Grating the Nutmeg

What more do we need to know about Sam Colt? In Hartford we have the iconic blue-domed Colt Armory, Colt Park, the Colt addition to the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Church of the Good Shepard and Colt's home Armsmear. But it turns out that we may not have known much about Colt's life before he became fabulously wealthy—he traveled with a novelty act, womanized, drank, smuggled guns to Russia, bribed politicians, and blew up ships in New York Harbor with electricity. Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, digs into some of these stories with Jim Rasenberger, author of Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-shooter that Changed America. He is the author of three other books—The Brilliant Disaster; America, 1908; and High Steel—and has contributed to the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Smithsonian, and other publications. A native of Washington, DC, he lives in New York City. Find out more at https://www.jimrasenberger.com/ Coltsville, Sam's industrial village including the Colt Armory, workers housing, and his estate, have been listed as a National Historic Landmark and authorized as a National Historical Park under the guidance of the National Park Service. For more history and self-guided tours, go to their website at nps.gov/colt. Find out more about Sam Colt in these Connecticut Explored stories: https://www.ctexplored.org/the-suspicious-colt-armory-fire/ https://www.ctexplored.org/sam-colt-mines-the-arizona-territory-2/ https://www.ctexplored.org/making-a-success-of-coltsville/ This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Donohue has documented the built environment and pop culture for over 30 years. Contact her at [email protected] This episode of Grating the Nutmeg received support from the State Historic Preservation Office of the Dept of Economic and Community Development with funds from the Community Investment Act of the State of Connecticut. Subscribe to Connecticut Explored at https://www.ctexplored.org/subscribe/

A Connecticut Historian Makes History: Recovering Phyllis Wheatley's Lost Years UCONN legal historian Cornelia Hughes Dayton was searching through Massachusetts Court cases from the 1700s, working on a project involving mental disabilities in early America, when she came upon a find that was itself history-making: a cache of court cases that illuminate the formerly "missing years" in the life of America's first published African American author and the mother of the African-American literary tradition Phyllis Wheatley Peters. Dayton discusses her discovery of the court cases and their many revelations, as recounted in her just published and prize-winning article Lost Years Recovered: John Peters and Phillis Wheatley Peters in Middleton," New England Quarterly 94 (September 2021): 309-351. Watch for the release of primary source documents from the "Middleton dossier" on the the Wheatley Peters Project website (forthcoming). Track its progress at the Twitter account #Wheatley_Peters.

Are you your family's historian? The one that listens to all the elders' stories or digs into that big box of old family photographs? Ever wonder how many of your dad's stories are really true? Or if you have a big family secret that hasn't been revealed for generations? If so, this episode is for you! In celebration of National Archives Month, we're talking to two accomplished family historians. Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, the state's history magazine, interviews author Jill Marie Snyder. Snyder has a B.A. in Urban Studies from the University of Connecticut and an M.A. in Communication from Fairfield University. Retired from a corporate career in the insurance industry, she's completed Boston University's Principles of Genealogy course. Her book Dear Mary, Dear Luther, based on letters written between her parents, won the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society Award for Nonfiction Romance/history in 2020. Jill will be teaching a workshop on "Telling Your Family Story, Putting it all together" on Oct 20, 2021 for the Ancient Burying Ground Association and Hartford Public Library. Register for the workshop on the Ancient Burying Ground Association's Facebook page under events. Our second guest is well-known Hartford Jazz musician and recording artist Orice Jenkins. He studied music at the Hartt School and has released four solo albums including the fantastic Centennial Cole: the Music of Nate King Cole in 2019. He teaches in his hometown of Hartford and tours nationally with the Afro-Semitic Experience. His website features his family history blog Chesta's Children: a Collection of Stories, People, History, Records and Research. Find out more about our guests at their websites, https://www.jillmariesnyder.com/ https://oricejenkins.com/ Order Snyder's book at https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Mary-Luther-Courtship-Letters-ebook/dp/B0793Q7LTM/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Jill+marie+snyder&qid=1633030224&sr=8-1 For more about family histories, read the stories in Connecticut Explored's Family History issue here https://www.ctexplored.org/fall-2019-family-history-separating-fact-from-fiction/ For more on Connecticut's African American history, visit our Topics page at https://www.ctexplored.org/african-american-history-in-connecticut-2/ This episode was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Donohue as documented the built environment and pop culture for over 30 years. Contact her at [email protected] Subscribe to Connecticut Explored at https://www.ctexplored.org/subscribe/

History has often been described as the present having a conversation with the past. Meet Kevin Johnson, who makes those conversations both real and personal: as a Technical Assistant in the History and Genealogy unit of the Connecticut State Library in Hartford; as William Webb, a Civil War volunteer in the 29th Connecticut Colored Volunteer infiantry; and as Jordan Freeman, the African American who died a heroes death at the Revolutionary War Massacre at Fort Griswold. It's 250 years of history, all through one person: "The Three Lives of Kevin Johnson."

In this episode, join Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, for a discussion with Dr. Helen Sheumaker about Victorian jewelry and wreaths made from human hair. Dr. Sheumaker is the author of Love Entwined: The Curious History of Human Hair Work. She teaches history and American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Find out more about this now unfashionable way to remember your loved ones! Read Dr. Sheumaker's feature story in the Fall 2021 issue of Connecticut Explored-order your copy at ctexplored.org And see more about her book here: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Entwined-Curious-History-Hairwork/dp/0812240146/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Love+Entwined&qid=1630356702&sr=8-2 This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Donohue has documented Connecticut's built environment and popular culture for over 30 years. Contact her at [email protected] And our thanks to the Lane Public Library in Oxford, Ohio for providing Dr. Sheumaker with a recording space. Want to know more about Connecticut's landmarks, museums, art, and history? Subscribe to Connecticut Explored-in your mailbox or inbox. And for a daily dose of history, visit Today in Connecticut History produced by the Connecticut State Historian at TodayinCThistory.com

What do the nineteenth century author Lydia Sigourney, the 18th century hero-turned-traitor Benedict Arnold, and the Revolutionary War battle of Bunker Hill have in common? They all come together in the story you are about to hear from Sigourney's 1824 book SKETCH OF CONNECTICUT FORTY YEARS SINCE. Sigourney's book, written early in her career, is a rare historical treat: a tale by a future-famous writer, written in 1824, reminiscing about life forty years earlier in 1784. The past remembering the past, in this episode of Grating the Nutmeg.

