A can of John McCann Steel Cut Oat Meal shows the name Jos. R. Hawley, President. photo: Henry McNulty

In the Fall 2024 issue, a letter to the editor mentions General Joseph R. Hawley, erstwhile owner of The Hartford Courant, general, senator, representative, governor, and lots more. Your note quotes my father, J. Bard McNulty, who wrote Older Than the Nation. Thanks for quoting Dad! He loved that book, his first of several. I remember quite well the stacks and stacks of bound Courants in our Glastonbury home in the early 1960s.

A close-up of the John McCann Steel Cut Oat Meal can showing Hawley’s name. photo: Henry McNulty

Joseph Hawley’s name can be seen even today—in supermarkets! In addition to everything else, Hawley was the president of the U.S. centennial celebration in 1876. McCann’s steel-cut oatmeal won a medal at the centennial, and that distinction is cited even today on tins of the oatmeal, along with Hawley’s name.

With best wishes,

Henry McNulty

Old Saybrook

As one of the 1,414 protesters arrested at the site of the future Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire in 1977 during a peaceful and historic occupation, I was glad to see the story by Amrys O. Williams (“The Radioactivists: Nuclear Power, Weapons, and Protest in Connecticut”) in your Fall 2024 issue. She thoroughly researched the subject of nuclear protest in New England through many decades, and it was clear she understands the dangers posed by nuclear power—and nuclear weapons. But I was sad to think back on the urgency of those earlier years and the relative silence of today. We need to keep up the fight, now more than ever!

Randall Beach

New Haven

Olivia Grella, Connecticut Explored’s subscription manager, holds one of the passports. photo: Kathy Hermes

A page from Edith M. Carlson’s passport. photo: Kathy Hermes

Readers participated in the Summer Passport Program inspired by our longtime reader Ken Anderson (see “Letters, etc.,” Summer 2024, p.12; ctexplored.org/cte-summer-passport-program/). We asked participants to “visit as many museums and monuments as possible and fill up your passport with different items from each visit,” documenting at least 10 excursions. We’re pleased to present some photos of those passports and what participants had to say.

“It’s been fun!”

—Edith M. Carlson, New Haven

Cousins Lisa Petersen and Marie Dexter with their passports. photo: Kathy Hermes

“My cousin [Marie] and I have had great fun traveling the state, visiting monuments, museums, and other places as we fill our passports. I’ve become attached to my passport as I’ve built it . . . We combined this with the Slow and Steady Connecticut Book Trail Passport (visiting 21 independent book stores) as we planned our routes . . . We are also following the Connecticut 169 Club book and the Public Library Crawl (April). We joined the North American Reciprocal Museum Association (NARM) for reduced or free museum admission. We are having a grand old time exploring!”

—Lisa Petersen, West Hartford

A page from Sharren Zavarella’s passport. photo: Olivia Grella

“Today, I received your package containing my family’s Summer 2024 passports along with our prizes. The project was very educational, and our prizes wonderful.”

—Sharren Zavarella and family, Windsor

Collection of passports. photo: Olivia Grella

As this issue goes to press, Central Connecticut State University computer science majors are putting the finishing touches on an app for self-guided tours around the state based on articles published in Connecticut Explored. Look for a notice about the app in January 2025, just in time to start celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution!