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. 

In this episode, CTExplored publisher Elizabeth Normen talks with Connecticut River Museum curator Amy Trout about the museum’s summer exhibition Speed: Hydroplane Racing on the Connecticut River, 1900 – 1940. Trout tells us what a hydroplane is and why racing them became popular in the midst of the Great Depression. As opposed to yachting, she explains, hydroplane racing was an everyman’s sport that people flocked to the riverfront to watch. She talks boat design, which outboard engines were popular, and who the stand-out racers of the 20s and 30s—a number of whom were young women—were. Speed is on view through October 9, 2022.   Read more! Pleasure Boating on the Connecticut River, Summer 2018 https://www.ctexplored.org/cover-story-pleasure-boating-on-the-connecticut-river/ Full Steam Ahead: Steamboat Travel in Connecticut, Spring 2009 https://www.ctexplored.org/full-steam-ahead-steamboat-travel-in-connecticut/

In 1822, the Hartford Retreat for the Insane was chartered as one of the first mental health centers in the United States, and the first hospital of any kind in CT. In 2022, the CHS is exploring of the story of mental health in our state. Recently, the CHS invited Dr. Harold I (Hank) Schwartz to talk about the history of the Hartford Retreat, renamed the Institute of Living in the 20th century.  His presentation took us through the state of mental health care in the early 1800s, the reasons for the founding of the Retreat, and its place in the development of modern psychiatry. Dr. Schwartz, is the Psychiatrist-in-Chief Emeritus at the Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital and formerly served as Vice President, Behavioral Health at Hartford Healthcare. He is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. His talk is presented here for you with minimal edits.   To learn more about the Connecticut Historic

Most people in the tri-state area have driven the Merritt Parkway with its extraordinary bridges and landscaped vistas.  But can a roadway built in the 1930s during the Great Depression survive today in the 21st century without losing its charm? In celebration of Historic Preservation Month, we will learn how the Merritt Parkway, the state’s most heavily visited National Register historic district, was saved from modernization and restored to its original design. In this episode, Asst. Publisher Mary Donohue learns more about the history and preservation of the parkway from her guests Christopher Wigren deputy director of Preservation Connecticut and author of Connecticut Architecture: Stories of 100 Places. He co-wrote the National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Merritt Parkway and serves on the Department of Transportation's Merritt Parkway Advisory Committee. And her second guest, Wes Haynes, the Executive Director of the Merritt Parkway Conservancy, a non-profit organization committed to t

For over 2000 years, the American chestnut was the tallest, largest, and most omnipresent tree in all Connecticut. It’s a tree for which a hundred hills, countless streets, and at least one Connecticut town were named, a tree whose nuts we sing about on the holidays, and a tree which helped frame our houses, shape our furniture, fence and feed our livestock, make tracks for our trains, and hold our utility lines.  In this episode,  Jack Swatt, President of the Connecticut chapter of the American chestnut Foundation, talks with state historian Walt Woodward about the long history and importance of the American chestnut tree, the devastation brought by the historic chestnut blight, and the amazing efforts by scientists today to restore this functionally extinct species to its former place in Connecticut’s woodlands.  Appreciation to Daniel Birch for "Trees in the Wind," episode intro music licensed by Creatrive Commons

In this episode, architectural historian Mary Donohue and podcast engineer Patrick O’Sullivan explore the Hartford work of early twentieth century architect Donn Barber especially his magnificent Connecticut State Library building and two of the city’s early skyscrapers. Her guest, retired Connecticut State Librarian Ken Wiggin, explains how Barber got the plum commission to design the Connecticut State Library.   Donn Barber, born in 1871, a New York City architect, could be called the “Father of Hartford Skyscrapers.” He designed Hartford’s first skyscraper, the Hartford National Bank in 1911, and another, the Travelers Tower in 1919, that reigned as the tallest in New England for decades. The first—the Hartford National Bank Building—was demolished in 1990, while the other—Travelers Tower—is still an icon of the Hartford skyline, one whose owner restored it in 2013. Barber and these two buildings not only dramatically changed Hartford’s skyline, they also played a role in advancing the city’s burgeoning wh