In this episode, join Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, for a discussion with Pablo Delano, visual artist, photographer and professor of fine arts at Trinity College - and the artist behind the new book Hartford Seen, published in 2020 by Wesleyan University Press. His work is featured in the photo essay "Visually Breathtaking Hartford Explored" in the Summer 2021 issue of Connecticut Explored magazine. Professor Delano's father, Jack Delano, was a renown American New Deal-era photographer for the Farm Security Administration who photographed Connecticut in 1940. To see more of Pablo Delano's work, visit www.pablodelano.com and look for his new book Hartford Seen wherever you get your books or order here https://www.hfsbooks.com/books/hartford-seen-delano/ For more information on "The Museum of the Old Colony" exhibition, see the exhibit website and exhibition information below: Official website: www.museumoftheoldcolony.org Web page from the last iteration of the project at Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture: https://cadvc.umbc.edu/pablo-delano-the-museum-of-the-old-colony/ Web page from Photoville Festival https://photoville.nyc/the-museum-of-the-old-colony/ Exhibition catalog from CADVC https://cadvc.umbc.edu/files/2020/02/Museum-of-The-Old-Colony-2.pdf Exhibition catalog from Hampshire College https://sites.hampshire.edu/gallery/files/2018/10/MoOC_catalogue_spreads.pdf To see more of Jack Delano's work as a photographer for the Federal Security Administration, go to the Library of Congress website at LOC.gov Jack Delano Photographs, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/photos/?fa=subject:color%7Ccontributor:delano,+jack Jack Delano Papers, 1927-1995, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/item/mm98084274/ To read more about Jack Delano's photographs taken of Connecticut's Jewish farmers, get the book A Life of the Land: Connecticut's Jewish Farmers available from the Greater Hartford Jewish Historical Society on their website at https://jhsgh.org/ This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Contact Donohue at [email protected] Want to know more about Connecticut's landmarks, museums, art, and history? Subscribe to Connecticut Explored-in your mailbox or inbox. And for a daily dose of history, visit Today in Connecticut History produced by the Connecticut State Historian at TodayinCThistory.com

In this special summer episode we visit Frank and Lisa Catalano, who in their 18th-century home garden in Lebanon, are using some very inventive approaches to bring back an old Connecticut tradition – self-sufficient food production. It's a history show for garden geeks . . . or maybe a garden show for history geeks.

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 on local and community history. Trees are central characters in the state's history, myths and legends. They witnessed the changing environmental, political, social, economic, and cultural landscape for decades and even centuries. What's a witness tree, you ask? Find out in this episode of Grating the Nutmeg. Find Dr. Glaser's article about witness and memorial trees in the Spring 2021 issue of Connecticut Explored online at www.ctexplored.org/trees-as-memorials-and-witnesses-to-history/ Dr. Leah Glaser is a professor at Central Connecticut State University and Coordinator of the Public History Program. Her 2021 class researched tree stories and each student presented one story on the podcast. Contact her at [email protected] Andy King-The Mashantucket Pequots and the rhododendron David Prochorena-Pinchot Oak, Simsbury Helena Torres Diaz-The Witch Tree and the Hartford Witch Trials, Hartford Despina Merriman-Nathan Hale Pear Tree, Coventry Gregory Franklin-Puritans to Patriots (Ye Olde Oak), Easton Cameron Clarke-John Brown's Tree, Torrington Grayson Belisle- Teddy Roosevelt and the McKinley Tree, Farmington Emma Koss-Land Stewardship and the Dewey Oak, Granby Valerie Chase-WWII Patriotism and Arbor Day, Windham Benjamin Johnson-The Old Oak Tree and the Coltsville labor strike, Hartford Kaitlyn Oberndorfer- Blue Cedars and the Rural Cemetery Movement, Hartford Patricia Wallace– The Cypress Tree Mystery at an Olmsted Park, New Haven Garrett Saranich-The Chestnut Oak, Shipbuilding on the Connecticut shoreline, Clinton Ben Haberman- The Black Cherry Tree oversees Seaport to Coastal Gateway, Madison Tom Ieronimo- Of Hickory and Baseball, Hartford For more information on Hartford's historic trees, go to the Hartford Preservation Alliance website at https://hartfordpreservation.org/ccsu-tree-history/ Find the Connecticut Notable Tree Project at http://oak.conncoll.edu:8080/notabletrees/ Read More! Connecticut Explored ctexplored.org https://www.ctexplored.org/site-lines-connecticut-state-parks-at-100/ https://www.ctexplored.org/cherry-trees-for-wooster-square/ https://www.ctexplored.org/wickham-park-in-manchester/ https://www.ctexplored.org/connecticuts-historic-rose-gardens/ Listen Grating the Nutmeg Podcast https://www.ctexplored.org/grating-the-nutmeg-115-americas-first-public-rose-garden-elizabeth-park/ Subscribe to our free newsletter at https://www.ctexplored.org/ Want to know more about Connecticut's landmarks, museums, art and history? Subscribe to Connecticut Explored magazine — in print to your mailbox or digitally to your e-mail inbox. Visit ctexplored.org to subscribe. And for a daily dose of history, visit Today in Connecticut History produced by the Office of the State Historian at TodayinCThistory.com. This episode was produced by Leah Glaser and Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Please join us again for the next episode of Grating the Nutmeg!

