art from the James Houston Collection (February 8 - May 4, 2025) presents the work of indigenous Canadian artists of the 1950s - 1970s, a transformative time in the development of Inuit artmaking traditions.
625 Williams Street, New London. lymanallyn.org; 860-443-2545
Hill-Stead Museum
Rediscover the magic of Hill-Stead with our newly restored Impressionist masterpieces! This spring step into a world of vibrant color and warm light as Hill-Stead shares its recently restored paintings by Monet, Degas and Manet. After more than a century of discoloration, we now - finally! - see these masterpieces as the artists intended.
35 Mountain Road, Farmington. hillstead.org; 860-677-4787
Webb Deane Stevens Museum
History teaches us that words have the power to harm, and to heal. We recently hosted “Common Ground in a Fractured Nation,” a symposium that brought the history of Connecticut’s 17th-century witch panic and the Revolutionary-era “cancelling” of Silas Deane, the first U.S. foreign diplomat, into dialogue with modern anxieties about free speech, political violence, and disinformation. This Spring we’ll host additional programs that put the power of words – and song! – front and center.
211 Main Street, Wethersfield. wdsmuseum.org; 860-529-0612
Editor’s Picks:
Allison Speicher, “Catharine Beecher Educates the West” Connecticut Explored, Winter 2016-17.
Gary E. Wait, “The Mother School of Deaf Education” Connecticut Explored, Spring 2005.
Gregg Mangan. “To Work or to School: Educating Children in 19th Century Connecticut” Connecticut Explored, Summer 2009.
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