Welcome to your 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!
Summer 2022 / Outsider Perspectives
Welcome to the Summer issue. In this issue we’re exploring people from outside of Connecticut, the impact they had, and how they viewed our state and its residents.
Photographing Wartime Connecticut
“The Crouch family of Ledyard, Connecticut sat down to a traditional turkey dinner with pie for dessert on November 21, 1940, blissfully unaware that in a year and 17 days’ time the country would be at war,” Mary Donohue writes in our Summer issue’s photoessay. “Jack Delano, the federally-employed photographer who documented the event, had spent that fall traveling around the state recording the small towns, farm families, and factory workers that made up Connecticut. His photographs, along with other photographers who documented Connecticut on behalf of the Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information (FSA-OWI), created an important record of life in Connecticut between 1935 and 1944.”
Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, and Publisher Elizabeth Normen share six iconic images by three iconic FSA-OWI photographers: Jack Delano, Marion Post, and Gordon Parks. None of the three hailed from Connecticut but they turned a photographers’ unflinching eye on the state to capture expanding wartime production, strained housing availability, and the first (and only) federally-subsidized daycare as young mothers poured into the workforce.
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The Hindenburg Flies Over Bridgeport
In her summer 2022 story, Bridgeport native Carolyn Ivonoff tells us about the jolt she received when researching in the Bridgeport History Center’s photo archives. She stumbled across a photo of the Hindenburg flying over the city and had a flash back about her father.
“One of my father’s favorite stories about growing up on Bridgeport’s East Side,” Ivanoff writes, “was the day in 1936 that the Hindenburg flew over St. Mary’s School. He told me that the nuns let all the students out of school to see it cruising above the city. It was a vivid and unforgettable memory for him.” “The aircraft’s commander,” she continues, “radioed to Bridgeport Mayor Jasper McLevy, “… Felicitations to Bridgeport on 100th anniversary of city. Your industrial progress over century brings international note to your community. Best wishes continued success as one of foremost American municipalities.”
Seven months later, the Hindenburg would go up in flames while docking in New Jersey. Three years later, Germany would be at war.
Read the entire story with your print subscription. (Subscribe at CTExplored.org/Shop.)
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The Latest from Grating the Nutmeg
Episode 143: The Need for Speed on the Connecticut River
In this episode, CTExplored Publisher Elizabeth Normen talks with Connecticut River Museum Curator Amy Trout about the museum’s summer exhibition Speed: Hydroplane Racing on the Connecticut River, 1900 – 1940. Trout tells us what a hydroplane is and why racing them became popular in the midst of the Great Depression. As opposed to yachting, she explains, hydroplane racing was an everyman’s sport that people flocked to the riverfront to watch. She talks boat design, which outboard engines were popular, and who the stand-out racers of the 20s and 30s were—a number of whom were young women. Speed is on view through October 9, 2022.
Programs and Exhibitions to Enjoy This Month
For Hamilton Fans
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art invites all Hamilton fans to explore Hamilton: The Art of Remaking History on view June 24 – September 11. While the award-winning musical returns to The Bushnell this summer, fans can visit the Wadsworth to learn how historic imagery informed the costume and set designs brought to life on stage. Visitors will take a fresh look at Revolutionary War-era paintings, costumes, and archival letters in the museum’s collection from the era in which the musical is set. The exhibition is produced in collaboration with The Bushnell Performing Arts Center and the Connecticut Historical Society.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, thewadsworth.org
Contemporary Black Artists on View
The New Britain Museum of American Art presents 30 Americans, on view June 16 to October 30, drawn from the acclaimed Rubell Museum in Miami, Florida. This ground-breaking exhibition tells the story of Black humanity through the gaze of some of the most significant Black artists of the last four decades, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mickalene Thomas, Kara Walker, Hank Willis Thomas, and Kehinde Wiley. The extensive group of paintings, drawings, collages, photography, portraiture, sculptures, installations, and performance art considers the powerful influence of artistic legacy and community across generations.
New Britain Museum of American Art, Nbmaa.org
Community Nights!
You are invited for family-friendly evenings on the third Thursdays in June, July, and August at the Noah Webster House. Mini-tours will explore new discoveries that provide a more complete history of West Hartford. Enjoy the summer weather on the patio with games, food trucks, and more!
Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society; noahwebsterhouse.org
Hartford’s First Women Voters
Now on view in the Hartford History Center at Hartford Public Library, October 1920 is an exhibition that highlights the first women who registered to vote in Hartford following passage of the 19th Amendment in August 1920. Central to the exhibition are scanned and digitized voter registration cards from that year in the Hartford History Center’s collection, photographs, advertisements, newspaper articles, and other historic documents to provide a glimpse of life in Hartford in 1920. October 1920 received a 2021 Award of Merit from the Connecticut League of History Organizations.
Hartford Public Library, hplct.org
Enjoy a Landmarks Summer
Connecticut Landmarks has events going on across its properties all summer long! The Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden, Phelps-Hatheway House & Garden, Butler-McCook House & Garden, Isham-Terry House, Nathan Hale Homestead, and Hempsted Houses all have great programming all season long. In particular, the Nathan Hale Homestead continues to count down toward the America250 celebration in 2026 with its annual “Redcoats, Rebellion, and the Hale Homestead” encampment on August 27 featuring family-friendly activities, demonstrations, and more.
Connecticut Historical Society Museum & Library, chs.org
Read all Summer 2022 program announcements HERE.
Editors’ Picks
Stories we love from back issues to read now.
“Jasper McLevy: Bridgeport Votes for a Change,” Fall 2012
“Pleasure Boating on the Connecticut River,” Summer 2018
Fall 2020: 75th Anniversary of World War II
“Connecticut’s Own Rosie the Riveter,” 2003 Nov/Dec/Jan 2004
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