State Historian Walt Woodward talks with award-winning author and materials scientists Ainissa Ramirez about her award-winning and highly acclaimed book The Alcehmy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another. On virtually every national Top Science Book of the Year List for 2020, The Alchemy of Us is a wonderfully readable, lively, smart and witty account of the development of eight inventions that have not only transformed the way we live, but have transformed us, too. Not surprisingly, half of those inventions have important Connecticut connections. Ramirez and Woodward discuss the roles Samuel F Morse, Edwin Land, Ansonia's William Wallace and New Haven's George Coy played in creating inventions that have helped the world Convey, See, Capture and Think in new and different ways. It's a fascinating and surprising story fest with one of the science world's best story tellers.

Lives of the state's LGBTQ citizens have moved from being hidden and solitary to claiming visible, powerful, valuable, and contributing places in society. In this episode, Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, interviews CCSU Assistant Professor of History William J. Mann about when and how the LGBTQ movement started in Connecticut, what legislative goals and strategies drove the movement, and what the current goals are for the LGBTQ movement. Mann discusses the impact of AIDS and the ways that the LGBTQ community supported its members. He describes how his students helped to research and uncover the people and events highlighted in the online exhibition, "Historic Timeline of Connecticut's LGBTQ Community." Mann wrote CT Explored's "A Brief History of Connecticut's Gay Media," available at www.ctexplored.org/a-brief-history-of-connecticut-gay-media/. Mann teaches LGBTQ history, film history, and the history of AIDS. He is the director of CCSU's LGBTQ Center. From 1989-1995, he was the editor and later publisher of Metroline, the state's LGBTQ newsmagazine, and coordinator of Your Turf, the first LGBTQ youth group in the state. In 1989, along with Terri Reid, William founded the long-running queer film festival known today as Out Film CT. He is author of 12 books, many on American film history. Find the LGBTQ Timeline at https://chs.org/lgbtq/. It is a partnership between Central Connecticut State University and the Connecticut Historical Society, and is based on the work of Richard Nelson, CCSU 403 students in 2019, and will continue to grow. Read more! Sign up for our free newsletter at www.ctexplored.org/ LGBTQ Icons Ann Stanback- https://www.ctexplored.org/women-who-changed-the-world/ https://www.ctexplored.org/an-early-advocate-for-connecticuts-gay-community/ https://www.ctexplored.org/site-lines-a-love-story-at-the-palmer-warner-house/ https://www.ctexplored.org/philip-johnsons-50-year-experiment-in-architecture-and-landscape/ https://www.ctexplored.org/stonington-poet-james-merrills-house/ This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history and mixed by Patrick O'Sullivan. Mary Donohue has documented Connecticut's architecture, built environment and popular culture for over 30 years. Contact her at [email protected]

In this episode, Josh Shanley – firefighter, paramedic, and Emergency Management Director for Northampton, Massachusetts, talks about the Great Connecticut RIver Flood of 1936, its devastating effects, long-term consequences, and the message it has for a world in climate change. Based on his new book, Connecticut River Valley Flood of 1936 from the History Press.

Connecticut Historical Society's Natalie Belanger talks with labor historian Steve Thornton of The Shoeleather History Project about Black baseball in Connecticut. Thornton is the author of Connecticut Explored's "African American Greats in Connecticut Baseball," Summer 2018. Read or Watch More!To learn more about the Negro Leagues, check out this recent talk at the CT Historical Society by Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. "African American Greats in Connecticut Baseball," Summer 2018 Shoeleather History Project at https://shoeleatherhistoryproject.com/ Follow the Greater Hartford Twilight Baseball League here. This episode was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Photo Credit: Johnny "Schoolboy" Taylor and Savitt Gems business manager Bernie Ellovich, 1930s-40s. Connecticut Historical Society 1990.51.988

No one knows more about transportation in Connecticut than historian, civil engineer, and highway and transportation planner Richard DeLuca. In this recent virtual lecture for Cheshire Public Library, promoting his new, second volume on Connecticut transportation history Paved Roads and Public Money (Wesleyan University Press), DeLuca underscores the inseparable relationships among population, technology, and the environment.

Visitors have been enchanted by the thousands of soft and fragrant rose petals in Elizabeth Park's Rose Garden since it opened in 1904. Climbing roses intertwined in overhead garlands, hybrid tea roses and heritage roses in every color symbolize romance, friendship, and passion. Elizabeth Park on the Hartford-West Hartford border is home to the country's oldest public rose garden. Visitors by the thousands come to stroll in the rose garden and sit in the vine-covered gazebo. Generations of prom goers as well as wedding parties have had their photos taken there. But how did Elizabeth Park become the public park it is today? Find out how Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of landscape architecture, a contested will and a beloved wife are all part of the story. Mary Donohue interviews Elizabeth Park's Rosarian Stephen Scanniello about all things roses. Read more! Sign up for our free newsletter ctexplored.substack.com https://www.ctexplored.org/connecticuts-historic-rose-gardens/ https://www.ctexplored.org/off-the-streets-into-the-parks/ This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Donohue has documented Connecticut's architecture, built environment and popular culture for over 30 years. Contact her at [email protected] Visit www.elizabethparkct.org

Sometimes tombs become crime scenes. State Archaeologist Emeritus Nick Bellantoni talks with Walt Woodward about two such cases in which he was called in to do forensic archaeology, and the process of doing historic detective work in pursuit of justice. He also provides the latest developments concerning the discovery of revolutionary war skeletons in a basement in Ridgefield in December 2019.

In 1969, women were allowed entry to undergraduate study at Yale for the first time. Their experience was not the same as their male peers enjoyed. Isolated from one another, singled out as oddities and sexual objects, and barred from many of the school's privileges, the young women nonetheless met the challenge of being first and changed Yale in ways it had never anticipated. Mary Donohue interviews historian and Yale alumna Anne Gardiner Perkins, author of Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant and New Haven leader Constance Royster, one of Yale's first women undergrads. Anne Gardiner Perkins is an award-winning historian and higher education expert, and the author of Yale Needs Women, which won the 2020 Connecticut Book Award. Ms. Royster holds a J.D. from Rutgers University Law School – Newark, and a B.A. cum laude from Yale University. Read more!"UConn Law: The Trailblazing Bessye Bennett," Spring 2014 "Yale's Grace Murray Hopper College," Fall 2017 This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Ms. Donohue has documented Connecticut's architecture, built environment and popular culture for over 30 years. Contact her at [email protected]

What secrets about the past can an ancient tomb reveal? The answers, as State Archaeologist emeritus Nick Bellantoni explains, are many, surprising, and incredibly interesting. In this conversation about Nick's new book, And So the Tomb Remained: Exploring Archaeology and Forensic Science in Connecticut's Historical Family Mausolea, State Historian Walt Woodward and Bellantoni, who in his 30 plus years as state archaeologist entered more tombs that any other archeologist, talk about Nick's experiences doing restoration, recovery work, and crimonal investigations in the tombs of some of Connecticut's oldest and most powerful families.

