Grating the Nutmeg

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/   ---------------------------------------------------------------- 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 marydonohue@comcast.net

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 marydonohue@comcast.net

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 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 marydonohue@comcast.net 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/

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!   Visit: www.surveymonkey.com/r/PODCAST1 ------------------------------------------------------------ The Speedwell arrived in New London on July 17, 1761, after a journey of several months from Western Africa to the Americas. The boat departed with 95 enslaved persons. Only 74 survived the journey. The captain of the Speedwell, Timothy Miller, sailed up the Connecticut River to Middletown after a few days in New London. Although the ship’s records don’t show where the Africans aboard the Speedwell ended up, the probate record of Normand Morison, a Hartford physician who owned 7/16th of the Speedwell, shows 21 enslaved West Africans were placed on his farm in Bolton, CT.  Morison died in 1761 and the fate of the people on the Bolton farm is not yet known.  In this episode, Kathy Hermes, Lonnie Braxton, and Tom Schuch discuss Morison and the Speedwell, the Black Heritage Trail and its significance, and the impact of the slave trade on Connecticut and its trading networks.   This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Dr. Kathy Hermes and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan of High Wattage Media  www.highwattagemedia.com/ Photo credit: Tom Schuch 

The discovery of four 18th century male skeletons thought to be possible soldiers in the April 27, 1777 Battle of Ridgefield, prompted the most in-depth research into that crucial Revolutionary War conflict ever undertaken. In this presentation to the town sponsored by the Ridgefield Historical Society earlier this year,  state historian Walt Woodward, historian Keith Jones, state archaeologist emeritus Nick Bellantoni, state archaeologist Sarah Sportman, archeologist Kevin McBride, and Historian David Naumec report on their discoveries to date. 

  The airship Hindenburg passed over Connecticut 21 times during its 17-month service between 1936-37. In the 1930s, air travel across the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and North America was in its infancy. The vast airships of the German Zeppelin Company, zeppelins or dirigibles, took an early lead, competing not with airplanes but luxury ocean liners. In this episode, Asst. Publisher Mary Donohue, talks to historian Alexander Rose, author of Empires of the Sky, Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men’s Epic Duel to Rule the World (Random House, 2020). And you’ll hear from Bridgeport historian Carolyn Ivanoff, author of the article “The Hindenburg Flies over Bridgeport” in the Summer 2022 issue of Connecticut Explored. Find out more about why the Nazi swastika is visible in many of the photos taken over Connecticut. Thank you to our guests  Alexander Rose and Carolyn Ivanoff. Rose has a new book coming out in December, 2022-The Lion and the Fox-and listeners can subscribe to his weekly Substack newsletter “Secret Worlds” which explores historical espionage (and occasionally aviation) at https://alexanderrose.substack.com/ Find out more about his other books at http://www.alexrose.com/about   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 marydonohue@comcast.net Photo credit: Hindenburg over The Travelers Tower, Hartford, 1936 - Jeffrey Hollis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MinmbjRta3w The video, taken in October of 1936, shows the Hindenburg sailing over Hartford, Connecticut, seven months before its destruction.      

For this episode of Grating the Nutmeg, Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society talked to Joanie DiMartino, Connecticut state Coordinator for the National Votes for Women Trail.  They discussed the origin of the marker program, and the criteria that went into choosing the Connecticut  people and places honored with a marker. In addition, Joanie shares her thoughts on why the markers matter, and what the story of the suffrage movement can teach us about social justice movements today. To learn more, visit the National Votes for Women Trail. The site contains an interactive map of trail sites throughout the United States.    The National Votes for Women Trail marker program is made possible through the William G. Pomeroy Foundation. The Connecticut Historical Society has partnered with the Pomeroy foundation to feature Connecticut cultural heritage on roadside markers at sites across the state. Learn more    Thanks to Joanie DiMartino for participating!   This episode was produced by Natatlie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society, and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan of High Wattage Media, highwattagemedia.com   Please join us again for the next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, released every two weeks.   Subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, at ctexplored.org

In the Summer 2022 issue of Connecticut Explored, author and historian Steve Thornton of the Shoeleather History Project brings us the story of the internationally-renown activist, actor, and singer Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda, an anthropologist, author and activist in her own right. The Robeson’s home from 1941 to 1953 in Enfield, Connecticut is on the Connecticut Freedom Trail as well as the National Register of Historic Places. The Hartford Courant reported on April 1, of 1941 that, “The stucco house is situated on two and a half acres of land. The property includes a recreational building which houses a bowling alley and an outdoor swimming pool… A purchase price of about $10,000 was indicated by the attached revenue stamp.” The next day the Courant reported, “Paul Robeson will move into his new home here, “The Beeches” on May 1… The luxurious house is in a state of disrepair but Mrs. Robeson has arranged with local workers to renovate the house and grounds…Built in 1903, the living room is richly paneled with a marble mantle… The grounds are shaded by many old trees, including several beeches on the broad lawns in front of the house.” What attracted the Robeson’s to Enfield? Why did the FBI keep them under surveillance in Connecticut? And how did a Robeson concert at Hartford’s Weaver High School in 1952 become a huge local controversy? Let’s hear from Steve Thornton about the Robesons activism and life while living in Connecticut. Read more in the Summer 2022 issue of Connecticut Explored “The Robesons Move to Enfield” by Steve Thornton. Get your copy at ctexplored.org   And to learn more about Hartford history from the grassroots, visit The Shoeleather History Project at shoeleatherhistoryproject.com To learn more about a Connecticut citizen was arrested and tried for being a Communist, listen to his first-hand account from Alfred Marder in Episode 7 of Grating the Nutmeg at https://gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com/gtn7e-extended-version-a-communists-arrest-in-1950s-new-haven And read more at https://www.ctexplored.org/al-marder-a-life-of-conviction/ This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan of High Wattage Media, highwattagemedia.com Song: Shenandoah, Paul Robeson (Copland, A.: Fanfare for the Common Man / Tilzer, A. Von: Take) Donohue may be reached at marydonohue@comcast.net Please join us again for the next episode of Grating the Nutmeg!

Painting by Everett Raymond Kinstler, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery   Join Walt Woodward on a visit to the Katharine Hepburn Museum at "the Kate" in Old Saybrook. His interview with Executive Director Brett Eliott and Director of Community Relations Robin Andreoli about this gem of a museum for America's most Oscar-winning actor (and long-time Saybrook resident) should  convince you to put both the Katharine Hepburn Museum and "the Kate" on your must-see-this-summer list. It's a must hear podcast about a must see museum.