A Waterbury man was charged after investigators found more than four pounds of fentanyl in his vehicle during a traffic stop, police said.
Shots were fired during a street fight Friday, but no one was shot, according to officials.
SEYMOUR — Christopher Bowen, a candidate for state representative, is calling for faster COVID-19 testing after he tested positive for the virus.
He and his wife were tested as a precaution at Premier Urgent Care in Oxford on July 22, Bowen said in a post on Facebook on Wednesday.
“I will add my name to the chorus of people pushing for better, faster testing,” said a Wednesday Facebook post from Bowen, a Democrat challenging Nicole Klarides-Kitria for her state representative seat.
Bowen said he tried to get a rapid test done Wednesday but said it was “just not possible.” He said one rapid test site, in Hartford, couldn’t see him until next Tuesday.
Bowen said he and his wife got tested because they are “sometimes around people and want to be absolutely sure.”
In the social media post, published Wednesday, Bowen said he went to a “lightly attended, socially distanced, outdoor event in Beacon Falls” on Tuesday. He said masks were worn, but he still told the Beacon Falls Democratic Town Committee of his positive test results as a precaution.
“This morning,” Bowen said Wednesday, “my wife and I received word that our COVID-19 test from last Wednesday was positive. We have been asymptomatic the whole time.”
Bowen said after talking to medical professionals, specifically the doctor at the urgent care facility, they were told they could be swabbed to get tested again, but there would be “no point.”
“We were informed that a positive test is likely even well after the fact, and that even though we tested positive as of last Wednesday, there’s...
“People were so focused on stopping the bill, they were not making an attempt to understand the bill.” State Sen. Gary Winfield
Two individuals were rescued by divers after a vehicle ended up in the Housatonic River overturned on Friday afternoon.
The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority took early action after opening a probe into Eversource electricity rates that popped in July as temperatures soared in the Northeast.
According to the Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo, an animal care team found that Meri had died in her sleep “with no obvious signs of distress.”
The two were accused by police of being part of a larger operation that provided counterfeit vehicle titles, boating certificates, auto insurance cards and emissions paperwork.
The hurricane is expected to hit Florida in next few days and then head up the eastern coast toward Connecticut.
Video from neighboring businesses showed that the same two men in a dark car were apparently also responsible for break-ins in Shelton, Milford and North Branford.
The tractor trailer drove off the road and crash into an embankment just before Exit 32 on I-95 South.
The victim was struck in the shoulder by a ricocheting bullet, police said.
By Todd Jones
Between 1934 and 1943, the federal government placed murals in twenty-three Connecticut post offices. Taking the form of both paintings and sculptures, these murals were intended to be of high quality and depicted subject matter that was quaint and comforting. The government wanted these murals to spark an interest in art and offer people an uplifting distraction from the troubles of the Great Depression. Unlike works of art created by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which the post office art is often confused with, these government murals had nothing to do with providing jobs for unemployed artists. Connecticut’s post office murals represent a time when the federal government invested in art for art’s sake.
Winsted Post Office mural. Courtesy National Archives, photo no. 121-CMS-1B-32.
The federal government program responsible for the post office murals was the Section of Painting and Sculpture (later called the Section of Fine Arts). It was under the tutelage of the United States Treasury Department in Washington, DC. During the 1930s, the Great Depression caused rampant unemployment, hunger, and anxiety across the United States and Connecticut. President Franklin Roosevelt, to show citizens that the federal government could still get things done, built hundreds of new post offices. Seeing a new government building constructed in the center of town helped boost the morale of local citizens and showed that the distant federal government had not forgotten about them. The Section of Painting and Sculpture decided which of those post offices got artwork inside.
Thomaston Post Office mural. Courtesy National Archives, photo no. 121-CMS-1B-13
The murals were most often situated above the postmaster’s office door, in view of patrons using the main lobby. In an era before email and cell phones, almost everyone regularly visited the post office to keep in touch with the outside world. The buildings were a perfect place to expose average citizens to art. Not everyone at the time could see fine art in a museum, so the Section brought the fine art to them. The painted murals typically measured ten feet in length and five feet in height. Larger post offices, such as in Bridgeport and New London, had more than one mural.
The Section only picked trained and established artists, since the goal was to create fine quality, lasting artwork. As a result, most of the artists were not from Connecticut, which often upset communities. Most of the artists were appointed, though the Section occasionally held blind competitions.
Drawing by artist Frede Vidar depicting mural placement for the interior of the Shelton Post Office. Folder Shelton, Box 12, Entry 133, Record Group 121, National Archives and Records Administration.
Once an artist was chosen, he or she was paid through a contract and typically had one year to complete the mural. During that year, the artist had to send regular updates to the Section staff in Washington, including letters, sketches, and photographs of progress.
The Section took a very active role in the process and controlled specifically how the final mural looked. The Section staff, who were trying very hard to keep their project alive as a permanent government arts program, feared the possibility of offending or upsetting people and causing controversy. As a result, the murals often featured optimistic scenes, especially with historical themes. The colonial past was especially popular in Connecticut. Landscapes were also common since they rarely proved offensive. There were no hints about contemporary problems, such as unemployment, labor strikes, or racial segregation. Mass-production was rarely shown, with the Section preferring depictions of skilled craftsman working by hand or simply showing farming. In a landscape for the Thompsonville mural, the artist replaced the village’s carpet factory with a farm and tobacco barns, which angered many residents. Because of the Section’s stern control over the process, neither residents nor artists had much say in the creation of the artwork.
Southington Post Office mural. Photography by Todd Jones. Used with the permission of the United States Postal Service®. All rights reserved.