Fifty years ago, Ericka Huggins and Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers were on trial for their lives in New Haven. In this episode, Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society takes a look back at the New Haven Black Panther trials, using some of the many primary sources available. To learn more about the New Haven Black Panther Trials: To see Robert Templeton's courtroom sketches of the Black Panther Trials, go here. The trial transcripts are available digitally through Yale Law School's Lillian Goldman Law Library. The online exhibit, "Bulldog and Panther: The 1970 May Day Rally and Yale," at Yale University Library, covers the events leading up to the May Rally, and its aftermath. The recording of Alex Rackely's interrogation can be heard via Youtube through this link to the New Haven Independent's reporting of its discovery. Editor Paul Bass co-wrote, with Douglas W. Rae, Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale, and the Redemption of a Killer. Yohuru Williams's essay, "The New Haven Black Panther Trials," appears in African American Connecticut Explored, published through a collaboration between Connecticut Explored and the Amistad Center for Art & Culture. Williams is also the author of Black Politics, White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Black Panthers in New Haven. And in these two Connecticut Explored articles online below: https://www.ctexplored.org/the-hartford-chapter-of-the-black-panthers-an-interview-with-butch-lewis/ https://www.ctexplored.org/the-new-haven-black-panther-trials/ You can learn more about this topic by tuning in to a virtual talk by Dr. Yohuru Williams, historian and founder of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, on February 24, 2021. "No Haven: Civil Rights, Black Power and Black Panthers in New Haven," hosted by the Connecticut Historical Society, will be streamed live on Crowdcast and available after for re-watch. Click here to register. Natalie Belanger is the Adult Programs Manager at the Connecticut Historical Society. You can contact her at [email protected]. Produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Photo Credit: Black Panther Community News Service, CHS Collection, 2018.22.2

This lecture was presented by Dr. Leon Chameides for the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford, Voices of Hope, and The Emanuel Synagogue. Learn more about Polish-Jewish history and how our guest Dr. Leon Chameides survived the Nazi occupation of Poland as a Jewish child. Despite the fact that many American Jews trace their family to Poland, there are many misconceptions about Polish history and the history of Polish-Jewish relations. Dr. Leon Chameides was born in Poland in 1935 and spent the war years hidden in a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic monastery. He went to England in 1946 and came to the United States in 1949. He was Director of Pediatrics at Hartford Hospital for 10 years. To read more about Dr. Chameide's life and family, look for his book Strangers in Many Lands, available on Amazon books. For more information about Hartford's Jewish history, go to the website of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford at https://jhsgh.org/ and for more about Connecticut's connection to the Holocaust, go to the website of Voices of Hope at http://ctvoicesofhope.org/ For more about Connecticut's military history, go to https://www.ctexplored.org/connecticut-at-war/ and to read Dr. Chameides story in the Fall issue of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, go to https://www.ctexplored.org/a-jewish-childs-experience-of-war/ This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Mary M. Donohue is the Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored. She has documented Connecticut's architecture, built environment and popular culture for over 30 years. Contact her at https://www.granthousect.com/

In 1938 pioneering female architect and founder of the Hill-Stead Museum, Theodate Pope Riddle of Farmington enjoyed an excursion through Europe. While in London she participated in three sittings with trance mediums, continuing an avocational interest in spiritualism that lasted 34 years. Hear more about Riddle's efforts to scientifically prove the ability to communicate with the deceased in this episode hosted by Mary Donohue, Asst Publisher of Connecticut Explored and Melanie Bourbeau, Curator and Director of Interpretation and Programs at the Hill-Stead Museum. If you'd like to learn more about the Theodate Pope Riddle and Spiritualism, visit the museum's website at https://www.hillstead.org/ and read Bourbeau's article in the Winter 2020-21 issue of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut History. Theodate Pope Riddle was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame-read more here: https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/theodate-pope-riddle For more on Spiritualism in Connecticut, go to the website of Connecticut Explored for these articles at: https://www.ctexplored.org/isabella-beecher-hooker-and-the-spirit-of-reform/ https://www.ctexplored.org/the-pine-grove-spiritualist-camp/ Mary M. Donohue is the Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored. She has documented Connecticut's architecture, built environment and popular culture for over 30 years. This episode was produced by Mary M. Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Want a daily dose of Connecticut history? Subscribe to TODAYINCTHISTORY.com and follow Connecticut Explored on Facebook and Instagram.

Mohegan Medicine Woman, Tribal Historian, and award-winning playwright and screenwriter Meissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel does a virtual sit-down with state historian Walt Woodward to talk about the radio drama Up and Down the River she and her equally accomplished daughter Madeline Sayet recently wrote, produced, and directed for Hartford's Heartbeat Ensemble. The five short plays provide a unique and important window into key moments in Mohegan history and culture. Zobel provides both a writer's and a people's perspective on the stories, and tells how everyone can - for a limited time - hear the radio drama for free on the Heartbeat Ensemble website

