Grating the Nutmeg

Why did the State of Connecticut feel entitled to part of Ohio? Where was Connecticut's Western Reserve and how was it settled? The Litchfield Historical Society is opening a new exhibition on Connecticut's Western Reserve on April 22, 2023 entitled "Come to a Land of Milk and Honey".

Here's what they say about the exhibit:

"The story of the Western Reserve can be told through any number of historical lenses, but it is primarily a story of people: the people who felt compelled to leave Connecticut and New England for a new life in the west, and the people who chose to stay behind; the Native peoples who were forced from their lands by the arrival of migrants; the enslaved men, women, and children who were brought to the Reserve against their will, and the Black migrants who chose to make their homes in Ohio despite continued discrimination."

In this episode, author and historian Mary Donohue interviews Alex Dubois and Linda Hocking from the Litchfield Historical Society about what they've found out about the peoples of the Western Reserve.

Alex Dubois is the Curator of Collections. At the Society, Alex oversees the development and care of the institution's collection of material culture and art, and serves as project lead for the Society's exhibitions.

Linda Hocking has served as the Curator of Library & Archives since 2002 where she oversees all aspects of acquisitions, description, and access to the Society's library and archives.

Read more from Connecticut Explored here:

https://www.ctexplored.org/west-of-eden-ohio-land-speculation-benefits-connecticut-public-schools/

https://www.ctexplored.org/whats-connecticuts-role-in-westward-expansion-2/

Visit the Litchfield Historical Society website for more information on the exhibition and programs:

https://www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/

Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. We've just launched our Facebook and Instagram pages-look for the Grating the Nutmeg Podcast. Please follow us on social media to get the scoop on new episodes, behind the scenes photos and information on upcoming programs.

Our new Connecticut Explored Spring 2023 issue is almost out! Don't forget to subscribe to get yours at ctexplored.org

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan of High Wattage Media at www.highwattagemedia.com/

Donohue may be reached at [email protected]

The book Dead Wake, The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by New York Times best-selling author Erik Larson is a gripping account of the sinking of the British transatlantic luxury liner the Lusitania during World War 1. Theodate Pope, the architect and owner of what is now the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, Connecticut, who was a passenger on the Lusitania. Why did she sail on a British ship when Britain was at war? The ship was hit by a German submarine torpedo and sank within an hour. Why wasn't Pope in a lifeboat? Why did she jump from the ship into the water? And how did Pope survive and what were the after effects?

In this episode, author and historian Mary Donohue interviews Melanie Bourbeau, Senior Curator at the Hill-Stead Museum. Bourbeau shares Pope's first-hand accounts of the sinking and its aftermath from Pope's letters, telegrams, diaries, and newspaper accounts, many of which are in the museum's archives.

After the war, it was revealed that the passenger ship was carrying 4 million rounds of machine-gun ammunition and other war time battlefront materials.

Was the ship a legitimate target during wartime? This is an argument that continues today. It certainly encouraged the United States to enter World War 1 though not immediately.

Read more about Theodate Pope Riddle in Bourbeau's article published in Connecticut Explored at https://www.ctexplored.org/communicating-with-the-spirits/

And listen to the accompanying Grating the Nutmeg podcast at

https://gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com/109-communicating-with-the-spirits-theodate-pope-riddle

Visit Hill-Stead Museum: www.hillstead.org

And read more about her family and home, now the Hill-Stead Museum from Connecticut Explored at:

https://www.ctexplored.org/alfred-atmore-popes-art-collection-at-hill-stead-museum/

https://www.ctexplored.org/the-modernism-of-hill-steads-theodate-pope/

https://www.ctexplored.org/hill-stead-a-colonial-revival-performance/

https://www.ctexplored.org/site-lines-golf-at-hill-stead/

Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. We've just launched our Facebook and Instagram pages-please follow us on social media to get the scoop on new episodes, behind the scenes photos and information on upcoming programs.

