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Welcome to your free bi-weekly newsletter from Connecticut Explored with the latest stories, the newest Grating the Nutmeg podcast, programs and exhibitions from our partners to see/watch this month, and more!
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Surveyors Make (and Re-Make) Their Mark
If you ever hear a land surveyor mention searching for “monuments,” they’re not talking about stone statues of heroic figures; they’re trying to locate physical markers of a property boundary line. Markers that may be a century old, set by a surveyor who is no longer alive at a location preserved in a map in the local land records vault.
When it comes time to locate a property’s boundaries in the real-world landscape, these monuments can be of great help. However, because these objects exist in the physical realm, they risk being moved, destroyed, or lost.
The Fall issue photo essay is a window into the hidden lives of monuments.
The monument pictured above helps to mark the line between Connecticut and New York. “CONN” and “NY” were carved into the granite, along with the year it was originally set in the ground, 1909.
Today, the monument is badly leaning.
Above, we see contemporary surveyors in the process of setting a new monument on the Connecticut-Massachusetts border in 1999 as part of the continual maintenance of the boundary line. By regulation, monuments stick out 3 feet above the ground, but the entire structure is 9 feet long.
What happens when two states disagree over their dividing line? What about when a new neighborhood is built and a monument stands in the way of a sidewalk? The article explores these questions and reveals how surveyors must rely extensively on work done by past generations of surveyors.
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The Latest from Grating the Nutmeg
Connecticut Lighthouses: Lifesaving Beacons Along the Shore
In any gift shop in New England, you’ll probably find lighthouses pictured on tea towels and tee shirts and in snow globes. Lighthouses are fondly thought of as community landmarks and icons.
Some Connecticut lighthouses are now private homes, but many can be enjoyed by the public including several that are periodically opened to the public by some of the state’s history museums. As early as the 1880’s, the federal government encouraged lighthouse keepers to open the lighthouses to visitors and tourists.
Hear from Susan Tamulevich, Executive Director of the New London Maritime Society since 2008, during which time the NLMS became the steward of three area lighthouses, and Jordan Jackson, a listener and lighthouse fan who shares her first-hand account of visiting the Sheffield Island Lighthouse in Norwalk Harbor.
Listen: Connecticut Lighthouses: Lifesaving Beacons Along the Shore
Programs and Exhibitions to Enjoy This Month
Hartford History Lecture Series Kicks Off
Thursday Sept. 28 | 5:45 PM | Old State House, also available via stream
By revealing the narrative power of real things and real places, Hartford History Lectures celebrate the value of local knowledge and access to primary resources with a series of public lectures.
Come to the first event September 28, Hartford's Cemeteries & Burying Grounds: Where Art & History Meet, at the Old State House.
Save the date for the rest of the “Hartford’s Hidden Treasures” series:
Oct. 5: Why Hartford’s Ethnic Heritage Matters Today, Dr. Fiona Vernal
Oct. 7: Trinity College Architecture & Archives Walking Tour (at Trinity College Rocky Ridge campus), Prof. Alden Gordon
Oct. 12: Tales & Treasures: Exploring Hartford through Trinity College Archives & Watkinson Library, Dr. Christina M. Bleyer, Eric Stoykovich & Eric Johnson-DeBaufre
Oct. 19: From Historical Society to Museum of Culture and History: 200 Years of Collecting Connecticut's Stories, Andrea Rapacz and Andrea Slater
Nov. 2: Wadsworth Atheneum's First Century: Collections and Patrons (at the Wadsworth Atheneum), William Hosley
Register here for all of the lectures in the free series!
If you plan to watch online, the LIVE stream for each lecture will be available on the Connecticut's Old State House YouTube and Facebook pages on the day of the event.
🎶 History-Based Music Festival in Ridgefield 🎶
September 15 – 17 | Fri. & Sat. 7 p.m.; Sun. 4 p.m. | Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center
Heritage in Motion: Identity Through Music is three-day music- and history-based collaborative event held at Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center in Ridgefield. Each day’s program will feature a performance by exceptional Connecticut-based musicians, as well as an interactive experience, all designed to explore the evolution of cultural heritage and the part music plays in identity. Friday: The Origins of Salsa: The Puerto Rican Heritagel Saturday: Connecticut Composers: The Musical Identity of Our Stat, Sunday: Samba, Choros, and Bossa Nova: The Music of Brazil
Purchase tickets here for between $10 - 45
56th Annual Lebanon Antique Sale
Saturday, Sept. 30 | 9 am to 3 pm | Lebanon Town Green (856 Trumbull Highway, Lebanon)
Up to 60 antique dealers at this classic annual event on the Lebanon Green. There will also be coffee & donuts, grilled hot dogs & burgers Homemade chowders, sandwiches and slices of pie.
For more information visit: historyoflebanon.org/ Free parking. $8 admission.
Listen to our Latest Podcast and Visit a Lighthouse!
There are many ways to visit Connecticut’s lighthouses. The Cross Sound Ferry from New London has a cruise that includes sailing by eight lighthouses available until October 9th. Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven is open until November 1st-a perfect place for a close look at an early lighthouse, a walk on the beach or a sandwich.
Editor’s Picks
Want to explore the topics featured in this edition of the e-Newsletter? Check out these stories from the archives.
“Surveying Connecticut’s Borders,” Connecticut Explored, Spring 2012.
“Written in Stone: How Connecticut’s Landscape Shapes Our Lives,” Connecticut Explored, Summer 2006.
“Stonington’s First Family of Lighthouse Keepers,” Connecticut Explored, Spring 2019.
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