The Sampler

March 1, 2025

Dr. Benjamin Foster Jr.: A Powerful Voice for Quality Public Education

By Stacey Close   In 1971, Benjamin Foster Jr. received his undergraduate degree in sociology from Trinity College in Hartford. Though African American students had attended Trinity, Connecticut’s second oldest institution of higher education, before […]
December 1, 2024

The Farm Workers’ Movement from California to Connecticut

By Arianna Basche   Labor activist Cesar Chavez first visited Connecticut in 1969 on the northeastern leg of his national speaking tour. He addressed an audience of labor leaders and clergy at the Hartford Seminary […]
August 31, 2024

The Radioactivists: Nuclear Power, Weapons, and Protest in Connecticut

Subscribe By Amrys O. Williams   Walking home along South Main Street in Middletown many years ago, I noticed writing in the sidewalk ahead. When these patches had been laid, someone had written messages in […]
May 31, 2024

Remembering John Mason: An Overview

VOLUME 22/NUMBER 3/SUMMER 2024       Connecticut Explored By David J. Naumec After more than 385 years, the Pequot War (1636–1638) remains one of the most controversial events in American history. It forever changed Connecticut’s […]
December 2, 2023

From Piano Veneers to Gliders: Industry and Innovation in Ivoryton

By Andy King In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Ivoryton laborers spent their days at factories owned by Comstock, Cheney & Company, and Pratt, Read & Company, cutting wood, bleaching ivory, and assembling piano […]
September 1, 2023

Uncovering the Hidden Lives of New Haven

By Sarah J. Morin Court records are a treasure trove of information. People from all rungs of society have appeared in court throughout history, and a court case may be the only documented record of […]
June 1, 2023

Memories of Puerto Rican Migration

(c) Connecticut Explored, Summer, 2023 By Karen Ali Subscribe/Buy the Issue! (c) Summer 2023 In 1955 residents of Puerto Rico began coming to Windham looking for a better way of life. Word started spreading of […]
March 3, 2023

CT History for Kids: Connecticut’s National Historical Parks

(c) Connecticut Explored Inc., Spring 2023 Subscribe/Buy the Issue! This issue of Connecticut Explored is all about the power of place. Writers tell the stories of places that have shaped the history of our state. Connecticut […]
December 1, 2022

Game Changer:The New London Black Heritage Trail

By Tom Schuch and Curtis K. Goodwin (c) Connecticut Explored Inc., Winter 2022-23 Subscribe/Buy the Issue! The New London Black Heritage Trail was officially unveiled on October 8, 2021, the result of a year-long collaborative […]
August 26, 2022

Treating the Mind in Times Past

By Ben Gammell (c) Connecticut Explored Inc., Fall 2022 Subscribe/Buy the Issue! On January 13, 1771, Mary Fish Noyes, a 34-year-old widow and mother, wrote in her diary about the weather. “So stormy I could […]
May 17, 2022

Photographing Wartime Connecticut

By Mary M. Donohue and Elizabeth J. Normen (c) Connecticut Explored Inc. Summer 2022 Subscribe/Buy the Issue! All images are courtesy of the Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library of […]
November 27, 2021

Agnes Watson: A Tourist’s View

By Elizabeth J. Normen (c) Connecticut Explored Inc. Winter 2021-2022 Subscribe/Buy the Issue! In September 1889 Agnes Watson of Scotland, with her husband and one of her children, visited her uncle Henry Affleck in Glastonbury. […]
August 17, 2021

Stowe’s Victorian Home For Our Time

By Briann Greenfield with Beth Burgess (c) Connecticut Explored Inc. Fall 2021 Subscribe/Buy the Issue! The Gothic Revival-style house on Forest Street in Hartford that Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in and enjoyed from 1873 to […]
June 30, 2021

Grating Nutmeg 121.  Rooted in History: Connecticut’s Trees

In this episode, Dr. Leah Glaser and students from her 2021 Public History class at Central Connecticut State University present stories about the state’s witness trees—a project that evolved out of a semester-long class about […]
May 19, 2021

Visually Breathtaking Hartford Explored

By Pablo Delano (c) Connecticut Explored Inc. Summer 2021 Subscribe/Buy the Issue! All images © Pablo Delano Even before moving to the area in 1996 to start my new job at Trinity College, I had […]
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