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!
Winter 2021-2022 / In Their Own Words
Voices from the past—an aspiring gold miner, a 6-year-old girl at sea, a fugitive from slavery, a Patriot at war, a Pequot son, a New Woman artist—all are featured in our new Winter 2021-2022 issue. They speak their truth and will transport you back in time!
Rediscovering William Grimes, The Runaway Slave
“In 1991, years before the Internet,” Regina Mason writes in the Winter 2021-2022 issue, “I had begun to conduct genealogical research to see if I could find truth in a story my Aunt Katherine had told me when I was 11, in 1971. It was a thin tale that amounted to three little clues. She told me that we had an ancestor from New Haven, Connecticut named Grimes who had a connection with the Underground Railroad. I was just learning about American history in school, and the reference to the Underground Railroad was huge. It signaled an anti-slavery attitude that had me, a child, wondering who Grimes was.”
Mason tells of her 23-year journey towards discovering her family’s connection to the remarkable William Grimes in her story “Rediscovering William Grimes, the Runaway Slave” in the Winter 2021-2022 issue.
Grimes escaped enslavement in Georgia in 1815 and published his life story in 1825. “I was born in the year 1784,” he writes, “in a land boasting its freedom, and under a government whose motto is Liberty and Equality. I was yet born a slave.”
While Mason’s journey took her to archives and to collaborate with Professor William Andrews of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, it was ultimately a family bible that her Aunt Katherine found in her attic that brought Mason face to face with the evidence she was looking for.
Read the full story in the Winter 2021/2022 issue with a CT Explore/Inbox PREMIUM or print subscription—now on sale! (scroll down for links)
Venture Smith: “Thanks for My Gold Rings”
Venture Smith’s narrative, published in New London in 1798, is among the earliest published autobiographies by a Black person in the United States. Connecticut Explored has adapted it for use in the middle-school classroom.
From a longer excerpt of his narrative featured in the Winter 2021-2022 issue about one of the most compelling events in his long life, Smith writes,
“… I was then at work in the barn, and hearing a racket in the house, induced me to run there and see what had broken out. When I entered the house, I found my mistress in a violent passion with my wife, for what she informed me was a mere trifle; such a small affair that I forbear to put my mistress to the shame of having it known. I earnestly requested my wife to beg pardon of her mistress for the sake of peace, even if she had given no just occasion for offence. But whilst I was thus saying my mistress turned the blows which she was repeating on my wife to me. She took down her horse-whip, and while she was glutting her fury with it, I reached out my great black hand, raised it up and received the blows of the whip on it which were designed for my head. Then I immediately committed the whip to the devouring fire.”
But that’s not the end of this Connecticut story. The “gold rings” Smith tauntingly refers to are shackles. Find out more with a CTExplored print subscription or the full text via your CTExplored/Inbox Premium subscription, both now on sale!
HOLIDAY SALE!
6 for 4 to Your Mailbox
Through 12/31/21, get 6 print issues for the price of 4 (one year) or 10 print issues for the price of 8 (2 years). That’s 2 FREE issues (a $15 value) added to any NEW or GIFT print subscription (excluding the teacher discounted rate)! Use coupon code HOLIDAY21 at CTExplored.org/Shop.
15% Off to Your Inbox
OR, Subscribe for the first time to CTExplored/Inbox PREMIUM for full text of every story and SAVE! Receive 15% off a one-year CTExplored/Inbox PREMIUM subscription through 12/31/21.
Or try us out with our First One Free offer at CTExplored.org/Shop.
The Latest from Grating the Nutmeg
131. When Contraception Was a Crime: Griswold v. Connecticut
Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society is joined by historian Barbara Sicherman, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor Emerita at Trinity College, to discuss the landmark reproductive rights case, Griswold v. Connecticut. Professor Sicherman talks about the origins of the lawsuit, what it meant for women in our state, and its long-term influence on civil rights rulings.
Programs and Exhibitions to Enjoy This Month
Christina Forrer / MATRIX 187
On view at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art through January 2, 2022 is the latest MATRIX exhibition, featuring tapestries by Christina Forrer. Her fantastical compositions explore themes of family discord and environmental strife, using a visual language rooted in classical mythology and the regional folk traditions of the artist’s native Switzerland. The artist has also curated a selection of objects from the Wadsworth’s collections, largely costumes and textiles displayed in dialogue with her weavings.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, thewadsworth.org
Lines, Bands, Loopy Doopy
The New Britain Museum of American Art presents Strict Beauty: Sol LeWitt Prints, on view through Sunday, January 9, 2022. The conceptual artist Sol LeWitt (1928 – 2007) is best known for his programmatic wall drawings and modular structures, but alongside these works he generated more than 350 print projects. Strict Beauty is the most comprehensive presentation of the artist’s printmaking to date, including more than 250 prints, consisting of single prints and print series, and 83 objects.
New Britain Museum of American Art, Nbmaa.org
Sewing & Learning Workshop
Back by popular demand, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center’s Craftivism series presents an online workshop, Sewing & Learning: Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Politics of Pocket Purses, January 15, 2022, 2 – 4:30 pm. Craftivism merges crafting and social activism. This workshop blends crafting, fashion, history, and “making for a cause” through investigating the micro-history of pocket-sized bags and the women who used them to address a range of social and cultural issues.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, HarrietBeecherStoweCenter.org
Miniaturists of the Early Republic
Telling a story of struggle, innovation, and accomplishment, The Way Sisters is a special exhibition on view through January 23, 2022 at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London. The Way Sisters focuses on two remarkable, understudied women artists—Mary Way (1769 – 1833) and Elizabeth Way Champlain (1771 – 1825)—and explores the role of portraiture in the days long before selfies, the art of portrait miniatures, and the artists’ sitters. This is the first museum exhibition to focus on their work.
Lyman Allyn Art Museum, lymanallyn.org
Historic Holiday Cards
Happy Holidays from Slater Memorial Museum! Within the museum’s collection of more than 10,000 objects and artwork is a unique collection of handmade Christmas cards sketched and colored by some of Norwich’s most notable artists and teachers at the Norwich Art School. You can learn more about Slater Museum using the digital lessons and learning resources at slatermuseum.org/learn.
Slater Memorial Museum, slatermuseum.org
Editors’ Picks
Stories we love from back issues to read now.
“Slavery in Connecticut” A collection of stories
"Connecticut Women Fight for Reproductive Rights," Fall 2017
“Connecticut’s Lost Ski Areas,” Fall 2009
“Odell Shepard Reflects on the Connecticut Landscape,” Summer 2008
HOLIDAY SALE!
6 for 4 to Your Mailbox
Through 12/31/21, get 6 print issues for the price of 4 (one year) or 10 print issues for the price of 8 (2 years). That’s 2 FREE issues (a $15 value) added to any NEW or GIFT print subscription! Use coupon code HOLIDAY21 at CTExplored.org/Shop.
15% Off to Your Inbox
OR, Subscribe for the first time to CTExplored/Inbox PREMIUM for full text of every story and SAVE! Receive 15% off a one-year Inbox PREMIUM subscription through 12/31/21.
Or try us out with our First One Free offer at CTExplored.org/Shop.