Emancipation Proclamation Inspires Family Portrait
Henry W. Herrick, James W Watts, Lucius Stebbins, Reading the Emancipation Proclamation, 1864. The Amistad Center for Art & Culture
President Lincoln extended the spectrum of representation with the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Individuals, notably Frederick Douglass, regularly represented freedom in portraits, but images of Black families were rare. Antislavery advocates recognized the Proclamation as another campaign opportunity. Hartford publisher Lucius Stebbins imagined a portrait celebrating the milestone. He commissioned Henry Herrick to illustrate the scene: a family with grandparents, parents, children, and friends gathered around the hearth when interrupted by the Union soldier. A cotton boll, side of bacon, plain table, and modest pottery signal that this is housing for the enslaved, but the family is sympathetically depicted in the style appropriate for late 19th century family portraits. Herrick confidently places symbols that allude to enslavement, freedom, and identity at a time when minstrel imagery is emergent.
The portrait, on view at the Amistad Center, is such a striking contrast to other period images that it becomes iconic and referenced in later images of free Black families.
The Amistad Center for Art & Culture at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 600 Main Street, Hartford. AmistadCenter.org; 860-838-4089
New Technology in the Ancient Burying Ground
A groundbreaking study was done in the Ancient Burying Ground to use new technology to evaluate both above and below ground. LiDAR, GPR, and EM Terrain Connectivity Measurements detect anomalies that will help with conservation and preservation efforts in the future. Read more on the ABG’s website.
The Ancient Burying Ground is a public historic site that is open to the public daily, located at the corners of Main and Gold Streets in downtown Hartford.
The Ancient Burying Ground, P.O. Box 347, Hartford. theancientburyingground.org; 860-337-1640
ASCH is for You!
Since 1970 the Association for the Study of Connecticut History (ASCH) has been promoting the study of the history of Connecticut via meetings and conferences. Its publication, Connecticut History Review, is the only academic, peer-reviewed journal devoted to the history of Connecticut. ASCH serves academic scholars, museum professionals, history buffs, graduate students, and educators.
Assocation for the Study of Connecticut History; ASCH-CTHistory.org
Apply to Public History MA
Central Connecticut State University’s Public History program is working with new faculty and a growing list of community partners, including CT Explored, to expand and reinterpret Connecticut history. Come be a part of it! Apply to the Public History MA program. Gain experience while you earn your degree! Contact Leah Glaser, glaserles@ccsu.edu, for details.
History Department, Central Connecticut State University; ccsu.edu/history/
A Variety of Cemetery Walking Tours
Explore Cedar Hill Cemetery’s world of art, history, and natural beauty with one of our informational brochures.
Guide for Visitors provides biographical information about Cedar Hill’s most famous residents. Notables featured include award-winning actress Katharine Hepburn, discoverer of anesthesia Horace Wells, and financier J. Pierpont Morgan.
Notable Trees Guide introduces visitors to Cedar Hill’s remarkable trees. Highlights include the beautiful European Weeping Beech, the unusual Umbrella Magnolia, and the Huss Hemlock named for a resident of the cemetery.
Guide by Cell Audio Tour enables you to use your phone to learn about Cedar Hill’s notable residents. A brochure includes a map and instructions for calling into the Guide by Cell system.
Informational materials are available in the brochure rack located along the entrance drive.
Cedar Hill Cemetery, 453 Fairfield Avenue, Hartford. cedarhillfoundation.org; 860-956-331
Connect to Connecticut’s Museums
Get connected with the museum community through the Connecticut League, a membership organization serving museums of all sizes across our state. Visit clho.org to join our email list and receive monthly updates about museum events and invitations to programs and special tours. Explore museum collections online through our public research portal, ctcollections.org.
Connecticut League of History Organizations; clho.org
Moon Rocks at State Museum
The Museum of Connecticut History is in possession of not one but two sets of lunar rocks, gifted to the State of Connecticut by NASA’s moon-exploring Apollo program. On December 13, 1972, the crew of Apollo 17 explored the lunar surface for a third and final Moonwalk, during which 146 lbs. of lunar rocks were collected.
U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered the distribution of the moon rocks that the crew had collected to 135 foreign heads of state and 50 U.S. states and provinces. The tiny fragments of lunar rocks were encased in an acrylic button and mounted to a plaque with the intended recipient’s flag, which had also made to the trip to the moon. In the letter signed by President Nixon that accompanied each gift, the lunar fragments are called “Goodwill Rocks.” Today, the museum proudly houses its extraterrestrial collections, moon rocks from both the Apollo 11 and 17 missions.
Connecticut State Library, 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford. Ctstate.library.org; 860-757-6500
We’re Game!
Connecticut is home to many sports that connect people in communities—and in competition. Although these sports may be less familiar, they have histories of expressing and contributing to our cultural experiences. From A to Z, their stories show the diversity of athletic traditions, abilities, and creativity in the state.
Learn about contemporary sports such as roller derby and double dutch, and discover those with longer traditions like curling and cricket! This exhibition also explores historic sports whose heyday have come and gone, including pedestrianism and roller polo.
From November 21, 2023 through July 14, 2024, explore We’re Game! Sports & Community, a new exhibition at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History. Learn more at connecticutmuseum.org/exhibition/weregame
Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, 1 Elizabeth Street, Hartford. connecticutmuseum.org; 860-236-5621
Forecasting in Style with Weathervanes
Weathervanes above churches, homes, and barns serve the dual purpose of decoration and meteorological instrument. Since ancient times, people used wind direction to predict the weather, from short-range shifts in conditions to the timing of seasonal change. The earliest known American weathervanes date from the late 17th century and were hand-crafted from wood, iron, or sheet metal. By the mid-19th century, commercially manufactured vanes became common. Henry Clark of Suffield gave his collection of weathervanes, primarily dating to the late 19th century, to Connecticut Landmarks in 1975. Many are exhibited at the Phelps-Hatheway House, open from May-October. One 1880 vane, a jaunty fox, inspired the Connecticut Landmarks logo. Seen here with the Butler-McCook House visible through the snow, the fox is sheet copper hammered over carved wooden forms. Traces of original goldleaf remain on the fox’s body. Support the care of this collection. Become a member today and plan your spring visit at ctlandmarks.org
Connecticut Landmarks; ctlandmarks.org
Mini Doc Spotlights Aircraft Restoration
As part of the newly launched Mini Doc Series, Connecticut Public is proud to share, Back to Life | The Aircraft Restoration Team.
In a joint effort with the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, CT to preserve and restore historical aircrafts, the volunteers with the Aircraft Restoration Team are preserving their personal stories through their shared love of aviation. While the public enjoys the finished aircrafts, many are not aware of how they were brought back to life or by whom.
Mini Docs is an all-new original video series created and produced by Connecticut Public’s award-winning visuals team. Featuring everyday voices and striking visuals, we explore our state’s identity through the hearts and minds of the people who live here. These videos are short and powerful. New episodes are released every month.
For a look at the full collection, visit ctpublic.org/minidocs
Connecticut Public; ctpublic.org
Boat Excursions & Trains!
Visit the Connecticut River Museum’s annual Train Show. Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, Steve Cryan’s delightful displays are full of visual surprises. Watch as trains zip through tunnels, over bridges, and around River Valley landscapes. Don’t miss this annual New England tradition. Plus, it’s almost time to book Winter Wildlife Cruises, starting in February.
Connecticut River Museum, 67 Main Street, Essex. ctrivermuseum.org; 860-767-8269
Highlighting Decay
Anna Held Audette (1938-2013), Scrap Metal V, 1990. Florence Griswold Museum, Gift of Louis G. Audette
The Florence Griswold Museum presents Abandon in Place: The Worlds of Anna Audette, on view through January 28, 2024. Connecticut artist Anna Held Audette (1938–2013) found loveliness in decay, creating large oil paintings of the disused factories, machines, and scrap-yards that are America’s ruins. Her works reference the arc of America’s ascendance and decline as a manufacturing titan, a process that transformed our environment through the extraction of resources and the deposit of waste. The often considerable scale of Audette’s works and their depiction of rusting machines in the workshops or fields in which they were made and used position her compositions somewhere between landscape, still life, and abstraction.
Her attention to the making and unmaking of the industrialized landscape could not be more timely, as is her contemplation of humankind’s detritus in an era when the environment has reached a state as precarious as Audette’s masses of scrap metal.
Florence Griswold Museum, 96 Lyme Street, Old Lyme. 860-434-5542; florencegriswoldmuseum.org
Annual Gingerbread House Festival
Don’t miss the Friends of Wood Memorial Library’s 13th Annual Gingerbread House Festival: Shiny and Brite. Shop for holiday gifts and treats in Ye Olde Gingerbread Shoppe. This fundraising festival runs from November 24, thru December 17, 2023. Open Thursdays & Fridays 10am – 7pm; Saturdays & Sundays 10am – 5pm. Visit www.woodmemoriallibrary.org for details.
Wood Memorial Library, 787 Main Street, South Windsor. 860-289-1783; WoodMemorialLibrary.org
Ceramic Artists in Greenwich
[Vase] Leon Gambetta Volkmar, Vase, ca. 1924-30. Greenwich Historical Society, Gift of John and Henrietta Volkmar
Coinciding with the special exhibition Radical Pots and Cooperative Hands: Katherine Choy and Clay Art Center (on view through February 4, 2024), the Greenwich Historical Society’s Permanent Collections Gallery features a complementary installation of ceramic vessels by artist Leon Gambetta Volkmar (1879-1959). Working out of Bedford, New York at a studio he named Durant Kilns, Volkmar produced artistic clay vessels with vibrant glaze surfaces inspired by ancient Egyptian and Persian wares. A friend of Cos Cob art colony painter Elmer Livingston MacRae, Volkmar’s distinctive vases could often be seen in the Bush-Holley House in the 1910’s and 20’s, forming the base for floral arrangements designed by Constant Holley MacRae, as well as in the paintings of artists such as Childe Hassam.
Greenwich Historical Society, 47 Strickland Road, Cos Cob. greenwichhistory.org; 203-869-6899
Nook Farm Walking Tour
History buffs, this is your chance to Walk and Learn! The “Seeing Is Revealing” Nook Farm Walking Tour explores the historic landscapes occupied by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, and illuminates the social disparities and parities that continue to affect the contemporary neighborhood known as Asylum Hill.
Meet at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center and travel through the urban green space where the historic homes of Stowe and Twain are located. Continue beyond the campus to explore Hartford’s broader Asylum Hill community and learn more about this dynamic neighborhood’s history. Just under a mile, the tour includes places to sit. In addition to guide-led walking tours, visitors can purchase a self-guided walking tour with ADA functions.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 77 Forest Street, Hartford. 860-522-9258; HarrietBeecherStoweCenter.org
Hartford History Center Annex
While the Hartford History Center’s location at the Downtown Library remains closed for repairs, the Hartford History Center Annex at the Ropkins Library (1750 Main Street, Hartford) is now open for students and researchers by appointment. This recently renovated location includes access to a large collection of bound volumes of The Hartford Courant and Hartford Times newspapers along with Hartford city directories and thousands of historical photographs. Other research materials may be available upon request. Hartford History Center staff can assist with research questions by phone or e-mail. To book an appointment at the Hartford History Center Annex or for general assistance call 860-695-6927 or e-mail hhc@hplct.org. Select Hartford History Center collections, including Hartford Timesphotographs and the Hartford City Parks Collection, are also available electronically on the Connecticut Digital Archive at ctdigitalarchive.org.
Hartford History Center at the Downtown Library, Hartford Public Library, 500 Main Street, Hartford. 860-695-6300; hplct.org
Pioneering Women
Come visit Hill-Stead’s new exhibition! Born in 1867: Theodate’s Generation, on view through March 31, 2024, focuses on extraordinary women born in 1867, the same year our founder, Theodate Pope Riddle (1867-1945), was born. Theodate was one of the first licensed female architects in the United States, and the exhibition seeks to highlight women who were also pioneers in their respective fields, such as astronomy, medicine, entrepreneurship, and more.
Hill-Stead Museum, 35 Mountain Road, Farmington. hillstead.org; 860-677-4787
Indigenous Education Programs
For more than 45 years, our museum has been providing hands-on, inquiry-based education programs on the 12,000-year plus history of indigenous peoples in Quinnetukut – The Place of the Long Water. Our interdisciplinary programs are designed with state standards in mind to provide interactive learning experiences. We have recently revamped our education programs to address upcoming changes in the curriculum which will mandate the teaching of local Native American history. Updates to our programs include an educational game called “Quest Across Quinnetukut,” in which students represent experts with the goal of returning a cultural item to one Connecticut’s five recognized tribes by answering trivia questions about local Native American history. With programs ranging from school field trips to professional development workshops for teachers, our education department engages learners of all ages in thought-provoking discussions about local Native American history and culture. Visit iaismuseum.org/ for more information and to request a program.
Institute for American Indian Studies, 38 Curtis Road, Washington. wigwamescape.org; 860-868-0510
Winter at Keeler Tavern
Find gifts for friends and family this season at KTM&HC’s annual Holiday Boutique. Located in our beautiful historic red carriage barn, the Boutique features handcrafted items from talented local artisans, plus a wide assortment of holiday merchandise, home décor, accessories, and books and toys for kids. Come for the sale and stay for a tour of our tavern museum!
Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center, 152 Main Street, Ridgefield. 203-438-5485; Keelertavernmuseum.org
Pre-Revolutionary House Museum in Kent
Kent Historical Society and Seven Hearths Museum is open year-round by appointment. Our pre-Revolutionary house museum was willed to the Society by artist George Laurence Nelson, who bought the structure in 1919. Located in the heart of the Flanders Historic District, it boasts Kent’s original fur-trading post and general store.
Kent Historical Society, 4 Studio Hill Road, Kent. 860-927-4587; kenthistoricalsociety.org
Explore Revolutionary Lebanon
A brisk walk around the historic Lebanon Green is an excellent beginning for a mid-winter visit to the Lebanon Historical Society. While the brisk north wind, that in 1779 reminded French count de Lauzun of Siberia, can be chilly, the winter sun warms determined walkers. As the ground freezes, the Green floods, creating a temporary skating pond.
The Lebanon Historical Society Museum welcomes visitors to its exhibits year-round, Wednesday through Saturday from 12:00 to 4:00 or by appointment. Exhibits include three hundred years of objects made in Lebanon which features staff and volunteers’ favorite artifacts. Another display includes 150 years of photographs of the Green documenting its evolution over time. “Explore Revolutionary Lebanon,” our popular hands-on history space, investigates how ordinary residents experienced the American Revolution. Children and adults are invited to imagine themselves as part of the Lebanon community in 1776.
Lebanon Historical Society, 856 Trumbull Highway, Lebanon. historyoflebanon.org; 860-642-6579
Connecticut Western Reserve Exhibition Returns
Imagine taking Connecticut’s northern and southern borders and extending them west to the Pacific Ocean. Under the terms of a royal charter given to the colony in 1662, Connecticut was to stretch from the “Narraganset-Bay on the East, to the South Sea on the West Part.” Following the model of other states, Connecticut gave most of its claimed land over to the federal government in 1786, but it “reserved” a territory in the northeast of present-day Ohio for its continued use and settlement. This became the Connecticut Western Reserve.
This April, the Litchfield Historical Society reopens To Come to a Land of Milk and Honey: Litchfield and the Connecticut Western Reserve, an exhibition telling the story of the Western Reserve using the voices of the people who experienced westward migration.
Litchfield Historical Society, 7 South Street, Litchfield. litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org; 860-567-4501
Lyman Art Museum Grows
[Jacob Lawrence Builders Three] Jacob Lawrence, Builders Three, 1991, color lithograph, 30 x 21 3/4 inches. Artist’s proof, printed by the Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia. Museum purchase, 2023.
Building Collections: Recent Acquisitions, on view through January 21, features art acquired since 2020, works that fill gaps in the Lyman Allyn Art Museum’s holdings and add to areas of existing strength. Most recent acquisitions are gifts from generous donors within the community, with limited purchases utilizing funds from past and present donors. Efforts to expand diversity, representation, and inclusion in all aspects of the Museum’s work have resulted in the addition of art by African American artists. Gifts and purchases also reflect the Museum’s efforts to add more art by women and by artists from various backgrounds and ethnicities. Gifts also include 18th and 19th century furniture and decorative arts reflecting the talents and interests of New London and Connecticut makers and patrons; objects produced by Tiffany & Company and Tiffany Studios; and several gifts reflecting the work of a range of contemporary artists, including many based in Connecticut.
Lyman Allyn Art Museum, 625 Williams Street, New London. 860-443-2545; lymanallyn.org
Representing Women’s Labor
Robyn Tsinnajinnie (b. 1997), Spick and Span (detail), 2022, Acrylic on canvas, Museum Purchase, Acquisitions Fund, 2022, 2023.1
(Re)Work It! Women Artists on Women’s Labor, on view at the Mattatuck Museum January 21 through May 19, 2024, explores the many types of labor that women are often expected to manage – from caring for one’s family to participating in the labor force, from managing beauty standards to emotional labor, and more. A reprisal of a smaller exhibition from 2022, this new show delves more deeply into the topic by incorporating a wider range of voices and perspectives. Including artwork from approximately 30 contemporary female-identifying artists, (Re)Work It! thus broadens our definition and understanding of women’s labor in 21st century America.
Mattatuck Museum, 144 West Main Street, Waterbury. 203-753-038, ext. 130; mattmuseum.org
Nautical Natural History
Mystic Seaport Museum presents Spineless: A Glass Menagerie of Blaschka Marine Invertebrates, an exhibition of exquisite and highly accurate 19th-century glass models of marine invertebrates such as anemones, octopuses, sea slugs, and sea squirts, all created by father and son glassmakers Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka of Dresden, Germany. At a time when naturalists and explorers were eagerly collecting and classifying new species around the world, museums and scholars struggled to exhibit marine invertebrates, which quickly discolored and deformed when preserved in jars. The Blaschkas’ glass models were one solution, elegantly capturing the forms, anatomical details, and colors of these creatures. Today the glass models continue to speak to contemporary concerns of biodiversity and ocean health. More than 40 models will be on view, along with jarred wet specimens, 19th-century drawings, and other supporting material that illuminate the science, history, and art behind their production and use. The exhibition is on view through April 2024.
Mystic Seaport Museum, 75 Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic. mysticseaport.org; 860-572-0711
American Landscape Today
Susie M. Barstow, Landscape, 1865, oil on canvas, 30 x 22 in., Betsy and Al Scott Collection
Women Reframe American Landscape, on view at the New Britain Museum of American Art through March 21, 2024, illuminates the artistic contributions and perspectives of women. This two-part exhibition includes the first retrospective of the nineteenth-century American artist Susie M. Barstow (1836–1923) and a presentation of contemporary works by artists Teresita Fernández, Guerrilla Girls, Marie Lorenz, Tanya Marcuse, Mary Mattingly, Ebony G. Patterson, Anna Plesset, Wendy Red Star, Jean Shin, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Cecilia Vicuña, Kay WalkingStick, and Saya Woolfalk. Engaging multigenerational perspectives, this exhibition recenters women in the canon of American art and expands how we think about land and landscape.
Organized by the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in partnership with the New Britain Museum of American Art, this is one initiative among many to continually see landscape art in the United States as dynamic, multifaceted, and evolving.
New Britain Museum of American Art, 56 Lexington Street, New Britain. Nbmaa.org; 860-229-0257
Striking Photographs of Mid-Century New Haven
In a G29 Hospital Day After Ceasefire Declared in Vietnam, Jan 24, 1973
Selected images of mid-century New Haven from the new Gene Gorlick Collection are on view through the New Haven Museum Online Collections Catalog. Eugene “Gene” Gorlick (1943-2014) was a photojournalist for the New Haven Register from 1964 to the early 1990s. Born and raised in New Haven, Gorlick graduated from Hillhouse High School in 1961 and attended Paier College of Art in Hamden. He joined the New Haven Journal-Courier after college, and in the mid-1960s became the staff photographer for the Register. His collection was donated to the New Haven Museum Photo Archive by his widow, Dina Gorlick in 2022.
The collection consists primarily of 35mm black and white negatives taken by Gorlick during his years as a photojournalist, along with color negatives, color slides, magazines, newspaper clippings, and ephemera. To view visit https://tinyurl.com/3d3ecxh7.
New Haven Museum, 114 Whitney Avenue, New Haven. newhavenmuseum.org; 203-562-4183
Life on the Webster Farm
Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society launches Life on the Webster Farm Work Days! Spend your Saturdays with us- March 9, April 13, May 11, and June 8, 2024! Bring the whole family and learn from our historical experts. Visit noahwebsterhouse.org for more information!
Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society, 227 South Main Street, West Hartford. noahwebsterhouse.org; 860-521-5362
State History and Civics
Located in the heart of Hartford, Connecticut’s Old State House was home to all three branches of state government from 1796 to 1878. Some of the state’s most important stories of freedom, democracy, and civic action connect to this National Historic Landmark, including the Amistad and Prudence Crandall trials, and the Constitutional Convention of 1818.
The authentically restored building now offers a mix of historic rooms, modern exhibits, educational programs, tours, and year-round special events focusing on Connecticut history and civics. The site is home to the “Steward’s Museum of Curiosities,” where Rev. Joseph Steward maintained a portrait studio and unusual collection from 1797-1808.
Connecticut’s Old State House, managed in partnership with The Connecticut Democracy Center and the Connecticut General Assembly, is available for private rental. The elegant building and grounds provide a unique backdrop for life celebrations, parties, conferences, lectures, and more. For more information, visit ctoldstatehouse.org.
Connecticut Democracy Center at Connecticut’s Old State House, 800 Main Street, Hartford. CTOldStateHouse.org; 860-522-6766
Dive Into Shakespeare
This year marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio, which was the first published collection of Shakespeare’s plays, produced seven years after his death. Without the First Folio, 18 plays, including As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and The Tempest, might have been lost forever. How William Became Shakespeare: Four Hundred Years of the First Folio, on view through February 10, 2024, showcases the remarkable Shakespeareana collection in Pequot Library’s Special Collections, including its Folios, examining what Shakespeare has meant to readers and scholars over time.
Find details about the exhibition and associated programming at pequotlibrary.org.
Pequot Library, 720 Pequot Avenue, Southport. pequotlibrary.org; 203-259-0346
Call for Nominations
Every year, Preservation Connecticut recognizes outstanding efforts in the preservation and enhancement of historic places throughout Connecticut, with the goal of inspiring others to take similar action. The Connecticut Preservation Awards recognize projects that bring new life to distressed historic places, revitalize sites associated with the history of minority or overlooked communities, make significant contributions to sustainability—environmental, economic, or social, or develop innovative new perspectives or methods to historic preservation. Do you know a young professional who has demonstrated achievement or potential achievement in historic preservation work? We have an award for that too- nominate a person for our Mimi Findlay Award! You can find more information on our website and learn how to submit a FREE nomination: https://preservationct.org/nominate.
Nominations are due by 4:00PM on February 2, 2024. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on Thursday, May 9, 2024.
Preservation Connecticut; PreservationCT.org
Art and Friendship
With a career spanning over 50 years at Norwich Free Academy, celebrated artist and Slater Museum Director, Joseph P. Gualtieri touched the hearts and creative minds of countless students. This Fall, Slater Museum is privileged to bring to you a unique twist on the traditional artist’s retrospective through a comprehensive display of Mr. Gualteri’s life’s work from his early years as a budding artist to his final active years, Joe Gualtieri: The Artistry of Friendship, on view through January 4, 2024.
This exhibition explores not only the art of Mr. Gualtieri, but also the deep friendship he shared with NFA alum Warren Canova through pieces acquired by Mr. Canova from Mr. Gualtieri himself.