The WPA, through its Federal Art Project, also made artwork in public buildings at the same time as the Section. The Section and WPA could not have been more dissimilar, however. Unlike the Section, the WPA gave its artists more range to be creative and gave local residents a voice in the creation of artwork. The WPA had an office in New Haven, with Connecticut art experts on staff. By stipulation, the WPA only used Connecticut artists. Not all the artists had extensive art school training like the Section artists, but the WPA’s primary goal was to put unemployed artists to work on government projects. The WPA was by design a jobs program while the Section was an arts program. The Section also had complete jurisdiction over federal government buildings (like post offices), so the WPA only worked in state and local government buildings, such as schools, city halls, and courthouses.
Many of these murals still hang today. All are remnants of the desperate times of the Great Depression and the different strategies used to survive it. The Section’s post office murals represent the government’s attempt to promote the arts while the WPA art represents the government’s attempt to provide employment. One boosted paychecks, the other boosted morale: both provided hope.
Todd Jones is a historian and preservationist. He holds a master of arts degree in public history from Central Connecticut State University.
By Aileen D. Bastos
Daniel Wadsworth, one of the first major arts patrons in the United States, founded the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in 1842. Today, it is the oldest, continuously operating public art museum in the US.
Its collections of nearly 50,000 works of art span 5,000 years and feature drawings, paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts. On display, and in storage, are Greek and Roman antiquities; European decorative arts; Baroque and Surrealist paintings; Hudson River School landscapes; European and American Impressionist paintings; modernist masterpieces; Ballets Russes costumes and drawings; American colonial furniture and decorative arts; the Samuel Colt firearms collection; costumes and textiles; African American art and artifacts; and contemporary art.
E.B. & E.C. Kellogg, Wadsworth Atheneum, Main Street, Hartford, ca. 1842-1848, lithograph – Connecticut Historical Society and Connecticut History Illustrated
The Wadsworth Atheneum is comprised of five connected buildings. The first is the 1844 Gothic Revival Wadsworth building, designed by architects Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis. It originally housed an art gallery, the Connecticut Historical Society, and the Young Men’s Institute (which later became the Hartford Public Library), and the Natural History Society. The second building, the Tudor Revival Colt Memorial, built in 1910, and the third, the Renaissance Revival Morgan Memorial, constructed from 1910 to 1915, were designed by Benjamin Wistar Morris and provided additional space for the growing fine arts collection.
The Avery Memorial opened in 1934 and was the first American museum building fashioned in the International Style. By 1964, the institutions not affiliated with the art museum had moved to other Hartford locations. When the Goodwin building, designed in a late modernist style, opened to the public in 1969, the entire facility was devoted to the fine arts.
The Wadsworth Atheneum’s art gallery developed slowly during its early years. The collection consisted mostly of history paintings, portraits, and American landscapes by artists such as John Trumbull, Thomas Cole, and Frederic Church, along with examples of Victorian era sculpture. The museum entered a period of rapid growth in 1889 when the Goodwin and Morgan families spearheaded a public fundraising campaign for a renovation and expansion program. In 1905, the museum received a generous donation when Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt bequeathed over 1,000 objects—including Hudson River School paintings, decorative works, and the firearms collection of her late husband Samuel Colt—as well as funds for the construction of the Colt Memorial.
The eastern extension of Morgan Memorial, 1912 – Connecticut Historical Society and Connecticut History Illustrated
In 1907 Hartford native J. Pierpont Morgan offered to build the Morgan Memorial, and in 1917, JP Morgan Jr. presented the museum with his father’s collection of ancient bronzes, Renaissance majolica, 17th-century ivories and silver gilt objects, and Meissen and Sèvres porcelains. In 1926 Morgan purchased the preeminent Wallace Nutting collection of American “Pilgrim Century” furniture and decorative arts for the Wadsworth Atheneum. In 1927 the bequest of Hartford banker Frank C. Sumner established the Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection fund, in memory of his wife and sister-in-law. This fund continues to enrich the museum’s holdings by enabling it to purchase paintings of the highest quality. The Wadsworth Atheneum used these funds to become the first US museum to acquire works by Caravaggio, Miró, Mondrian, Balthus, Harnett, Cornell and DalÃ.
The modern history of the Wadsworth Atheneum began in 1927 with the appointment of A. Everett “Chick” Austin Jr. as director. During his 17-year tenure, Austin founded the museum’s collection of European paintings, especially in the baroque field, and acquired masterpieces by leading modernists. He also introduced other art forms new to the museum world: music, dance, theater, film, and photography. In the 1930s, the Wadsworth Atheneum presented America’s first major Italian Baroque exhibition, its first Surrealist show, and its first comprehensive Picasso retrospective.
C. Cunningham, director from 1946 to 1966, enriched the Italian, Spanish, and Northern baroque collection with works by such artists as Panini, Zurbarán, Ribera, and Hals. He built the French Impressionist collection with major works by Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro; added to the holdings of English art with J.M.W. Turner, Wright of Darby, Holman Hunt, and Stanley Spencer; and expanded the American collection with paintings by Winslow Homer, George Inness, Thomas Eakins, and Andrew Wyeth.
In 1966 James Elliot became director and during his 10-year tenure developed the contemporary collection, in particular, presenting innovative programs of theater, music, and dance. In 1975 he founded the MATRIX program of focused exhibitions, performances, and lectures reflecting diverse trends in contemporary art. MATRIX has presented, often for the first time, more than 160 emerging artists, many of them well-known today.
Two boys in workroom Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford – Hartford Public Library, Hartford History Center, Hartford Times Collection and Connecticut History Illustrated
Between 1977 and 1987, director Tracy Atkinson helped establish the Amistad Foundation, now the Amistad Center for Art & Culture, a sister organization that is a unique repository of African American art and artifacts. Patrick McCaughey became director in 1988 and served until 1996. He appointed the first Curator of African American Art, acquired important European and American paintings, and oversaw the building of the Helen and Harry Gray Court. McCaughey dramatically increased the museum’s international audience, sending large portions of its permanent collection for exhibition to Paris and Japan as well as launching and supporting the first major Australian-American landscape exhibition.
