VOLUME 22/NUMBER 3/SUMMER 2024       (c) Connecticut Explored

The Elton Hotel in Waterbury was listed in the Green Book. The building is now an assisted living community. photo: Preservation Connecticut

Telling the Stories of Black Travelers

Between 1936 and 1966, Black Americans facing discrimination and threats to their safety could rely on The Negro Motorist Green Book. This directory of Black-friendly businesses, published by Victor Hugo Green, was a powerful tool for navigating unfamiliar areas during the Jim Crow era. In 2016, librarians at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture scanned and uploaded digital copies of 21 issues of the guide to their database.

With access to this resource, researchers from across the country have been working to document the status and history of every Green Book site through The Architecture of The Negro Traveler’s Green Book, a collaborative project hosted by the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities.

Discover the locations in our state, courtesy of the research team at Preservation Connecticut: community.village.virginia.edu/greenbooks/states/connecticut.

Located at A. I. Prince Technical High School in Hartford, Evelyn Beatrice Longman’s bronze sculpture, The Craftsman (or Industry),1931, is a featured work of public art. photo: Public Art CT

The Scenic Route

The website Public Art CT invites users to follow a self-guided tour and explore the history behind public works of art in the Hartford area. Choose from tour options like “American Revolution,” “Civil War,” “Science and Invention,” “Women Artists,” and more.

Visit publicartct.org.

Public Art CT is the creation of Alden R. Gordon, professor of fine arts at Trinity College, in collaboration with Trinity undergraduates and Sue Denning of Trinity’s information technology team.

Short Documentaries Bring History to Life

What Could Have Been: America’s First Black College tells the story of the 1831 proposal to establish the nation’s first Black college in New Haven and the backlash that followed. Directed by Tubyez Cropper and produced by Yale’s Beinecke Library. Available at beinecke.library.yale.edu/what-could-have-been.

Gay Spirit Radio: Not Afraid to Be Different—The Keith Brown Story is a portrait of the dedicated host of the radio show broadcast by WWUH on the University of Hartford campus since 1980. Directed by Susan Cardillo and edited by Kyle Conti. Available at vimeo.com/704606827.

In Jonathan’s Name

In this 1934 photograph by Jerauld A. Manter, the Rhode Island Ram, and Connecticut Husky mascots are pictured with students in Storrs. Archives and Special Collections, University of Connecticut Library, UC3-0624

In February 1935, a member of the Connecticut State College alumni association published a proposal to name the school’s new husky mascot “Jonathan.” The school—now the University of Connecticut—named the mascot in honor of Jonathan Trumbull, the last colonial governor of Connecticut and the first governor of the state of Connecticut.

Jonathan XIV, UConn’s current canine mascot, and his human counterpart outside Madison Square Garden, New York, NY. photo: 2023-2024 UConn Men’s basketball media guide.