Welcome to the latest issue of CTExplored/Inbox, a bi-weekly newsletter from Connecticut Explored. Every other week, we share that latest stories, the newest Grating the Nutmeg podcast, programs and exhibitions from our partners to see/watch this month, and more! Share it with friends and encourage them to sign up!
What Color is Your Water?
“George McArthur could tell the day of the week by the shade of black presented by the water of Danbury’s Still River flowing over his milldam in 1893,” historian Bill Devlin begins in his story in the Spring 2021 issue. At the end of every week, Danbury’s hat “factories emptied their dye vats into the sluggish stream. Earlier each week, the river’s color was tainted by raw sewage pouring from the City of Danbury’s outfall sewer, a mile and a half upstream. The smell from the untreated effluent made the workmen sick. Cows developed rashes after wading in the river, and families fell sick after eating fish caught in it. ‘What next from the stream,’ asked The Danbury News, ‘is the question of the day.’”
Yikes.
The industrial revolution brought prosperity to Connecticut in the 19th century—something we’re justly proud of (see lots of those stories at ctexplored.org/made-in-connecticut), but it came at a high cost to our rivers and streams.
In an era before septic systems, sewers and treatments plants, people relied on outhouses that deposited human waste right into streams and rivers or dangerously close to drinking water sources. Industry used the same rudimentary method.
“Though the common-law legal doctrine of riparian rights held that a user of a stream had a right to its use unimpeded by the actions of others upstream,” Devlin notes, folks like McArthur and residents everywhere got little relief. We understand now the public health hazard this was, but at the time, the science was just catching up.
It took a shockingly long time, Devlin reveals, for cities across the state—whose population had swelled after the Civil War—to address the problem. Real action would not come until well into the 20th century. It wasn’t until 1925 that the Connecticut General Assembly established a water board (a forerunner of today’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection). Forty years later, Devlin reports, 90 percent of the state’s sewage and only 40 percent of its industrial waste was being treated. Federal action came with the Clean Water Act of 1972, which was based, in part, on Connecticut’s state clean water act passed in 1967. Read the full story with a Premium Inbox subscription or check out these options:
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The Latest from Grating the Nutmeg
Celebrating Women’s History Month
Episode 113: Yale Needs Women
43 minutes. Release date: March 1, 2021
In 1969 Yale University welcomed its first class of undergraduate women. In this episode, CTExplored’s Mary Donohue interviews historian and Yale alumna Anne Gardiner Perkins, author of Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant, and New Haven leader Constance Royster, one of Yale’s first women to earn a B.A. (cum laude). She holds a J.D. from Rutgers University Law School – Newark. Perkins is an award-winning historian and higher education expert. Yale Needs Women won the 2020 Connecticut Book Award.
Programs and Exhibitions to Enjoy This Month
Selma to Montgomery Remembered
Freedom Journey 1965: Photographs of the Selma to Montgomery March by Stephen Somerstein, a special exhibition on view at the Connecticut Historical Society through June 5, features Stephen Somerstein’s stunning and historic photographs documenting the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights March in March 1965. Somerstein was a student at City College of New York and picture editor of its student newspaper when he traveled to Alabama to document the march, including Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, James Baldwin, and Bayard Rustin.
Connecticut Historical Society, 1 Elizabeth Street, Hartford. chs.org; 860-236-5621
FACTORY Online
Visit New Haven Museum’s FACTORY exhibition on the museum’s new YouTube series “FACTORY Weekly.” Join exhibition curator Jason Bischoff-Wurstle as he highlights the exhibition and details the underground history of the New Haven Clock Company factory from the 1850s to 2000 on the New Haven Museum’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/channel/UCpELt9K7u2TcAx6JHlsD62w.
Read Jason’s story, “The Reinvention of the New Haven Clock Company Factory,” Spring 2020.
New Haven Museum, 114 Whitney Avenue, New Haven. newhavenmuseum.org, 203-562-4183
American-Made Gifts
The Betts Store (Wilton Historical Society’s museum shop), like the original 18th-century Betts Store, features locally-made and one-of-a-kind items, many of which are hand-crafted. The definitive history Wilton, Connecticut: Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress by Bob Russell is always in stock. It is easy to shop online, and contactless pick-up in person or shipping to your home is available.
Wilton Historical Society, 224 Danbury Road/Route 7, Wilton. 203-762-7257; wiltonhistorical.org
Landscapes Then and Now
By searching on Google Earth for Lisbon, Connecticut, one can acquire a current aerial view of the scene depicted in the 1850s in artist John Denison Crocker’s “Edward Tracy Farm.” Many of Crocker’s paintings trace the environmental evolution of Norwich and its environs from principally agrarian to industrial use through the 19th century and commercial use into the 20th century. On view in the Slater Museum (now re-opened) are many more canvases by Crocker documenting the environment as it was 150 years ago.
Slater Memorial Museum, 108 Crescent Street, Norwich. 860-887-2506; slatermuseum.org
Editors’ Picks
Stories we love from back issues to read now.
“Pleasure Boating on the Connecticut River,” Summer 2018
“Taking a Ride Down the Hog River,” Summer 2008
“Stafford Springs Mineral Water Company,” Spring 2007
Kids’ Page Extra!
Connecticut Explored stories for elementary school students.
Women’s History Month: “If You Can See It, You Can Be It: What Does History Say?”
Find all of our resource for students at CTHistoryforKids.org and for teachers at ctexplored.org/teach.
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