Peter C. Sutton became director in 1996 and created the first monographic exhibition of the Dutch master Pieter de Hooch in 1999. Sutton launched a series of exhibitions inspired by the permanent collection that combined originality with broad popular appeal, including DalÃ’s Optical Illusions and The Impressionists at Argenteuil. During his tenure the museum purchased important works of art ranging from baroque master Valerio Castello to Andy Warhol.
Beginning in 2000, directors Kate Sellers and Willard Holmes led the museum during a period in which large portions of the its American and European collections traveled throughout the United States and Europe to unprecedented acclaim. In February 2008, Susan Lubowsky Talbott, previously director of Smithsonian Arts at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, was appointed the Wadsworth Atheneum’s 10th director. Her aims have included developing new programs and exhibitions that are both engaging and intellectually exciting, expanding the collections through significant acquisitions, and creating partnerships and collaborative projects with a broad range of community groups in order to make the Wadsworth Atheneum an even more inclusive and welcoming institution.
Aileen D. Bastos, a former staff member of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, holds a BA in museum studies and art history from Regis College in Massachusetts and is pursuing her MA in public history at Central Connecticut State University.
The National Hurricane Center said the tropical storm is forecast to track over the Bahamas Friday and into this weekend.
There is a severe thunderstorm warning for southern Fairfield County until 5 p.m. Thursday, according to an alert from the National Weather Service.
A severe thunderstorm was picked up on radar over Bedford, N.Y., at 4:07 p.m., headed east at about 25 mph. The alert said the storm could bring wind gusts of up to 60 mph.
The alert said there could be damage to trees and power lines. The storm was expected to move into Bridgeport and Fairfield around 5 p.m.
Officials in Bridgeport said there is also a lightning warning for the city and the surrounding area until 5:15 p.m.
“For your protection, move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building,” the alert said.
The president’s Thursday morning tweet set off a bipartisan chain of opposition to delaying the November presidential election.
A study comparing COVID cases and deaths to school closings suggests there are fewer viral infections and deaths when schools are closed statewide sooner.
A 20-year-old Bridgeport man has been arrested and charged with the boy’s murder, police said.
Educators and community members from more than two dozen towns plan to participate in simultaneous rallies across the state.
The state has set aside $30 million for the widespread testing of nursing home employees. But its contributions will end on Aug. 31.
The American Red Cross is seeking convalescent plasma donations as COVID-19 cases rise nationwide.
By Kelly Marino
Rosamond Danielson was a respected suffragist, World War I worker, and philanthropist from Putnam Heights, Connecticut. At the turn of the twentieth century, when debate still existed about how much public influence and involvement women should have, Danielson fearlessly fought the status quo. She directed the Windham County suffrage campaign and became involved in various other causes—from home front mobilization to fundraising in support of female education. Her dedicated spirit, strong commitment to improving the lives of Connecticut’s citizens and institutions, and effective leadership skills allowed her to gain a prominent reputation as a key local activist in many cities and towns throughout the state.
Rosamond was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to George Whitman and Rosa Frances Peckham Danielson on November 6, 1884. Her mother was an internationally respected portrait painter in her youth, whose work was exhibited in Paris, while her father was a self-made man—a farmer’s son turned newspaper mogul—famous for his job as editor of The Providence Journal, among many other positions. Although George died three years after marrying Rosa, his career in the publishing industry allowed the family to amass a fortune, leaving his wife, daughter, and son (Whitman) with considerable wealth.
Rosamond was sent to Bryn Mawr College. Graduating in 1905 with a degree in science (an unusual choice for a woman during the period) her focus on chemistry and geology was evidence of her progressive mindset.
Women Suffrage March, ca. 1913 – Hahn Family photo album, Connecticut Historical Society
Danielson became active in the women’s suffrage movement in Connecticut during the early twentieth century. She held a variety of positions in local and state suffrage bodies, including secretary of the Putnam Equal Franchise League and Windham County’s chairman of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association (CWSA). Through these organizations, she gave speeches, helped organize conferences and conventions, arranged citizenship education programs, marched in parades, participated in automobile tours, and petitioned the legislature. She also contributed to suffrage activism in other states, particularly in Worcester County, Massachusetts, and in New York.
Danielson’s Putnam Heights home was the site of many state and local suffrage events. Under her direction, the campaign in Windham County took off, with representatives from the area attending every state suffrage convention and delegations contributing to other state and regional activism.
Connecticut State Council of Defense during World War I – Connecticut State Library, Dudley Photograph Collection, Connecticut History Illustrated
At the same time that she was promoting women’s suffrage, Danielson was also participating in other areas of activism; particularly, women’s collective organization to support American efforts during World War I. Like many CWSA campaigners, she was eager to portray suffragists in a respectable light. Danielson served on the Connecticut State Council of Defense’s committee for women’s activities, which helped with rationing, food conservation, and Red Cross work. She was also director of the woman’s board for the Day Kimball hospital in Putnam, a group she remained active in later in life.
In addition, Danielson staunchly supported women’s education. While campaigning for suffrage, she held positions in the Windham House Association (WHA) to fundraise for Connecticut College and assisted with the school’s arboretum (because of her love for horticulture, plants, and gardening). With the WHA, she generated money for a new dormitory on campus named “Windham Hall.” By 1921, the group had raised over $18,000. Danielson further participated in fundraising to build the endowment of her alma mater, Bryn Mawr.
After 1920, Danielson continued to be active within her community, serving on local and state committees. Once women won the right to vote that year, she was elected as president of the Putnam Civic Club—which continued to educate and register Connecticut’s voters—and served as a member of the Putnam Republican Town Committee. She joined the women’s section of the state’s Fair Price Committee to decrease the cost of essential goods, was active in the Connecticut Historical Society, and contributed as a Sunday school teacher in Putnam and a member of the Congregational church. During World War II, Danielson served in Connecticut as an air raid warden, the assistant chief observer of the Aircraft Warning Service, a registrar for the Red Cross Blood Bank, and a volunteer for hospital work. After a long and full life, she died on April 12, 1971, at 96 years old.