Spurred by Abraham Lincoln’s campaign stop in Hartford in March 1860, the Wide Awake movement spread from Connecticut throughout the North like wildfire. In this episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the Connecticut Historical Society’s Natalie Belanger takes a look at this pivotal youth movement of the Civil War era. Listen to find out how this home-grown political movement and their signature torchlit parades helped to redefine American democracy on the eve of the Civil War.  This topic was inspired by “Albert’s Odd Jobs,” an exhibition on view at the CT Historical Society through April 16, 2022. It covers the life of Glastonbury’s Albert Walker, a farmer, skilled artisan, amateur magician, and, of course, a Wide Awake. You can take a virtual 3D tour of “Albert’s Odd Jobs” on the museum’s website, chs.org.  Special thanks to guest Jon Grinspan, the Curator of Political History at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Grinspan studies the deep history of American democracy, especially the wild part

March is Women’s History Month and in this episode publisher Elizabeth Normen talks with author Eve Kahn about her 2019 book, Forever Seeing New Beauties: The Forgotten Impressionist Mary Rogers Wiliams,1857 - 1907 (Wesleyan University Press, 2019). It’s a rare insider view of the challenges women artists faced in the late 19th century. Kahn drew from a collection of Williams’s gossipy letters home in which she describes her desperation to escape her teaching job at Smith College to paint and travel abroad. Hear how Williams talked her way into artist James McNeil Whistler’s London home, and about drawing from a cadaver at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.  Find out more about the book at https://www.evekahn.com and read her story in the Winter 2021-2022 issue of CTExplored at https://www.ctexplored.org/mary-rogers-williams-we-shall-want-to-do-a-lot-of-rambling/.  

Forty years ago, a freshman legislator in the Connecticut General Assembly wrote and engineered passage of one of the most important pieces of consumer protection legislation in history – The Lemon Law (actually two laws passed in 1982 and 1984) that required automobile manufacturers to repair defective vehicles in a timely manner, replace the vehicle with a new one, or refund the customer's purchase price. Today Lemon Laws are in place in every state of the union and countries around the world. John J Woodcock, father of the Lemon Law, tells the story of the Lemon Law's creation, passage, and the years long battle with car manufacturers to preserve its integrity. Produced by Walter Woodward. 

As we all ease into 2022, we want to thank our listeners for supporting Grating the Nutmeg! We’ve just had our 6th birthday and hit over 100,000 downloads! We couldn’t have done it without you. Be sure to let us know if there are topics you think we should investigate. If you could manufacture something out of stone or metal and make a buck, chances are it was produced in Connecticut. Asst. Publisher Mary Donohue explores the history of an unusual and unique--in the truest sense of the word--Connecticut company that made grave markers out of zinc. Affectionately known as “Zinkies” by cemetery buffs, these bluish-grey metal gravestones were made in Bridgeport and shipped across the country. The company’s slogan was “As enduring as the pyramids” but was that true or just boosterism? We’ll find out with author and Bridgeport historian Carolyn Ivanoff whose feature article on the Monumental Bronze Company comes out in Connecticut Explored’s upcoming Spring 2022 issue.     Her book, "We Fought at Gettysburg," sch

In this episode, Connecticut Historical Society’s Natalie Belanger, frequent contributor to Grating the Nutmeg, talks with Antoinette Brim Bell, Professor of English at Capital Community College, about Ann Plato, one of the first Black women to publish a book in the United States. Ann Plato is part of Capitol Community College’s NEH-funded Hartford Heritage Project which highlights the history of the Talcott Street Church, the first Black congregation in Hartford and where Plato was a teacher.  Many thanks to Antoinette Brim Bell! If you want to learn more about the Hartford Heritage Project, visit their website. Ann Plato’s book, Essay: Including Biographies and Miscellaneous Pieces, in Prose and Poetry, has been digitized by the New York Public Library and is available to read online.  Want to know more about Connecticut’s landmarks, museums, art, and history? Subscribe to Connecticut Explored-in your mailbox or inbox- https://www.ctexplored.org/ And for a daily dose of history, visit Today in Connecticut