We are thankful to Mr. Canova’s sons, Nick and Bob Canova, and their families, for generously lending this one-of-a-kind collection of their father’s artwork by Mr. Gualtieri for this exhibition.
Slater Memorial Museum, 108 Crescent Street, Norwich. 860-887-2506; slatermuseum.org
Covergirl Kate
For an actress known to eschew the press, Katharine Hepburn graced magazine covers for eight decades. The Katharine Hepburn Museum will open a new temporary exhibit, Covergirl Kate, in November. Featuring select magazine covers from each decade spanning the 1930s through the 2000s, this exhibit examines the evolution of her career along with the changing representation of women within American media over the course of the twentieth century. The exhibit will also feature Miss Hepburn’s tennis outfit from the 1930s, a costume from the film The Madwoman of Chaillot, and an original pastel painting of Miss Hepburn from 1934.
The Katharine Hepburn Museum is open Tues. through Fri., 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is free with a suggested donation of $5 to support the care and preservation of the collection.
The Katharine Hepburn Museum, 300 Main Street, Old Saybrook. 860-510-0473; katharinehepburntheater.org/about/museum
Literary History in Hartford
This winter visit The Mark Twain House & Museum! Explore the 25-room Gilded Age mansion where Mark Twain raised his family and authored some of the most famous novels in American Literature including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. To plan your tour and learn more, visit: marktwainhouse.org
The Mark Twain House & Museum, 351 Farmington Avenue, Hartford. 860-247-0998 MarkTwainHouse.org
Festival of Trees & Traditions
Celebrate the season at the Wadsworth, voted best museum in Connecticut 2023. Our major holiday fundraiser, the annual Festival of Trees & Traditions is open Thursdays–Sundays November 30–December 10. Each year, the museum transforms into a winter wonderland filled with twinkling lights, decorated trees, and holiday decor all available for purchase in support of the museum. Check thewadsworth.org for more festive fun. On view in the galleries, exhibitions featuring iconic Baroque, Impressionist, and Conceptual art from the collection; a special installation about the significance of home making for many African Americans in The Amistad Center; and a special loan from the Mobile (AL) Museum of Art. Don’t miss the annual Tremaine Lecture in Contemporary Art with Janine Antoni on Thursday, January 25. Details, tickets, and more to see and do at thewadsworth.org.
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 600 Main Street, Hartford. thewadsworth.org; 860-278-2670
Political Tension in the Sky
A cartoon in the Silas Deane House reveals, in great detail, the deep political ambivalence felt by the British about the American Revolution. The cartoon, titled Original Air Balloon, was published in London in December 1783, weeks after the first test flight of a manned balloon. The piece depicts Benjamin Franklin severing the ropes tethering a hot air balloon (“America”) to the ground (“Britain”), sending George Washington and Silas Deane into the sky. As “America” ascends, the spirits of Oliver Cromwell and saboteur John Aitken haunt them from the clouds. France advises Spain that it will soon take over America, while Holland boasts that it will profit off of American trade. “Trade,” “wealth,” and “liberty” perish on the gallows below, as British citizens vomit from the oppression of taxes levied to sustain the war.
Webb Deane Stevens Museum, 211 Main Street, Wethersfield. wdsmuseum.org; 860-529-0612
Trains & Holiday Festivities
Holly Jolly Saturday is a day packed full of holiday festivities during the Great Trains Holiday Show. On December 9th from 10am-4pm, visitors can explore model trains winding through tiny towns with many different kinds of buildings, tunnels, and village scenes. Silhouette artist Debbie O’Connor will be creating her amazing heirloom portraits using only scissors (10am – 2pm, by appointment). The highlight of the day is a visit from Santa from 1:00 to 3:00, who will be seated in the Society’s 1860’s Abbott Barn (free with admission to the Train Show). It’s the perfect opportunity for kids to share what they’d like to see under the tree. Visit wiltonhistorical.org for more information.
Start the season with a day of winter fun!
Wilton Historical Society, 224 Danbury Road, Wilton. wiltonhistorical.org; 203-762-7257