Kelly Marino is an Assistant Lecturer of History at Sacred Heart University.
On July 30, 1970, Louis Zemel, the owner of Powder Ridge Ski Area in Middlefield had to tell a crowd of thousands that the scheduled three-day rock festival they had come for was canceled. Less than a year after Woodstock, an estimated 30,000 people had showed up for the July 31 through August 2 event, advertised as “A Natural Amphitheatre on Ski Slopes,” which was to feature everyone from Sly & the Family Stone, Fleetwood Mac, Joe Cocker, and Van Morrison to Jethro Tull, Janis Joplin, and Grand Funk Railroad. The youth of America started showing up a week ahead of time to camp on the slopes and complaints from area residents prompted Middletown Superior Court to order an injunction that prohibited the 30 advertised artists from performing. Many of those who arrived stayed in protest even though the state police had set up barricades on roads leading to Powder Ridge up to two miles away and utilities and other services had been cut.
YouTube –
The Huntley Brinkley Report from July 31, 1970, reporting on the canceled rock festival
from Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project https://connecticuthistory.org/connecticuts-woodstock-canceled/
A Weston man suffered life-threatening injuries in a crash on I-95 in Bridgeport.
A “congestion” charge on Eversource bills had its formula changed to include higher rates paid for electricity from Dominion Energy’s Millstone Power Station nuclear plant.
Eight days after he was hit by a car while jogging, former candidate for governor Oz Griebel died, according to his family.
Two state senators, Winfield of New Haven and Champagne of Vernon, brought perspectives on police reform from different worlds.
Acknowledging teacher anxiety, Lamont concedes school won’t likely be full-time for everyone in the fall.
An international team of researchers has determined that the virus that causes COVID-19 may have been around for decades in Chinese bats.
The University of Connecticut ranks 10th nationally according to a New York Times survey, but most are linked to UConn Health campus workers, school officials said.
Even Democrats who had doubts about police transparency and accountability legislation supported it Wednesday in a lopsided, pre-dawn vote in state Senate.
The state’s rainy day fund, which stood at $2.5 billion when the pandemic struck, now approaches $2.8 billion, according to a review of tax returns filed after July 15.
Xavier Diaz, 35, had many loaded weapons — including a stolen handgun — at his home, police said.
A 42-year-old Hartford man has been charged with murder after his landlord was found decapitated a day earlier.
Southwest Community Health Center is partnering with Bass Pro Shop in Bridgeport to offer free COVID-19 testing on Monday.
The northbound exit is expected to be closed until at least 10:30 a.m.
The 30-year-old man was struck by a car Tuesday night in Bridgeport, police said.
At 1:59 a.m. on July 29, 1990, a smoke detector signal alerted the central Greenwich fire station of a fire at the Cos Cob School. Cos Cob responded in two minutes. When the firefighters entered the building there was only moderate smoke on the third floor; in the attic, the intensity of the smoke and heat forced them to retreat. When the fire broke through the roof and the ceiling collapsed, the call was given to evacuate the building.
Two minutes after the last firefighter exited, an explosion tore through the roof and shattered all third-floor windows. With the old wood beams and the open attic, the flames spread rapidly. Now the fire could only be fought on the outside. Three aerial ladders and three deck guns poured 6,000 gallons of water per minute onto the school. It took 80 firefighters from all 6 of the town’s fire stations 6 hours to bring the fire under control.
Firefighters respond to the fire at Cos Cob School, Roberta Lindstrom, photographer – Greenwich Historical Society
While there were no injuries, several firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion by Greenwich Emergency Medical Services (GEMS). Police regulated the traffic on the Post Road. The Cos Cob Ladies Auxiliary, Red Cross Disaster Service, and local deli owners provided food and beverages.
Board of Education members immediately sat down to plan where to send the 274 students when the new school year began on August 30. On August 2, they approved the reopening of Parkway School and the transferring of funds for renovations. The principal scheduled a meeting for students and parents to assure them that it would be school as usual. Afterwards students and parents were invited to meet with teachers and a social worker or psychologist to answer their questions and address any concerns. While the school had smoke detectors, it did not have a sprinkler system, nor was a sprinkler system required by law. Today, multiple-story buildings are required to have sprinklers; however, single-story structures are exempted.
Karen Frederick, Curator and Exhibitions Coordinator, and Anne Young, former Curator of Library and Archives, of the Greenwich Historical Society contributed this article and co-curated the exhibition Everyday Heroes: Greenwich First Responders (September 14 through August 26, 2012) from which it is derived.
By Gregg Mangan
Salt is a mineral so readily available today that most Americans take it for granted. There is never a question of whether an adequate supply of salt exists or how to go about procuring it. Back in the late 1700s, however, Americans imported large quantities of salt from overseas. During times of war, this resulted in critical shortages of salt that Americans relied on both for seasoning and preserving their food. During these times, well-informed entrepreneurs took to generating domestic supplies to fill the market demand. One of these entrepreneurs was Amos Morris of East Haven.
Morris was a merchant engaged in trade with the West Indies. A direct descendant of mercantile entrepreneurs who left London for Massachusetts in the 1630s, he owned a wharf and large warehouse in East Haven that he utilized to grow his business.
When the Revolutionary War brought a temporary halt to salt shipments from the West Indies, Morris set up an operation to make his own. Setting out a series of wooden vats 30 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 10 inches deep, Morris collected seawater that he turned into salt through the process of evaporation.
