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!
This is my first issue as the new publisher of Connecticut Explored and my first “CTExplored/Inbox.” I recently retired after 25 years as a professor of history at Central Connecticut State University, where I taught courses in early American history, legal history, Native American history, and digital history. I was a dedicated reader of this magazine from its first inception. Elizabeth Normen has given us a treasure in Connecticut Explored, and I look forward to continuing her work and taking the magazine into the future.
Fall 2022/Special Anniversary Issue:
The Future of Connecticut History
We’re introducing our special FALL 2022 20th Anniversary issue in which we celebrate 20 Game Changers who are changing the face of Connecticut history.
First, though, we look back at the founding of Connecticut Explored, which began life as The Hog River Journal.
How to Start a Local History Magazine:
Connecticut history, one good story after another.
As she stepped down as founding publisher of Connecticut Explored after 20 years, the Board asked Elizabeth Normen to record the history of the magazine. Her reflections show what a small but determined group of people can do.
Members of the editorial team receiving the Connecticut Humanities Council’s Wilbur Cross Award from CTH board president Carol Clapp, held at the Beinecke Library, Yale University, 2005. (l to r) Joan Jacobs Williams, Mark Jones, Cindy Cormier, Nancy Albert, Elizabeth Normen, Carol Clapp, Clarissa Ceglio, Janice Mathews, Jennifer LaRue. Not pictured: John Alves
In 2000, Elizabeth was working as interim director of the Hill-stead Museum in Farmington. Cindy Cormier, the Hill-stead’s curator, and Elizabeth called on their colleagues in museums and academia to see who might be interested in working on developing a publication that would combine news about programs and events with stories of history itself. A core group of people stepped forward to create and fund the magazine (see the Honor Roll on page 32).
One thing everyone agreed on was that they wanted “to marry history with a very contemporary design aesthetic,” like the magazine is now. But at the time, Elizabeth worried “that potential funders would be conjuring in their mind’s eye something dull and fusty.” The group was imagining “a dynamic, glossy, and full color” publication, “with big historic images and lively, well-told stories.’
The publication started out as a Greater Hartford history magazine, so they adopted the name Hog River Journal, changed to Connecticut Explored in Fall 2009, four years after the magazine went statewide. "Hog River was the nickname for the storied stream, prone to flooding, that had been buried under Hartford in the 1940s. For Elizabeth, “Hog River Journal was edgy and memorable, but it had its downsides. It didn’t resonate with anyone outside the Greater Hartford area, and the word ‘hog’ was not appealing to many people. Even so, 20 years later, I still gets comments from longtime and loyal subscribers who have never forgiven us for changing the name!”
Elizabeth recalled the early days, “In a walk down memory lane, I re-read my publisher’s letter from our seventh issue, in which I describe how we operated, and it gave me a good chuckle. “When Susan Christensen of Fox 61 News offered to do a story about Hog River Journal last May, she suggested they come film the staff at our offices, putting the magazine together. But HRJ has no offices, and the ability to function without the expense of a physical location is, in part, what makes [the magazine] possible.” I further explain what a home office is (“outfitted with computer and Internet connection”!) and how “business is conducted between [editorial team] meetings by phone and e-mail.” How completely normal this way of working has become, and yet I remember feeling embarrassed, panicked, and flummoxed as to how to respond to Christensen’s suggestion!”
Connecticut Explored now hosts a podcast, Grating the Nutmeg, in conjunction with the State Historian, Emeritus, Walt Woodward, of the University of Connecticut. We also publish books (Where I Live: Connecticut in 2017 for grades 3 and 4 and Venture Smith’s Colonial Connecticut (2019) for grades 5 to 8). African American Connecticut Explored compiled 50 essays by 30 of the state’s leading authorities on African American history and was published collaboratively by Wesleyan University Press with The Amistad Center for Art & Culture. With a State Historic Preservation Office grant in hand, we commissioned new essays by three collaborating scholars: Dr. Stacey Close, the late Dr. Katherine Harris, and Dr. Frank Mitchell. It provides one of the first public history volumes that explores “the long arc of the African American experience in Connecticut.”
Over the years, the number of organizational partners grew, and today there are 33. The publishing team has been remarkably stable. John Alves has designed the magazine since the beginning. Mary Donohue, who has been the assistant publisher for ten years, will retire in September.
Elizabeth created a history magazine that has flourished for 20 years, something many people doubted she could do. “Connecticut Explored has from Day 1 been a subscriber-supported publication. The key to our success has been our loyal subscribers and donor group Friends of Connecticut Explored.”
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Elizabeth Normen is the Founding Publisher and Executive Director, Emeritus, of Connecticut Explored. She organized this Fall 2022 issue, which is her last one. A frequent contributor to the magazine, she last wrote “George Washington in Connecticut,” Summer 2022.
We hope you’ll subscribe at CTExplored.org/Shop for just $30/year ($25/year for seniors and members of our organizational partners).
Or, subscribe to CTExplored/Inbox PREMIUM to read full texts of stories online only, just $30/year.
Or try us out with our First One Free Offer.
The Fund for Excellence in Publishing
As we begin to celebrate Connecticut Explored’s 20th anniversary this fall, the Board of Connecticut Explored has announced The Fund for Excellence in Publishing.
