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! In this issue, we bring you the story of the New England Hebrew Farmers of the Emanuel Society, news on current efforts to preserve the history of attorneys of color, and a GTN podcast on Connecticut’s Western Reserve in Ohio.
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Journey to Preserve the History of Attorneys of Color
Robyn Johnson is a judge of the Connecticut Superior Court assigned to the Hartford Judicial District, and she’s on a mission to preserve the stories of attorneys of color. At the Woman in Black induction ceremony in 2018, hosted at the Connecticut Legislation Building, she witnessed the unveiling of historical photographs of forty female judges. These photographs were part of the Connecticut Bar Foundation's Women in Law history project, which seeks to "record the path followed by female lawyers in their careers with a focus on work/life balance in the profession."
The experience made Johnson realize that she knew every female judge of color in Connecticut History. As a result, she was inspired to take on the Connecticut Bar Foundation's second history project: The History of Attorneys of Color. A committee was formed in 2009, and Johnson became the Chairperson in 2020. The group comprises educators, students, and attorneys interested in preserving history for a "future movement of social change." The efforts sought to educate the public on these attorneys' impact on the state.
Such efforts include recognizing the many affinity bar associations in Connecticut that have had significant educational and networking impacts on their members' lives. A written timeline documenting the milestones of attorneys of color was available at a symposium held in 2022. Johnson's role now is to preserve oral histories in a one-hour format. Recording will begin this year with sixteen honorees identified by four bar associations. These oral histories and the timeline already created will be crucial in retelling the story of attorneys of color in Connecticut.
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The New England Hebrew Farmers of the Emanuel Society
Looking to learn more about the history of Jewish communities in Connecticut? Did you know Montville was home to a synagogue built in 1892 that served a large immigrant farming community for decades? As a descendant of immigrants who came to Chesterfield in 1890, Nancy Savin writes about the site's history and her efforts to preserve what remains. The synagogue was what Savin described as "the nerve center" of the New England Hebrew Farmers of the Emanuel Society. This society became a vibrant Russian Jewish community of over fifty families that flourished in Chesterfield from 1891 to the 1940s.
In Europe, prohibitions against owning land, entering certain professions, and other anti-Jewish policies in the 1880s led the banker and industrialist Baron Maurice de Hirsch auf Gereuth to take action. As a German Jewish man, Baron said, " I am ready to stake my wealth and my intellectual powers, to give to a portion of my companions in faith the possibility of finding a new existence, primarily as farmers, and also as handicraftsmen, in those lands where the laws and religious tolerance permit them to carry on the struggle for existence as noble and responsible subjects of a humane government." He started a Jewish Colonization Association in London in 1889, eventually spreading to the United States, with the Chesterfield community being one of the earliest.
The Chesterfield community is represented with justice through Savin's retelling of their story, much of it coming from her own family's history. Her maternal great-great-grandfather, Hirsch Kaplan of Ukraine, was an unordained rabbi who created a Jewish immigrant group called Agudas Achim. Hearing about the inexpensive farmland in Connecticut, they traveled to Chesterfield from Williamsburg, with Kaplan as their leader. Savin and other descendants of the society had worked to preserve their heritage and history, even when the original Synagogue was burned down in 1975. The New England Emanuel Society Synagogue and Creamery Site was named Connecticut's 24th State Archaeological preserve in 2007 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. Savin transferred the title to the Synagogue to the Archaeological Conservancy in 2022.
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The Latest from Grating the Nutmeg
159. Stories from Connecticut’s Western Reserve in Ohio
In 1662, Connecticut was to stretch from the “Narraganset-Bay on the East, to the South Sea on the West Part” through a royal charter given to the colony. Connecticut gave most of its claimed land over to the federal government in 1786, reserving only a piece of territory in present-day Ohio to use for resources and settlement. This territory became the Connecticut Western Reserve.
Author and historian Mary Donohue interviews Alex Dubois and Linda Hocking from the Litchfield Historical Society to discuss their research on the peoples of the Western Reserve from their upcoming In the Land of Milk and Honey exhibition. Find out why people from Connecticut felt compelled to leave New England for a life in the west. Learn about the Native peoples who were forced to leave their lands after the arrival of migrants and about the enslaved people who were brought to the Reserve against their will. Discover why Black migrants settled in Ohio despite continued discrimination.
Listen: Stories from Connecticut’s Western Reserve in Ohio
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Programs and Exhibitions to Enjoy This Month
Chromatopia: Stories of Color in Art
Don't miss your chance to see Chromatopia: Stories of Color in Art at Lyman Allyn Art Museum before it leaves on March 5. This family-friendly exhibit includes more than thirty objects drawn from Lyman Allyn’s collection, including Chinese ceramics and Greek and Egyptian artifacts, to explore the rich history of pigments and dyes and their impact on art and culture.
Lyman Allyn Art Museum; lymanallyn.org
Alfred Pope: An Evolution of Ingenuity
Visit the Hill-stead Museum to see the Alfred Pope: An Evolution of Ingenuity exhibition, which will be on view until May 30. Alfred Atmore Pope was a leading collector of European modernism and the father of the museum’s founder. This exhibition reunites the works he once owned in celebration of its 75th anniversary.
Hill-Stead Museum; https://www.hillstead.org/
Mattatuck Museum Opening Celebration for Spring Exhibitions
Join the Mattatuck Museum to celebrate the latest exhibitions on March 5 from 11:00 to 5:00. Mattatuck Museum Director Bob Burns, Curators Keffie Feldman, and Natalie DeQuarto, artist Natali Bravo-Barbee (Femicide Florals) will open with remarks at 1 PM. The event includes specialty cocktails provided by Litchfield Distillery created for each exhibition from 12 PM to 3 PM.
Members: FREE | General Admission: $5
Mattatuck Museum; https://www.mattmuseum.org/
Editor’s Picks
"UConn Law: The Trailblazing Bessye Bennett," Connecticut Explored, Spring 2019.
"Unburying Hartford's Native and African Family Histories, "Connecticut Explored, Fall 2019.
“Faith Amidst the Fields: Connecticut's Country Synagogues,”Connecticut Explored, Winter 2010/2011.
"How Segregation Happened In West Hartford," Connecticut Explored, Summer 2019.
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