“The Ancient Salt Works at Morris Cove” from A Pictorial History of “Raynham” and Its Vicinity by Charles Hervey Townshend
Each saltwater vat had a sliding cover used to protect the salt from rain and wind, as well as to keep dew from accumulating in it at night. After subjecting the water to the sun to promote natural evaporation, Morris utilized five boilers to rid the salt of its remaining water. He stored his product in sheds for a few days to allow the magnesium to drain off before re-dissolving and crystallizing his salt for market. Utilizing this process, Morris produced approximately a quarter of a pound of salt for every gallon of seawater he processed.
Unfortunately for Morris, in 1779, a series of raids along the Connecticut coast by British Major General William Tryon destroyed Morris’s salt manufacturing equipment. With the war ending shortly after, salt imports resumed and Morris never bothered to rebuild his facilities.
During the War of 1812, local residents briefly resumed producing their own salt but with little success. After moving their equipment away from local freshwater sources that compromised their product, a September 1821 storm destroyed the facility and salt production in East Haven ended.
Gregg Mangan is an author and historian who holds a PhD in public history from Arizona State University.
With a significant amount of new COVID-19 infections popping up among teens and young adults, officials are urging residents to take precautions.
Several Connecticut residents have reported that they received “unsolicited packages” with seeds that officials say might be an invasive plant species.
Firefighters battled flames at an apartment complex for hours through “extreme” weather Monday, fire officials said on Tuesday.
With Connecticut still in Phase 2 of coronavirus reopening, with most businesses open under restrictions, rules will constantly evolve.
Democrats are on the verge of drastically changing the oversight of police and the potential penalties for abusing the public.
The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law on July 26, 1990.
Unilever, maker of Dove soap and Vaseline, scaled back its Connecticut operations in recent years after employing more than 1,100 people in Trumbull.
With the fall semester still a question mark, the state gears up to make sure all students have a laptop and way to get on line with the infusion of $43.5 million.
Bridgeport Health Care Center Inc. and its former officer Chaim Stern have been ordered to pay more than $3 million to health and retirement plans used by employees.
The first of four bills in the state Senate’s one-day special session would allow expanded absentee balloting statewide in the coronavirus pandemic.
Transmission rates can be a good metric of whether or not a disease is spreading, but they need to be taken with a grain of salt.
Darnell Porter was charged with evading responsibility, failure to maintain a proper lane, misuse of plates, operating an unregistered vehicle and possession of a controlled substance.
Many agree that holding live classes online and hosting small group sessions is the next best option if students cannot attend school in-person.
The theft happened around 4 p.m. on June 22 at the Connecticut Post Mall, police said,
The state Department of Transportation says it’s taking about an hour to travel 30 miles from New Haven to Route 9 in Old Saybrook.
The accident happened near the entrance to Merritt Canteen around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday.
A record of 94 degrees was set in Stratford, while New Haven had a record high of 93 degrees on Monday.
On July 28, 1996, ornithologist and artist Roger Tory Peterson died in Old Lyme. From age 11, growing up in New York, Peterson was active in the Junior Audubon Club and his interest in birds and artistic talent led him to study art at the Art Students League and then the National Academy of Design. While Peterson was teaching art in Massachusetts, the paintings he did as a student came to the attention of an editor at Audubon magazine who suggested he publish a book. In 1924, Peterson’s Field Guide to Birds, Including All Species Found in Eastern North America was published and became an instant success. Written for the amateur birder, the book offered simple illustrations and grouped the birds by appearance rather than species. Peterson was able to leave his job in Massachusetts and settled in Old Lyme where he set up a studio. Field Guide to Birds sold more than five million copies and Peterson continued to write and edit books on birds and nature, 50 in all, as well as paint and exhibit his artwork in galleries and museums.
Born on March 12, 1916, to a devoutly Catholic working-class family in the Newhallville section of New Haven, Richard C. Lee became one of the most celebrated and well-known mayors of the 20th century. A democrat, he earned national recognition for his urban renewal programs in the 1950s and 60s, and was a smart, savvy, and well-liked politician despite the fact that his formal education ended when he graduated in 1934 from Hillhouse High School.
Richard Charles Lee, 1961
After he graduated from high school, Richard Lee took a job reporting for the New Haven Journal-Courier where he covered police beats and happenings at New Haven’s city hall. At 21 he became a member of the Democratic Party, and at 23, was elected city alderman, where one of his first tasks was to help draft the city planning commission’s first budget.
In 1943 he joined the ranks at Yale University to manage its wartime news digest. Shortly after, Lee headed up the university’s public relations bureau. It was during this time that he learned to connect with all different kinds of people—a skill that later helped him as one of New Haven’s most influential mayors.
In 1949, when Lee was 33, he made his first run for mayor, losing to Republican incumbent William Celentano. The margin was close, however, and Lee lost by a mere 712 votes. Undeterred, he ran again in 1951. This time he lost by two votes. In 1953, he ran a third time, and this time, he won.
From the start of his tenure, Lee focused on improving New Haven through massive urban development initiatives. By the 1950s, New Haven’s urban center was largely derelict: slums encompassed entire neighborhoods that lacked plumbing, electricity, and gas. Crime was on the rise and poverty proliferated. Always for the people, Mayor Dick Lee made it his mission to clean up New Haven. In his years as mayor he acquired tens-of-millions of dollars from both the state and federal government to transform New Haven from a slum to a “Model City,” as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty programs. He later reflected, “It took me a long time to become mayor and when I finally made it, I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to be an ordinary mayor.”
Night demolition, corner of Church and Crown Streets, New Haven, 1959 – New Haven Museum and Historical Society
Richard Lee initiated and championed much of New Haven’s urban renewal efforts during his eight-term run as the city’s mayor (1954–1969). Hiring a crack team of developers and architects, Lee set out to rebuild New Haven. His efforts had both benefits and devastating consequences.
