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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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“A Period of Strong Political Excitement”: The 1832 Libel Trial of P.T. Barnum
P.T. Barnum’s career in publishing came about in large part because he had written a letter in 1831 to the editor of the Danbury Recorder, expressing an opinion that religious revivalism was leading Christianity and politics to sit a little too closely for comfort. When the local editors refused to publish his letter, the 22-year-old Barnum decided the best way to get his letters printed was to start up his own paper.
Fashioning himself as a crusader for liberal values and rational discourse, he bought a printing press and began publishing a weekly paper dubbed the Herald of Freedom, which grandly proclaimed: “For I have sworn upon the Altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” A masthead announced that the paper was “Printed every Wednesday morning, a few rods from the meeting-house in Bethel, by Phineas T. Barnum.”
During his 3 year tenure with the Herald of Freedom, Barnum was sued for libel three times. In this Fall issue feature, Betsy Golden Kellem tells the whole story of this chapter in the famous showman’s life. If you read the newspaper clipping below, you’ll get some idea of how this drama played out. Kellem contextualizes this legal battle as an example of “the interplay between old structures and new voices” happening at a pivotal moment in Connecticut history.
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The Latest From Grating the Nutmeg
Connecticut’s Very Pink House - Roseland Cottage
It’s the summer of Barbie. Barbiecore, an homage to the stylish doll, is everywhere in fashion and home furnishings. It’s time to think pink!
So this episode is on Connecticut’s own Victorian Barbie Dream House - Roseland Cottage in Woodstock. How many shades of pink has Roseland Cottage been? We’ll find out! We hear from Laurie Masciandaro, site manager of Roseland Cottage museum owned by Historic New England.
Listen: Connecticut's Very Pink House - Roseland Cottage
Programs and Exhibitions to Enjoy This Month
Gardens & Galleries: Hip Hop at 50
Sunday, September 10 | 4 to 8 PM| Hill-Stead
Hill-Stead Museum and the Amistad Center for Art & Culture are joining hands to bring you a one-of-a-kind Hip Hop Festival in two installments. Drawn from the nine discrete elements of Hip Hop (dancing, rapping, street art, etc.), the programs for each venue will complement one another. Both programs will be headlined by Khaiim the RapOet. The first installment is at the gardens of Hill-Stead on Sunday, September 10 and the second in the galleries of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art on Thursday, November 2.
Get your tickets now: https://hillstead.ticketing.veevartapp.com/.../gardens...
Women in the New Haven Art Scene
On view now | New Haven Museum
Profiles: Ruth McIntosh Cogswell and Dorothy Cogswell tells the story of two remarkable women through the art they created and the students they inspired.
Ruth McIntosh Cogswell (1885-1944) grew up in New Haven and attended the Yale School of Fine Arts in 1905-06. She was an art educator and artist renowned for her intricate silhouette work. Her daughter, Dorothy Cogswell (1909-2008), was the first woman to earn an MFA from the Yale School of Fine Arts and later served as chair of the Department of Art at Mount Holyoke College. The exhibition’s photographs, watercolors, pencil drawings and silhouettes give a glimpse of the New Haven arts scene in the early 20th century and allows present-day audiences to consider the role women played in establishing the New Haven arts community that exists today.
Author Talk at Mark Twain
Wednesday, September 13 | 7 pm | Mark Twain House & Museum
Esmeralda Santiago, the award-winning, best-selling author, will be joined by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, recently named as head of The Academy of American Poets, to discuss her new novel Las Madres: a powerful story of family, race, faith, sex, and disaster that moves between Puerto Rico and the Bronx, revealing the lives and loves of five women and the secret that binds them together.
In-Person Event: $42 for non-members, $37 for MTH&M Members. Admission includes a signed copy of Las Madres that ticket holders will pick up at the event.
Editor’s Picks
Want to explore the topics featured in this edition of the e-Newsletter? Check out these stories and podcasts from the archives.
“P.T. Barnum Builds a City,” Connecticut Explored, Winter 2021-2022.
“Tom Thumb and the Age of Celebrity,” Connecticut Explored, Spring 2015.
Special CPTV Audio Documentary: The P. T. Barnum You Never Knew, Grating the Nutmeg
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