Is there a sucker born every minute? I don’t have the answer to that but it is attributed to one of Connecticut’s most famous residents, circus showman P. T. Barnum. Did he really say it-no one knows for sure but we do know that he made and lost several fortunes, helped to create the American circus, exhibited a phony mermaid cobbled together from a monkey and a fish and that he loved Bridgeport!   Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, finds out more about the Barnum’s over the top life and his lasting mark on Bridgeport, Connecticut with her guest Bruce Hawley, author of “P. T. Barnum Builds a City” in the Winter 2021 issue of Connecticut Explored. Mr. Hawley is a board member the Barnum Museum Foundation, the Circus Historical Society, and the Circus Fans Association of America.  He is a distant cousin of P.T. Barnum.    The Barnum Museum, originally called The Barnum Institute of Science and History, was just designated a National Historic Landmark by

In the spirit of the season, we’re pleased to present a Victorian era Christmas story, written by the celebrated 19th century author from Guilford, Reverend William Henry Harrison Murray. Better known as “Adirondack” Murray, because his books almost single-handedly transformed that region from a New York wilderness to one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations, Murray was one of the first mass audience authors to promote recreational camping as a leisure time activity, and coined  the term “vacation.” He is recognized as a father of the American Outdoor movement. His belief that the north woods were health giving and spiritually beneficial, and that the rustic nobility of Adirondack woodsmen was produced by their wilderness life, drew Americans by the millions to the woods, and to his books and tales. In “John Norton’s Vagabond,” fro Murray’s 1897 book “Holiday Tales: Christmas in the Adirondacks,” we meet one of those noble rustic woodsmen, the trapper John Norton, who decides, in counsel with h

Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society is joined by historian Barbara Sicherman, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor Emerita at Trinity College, to discuss the landmark reproductive rights case, Griswold v. Connecticut. Professor Sicherman talks about the origins of the lawsuit, what it meant for women in our state, and its long-term influence on civil rights rulings.    If you want to learn more, you can read Barbara Sicherman’s article, "Connecticut Women Fight for Reproductive Rights", in the Fall 2017 issue of Connecticut Explored, or see her pieces about Estelle Griswold and Catharine Roraback in the Summer 2011 article, "Women Who Changed the World."    This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan.   Subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history at https://www.ctexplored.org/subscribe/

Recently, Connecticut State Historian Walt Woodward announced he will be retiring next July 1st. To find out what "historical"  retirement is like, Woodward sat down with Nick Bellantoni, who retired as state archaeologist in 2014, and is now Connecticut's state archaeologist emeritus. The resulting conversation was a fascinating discussion of archaeological sites in Connecticut, Nick's successor state archaeologists, and Nick's own career of amazing discoveries. 

What more do we need to know about Sam Colt? In Hartford we have the iconic blue-domed Colt Armory, Colt Park, the Colt addition to the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Church of the Good Shepard and Colt’s home Armsmear. But it turns out that we may not have known much about Colt’s life before he became fabulously wealthy—he traveled with a novelty act, womanized, drank, smuggled guns to Russia, bribed politicians, and blew up ships in New York Harbor with electricity. Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, digs into some of these stories with Jim Rasenberger, author of Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-shooter that Changed America. He is the author of three other books—The Brilliant Disaster; America, 1908; and High Steel—and has contributed to the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Smithsonian, and other publications. A native of Washington, DC, he lives in New York City. Find out more at https://www.jimrasenberger.com/ Coltsville, Sam’s industrial village including the

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

Are you your family’s historian? The one that listens to all the elders' stories or digs into that big box of old family photographs? Ever wonder how many of your dad’s stories are really true? Or if you have a big family secret that hasn’t been revealed for generations? If so, this episode is for you! In celebration of National Archives Month, we’re talking to two accomplished family historians. Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, the state’s history magazine, interviews author Jill Marie Snyder. Snyder has a B.A. in Urban Studies from the University of Connecticut and an M.A. in Communication from Fairfield University. Retired from a corporate career in the insurance industry, she's completed Boston University’s Principles of Genealogy course. Her book Dear Mary, Dear Luther, based on letters written between her parents, won the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society Award for Nonfiction Romance/history in 2020. Jill will be teaching a workshop on “Telling Your Family Story, P

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

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