Standard Beef Co., State Street, New Haven, prior to redevelopment, 1964 – New Haven Museum and Historical Society
The Housing Act of 1949 was the impetus of urban redevelopment as it aimed to rehabilitate decaying residential areas—of which New Haven had plenty. In order to rehabilitate, however, entire neighborhoods were decimated, displacing thousands. In the 14 years of renewal efforts almost 8,000 people (predominately poor and minority residents) living in 11 downtown neighborhoods lost their homes.
Not only were residents displaced, businesses, too, felt the pains of the urban renewal. The development of Church Street in particular, one of the earliest and largest of Lee’s target areas, took out almost 800 businesses. In total, over 2,200 businesses were lost to redevelopment efforts in the 1950s and 60s.
The consequences were not all negative, however. In the first years of his tenure, Lee became somewhat of a national celebrity for his dedication to renewal in New Haven. Even HUD’s Robert Weaver speculated that “New Haven is coming closest to our dreams of a slumless city,” and Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz told a reporter that Lee’s New Haven was “the greatest success story in the history of the world.”
By the early 1960s it was clear that transforming New Haven into a “Model City” was an effort too large for any one man. While urban renewal addressed buildings, it failed to address the people who lived there and the social causes for decline, a fact the mayor would try to address in the 1960s with limited success.
Richard Lee died in 2003 at the age of 86. A pioneer of urban renewal and thinking about cities in new ways, he later reflected on the shortcomings of his efforts, declaring, “For everything we’ve done, there are five things we haven’t done, or five things we’ve failed at. If New Haven is a model city, then God help urban America.”
Demolition Day, corner of Church and Chapel Streets, New Haven – New Haven Museum and Historical Society
Connecticut school superintendents estimate returning to school in the fall is going to cost them $400 million or more above their 2020-21 budgets.
A Bridgeport teenager was ordered held as an adult after being arrested on robbery, assault charges.
The City Council will hold a special meeting Tuesday to vote to have Mayor Joe Ganim re-install the Christopher Columbus statue he had removed from Seaside Park.
“There's some evidence that suggests that Connecticut cases are maybe growing a little bit right now,” said Virginia Pitzer, Yale School of Public Health.
Two months after a partnership between Dalio Philanthropies and the state dissolved, the Dalios are working with cities to deliver high-speed internet.
The ghetto began as a way to contain the Jewish people, and the typhus epidemic that was roaring through Europe. How the ghetto’s residents halted the pandemic could offer lessons for how to fight COVID-19.
The Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Collective, a network of Connecticut teachers, is developing, implementing and sharing curricula to address racism in their classrooms.
Parents of children with special needs are concerned they are falling behind without in-person instruction.
Isabelle Martins was charged with disorderly conduct, third-degree assault, second-degree threatening, third-degree harassment and violation of a protective order.
Temperatures Monday and Tuesday will be about eight degrees above normal.
Masks will be available for bus riders in the morning and the afternoon on Tuesday.
The man is in critical condition with several life-threatening injuries, police said.
…that patents granted to North Branford residents included one for a device used for paring coconut meats in 1875. An industrial invention rather than a tool for the home kitchen, the Machine for Paring Cocoa Nut Meats, patented by Edward Smith and E. Chapman Maltby, handily separated the coconut from its hairy rind.
Around 1850 Maltby had established a brick factory in Northford where he made buttons, wooden spoons, and water dippers from the shells of coconuts imported from the West Indies. These dippers were particularly handy in an era when water was drawn from a well with a bucket. Though the coconut meat had initially been discarded, Maltby began making shredded or “dessicated” coconut from the meat and Northford became the home of shredded coconut in the US. At the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, Maltby’s shredded coconut won first prize. His brick factory was torn down in the mid-1930s and was later the site of two restaurants, one called the Millpond Taverne.
On July 27, 1998, Vice President Al Gore designated the Connecticut River one of 14 American Heritage Rivers. The American Heritage River program was designed to restore the historic, economic, and environmental viability of some of the nation’s most important waterways. Since the 1998 designation, the Connecticut River has seen a number of improvements, including greater control of industrial run-off, the completion of new sewage treatment plants, and the implementation of erosion control and bacteria monitoring plans.
The Connecticut River Watershed is New England’s largest watershed, covering 11,000 square miles through four states. The river itself is 410 miles long and runs from northern New Hampshire to the Long Island Sound. Its waters powered the mills and facilitated the transportation that promoted the growth of New England industry, but years of neglect and pollution filled the Connecticut River with sewage and industrial waste.
by Barbara Austen
On July 26, 1847, a group of settlers in a small colony on the west coast of Africa issued a Declaration of Independence, creating the independent Republic of Liberia with a constitution based on the political principles of the United States. Many of these former African Americans had been freed from enslavement; others were born free but left the United States seeking greater opportunities for themselves and their children.
Africa. Hand-colored lithograph from Mitchell’s Series of Outline Maps, 1841. Mitchell’s maps were used to teach geography and history to school children – Connecticut Historical Society
The American Colonization Society, which aimed to send African Americans to Africa, was founded in 1816. Connecticut’s own Colonization Society was founded in 1828. According to its constitution the purpose was:
to promote and execute a plan for colonizing (with their consent) the free people of colour residing in our country, in Africa, or such other places as Congress shall deem most expedient.
The colony that would eventually become Liberia was established in 1822; by 1832, there were more than 2,500 settlers there. Eventually 18,000 Americans of African descent would emigrate to Liberia. Charlotte Cowles, of Farmington, mentioned in a letter to her brother Samuel that:
Dr. Porter [the minister] preached one of the most remarkable sermons which was ever heard. It was Anti-Abolition, of course. He said ‘the only difference was, that one class [the Abolitionists] wished to persuade or compel (!!!) the slaveholders to give up their slaves immediately; and the other class [the Colonization advocates] were for having slavery abolished gradually’.
While some Connecticut residents, like Miss Cowles, were ardent Abolitionists, others favored the approach of the Colonization advocates. In 1852, Hartford’s well-known and successful African American photographer Augustus Washington chose to emigrate to Liberia with his family. He achieved great success there not only as a photographer but also as a major landowner and a member of the Liberian Congress.