In this episode, Mary Donohue talks to Curator Amy Kurtz Lansing about one of the most beautiful places to visit in Connecticut - the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme. Did Old Lyme become the home to an art colony because of the good food at Miss Florence's boardinghouse or because of the soft, lovely light on the salt marshes along the Lieutenant River? The episode uncovers the roots of the Old Lyme Art Colony and also new exhibitions up now including Celebrating 20 Years of the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection, an exhibit that marks the arrival of 190 works of art in 2001, a gift that transformed the Griswold Museum, and a second exhibition, the Centennial of the Lyme Art Association Gallery , the museum's neighbor, that partially recreates their 1921 inaugural exhibition in their shingle style building designed by society architect Charles A. Platt, designer of the Freer Art Gallery in Washington, DC and the Lyman Allyn Museum in New London, Connecticut. Florence Griswold was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 2002. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/florence-griswold For more information and photos go to the website of Connecticut Explored at: https://www.ctexplored.org/the-spirit-of-miss-florence-restored/ https://www.ctexplored.org/painting-with-needle-thread/ https://www.ctexplored.org/only-waiting-to-be-painted-the-inspirational-landscape-of-old-lyme/ To learn more about the Florence Griswold Museum and the current exhibitions, go to https://florencegriswoldmuseum.org/ Mary M. Donohue is the Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history. She has documented Connecticut's architecture, built environment and pop culture for over 30 years. This episode was produced by Mary M. Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. You can help us continue to produce Grating the Nutmeg. Please make a gift to Friends of Connecticut Explored and use coupon code Gratingthenutmeg to have your gift support the podcast. All gifts with this coupon code will be shared with the Office of the State Historian to support its outreach efforts. Go to ctexplored.org to make your donation.

In the summer of 1991, reporter and environmentalist Steve Grant traveled the entire 410 miles of the Connecticut River from its source near the Canadian border in New Hampshire to the Long Island Sound by self-addled canoe. Throughout the 33 day journey, Grant reported on his voyage in stories for the Hartford Courant. His every-other-day tales made Grant a celebrity and his journey a legend. Twenty-nine years after that life-changing trip,State Historian Walt Woodward met Grant on the banks of the Connecticut River in Hartford, to talk about the journey, the man, and the river in another time. It's a fascinating two-part interview that covers everything from early 90's internet technology, to environmental restoration, to moose-induced traffic jams in the Great North Woods. "The Connecticut River: First National Blueway Runs Through Connecticut," Spring 2014 "Connecticut River Legends," Spring 2019 "Pleasure Boating on the Connecticut River," Summer 2018 Read all of our stories about Connecticut's landscape and environment on our TOPICS page.

In part two oof Steve Grant's Legendary 1991 Source-to-Sea journey on the Connecticut River, we'll talk about Some of the Connecticut RIver's endangered species, the issues that affected the river's health then and now, the celebrations at the end of the voyage, and what the journey means to Grant some thirty years one. "The Connecticut River: First National Blueway Runs Through Connecticut," Spring 2014 "Connecticut River Legends," Spring 2019 "Pleasure Boating on the Connecticut River," Summer 2018 Read all of our stories about Connecticut's landscape and environment on our TOPICS page. To read Steve's work and see more of his nature photography visit thestevegrantebsite.com The song 'Great River" by Walt Woodward, was peformed by Walt and The Band of Steady Habits –– Rachel Smith, Teagan Smith, Jeremy Teitelbaum, Duke York, & Walt Woodward

In this episode, Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society takes a look at the iconic Rosie the Riveter character. To get the scoop on what it was like to be a real-life "Rosie" in CT during WWII, she speaks to Gretchen Caulfield, President of the American Rosie the Riveter Association. (https://rosietheriveter.net/) Get our Commemorative 75th Anniversary of World War II Fall 2020 issue-full of CT WWII stories-by subscribing to Connecticut Explored at our Special Podcast Sale Price! Get 6 issues for the price of 4 or 10 issues for the price of 8! Teacher rates excluded. Use the code NUTMEG on our website at https://www.ctexplored.org/subscribe/ And see photos of Connecticut's own Working Women in WWII at this link: https://www.ctexplored.org/connecticuts-own-rosie-the-riveter/ This episode was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan.

(Image - Brookfield Registrars, chistinascucina.com) With elections leaving so many people with a bitter taste in their mouths, we're celebrating one of Connecticut's oldest – and for centuries best known – traditions; the Connecticut Election cake. In this conversation with Allie Kyff of the Connecticut Democracy Center at Connecticut's Old State House,state Historian Walt Woodward discusses the fascinating history of this delicious tradition. BAKE YOUR WAY TO GLORY! Join in a statewide election cake decorating contest held by Connecticut's Old State House. Celebrate a 200-year old Connecticut Election Day tradition by entering our Election Day Cake Virtual Contest. Inspire everyone to vote by baking a cake, decorating it, and entering to win! Bake your cake using the original Election Day Cake recipe or follow a recipe of your own choosing! Since our judges won't be able to taste your delicious creations, we are going to judge on decoration alone. Make a cake that you would love to eat on election day-- one that looks as good as it tastes, celebrates elections, and inspires voting! Watch our Facebook Live interview with State Historian Dr. Walt Woodward from September 23rd, Hartford's Election Day Cake: A Yummy Civic Tradition, to learn more about this great tradition. Make sure that your are following Connecticut's Old State House on Facebook, Instagram (@CTOldStateHouse) and Twitter (@CTOldStateHouse) or opt into our email list for October updates and the winning announcement on Monday, November 2, 20202! Rules: 1. Bake a cake and decorate it in a way that celebrates voting and inspires people to vote on November 3rd. 2. The cake MUST be non-partisan. 3. Cakes that promote an issue, party, or person will be disqualified. 4. Submit no more than three pictures of your cake. One photo must be of the entire cake either from above or at an angle. 5. Send your submission to [email protected] by 5pm on Monday, October 26, 2020. 6. Only one submission per person is permitted. 7. This contest is open to all ages. Winners and prizes will be announced on Monday, November 2, 2020. ------------------------------------------------- Please note that this is a virtual event. There is no in-person component.