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue. She may be reached at [email protected]

Engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan of High Wattage Media at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Please join us in two weeks for a new episode on Grating the Nutmeg.

Journeys 旅途: Boys of the Chinese Educational Mission is on view at the Connecticut Historical Society (CHS) through July 2023. This exhibition honors the 150th anniversary of the Chinese Educational Mission (CEM), a cultural and educational exchange program from 1872 – 1881. Headquartered in Hartford, the CEM enabled 120 Chinese boys, most of whom were barely teenagers, to study in New England with the goal of modernizing China by educating its future leaders abroad. It is a story of hopes, dreams, sacrifice, and the life-changing experience of international exchange.

In this episode of Grating the Nutmeg, Museum Educator Natalie Belanger talks to Karen Li Miller and Henry Qu about their work on Journeys. The CEM collection at the CHS was a well-known resource, but contained Chinese-language materials that had never been translated....until Henry Qu, himself an international student, made an unexpected stop at CHS on his way from New Jersey to Massachusetts. Three years later, Henry's detour resulted in a fresh telling of the Mission's story, using the boys' newly-translated first-person accounts of their experience in Connecticut. What was it like to be uprooted as a teenager to live in a place that your language didn't even have a word for? What did these teens in the 1870s have in common with teenagers today? And what motivated Henry Qu to make that serendipitous stop at CHS? Listen to find out!

The Exhibition Journeys: Boys of the Chinese Educational Mission will be on view at the Connecticut Historical Society through July, or you can take a 3D tour online at chs.org. Keep an eye on upcoming programming related to this topic at the CHS in spring of 2023!

Read more about the CEM in Connecticut Explored magazine here:

https://www.ctexplored.org/chinese-exchange-students-in-1880s-connecticut/

https://www.ctexplored.org/wong-kai-kah-comes-of-age-in-connecticut/

Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. We've just launched our Facebook and Instagram pages-please follow us on social media to get the scoop on new episodes, behind the scenes photos and information on upcoming programs. https://www.facebook.com/GratingTheNutmegPod

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger, Museum Educator at the Connecticut Historical Society and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan of High Wattage Media at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Please join us in two weeks for a new episode on Grating the Nutmeg.

Wall-to-wall posters, sticky floors, a small stage and the stale-beer smell give Toad's Place its enduring character as a live-music shrine. Authenticity can't be faked. Opened as a restaurant in 1975, Toad's has welcomed hundreds of musical acts from the pioneers of the Blues like B.B. King, to today's megastars Drake and Cardi B. But what does it take to run a nightclub? And have it be successful for almost half a century?

Author and historian Mary Donohue interviews Randall Beach, co-author with Toad's Place owner Brian Phelps, of the new book The Legendary Toad's Place, Stories from New Haven's Famed Music Venue, published in 2021 by Globe Pequot Press. Beach was the rock music critic for the New Haven Register from 1978 to 1984, covering many shows at Toad's Place. He later wrote about rock music for the New Haven Advocate, the Hartford Courant, and Billboard magazine. He currently writes a column for Connecticut magazine.

Read more about Toad's Place in the photo essay published in Connecticut Explored at https://www.ctexplored.org/what-these-walls-have-heard-a-photo-essay-on-new-havens-legendary-toads-place/

Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. We've just launched our Facebook and Instagram pages-please follow us on social media to get the scoop on new episodes, behind the scenes photos and information on upcoming programs: https://www.facebook.com/GratingTheNutmegPod

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by award-winning author and historian Mary Donohue. She may be reached at [email protected]

Engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan of High Wattage Media at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Connecticut Explored magazine is celebrating its 20th anniversary and our Grating the Nutmeg podcast it's 7th anniversary. Neither of these milestones could have been reached without your support! Please make a gift to our new Fund for Excellence in Publishing at https://www.ctexplored.org/subscribe/friends-of-connecticut-explored/

We need to ask our listeners for your help! This podcast is part of our "20 for 20: Innovation in Connecticut History" series, and we'd like your feedback. Take our 5-minute survey and get a free copy of Connecticut Explored magazine. You'll find the survey link in the Shownotes for this episode below. Thank you!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HARTEA12

When was the color line broken in the Hartford Fire Department? And how did a high school dropout and a Vietnam vet both become distinguished firefighters in the Hartford Fire Department? Hear their inspiring first-hand stories of growing up in Hartford's African American community in the North End in and dive into the detective work done to uncover the story of William Henry Jacklyn, Hartford's first Black firefighter.