Portrait of Gideon Tomlinson (1780-1854), Oil on panel. Tomlinson was the first president of the Connecticut Colonization Society – Connecticut Historical Society
Colonization proved only a temporary and partial solution for the problem of slavery. Many African Americans had lived for generations in the United States and considered it their country. They had no desire to emigrate to Africa. And many Abolitionists, both black and white, felt that Colonization favored the slave holders and advocated for immediate emancipation. It would require a bloody conflict to finally put an end to slavery, and it would require a century of struggle and protest before future generations of African Americans would gain rights that their ancestors had long sought.
Barbara Austen is the Florence S. Marcy Crofut Archivist at the Connecticut Historical Society.
© Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network and Connecticut Historical Society. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared on Your Public Media
A man was injured today Sunday afternoon after falling from a second-story balcony, according to officials.
The fight was reported at Main Street and Vincellette street, Bridgeport Police said in a Tweet at 12:42 a.m.
The first victim arrived at St. Vincent’s medical center with non-life-threatening wounds to the lower body, city police said at 12:35 a.m. Sunday morning.
The department said the demonstration is intended to “express serious public safety concerns regarding the well-intentioned police reform bill that was presented before the House of Representatives.”
Temperatures are expected to reach the low 90’s Sunday, Monday and Tuesday with light breezes and a slight chance of thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon.
By Patrick J. Mahoney
In 1826, during the Second Great Awakening, Protestant faiths drew new converts across the United States and a renewed focus fell upon proper social and religious behaviors. It was amid these circumstances that Lyman Beecher stood before his congregation in Litchfield, Connecticut, to deliver a series of sermons on the nature and dangers of intemperance. Regarding the threat that excessive alcohol consumption posed to the future success of the young nation, the fiery preacher noted, “Intemperance is the sin of our land, and, with our boundless prosperity, is coming in upon us like a flood; and if anything shall defeat the hopes of the world, which hand upon our experiment of civil liberty, it is that river of fire which is rolling through the land, destroying the vital air and extending around an atmosphere of death.”
Shortly after their delivery and publication, Beecher’s sermons on intemperance found a growing audience throughout the United States, England, and the European continent. His outspoken stance on the issue was only one example of Beecher’s moral leadership and guidance during a time of great religious change in America.
Reverend Lyman Beecher, ca. 1855-1865 – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Brady-Handy Photograph Collection
Born in 1775, Lyman Beecher was a native of New Haven, the son of David Beecher and Esther Hawley Lyman. At the age of 18, he entered Yale, where he studied under the renowned New England Congregationalist minister and President of Yale, Timothy Dwight. Following his graduation from the Yale Divinity School, Beecher entered his first preaching post as an understudy at the Presbyterian Church of East Hampton, Long Island. It was in 1810 that Beecher moved to Litchfield, Connecticut, to preach at the Congregational Church. He quickly became a fixture in the Litchfield community and remained there for nearly three decades.
As the 19th century progressed, however, tales from travelers to the western territories began to circulate around the eastern seaboard, bringing about a renewed sense of interest in the potential of the region. Among those captivated by “the West” was Beecher. Reflecting on its diverse population, and the lack of influence from established societal institutions, Beecher noted that the future vitality of the region depended on the education and moral culture introduced by proper religious elements. To this end, he warned against what he deemed to be the increasingly pervasive influence of the Roman Catholic Church. He argued that if the Catholic Church became a major influence in the West, its legacy of corruption might be the downfall of the region.
Unsurprisingly, given his avowed interest in the future of the region, Beecher moved his family west to Cincinnati in 1832, where he accepted a position as president of Lane Theological Seminary. Far from the quaint environs of East Hampton or Litchfield, Cincinnati was a bustling city, deemed by Beecher to be the “London of the West.” Marked by the goal of preparing a crop of protestant ministers suitable for evangelizing the sprawling American West, Beecher’s presidency became marked by controversy.
Shortly after Beecher’s arrival, the national debate on slavery divided the faculty and students at the school. In the end, many of the students who adopted an abolitionary stance felt discordance with the school’s faculty and board of directors, and withdrew to attend the newly founded Oberlin College.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lyman Beecher, and Henry Ward Beecher from a carte de visite by Mathew Brady – New York Public Library Digital Collections
Despite his concerns about the increased influence of the Catholic Church, it was traditional Calvinists within his own faith, namely the Reverend Joshua Lacy Wilson, who took issue with Beecher’s delivery and message of faith. His detractors, including Wilson, pointed to what they perceived as Beecher’s non-traditional methods for evangelization and charged him with heresy and slander in 1835. Although later acquitted of all charges, Beecher felt the reproach of the claims against him lingered for the duration of his time in Cincinnati. He remained another 16 years in his position at Lane Seminary and as pastor of the city’s Second Presbyterian Church before heading back east in 1851. He spent the remainder of his days in Brooklyn, New York, where he died on January 10, 1863, at the age of 87.
While Beecher was a leading religious revivalist, social reformer, and shaper of American religious identity in the 19th century, his legacy exceeds that of his ministry. Of the 13 children that he fathered during his three marriages, all seven of his sons (including Henry Ward Beecher) followed him into religious life. Additionally, his daughters Catharine and Isabella entered public life as advocates for educational reform and suffrage respectively. His daughter, Harriet, however, became perhaps the most famous of his offspring after her authorship of the renowned abolitionist tract, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Patrick J. Mahoney is a former adjunct professor in the history department at Sacred Heart University and writer of the Hartford Historic Places column for Examiner.com.
Usually the tour is given once a month and on holidays, but last week was the first tour given since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
A Bridgeport construction, who aided the 9/11 search, was seriously injured in an Ohio auto accident. A GoFundMe campaign has begun to help bring him back to Connecticut.