Board member Olivia White explained, “The Board sees this as an opportunity to honor the immense contributions of CTExplored’s retiring Founding Publisher, Elizabeth J. Normen, who has generously served without compensation for 20 years, and Assistant Publisher Mary Donohue, who will also retire after 9 years of service; the fund will also recognize the creative contributions of 20-year Art Director John Alves and the steadfast professional work of Editor of 17 years Jennifer LaRue, both of whom will continue with the publication.”
The Fund will help CTExplored transition to a paid Executive Director & Publisher position for the first time in 20 years and ensure our continuing excellence in publishing in the years to come.
Please consider giving a special donation to help us continue for another 20 years!
Kids’ Page: Jackie Robinson Changes the Game
Jackie Robinson was a game changer. The first African American to play Major League Baseball, he became one of the sport’s all-time greats. Robinson also worked for change off the field as a civil rights advocate.
Front cover of a Jackie Robinson comic book, c. 1951 Library of Congress.
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Georgia in 1919, but he grew up in California. He excelled in sports in high school and college. He was an officer in the U.S. Army during World War II. After the war, he joined the Kansas City Monarchs baseball team. The Monarchs played in a “Negro” league. Black players weren’t allowed in the Major Leagues.
Times were changing. Robinson was invited to join the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He became the first Black player in the Major Leagues. In 1955 Robinson and his family moved to Stamford, Connecticut. He retired from baseball in 1957 and became a successful businessman. He passed away in 1972.
Read the entire story online. This story is available for free.
Also, see our story “African American Greats in Connecticut Baseball,” Summer, 2018.
148. Rediscovering the Battle of Ridgefield
The discovery of four 18th century male skeletons thought to be possible soldiers in the April 27, 1777 Battle of Ridgefield, prompted the most in-depth research into that crucial Revolutionary War conflict ever undertaken. In this presentation to the town sponsored by the Ridgefield Historical Society earlier this year, state historian Walt Woodward, historian Keith Jones, state archaeologist emeritus Nick Bellantoni, state archaeologist Sarah Sportman, archeologist Kevin McBride, and Historian David Naumec report on their discoveries to date.
Read more! Our back issues cover the Battle of Ridgefield and the Revolutionary War in Fairfield County:
"Benedict Arnold and the Battle of Ridgefield," Winter 2017-2018
"Fairfield Set Ablaze," Spring 2009
Enjoying our podcasts? You might also like Mike Allen’s Amazing Tales CT. His latest episode is “Curses, Buried Treasure, Ghosts - Milford's Charles Island Has it All.”
Programs and Exhibitions to Enjoy This Month
September 14, 6 – 8 p.m.
Uncovering Their History: African, African-American, and Native-American Burials in Hartford’s Ancient Burying Ground, 1640 – 1815
New Haven Museum, 114 Whitney Avenue, Hartford
Dr. Katherine Hermes, lead researcher for Hartford’s Ancient Burying Ground Association project (and newly appointed CTExplored publisher), will present new research she’s uncovered about the people of color buried in Hartford’s Ancient Burying Ground and the innovative RelationshipTree software application she created to more fully map histories that include slavery and other kinds of kinship relationships. Co-hosted by the Friends of Grove Street Cemetery. This program will be virtual. Visit newhavenmuseum.org to register.
September 21, 6 – 8 p.m.
Pablo Delano and Elena Rosario in Conversation
Park Street Library @ The Lyric, 603 Park Street, Hartford~Park Branch Community Room
AGE GROUP: TEENS, ADULTS PROGRAM TYPE: CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, ARTS
The Hartford History Center at Hartford Public Library will host emerging historian Elena Rosario and artist and educator Pablo Delano in conversation about how Puerto Rico and its history inform their work. Delano will discuss his work The Museum of the Old Colony, and Elena will discuss her research into early Puerto Rican migration to Hartford. Visit the Hartford History Center’s exhibition Puerto Ricans Making Hartford Home from 6 to 7 p.m.; the conversation begins at 7 p.m.
September 22, 2022 Stowe Prize
The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center is delighted to announce Dr. Clint Smith as the 2022 Stowe Prize winner for his New York Times bestselling book How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery across America. Join a free virtual program streamed online and screened on the Stowe Center grounds on Thursday, September 22 (rain date September 23). The program will feature Dr. Smith’s assessment of the Stowe Center’s role and responsibility as a museum teaching race history through the narrative of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s life and writing and as an organization mission-driven to inspire social justice and positive change. Visit stowecenter.org for details.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, HarrietBeecherStoweCenter.org
Editors’ Picks
"Benedict Arnold and the Battle of Ridgefield," Winter 2017-2018
"Fairfield Set Ablaze," Spring 2009
Media about our CT Explored Game Changers:
Article Aug 17, 2022 in the Hartford Courant, "These 20 historic ‘Game Changers’ herald Connecticut’s untold stories," by Susan Dunne
Article Aug 26, 2022 in the Hartford Courant, New Haven edition, "How the untold stories of past Black and indigenous Hartford residents will be revealed," By Deidre Montague
Interview Aug 26, 2022 with Tom Kuser, WSHU Fairfield, "Unseen No More:" at 32:41.
Fox61 on August 18, 2022 "Connecticut Explored magazine highlights '20 for 20' game changers in advancing state history"
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