Our 2022 Winter issue of Connecticut Explored magazine celebrates citizen historians who come to their subjects because of a deep need to understand or uncover some person or event or answer a question they could not brush aside. Many become public advocates for their historical findings and projects. Both of the guests in this episode, Chief Charles Teale, Sr. and Captain Steven Harris were honored as Connecticut History Game Changers by Connecticut Explored magazine and both are passionate avocational historians.

Chief Teale served as a member of the Hartford Fire Dept. from 1982-2010, retiring as chief. Always interested in Hartford's history even as a teenager, Chief Teale researched and documented the many outstanding accomplishments of the Hartford Fire Dept to the fire service profession throughout its 221-year history. This included uncovering the William Henry Jacklyn story.

Captain Steven Harris began his career as a fire fighter in 1970, retiring in 1997 as a captain in the department and was voted Firefighter of the Year in Connecticut. In 2021, the Hartford Public Library partnered with Captain Harris to create a mural honoring Jacklyn on the Phoenix Society building at 729 Windsor St. in Hartford. The mural was painted by artists Lindaluz Carrillo and Kayla Farrell with an intergenerational group of community members.

The Phoenix Society is a black fraternal organization of firefighters the was formed in 1965 in Hartford. John B. Stewart, Jr, Hartford's first African American fire chief, was the first president. The Society works to help its members toward promotional goals and to foster a closer relationship with the community. Learn more about the Phoenix Society at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Society_(firefighters)

Read more about our 20 for 20 Connecticut History Game Changers here:

https://www.ctexplored.org/special-section-20-for-20-innovation-in-connecticut-history/

And read more about Hartford history from Chief Teale here;

https://www.ctexplored.org/shoebox-archives-my-summers-at-camp-courant/

https://www.ctexplored.org/i-called-him-mr-hurley/

Join Connecticut Explored's 20th anniversary celebration by subscribing at ctexplored.org

New subscribers can get 6 issues for the price of 4 with our Holiday sale before 12/31/2022.

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan of High Wattage Media at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Donohue has documented the built environment and pop culture for over 30 years. Contact her at [email protected]

Connecticut Explored magazine is celebrating its 20th anniversary and our Grating the Nutmeg podcast it's 7thanniversary. Neither of these milestones could have been reached without your support! Please make a gift to our new Fund for Excellence in Publishing at https://www.ctexplored.org/subscribe/friends-of-connecticut-explored/

For over a century, almost 1700 people buried in the cemetery at the Connecticut Valley Hospital were identified with gravestones bearing only a number instead of a name. In the 1990s, names of the deceased were restored to the site. In this episode of Grating the Nutmeg, Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society (https://chs.org/) is taking a look at a digital history project that will help expand our understanding of the lives of the people buried in that cemetery and of mental health care in Connecticut's past. Kaitlyn Oberndorfer, CREC history teacher and graduate student, has undertaken a project that will link genealogical and demographic information to the names in the cemetery, restoring some of the residents' lost humanity.

Look for Kaitlyn's finished project to go live online sometime in 2023. For a detailed history of the Connecticut Valley Hospital Cemetery, you can read the application that placed the site on the National Register of Historic Places.

