Grating the Nutmeg

By State Historian and Connecticut Explored

History Government & Organizations Non-Profit

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The podcast of Connecticut history. A joint production of the State Historian and Connecticut Explored.

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116. Connecticut In Motion:...

04.15.2021

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 ...

Grating the Nutmeg episodes:

04.15.2021 116. Connecticut In Motion: The Story of Our Time 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 ...
04.03.2021 115. America’s First Public Rose Garden - Elizabeth Park 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 ...
03.15.2021 114. When Tombs Are Also Crime Scenes Sometimes tombs become crime scenes.Connecticut 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. ...
03.01.2021 113. Yale Needs Women In 1969, women were allowed entry to undergraduate study at Yale for the first time. 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 ...
02.15.2021 112. And So The Tomb Remained 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 ...
02.01.2021 111. The New Haven Black Panther Trials 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 ...
01.18.2021 110. Polish Jewish History, World War II and a Jewish Child’s Survival 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 ...
01.01.2021 109. Communicating with the Spirits: Theodate Pope Riddle 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 ...
12.15.2020 108. Up and Down the River Mohegan Medicine Woman, Tribal Historian, and award-winning playwright and screenwriter Meissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel talks with Connecticut state historian Walt Woodward about "Up and Down the River," the radio drama she and daughter Madeline Sayet recently created for Hartford's Heartbeat Ensemble. ...
12.06.2020 107. Miss Florence’s Boardinghouse and American Impressionism 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 ...
11.16.2020 106–Part 1 Steve Grant's Legendary 1991 Source-to-Sea Connecticut River Journey In 1991, reporter and environmentalist Steve Grant traveled the entire 410 miles of the Connecticut River from inear the Canadian border to the Long Island Sound by canoe. Grant reported on his 33 day voyage for the Hartford Courant. His ...
11.16.2020 106 - Part 2. Steve Grant's Legendary 1991 Source to Sea Connecticut River Journey In part two of 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 ...
11.01.2020 105. Connecticut’s Rosie the Riveter: Working Women in WWII 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 ...
10.15.2020 104. Great Traditions: The Connecticut Election Cake 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 ...
10.01.2020 103. Cannonballs and Skyscrapers: Keeler Tavern Museum 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 ...
09.17.2020 102. Archimedes, Silk Worms, Vanderbilt & The Perfect Screw From the memoir of historian Ellsworth S Grant, Walt Woodward details 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 ...
08.30.2020 101. Sophie Tucker, Hartford’s Red Hot Mama Sophie Tucker was one of the 20th centuries 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 ...
08.19.2020 100. The Unlikely Legend – and History – of the Charter Oak For our 100th episode, we offer 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 ...
08.01.2020 99. Connecticut’s Mount Rushmore Connection 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 ...
07.15.2020 98. Two Stories From World War II 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 ...
07.09.2020 97. Uncovering African American Women's Fight for Suffrage 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 ...
06.15.2020 96. Rough Justice for Nathan Hale State historian Walt Woodward takes a new look at the Revolutionary War execution of state hero Nathan Hale, and finds some burning questions left to be answered about this hasty and irregular event. It’s a story from Walt's new book ...
05.26.2020 95. Beware of the Sea, for it is a Wide, Wide Love 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 ...
05.03.2020 94. Connecticut’s Jewish Farmers Mary Donohue, 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 ...
04.16.2020 93. Connecticut and the Pandemic of 1918 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. Where did it come from? ...
03.31.2020 92. Connecticut’s Carnegie Libraries: Bricks, Bucks and Books 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 ...
03.16.2020 91. Tom Linskey's Hearth-Cooked Feast While preparing a week-in-the-making colonial-era hearth-cooked feast, restoration carpenter, reenactor, and historic foodways chef Tom Linskey reflects on hearth-cooking techniques, footways, lifestyles and taverns of eighteenth-century New England. Produced by Connecticut State Historian Walt Woodward
03.01.2020 90. 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 ...
02.15.2020 89. Why Teaching African American History in Connecticut Matters 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 ...
02.01.2020 88. Educated For Freedom 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 lives of antebellum ...
01.14.2020 87. Time Capsule: Dirt Floor Studio and Connecticut Music In today’s episode, Asst. 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 ...