Owned by the same family for its first 200 years then purchased by star architect Cass Gilbert in 1907 for his summer home, the Keeler Tavern was there when the American Revolution's Battle of Ridgefield happened and it has a cannonball embedded in the façade to prove it. New York City architect Cass Gilbert, designer of early skyscrapers like the Woolworth Building in New York City, kept all of the home's Colonial charm and added to it! Cass Gilbert had a big impact on Connecticut's architecture in Hartford, Waterbury, Waterford and New Haven. But there's more to the Keeler Tavern than a pretty place! New research is enhancing the museum's ability to tell women's and African American history in programming for adults and children. The pandemic pushed many museums to reach out to their audience using new technologies. Hear more about how the Keeler Tavern Museum and History Center's dynamic staff is telling their story and finding new audiences in 2020 with architectural historian Mary Donohue. Thank our guests Hildi Grob, Executive Director, Catherine Prescott, Chief Curator, and Melissa Houston, Educational Director from the Keeler Tavern Museum and History Center. See more at https://keelertavernmuseum.org/ Find a photo album for this episode at https://www.ctexplored.org/ Read more online at ctexplored.org in the article https://www.ctexplored.org/benedict-arnold-and-the-battle-of-ridgefield/ And read about architect Cass Gilbert in our online articles including https://www.ctexplored.org/glamour-and-purpose-in-new-havens-union-station/ https://www.ctexplored.org/longer-lasting-than-brass-waterburys-city-hall-restored/ https://www.ctexplored.org/seaside/ Our mid-reel sponsor is the Wilton Historical Society at http://wiltonhistorical.org/ Mentioned in the episode: Historical Interpreter-Cheyney McKnight at NotYourMommasHistory http://www.notyourmommashistory.com/ Playwrights: Joanne Hudson, Redding, CT and Royal Shiree, Lynchburg, VA This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Music by Hyde.

In this podcast from the memoir of Ellsworth S Grant, one of the state's great historians, Walt Woodward tells us about the invention of the world's best fastening device. It's a story that begins with Archimedes, and that came to fruition because of silk worms, Cornelius Vanderbilt, an entrepreneur named Dimoch, and an Irish inventor who gave this unique tool its name. It's a story for anyone who ever put together a piece of Ikea furniture - the story of the recessed hexagonal screw and the Allen wrench

Sophie Tucker was one of the 20th century's most successful and highest paid performers. A singer and humorist, she transitioned successfully through vaudeville, recordings, Broadway, radio, movies, nightclubs and finally television. Born into a Jewish family that immigrated from Eastern Europe, her parents ran a kosher restaurant in Hartford's Front Street district. Many of the threads that run through her life resonant with women now including body positivity, female agency, an artist's control of their own work and career as well as a rags to riches immigrant success story. This episode includes snippets from three of her most famous songs-"One of These Days" by African American composer Sheldon Brooks; "I'm the Last of the Red Hot Mama's" by Milton Agar and Jack Yellen, and "My Yiddishe Momme" by Jack Yellen. Tucker never forgot Hartford and contributed to numerous local charities. She left almost 400 scrapbooks documenting her full career to the New York Public Library. She was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 1999. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/sophie-tucker For more information and photos go to the website of Connecticut Explored at https://www.ctexplored.org/sophie-tucker-last-of-the-red-hot-mamas/ Tor read more about her mother and the "Handkerchief Brigade" go to https://www.ctexplored.org/the-handkerchief-brigade/ Look for a new online exhibition in late Sept, 2020 on the website of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford at https://jhsgh.org/ Mary M. Donohue is the Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history. She has documented Connecticut's architecture, built environment and pop culture for over 30 years. This episode was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. To hear more episodes of Grating the Nutmeg subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio or at gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com. And for more great Connecticut history stories, subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, at ctexplored.org

For our 100th episode, a revealing new look at Connecticut's oldest and most iconic legend - the Charter Oak. State historian Walt Woodward dug deep into this time-honored tale, and offers a new, true, and sometimes amusing look into the history behind this foundational legend.

In this episode of Grading the Nutmeg, Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, reveals Connecticut's connection to Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, and the run up to his most contentious project, the Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota. Perhaps the largest outdoor sculpture in the country, Mount Rushmore has been controversial since it was proposed. Where it's located, who it commemorates, and its sculptor are all part of the national conversation now. Built on Native American land, it features the faces of four American presidents--two of whom were slaveholders (Washington and Jefferson) and two of whom were involved in efforts to uproot Western Native American tribes (Lincoln and Roosevelt). And the sculptor behind the design, Connecticut resident Gutzon Borglum? He was someone who, according to the New York Times article "How Mount Rushmore became Mount Rushmore" published July 1, 2020, formed great bonds with leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and participated in their meetings to secure funding for the Stone Mountain project in Georgia. Borglum also espoused white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideas. To read the full article, go to https://www.ctexplored.org/connecticuts-mount-rushmore-connection/ To read more about his career, go to http://www.tfaoi.com/newsm1/n1m582.htm This episode was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. To hear more episodes of Grating the Nutmeg subscribe on itunes, iHeartRadio, GooglePlay, Sound Cloud or at gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com. And for more great Connecticut history stories, subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, at https://www.ctexplored.org/

In "Two From World War II." state historian Walt Woodward presents two stories he wrote for this Fall's special "Remembering World War II" edition of Connecticut Explored Magazine. The first tells how Pratt & Whitney Aircraft prepared for the coming crisis. The second tells the story of Gordon H. Stirling, Connecticut's 1st World War II hero.

In this episode, Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society talks to historians Brittney Yancy and Karen Li Miller about their ongoing project to uncover the suffrage work of women of color in Connecticut. African American women rallied for the woman's suffrage cause, determined to ensure black women's inclusion and electoral self-representation. if you'd like to learn more about this topic, visit the CHS's website at CHS.org/wocvotes. For a broader look at the woman's suffrage movement in CT, you can see the exhibit "A Vote of Her Own: The Long Fight for Woman Suffrage" on view at the CHS in fall 2020. And don't forget to order your copy of the Summer issue of CT Explored at ctexplored.org with the article "Uncovering African American Women's Fight for Suffrage" by Karen Li Miller, available at ctexplored.org/shop Read more about Mary Townsend Seymour at https://www.ctexplored.org/audacious-alliance-mary-townsend-seymour/ Thank you to our guests. This episode was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Photo credit: Mary A. Johnson (center) with Elizabeth R. Morris (left) and Rosa J. Fisher (right) representing Hartford's Colored Women's Liberty Loan Committee, 1918. Photographer Edward M. Crocker, The Hartford Courant, State Archives, Connecticut State Library.