You can click here to learn about the "Uncovering Their History" project that inspired "Numbers to Names"

Read more here:

https://www.ctexplored.org/unburying-hartfords-native-and-african-family-histories/

And listen to our podcast episode here:

https://gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com/78-uncovering-african-and-native-american-lives-in-17th-18th-century-hartford

For more about the treatment of Civil War soldiers at the Connecticut Valley Hospital, read more here:https://www.ctexplored.org/civil-war-soldiers-heart/

And for more about the treatment of mental illness in Connecticut, read more here: https://www.ctexplored.org/treating-the-mind-in-times-past/

Join Connecticut Explored's 20th anniversary celebration by subscribing at ctexplored.org

New subscribers can get 6 issues for the price of 4 with our Holiday sale before 12/31/2022.

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger, Adult Programs Manager at the Connecticut Historical Society and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan of High Wattage Media at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

How did 15 Connecticut high school students find themselves in French World War 1 trenches and what were they doing there? Find out in today's episode!

This podcast is part of our "20 for 20: Innovation in Connecticut History" series, and we'd like your feedback. Take our 5-minute survey and get a free copy of Connecticut Explored magazine. You'll find the survey link below. Thank you!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CTWW1

My guests for this episode are Christine Pittsley, Special Projects Director for the Connecticut State Library and Katy Hitson, a Connecticut student who participated in the trench restoration in France when she was in high school. Pittsley has directed several award-winning World War 1 programs, including the Digging Into History trench restoration project and the Remembering World War One Digitization program, and has been recognized as a leader in the nation's WW1 commemorative efforts.

When the United States entered Europe's Great War, World War 1, in 1917, Connecticut manufacturers provided the military with munitions, clothing, and other goods. In addition to the men and women who worked on the home front, roughly 63,000 state residents served in the US or Allied forces. For those at the front lines in France, life was rough. As the war stalled at the battlefront, men dug huge earthen defensive trenches that became their battlefield homes. They experienced gas attacks, heard nonstop artillery barrages and watched the daily aerial battles. Connecticut men also sheltered in limestone caves thirty feet below the ground level and encompassing over 100 acres with rooms and tunnels.

For more information about the CT State Library's project, go to https://ctinworldwar1.org/

To read more about Connecticut in WW1, go to these Connecticut Explored issues and stories:

https://www.ctexplored.org/spring-2017/

https://www.ctexplored.org/parallel-lives-segregated-connecticut-in-world-war-i/

https://www.ctexplored.org/world-war-i-the-cave-dwellers-life/

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Join Connecticut Explored's 20th anniversary celebration by subscribing at https://www.ctexplored.org/subscribe/

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan of High Wattage Media. www.highwattagemedia.com/

Donohue has documented the built environment and pop culture for over 30 years. Contact her at [email protected]

In this episode, recorded at the Park Street Library@the Lyric on Sept. 21, 2022 to a full house, two of our Connecticut History Game Changer Honorees discuss their work. The conversation was hosted by Jasmin Agosto, Community Outreach Coordinator for the Hartford History Center at the Hartford Public Library.

Before we go to our new episode, I need to ask our listeners for your help! We need your thoughts and ideas about the podcasts that highlight our 20 Connecticut History Game Changers in the field of Connecticut history. This 5-minute survey will help us plan episodes that you want to hear! As a thank you, we will send you a free, introductory copy of our print magazine or if you are already a subscriber, we will add a free issue to your existing subscription. I hope you will share your thoughts on the podcast by going to the Shownotes for this episode and clicking the link here https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DELROS to take the survey. Thank you!

What can we learn about Hartford's Puerto Rican community today through art and history?

Photographer and Trinity College Fine Arts professor Pablo Delano and emerging scholar and public historian PhD candidate Elena Rosario explore their work in the context of Hartford's Puerto Rican history and the broader United States-Puerto Rico relationship.

Thank you to our guests Pablo Delano, Elena Rosario and Jasmin Agosto.