State Sen. Len Fasano has asked Attorney General William Tong for a legal opinion on the creation of the Office of Inspector General since it may conflict with the state Constitution and the Criminal Justice division
On July 25, 1864, the Stamford Ladies Soldiers’ Aid Society held a Sanitary Fair. Sanitary Fairs were established in response to the needs of Civil War soldiers beyond what the government could supply. The United States Sanitary Commission, a civilian organization, was authorized by the government in 1861. The primary objective of the commission was to collect supplies, provide support to soldiers’ homes, transport the sick, supply food, and to provide services to discharged soldiers. The Stamford Ladies Soldiers’ Aid Society held their fair to raise money for medical supplies for men in Union hospitals by selling a stamp that they had issued at a cost of 15 cents. These stamps were not the usual postage stamp but a drop letter stamp in which mail would be held at the post office and called for by the addressee.
The rate requests reflect medical inflation and higher utilization by patients, insurers said, along with COVID-related costs.
BRIDGEPORT — It has been a decade since two Bridgeport firefighters were killed battling a blaze on Elmwood Avenue.
On Friday, a wreath was placed next to the memorial for firefighters Michel Baik and Lt. Steven Velasquez, at the fire station on Ocean Terrace. The firefighters, both assigned to Ladder Truck 11, died on July 24, 2010.
The crew assembled at DEEP’s Eastern District Headquarters in Marlborough Friday afternoon.
Patrons are required to wear a face mask at all times, no seating will be available and “brisk browsing” will be encouraged.
Police said in February a school counselor reported to Bridgeport police that a 12-year-old girl had been raped by Victor Cruz, 45, of Denver Avenue.
As it did last weekend, Rhode Island officials are asking residents from Connecticut and Massachusetts not to visit their beaches.
Here’s a timeline of coronavirus in Connecticut. It’s only been four months, but a lot has happened in that time.
The accident, reported at 8:08 a.m., has closed the left lane between Exits 56 and 55.
Monroe received 2.15 inches, the highest rainfall total in the state.
The fire occurred early Friday morning at a home on Roosevelt Road.
by Andy Piascik
Poets are sometimes as important in telling the story of a nation as historians. This is especially true of poets and painters who come of age during the revolution that births a nation. Such was the case with the Hartford Wits—a talented group of writers greatly influenced by the struggle of the American colonies for independence from Britain.
John Trumbull was the oldest of the Wits. Born in what is now Watertown, Connecticut, in 1750, Trumbull was such an advanced student that he passed an entrance examination to Yale University at the age of seven and enrolled at the school at 13. Two years later, Timothy Dwight, enrolled at Yale. Like Trumbull, Dwight, a Massachusetts native, was a child prodigy who was also just 13 when he matriculated. The two soon befriended Derby native David Humphreys and Dartmouth transfer Joel Barlow, born in Redding in 1754.
Asher Brown Durand engraving of Joel Barlow – Connecticut Historical Society
As the four men who eventually became the Wits graduated, they remained at Yale tutoring, teaching, and expanding their circle of literary aspirants. They had all begun writing poetry by the early 1770s and it was Trumbull who initially gave voice to the themes that defined the group, first in “An Essay on the Use and Advantages of Fine Arts” and then in “The Progress of Dulness,” a long poem that satirized college education. Trumbull wrote his “Essay” five years before the battles of Lexington and Concord, yet he already spoke of the colonies as a great nation embarked on a valiant struggle for freedom characterized by heroic acts. He foresaw the emergence of an American literary tradition capable of rivaling the great civilizations of the past.
“The Progress of Dulness,” meanwhile, established a tone and style that later defined the poetry of the Wits: satire, understated humor, and puncturing the pretenses of the self-important and powerful. Trumbull also exhibited a belief in egalitarianism that eventually became a Wit hallmark in, for example, poems that called for the abolition of slavery and full education rights for women. The latter theme is already on display in “The Progress of Dulness” in the characterization of Harriet Simper, who is told to prioritize clothes, appearance, and finding a husband despite obvious intellectual abilities.
With the onset of the Revolutionary War, the Wits turned their sights on new targets, including the colonial government, King George III, and, most notably, colonial residents with loyalties to the British crown. They were hardly armchair dilettantes content to satirize from the comforts of academia, however, as Humphreys and Barlow joined the Continental army and Dwight, who in addition to writing poetry, became a minister, serving as chaplain to the Connecticut Continental Brigade. Among his contributions, Dwight wrote a number of songs for the soldiers of the Revolution, including “Columbia” (Columbia, Columbia, to glory rise/The queen of the world, and the child of the skies!).
Elkanah Tisdale, John Trumbull Esq., 1801, line engraving – Yale University Art Gallery
Though Trumbull was the only one of the Wit core who did not join the Continental army, he made a contribution with “M’Fingal,” a poem that mocked the British cause through the story of a Loyalist named Squire M’Fingal. Humphreys, meanwhile, rose to the rank of colonel and published “Address to the Armies of the United States of America” and other patriotic poems. After the British suffered their final major defeat of the war, it was Humphreys who presented British General Cornwallis’s flag to the Continental Congress.
After the war’s end, Trumbull, Barlow, and Humphreys settled in the city that bears the group’s name, eventually being joined in Hartford by Lemuel Hopkins, a physician and poet born in Waterbury in 1750, and Richard Alsop, a poet born in Middletown in 1761. Hopkins and Alsop rounded out the Wits, writing poems of their own and collaborating on others, including on “The Anarchiad,” an epic poem that may be the best-known work by the Wits.
The Wits went on to distinguish themselves in other fields. Barlow became a diplomat, Humphreys a historian and politician, and Dwight became a teacher while continuing his work as a minister. Through these endeavors and their poems, they created a lasting impression of colonial America and the American Revolution.
Bridgeport native Andy Piascik is an award-winning author who has written form many publications and websites over the last four decades. He is also the author of two books.