State historian Walt Woodward takes a new look at the actions surrounding the Revolutionary War execution of state hero Nathan Hale, and finds there are still some burning questions left to be answered about this hasty and irregular event. It's a story from Walt's new book Creating Connecticut: Critical Moments That Shaped a Great State, just out from Globe Pequot Press. As you'll soon hear, when looking for answers about the Rough Justice handed out to Nathan Hale by the British in New York in 1776, where there's smoke, there's fire.

In this episode CT Explored publisher Elizabeth Normen draws inspiration from the haunting words of her great-great grandmother, the wife of a sea captain during the Great Age of Sail. Her ancestor was one of hundreds of women in the 19th century who made the difficult choice to leave all they knew and those they loved for the uncertainly of a life at sea. What were the joys and hardships for women who made that choice? Find out in this episode of Grating the Nutmeg. Find more stories about brave women in our Summer 2020 issue commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage, available now at ctexplored.org, including important stories about Native American and African American women and the right to vote. And for more stories about Connecticut's maritime history, see the Spring 2009 issue online at ctexplored.org. Please support us by subscribing at ctexplored.org. This episode was produced by Elizabeth Normen and Patrick O'Sullivan. Thanks for Moira O'Sullivan for narrating portions of the story.

Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored and co-author of the book A Life of the Land: Connecticut's Jewish Farmers explores the story of Connecticut's Jewish farmers in the last century. Surprised that there were Jewish farmers? Many people are but scores of newly arrived Jewish immigrants were assisted in making their lives in poultry and dairy farming throughout the state. Some farms developed into resorts catering to vacationing urbanites seeking a bigotry free relaxing vacation in the countryside. To read more about Connecticut's Jewish farmers, go to the Connecticut Explored website to read "Hebrew Tillers of the Soil" from the Spring 2006 issue and "The Connecticut Catskills" in our Summer 2018-both articles are on online. To order Ms. Donohue's book, A Life of the Land: Connecticut's Jewish farmers, go to the website of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford at jhsgh.org/store/ This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. It features the voices of Moira O'Sullivan and Patrick O'Sullivan. Music by New Town Klezmer. Subscribe to Connecticut Explored, buy back issues and collections—including a make-your-own collection at a special price-- at ctexplored.org.

State historian Walt Woodward used his recent shelter-in-place time to create a podcast about the deadliest disease to ever hit Connecticut. The influenza pandemic of 1918, like C0VID-19, stopped life as people-knew-it in its tracks. Emergency Hospital #16 New Haven[Library of Congress] He asked the questions we're asking about today's pandemic to pandemic of a century ago. Where did it come from? How did it spread? Who did it affect the most? How did the medical community respond to it? How did state and local governments respond? What social distancing measures were taken? And how did its impact change Connecticut and its people? Walt found history, as always, to be an important reference point. We think you will, too. If you like what you hear, please share it with your friends.

Architectural historian Mary Donohue digs deep to uncover which local libraries in Connecticut were funded by robber baron, steel tycoon and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie at the beginning of the 20th century. Why did the City of New Haven turn down a generous gift of $300,000 from Carnegie in 1903 meant to build a large public library? How did communities apply for library construction grants from Carnegie and what were the requirements? What were the strings attached to accepting the money? And, what has become of these well-built landmarks in Connecticut? Find out from guest Robert Kinney, Outreach Services Librarian at the Connecticut State Library and Pastor of Mount Hope Temple Church in New Haven what it takes to adaptively reuse an almost 100-year-old library building for a new purpose. We wish to thank our guest Robert Kinney. Read more in online at ctexplored.org in the Fall 2015 article "Connecticut's Carnegie Libraries" This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan.

Twice a year, restoration carpenter Tom Linsky and his wife Sally Irons host a heart-cooked colonial feast in their historic 18th century Portland home, as a benefit for their favorite charities. For those events Chef Tom Linskey spends an entire week prepping, preparing, and cooking a totally hearth-cooked panoply of colonial dishes to serve for the benefits' guests. Last month (February 2020), State Historian Walt Woodward stopped in to see Tom throughout the week to learn about hearth-cooking and feasting in the colonial era. The result was a delicious and wonderfully informative encounter with hearth-cooking and colonial foodways. You can view photos of the hearth cooking experience and some of the items in the Linskeey's colonial tavern room on the Connecticut State Historian's Facebook page.

Bob Steele, the Voice of Connecticut Radio For more than sixty years, Bob Steele was the voice of Southern New England, entertaining listeners of WTIC AM with his wit and humor. Connecticut author Paul Hensler has written the first-ever biography of Steele, chronicling his hardscrabble beginnings in the Midwest, his early career as a boxer, and his almost accidental hiring as an announcer at WTIC in the midst of the Great Depression. In this episode, recorded at the CT Historical Society with Natalie Belanger, Hensler provides a look into Steele's life and work. Paul Hensler's book, Bob Steele on the Radio: The Life of Connecticut's Beloved Broadcaster, is published by McFarland. We wish to thank Natalie Belanger and author Paul Hensler. This episode was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. Be sure to join us for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg.

CT Explored publisher Elizabeth Normen sits down with Dr. Benjamin Foster and Connecticut State Representative Bobby Gibson to talk about their efforts to pass legislation requiring teaching African American history in Connecticut, their vision for the curriculum, and why it matters. "When kids started to say math is for whites," Foster, a longtime educator says, "I knew we had to do something" to reconnect students with their rich history of contributions to this nation. We wish to thank Dr. Benjamin Foster and Representative Bobby Gibson and Carmen Arace Middle School for hosting us. This episode was produced by Elizabeth Normen and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan.