For more about Pablo Delano's work, go to his website at http://museumoftheoldcolony.org/about/curatorial/

And for more about the Hartford History Center at the Hartford Public Library, visit

https://hplct.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/history/

Connecticut Explored, the nonprofit organization that publishes Connecticut Explored magazine, announced its "20 for 20: Innovation in Connecticut History," series highlighting 20 "Game Changers" whose work is advancing the study, interpretation, and dissemination of Connecticut history. The initiative, funded by Connecticut Humanities and sponsored by Trinity College, is the centerpiece of Connecticut Explored's year-long celebration of its 20th anniversary. Subscribe at https://www.ctexplored.org/subscribe/

The episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan of High Wattage Media www.highwattagemedia.com/

Donohue has documented the built environment and pop culture for over 30 years. Contact her at [email protected]

Connecticut Explored is celebrating its 20th anniversary with "20 for 20: Innovation in Connecticut History," a series of articles, podcasts, and public programs that highlight 20 "Game Changers" in the field of Connecticut history. The insights and ideas we gather through this five-minute survey will help individuals and organizations who are committed to keeping Connecticut history vibrant and relevant. Thank you for your time!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/OCT1FREEMAN

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To mark Connecticut Explored's 20th anniversary, we launched an initiative to find 20 people and projects that are taking us into the future of the study of Connecticut history. We received over 120 nominations from the public and then chose 20 that are Connecticut history game changers. This our third podcast where we interview one of our CT History Game Changer Honorees-talking to the people making change happen.

Today's episode is about Game Changer Honoree the Mary & Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community. The Center is restoring and preserving the historic Mary and Eliza Freeman Houses in Bridgeport's Little Liberia community, built about 1822 and some of the oldest houses built by African Americans in Connecticut. Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher Emeritus, interviews guests Maisa Tisdale, President and CEO of the Center and Dr. Sarah Sportman, CT State Archeologist at the University of Connecticut.

To learn more about the Freeman Center, visit their website at https://freemancenterbpt.org/

And to learn more about the Office of the Connecticut State Archeologist, visit the website at https://osa.uconn.edu/

Order your copy of the Gamechanger issue of Connecticut Explored at https://www.ctexplored.org/fall-2022-the-future-of-connecticut-history/

This episode was produced by Mary Donohue for Connecticut Explored and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan of https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Donohue has documented the built environment and pop culture for over 30 years. Contact her at [email protected]

Please join us again for the next episode of Grating the Nutmeg.

Photo credit: Mary & Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community, Bridgeport, CT.

Connecticut Explored is celebrating its 20th anniversary with "20 for 20: Innovation in Connecticut History," a series of articles, podcasts, and public programs that highlight 20 "Game Changers" in the field of Connecticut history. The insights and ideas we gather through this five-minute survey will help individuals and organizations who are committed to keeping Connecticut history vibrant and relevant. Thank you for your time! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CHS915 ---------------------------------------------------------- The Connecticut Historical Society's current special exhibition explores how society has sought and continues to seek care for the mind and mental health. Common Struggle, Individual Experience: An Exhibition About Mental Health(Presented by Hartford HealthCare Institute of Living) uses letters, photographs, and other artifacts to highlight the experiences of Connecticans from the past. Oral history interviews, recorded in 2020 and 2021, share the perspectives of people today. In this episode, Natalie Belanger speaks with her CHS colleagues who worked in crafting this timely exhibition. Ben Gammell is the CHS's Director of Exhibitions, and Karen Li Miller is Research Historian. Together, they talk about the challenges of speaking for historical people who can't speak for themselves, and how honored they felt to be entrusted with the stories of current Connecticans living with mental health challenges. Common Struggle, Individual Experience has been honored as one of CT Explored's 20 "Game Changers" whose work is advancing the study, interpretation, and dissemination of Connecticut history. It has also received the AASLH Leadership in History 2022 Award. The exhibition is on view at the Connecticut Historical Society until October 16, 2022. You can take a virtual tour here! This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan of High Wattage Media www.highwattagemedia.com/