01.02.2020 86. Who Paid for the American Revolution? The Founding Fortunes 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 fascinating economic history covering ...
12.21.2019 85. Connecticut Christmas Stories & Song 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 ...
12.16.2019 84. War, Maps & Mystery 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.
12.01.2019 83. Exit Interview with a History Icon Kendall F. Wiggin has been one of Connecticut's most powerful champions of history issues and institutions. In a revealing interview before his end-of-year retirement, State Historian Walter Woodward met with Ken for a wide-ranging discussion about his agency's complex role ...
11.18.2019 82. Writing with Scissors: Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe and American Scrapbooks 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? In this episode, our guest, Dr. ...
11.01.2019 81. Wilbur L. Cross, Connecticut Yankee Most Connecticansknow Wilbur Cross as a parkway. But Wilbur Cross the man was a Connectican of extraordinary accomplishment. Born in a rural village, he became a world-class scholar, author,founding Dean of the Yale Graduate school, and, at age 68, a ...
10.18.2019 80. Novelist Ann Petry and Exploring the Family Tree Our guest, Elisabeth Petry is a journalist. She knows how to uncover a clue, follow a lead, and tell a good story. Her mother was bestselling novelist Ann Petry, whose 1946 debut novel The Street became the first novel by ...
09.23.2019 79. Gov. Ned Lamont, "100 Years of Fake News and Real and Fake Wars" In this very special episode, Grating the Nutmeg meets with Governor Ned Lamont about a speech – and now audio essay he recorded for this podcast – titled “100 Years of Fake News and Real and Fake Wars.”In an era ...
09.02.2019 78. Uncovering African and Native American Lives in 17th - 18th Century Hartford Connecticut Explored’s Mary Donohue finds out about an innovative, model project that uses fine-grained scholarship to uncover the lives of almost 500 African, African American and Native Americans buried between 1640 and 1815 in Hartford’s oldest historic site, the Ancient ...
08.18.2019 77. The Delicious History of Pizza in New Haven Food historian and author of Pizza in New Haven Colin M. Caplin tells State Historian Walt Woodward and co-host Betsy Golden Kellem the fascinating story of the creation and rise to world-class celebrity of New Haven Pizza. Join us at ...
08.01.2019 76. The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan in Connecticut in the 1920s Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society takes a walk through the museum's archival collection of documents related to the Ku Klux Klan. You'll learn about the Klan's sudden rise, and rapid fall, in 1920s Connecticut, a dark time when ...
07.16.2019 75.For Whom The Tolls Toll. The History of Toll Roads in Connecticut. Transportation historian Richard DeLuca takes us on an expert's tour of Connecticut's long history of charging people to get from here to there. From turnpikes to bicycle roads, the state highway system to the parkways and toll roads Connecticut got ...
07.01.2019 74. Post WWII: 1949 Travel Diary of Beatrice Auerbach with Congresswoman Chase Woodhouse Two of Connecticut’s most influential women, Beatrice Fox Auerbach, the owner of G. Fox, the largest privately-owned department store in the United States at the time and U.S. Congresswoman Chase Going Woodhouse, the second woman to be elected to the ...
06.17.2019 73. Dept Stores, G.Fox and the Black Freedom Movement In this episode, Dr. Traci Parker of the University of Massachusetts, with some editorial commentary from host Natalie Belanger talk about what department stores like G. Fox meant to consumers and retail workers alike, and how they become sites of ...
06.08.2019 72a BONUS EPISODE: Colin Calloway on Dartmouth as a School for Native Americans BONUS CONTENT: LECTURE ONLY
06.01.2019 72. "Samson Occom the Man" - Mohegan Elder Beth Regan Mohegan Elder Beth Regan tells the story of Samson Occom, the famed Mohegan convert to Christianity, who was educated by Rev. College Eleazar Wheelock, became a teacher and minister, raised much of the money used to establish Dartmouth, and went ...
05.15.2019 71 Eleazar Wheelock, The Great Awakening, Samson Occom & the Indian School This episode commemorates the 250th anniversary of the founding of Dartmouth College. Following tribal elder Beth Regan’s Mohegan-language invocation, Connecticut state historian Walt Woodward describes Eleazar Wheelock’s life as a Great Awakening evangelist, his relationship with Samson Occom, and life ...
05.01.2019 70. Anni and Josef Albers in Connecticut Connecticut Explored’s Assistant Publisher Mary Donohue and conceptual artist, photographer and frequent Connecticut Explored contributor Bob Gregson talk about pioneering Modern artists Anni and Josef Albers, who escaped Nazi Germany in the 1930s and made New Haven their home in ...
04.15.2019 69. The Breach: Voices Haunting a New England Mill Town Walt Woodward interviews award-winning poet, novelist, essasyist, environmentalist, and former Deputy Commission of the Connecticut Deoartment of Environmental Protection David K. Leff about his new verse novel, The Breach: Voices Haunting a New England Mill Town (Homebound Books, 2019). It's ...

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