Anna Mae Duane has written an amazing new book about James McCune Smith and Henry Garnet, two African American boys who met as young students at the New York African Free School on Mulberry street. Their intertwined, but very different lives of antebellum antislavery activism helped define the possibilities for blacks in American Society. State historian Walt Woodward interviews UCONN English professor Duane, who talks about Educated for Freedom, and the inspiring and informative example Smith and Garnet provided for their generation, and ours. Episode recorded by Walt Woodward. Edited, mixed, and assembled by Matt Berky at Massive Productions

In the Winter 2019 issue of Connecticut Explored, Museum of Connecticut History curator Dave Corrigan tackles the obsolescence of everyday objects such as typewriters that were replaced by personal computers. With the advent of digital recording, CDs, and streaming music services, perhaps no industry has experienced more rapid change in the last 20 years than the music industry. But as historians, we know that some people value doing things in the traditional way. In today's episode, Assistant Publisher Mary Donohue and podcast engineer Patrick O'Sullivan visit Connecticut's legendary Dirt Floor Recording and Production Studios to talk to musician and Dirt Floor producer Eric Lichter. Connecticut Public Radio's John Dankosky calls Dirt Floor "the Music Sanctuary of Connecticut". Hear more about how Lichter uses old fashioned, hands-on musical instruments and recording methods to produce some of Connecticut's most popular new musicians. We wish to thank our guests Eric Michael Lichter and musician Angela Luna. To learn more about Dirt Floor Recording and Production Studios, go to dirtfloorrecordingstudio.com and for more about Angela Luna, go to her Facebook page at Luna & the Lost Souls. Our thanks to Luna & the Lost Souls for the music in the episode. This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan.

In our first episode for 2020, state historian Walt Woodward interviews author and historian Tom Shachtman talks about his just released book, The Founding Fortunes: How America's Wealthy Paid for and Profited From America's Revolution. In this fascinating economic history covering the years from the Birth of the Republic to the end of the War of 1812, Shachtman asks an important question most historians don't consider: Who paid for the war for independence? The answers come with some profound insights that still resonate in the present. Shachtman also helps us understand the national significance of a number of famous Revolutionary Connecticans, including Jeremiah Wadsworth, SIlas Deane, Eli Whitney, John Fitch, and Oliver Wolcott, Jr.

For your holiday enjoyment, State Historian Walt Woodward has gathered together three historic Connecticut Christmas stories, and a Christmas Song: Francis S. Parsons "The Christmas Party" (1923), Louise Chandler Moulton's "What Came to Olive Haygarth" (1867), Abby Allin's "Old Santa Claus (1850), and Walt Woodward's own "A Children's Christmas." Happy Holidays From All the Grating the Nutmeg Team.

Maps tell stories. In this episode of Grating the Nutmeg, Natalie Belanger and Ben Gammell of the CT Historical Society uncover the little-known story of 18th-century cartographer Bernard Romans. A new exhibit of his maps at the museum pieces together the life story of a bold, talented, and adventurous immigrant to Connecticut who put his considerable skills to work for the American cause and may have paid the ultimate price for it. "War, Maps, Mystery: Dutch Mapmaker Bernard Romans and the American Revolution" is on view at the Connecticut Historical Society until May 2, 2020. To learn more, visit chs.org. For more great stories on maps, order Connecticut Explored's back issue for Spring 2012 -entitled "Putting Connecticut on the Map"- at our website at ctexplored.org This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan.

For more than a generation, Kendall F. Wiggin has been one of the most influential champions of history issues and institutions in Connecticut. At the end of 2019, Ken is retiring after 21 years as Connecticut's State Librarian. In a revealing interview, State Historian Walter Woodward sat down with Ken for a wide-ranging discussion about his agency's complex role in preserving the state's past, the effect of the Internet on historical research and libraries, the role of Connecticut history in public education, his successes and regrets, some advice for his successor, and more.

How did Mark Twain aka Samuel Clemons use scrapbooks to fight unscrupulous publishers who reprinted his work without paying him? Why did celebrities like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony keep scrapbooks? How did abolitionists, suffragettes, and African Americans use scrapbooks to tell their story? Before the era of google and Instagram, how did American use scrapbooks to curate printed stories that contained information they wanted to save for the future? In this episode, our guest, Dr. Ellen Gruber Garvey explores how Americans from all walks of life created scrapbooks to document, store, critique, and participate in a rapidly changing world of information overload. This episode was recorded as a lecture at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. You'll have to use your imagination a little to picture some of the types of scrapbooks that Dr. Garvey refers to but you'll be fascinated by impact scrapbooks had on American history. We wish to thank our guest Dr. Ellen Gruber Garvey, professor of English at the New Jersey City University and the host for the lecture, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. Read more in Dr. Garvey's book Writing with Scissors American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance published by Oxford University Press. This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan. To hear more episodes of Grating the Nutmeg, subscribe on iTunes, IHeartRadio, GooglePlay, Spotify or at gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com. Subscribe to Connecticut Explored and get the upcoming Winter issue with stories about events or inventions that disrupted history. Subscribe, buy back issues and collections—at ctexplored.org

" class= "Apple-web-attachment Apple-edge-to-edge-visual-media" style= "caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; opacity: 1;" /> Say the name Wilbur Cross and most Connecticans think of a parkway. Wilbur Cross the man, however, was a Connectican of extraordinary accomplishment. Born in 1862 in the factory village of Gurleyville, he became a world-class scholar, author, educational reformer, founding Dean of the Yale Graduate school, and, starting at age 68, a popular four-term governor who guided Connecticut through the worst years of the Great Depression. In this episode, state historian Walt Woodward sits down at the New Haven Museum with poet and publisher David Wilk, whose City Point Press recently reissued Cross's 1943 autobiography Connecticut Yankee: An Autobiography of Wilbur L. Cross, to discuss Cross's remarkable nineteenth and twentieth century life. As a bonus, we include a reading by David Wilk of Wilbur Cross's 1936 Thanksgiving Proclamation, regarded then and now for its eloquent invitation to thankful reflection.