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SUMMER 2025: Celebrations! Commemorating Connecticut's cultures, a deadly explosion, conference fun, Grating the Nutmeg visits the Mattatuck Museum, programs to enjoy this summer and more...
Celebrating and Commemorating Connecticut’s Cultures
According to the Connecticut Tourism Office, not only does CT have one of the largest Italian-American populations per capita in the United States, but one can also find Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Jamaican, Indian, Polish and Chinese communities. During the year, many communities throughout the state partake in festivals and parades, with the intent of coming together, celebrating cultures, and creating lasting memories. Dr. Fiona Vernal takes a look at different traditions, how they are shifting, and how they provide us with a window into the past. Vernal writes, “Whether you attend Juneteenth, a powwow, the Saint Patrick’s Day parade, the Festival of Arts and Ideas, a Pride festival, Lunarfest, a Diwali party, or a Three Kings Day celebration, these events are about making meaning and bringing people together. They are opportunities for pageantry and merrymaking.” Read more in our Summer 25 issue.
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A Deadly Celebration: The Hartford Schoolhouse Explosion
Oftentimes, tragedies are only remembered as an event that took place, while the residual effect is forgotten. In 1766, on a day meant for celebration, fireworks turned a brick schoolhouse in Hartford into a fiery, hellish nightmare. Six men died on site, and many others were left severely injured. The event had originally been planned to celebrate the Stamp Act’s repeal, and instead would leave scars that ran deep through the community. Shawn R. Dagle examines cause, accounts, and aftermath of the tragedy, writing “After the explosion, Dr. Jonathan Marsh, a highly regarded and skilled surgeon known for his expertise in setting bones, was called to duty. Marsh’s obituary, reprinted in The Connecticut Courant on March 15, 1854, stated that he had to leave his practice in the weeks following the explosion due to pain in his arm, which only intensified until his death that June. According to Mary E. Perkins’s The Old Houses of the Ancient Town of Norwich (The Bulletin Co. Press, 1895), people believed that Marsh’s death resulted from an infection in his arm that he contracted while he was caring for those injured in the explosion.” Dagle writes of other accounts of victims, including the incredible story of the last person to be pulled from the rubble, five-year-old Hezekiah Goodwin. Learn more about this horrible accident and the surrounding events by subscribing.
Bonus! Read “A CT writer was researching a distant relative. That led him to a 1766 schoolhouse explosion.” by Andrew DaRosa for CT Insider.
Out and About: Conference fun, celebrating a new marker on the CT Freedom Trail, and an unforgettable evening!
We are enjoying a busy June so far. On June 2, 2025, CT Explored staff tabled and presented at the annual Connecticut League of Museums Conference at Central Connecticut State University. The theme this year was "Reinvention and Resilience in Uncertain Times." Publisher, Kathy Hermes later attended the East Avon Cemetery and Congregational Church in Avon for the dedication of a new marker on the Connecticut Freedom Trail. On June 7, The Amistad’s 34th Annual Juneteenth Gala took place and attendees celebrated with a night surrounded by art, culture, and community.
Hats off to Grating the Nutmeg Executive Producer, Mary M. Donohue, who has been appointed as the new West Hartford Town Historian by Town Council! As an award-winning architectural historian, Mary’s extensive career spans from working for the State of Connecticut as the survey and grants director for the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, State Historic and Preservation Office to executive director of the Manchester Historical Society.
Cheers to a great rest of the month!
The Latest From Grating the Nutmeg
The Mattatuck Museum: Waterbury and Summer Leisure
In this episode, host Mary Donohue visits the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, a place that includes stellar architecture, art by some of the most renowned artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and an exhibition that tells the story of Waterbury’s rise as a manufacturing powerhouse.
Listen: The Mattatuck Museum: Waterbury and Summer Leisure
Thanks to the Connecticut Museum of Culture & History and Preservation Connecticut for their financial sponsorship of Grating the Nutmeg, helping us bring you a new episode every two weeks.
Programs and Exhibitions to Enjoy This Month
Whaling and Its Colossal Impact
Mystic Seaport Museum recently opened an exciting new exhibition—Monstrous: Whaling and Its Colossal Impact. On display in the Collins Gallery until February 16, 2026, the exhibition ruminates on the history of American whaling and its impact on our region and nation. The gallery pairs a monumental mural, Or, The Whale, created by artist John Joseph “Jos” Sances, with the enormous tools used during American whaling voyages. Iron try-pots, harpoons, darting guns, cutting-in tools, and massive blubber hooks will be displayed alongside models of whaling ships, logbooks, examples of commercial whale oil, historical photographs, and more. Viewed together, the mural and artifacts provide dramatic insight into the colossal efforts undertaken during whaling voyages to extract the highly prized blubber and spermaceti that became so vital to Americans during the 19th century. Monstrous will consist almost entirely of artifacts, documents, and photographs from the Mystic Seaport Museum and Library collections.
Mystic Seaport Museum, 75 Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic. mysticseaport.org; 860-572-0711
The Body Imagined
The human figure has long served as a vessel for storytelling, identity, and transformation. The Body Imagined: Figurative Art in the Bank of America Collection, debuting at Mattatuck Museum through the bank’s Art in our Communities® program, brings together 20th- and 21st-century figurative art. Divided into three thematic sections—Body Language, Changing Forms, and Framing the Figure—the exhibition explores connections across generations and artistic traditions. This diverse collection of painting, sculpture, and mixed media highlights the variety of ways the human form has been used in art. Featured works include an Alex Katz portrait, Nick Cave’s Soundsuit, Milton Avery’s bold colors, Alfredo Ramos Martínez’s modernist portrayal of Indigenous life, Cindy Sherman’s transformative self-portraits, Andy Warhol’s screen-printed coin, and Delita Martin’s depictions of Black motherhood. The Body Imagined showcases the creativity of artists across the spectrum of figurative representation. On view June 22–September 28, 2025.
Mattatuck Museum, 144 West Main Street, Waterbury. mattmuseum.org; 203-753-0381
A Busy Summer at KTM&HC
Come to Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center this summer for new tours and exhibitions, thought-provoking public programs, and community events with fun activities for all ages! Our July 4th celebration kicks off Ridgefield’s yearlong America250 commemoration; the Poetry in the Garden series features workshops and readings from nationally acclaimed poets; and so much more. Get more details at keelertavernmuseum.org/events.
Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center, 152 Main Street, Ridgefield. keelertavernmuseum.org; 203-438-5485
Editor’s Picks:
Emma Demar with Elizabeth J. Normen, “What a Disaster!” Connecticut Explored, Fall 2011.
Karin Peterson, “Site Lines: Connecticut’s Freedom Trail,” Connecticut Explored, Winter 2012-2013.