Grating The Nutmeg

In this podcast cross-over episode,  Johnna Kaplan, author of Connecticut Explored's spring 2019 story about Fort Trumbull in New London, Connecticut is joined by her Going/Steadypodcast co-host Kerri Provost. Listen as they dive into the history of Fort Trumbull, a Connecticut state park that’s seen a devastating Revolutionary War battle, witnessed Prohibition-era high-speed boat chases, and housed a top-secret military research facility. Today Fort Trumbull is one of New London’s must-visit attractions, part of the new Thames River Heritage Park.  Thanks to the co-hosts of Going/Steady, Kerri Provost of Real Hartford and Johnna Kaplan of The Size of Connecticut. Listen to Going/Steady podcast at goingsteadyct.com and on iTunes. For more information about the fort, visit ct.gov/deep and fortfriends.org.  For more about the summer water taxi and historic attractions go to thamesriverheritagepark.org This episode produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan. To hear more episodes of Grating t

The story behind this episode started with the high-profile heist in 1991 of a stained-glass window from the nineteenth century mausoleum of a New London industrialist. The window was designed by world-famous artist Louis Comfort Tiffany.  But the thieves hadn’t counted on a persistent detective. Tiffany, best known for his brilliant innovations in glass, had deep Connecticut roots. A new permanent exhibition about his work, including 100 fine- and decorative-arts objects, is now on view at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London. Join host Mary Donohue and curator Tanya Pohrt and museum director Sam Quigley to discover more about Tiffany’s career, his family ties to New London, and his life-long pursuit of beauty. Read our story about Louis Comfort Tiffany in the Winter 2018-2019 issue online at ctexplored.org. For more information about the Lyman Allyn’s exhibition “Louis Comfort Tiffany in New London” and the Lyman Allyn Art Museum visit lymanallyn.org.  To see a fantastic interior designed by Louis Com

Recently, US News and World Report ranked Connecticut 4th best among the 50 states in the quality of our healthcare. We have great research universities and teaching hospitals, and pharma, biotech, and medical engineering companies most states envy. That’s what makes this podcast so surprising. This is the story of how the little Litchfield County hill town of Sharon – with a population of 2700 people – has produced some of our state’s leading medical innovators. And it’s been doing so for centuries.            Join State Historian Walt Woodward on a visit to the Sharon Historical Society where co-curators Susan Shepard and Marge Smith tell us about the breakthroughs in innoculation, immunotherapy, and gender equity in the medical field pioneered by Sharon residents. It’s part of their exhibit “Sharon Cures: Centuries of Medicine in One Small Town”. It’s three stories in one, that will surprise, inform, and make you want to learn more about this town of medical marvels. While you're listening, view an album o

After World War II, one Connecticut community made a conscious effort to reject racial segregation. The founders of Village Creek in Norwalk created a cooperative neighborhood which promised not to discriminate based on "race, color, creed or politics."   Over the next decades, the Villagers faced criticism from many quarters, but the community survived and thrives today. In this episode, Natalie Belanger and Melica Bloom of the Connecticut Historical Society take a look at the founding of Village Creek, and some of the challenges it faced over the decades.    If you'd like to learn more about the Village Creek Association, visit the Connecticut Historical Society's Research Center. And visit their special exhibition, "Patios, Pools and the Invention of the American Backyard," a travelling exhibition by the Smithsonian Institution, on view through February 23, 2019. Find out more at chs.org.   And for more great Connecticut stories, subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history.

     State Historian Walt Woodward asked five of Connecticut's leading voices for the history community, what their favorite winter history reads are this year. Briann Greenfield of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, State Librarian Ken Wiggin, Sally Whipple of the Old State House, Jason Mancini of CTHumanities, and Christina Volpe of the Connecticut League of History Organizations, each shared the books that are providing them a fascinating escape from bleak midwinter, the 2019 edition.  

This is the fifth in our series of talks presented by Connecticut’s Old State House commemorating the 300th anniversary of Connecticut’s first state constitution. In this episode judges Henry Cohn and Jon Blue wrap up our discussion of the state’s first constitution in “Why the Constitution of 1818 Matters Today.” This has been a great series pairing historians and legal scholars. In the first in the series, episode 45, state historian Walt Woodward provides the historian’s view of the broader cultural context that brought us to a state constitutional convention. In this episode, Judge Blue gives us the legal perspective. And in episode 55, Wesleyan University professor emeritus Richard Buel does a deep dive into the political history that led to the constitution. Also in this episode, Judge Cohn gives a judge’s perspective on the constitution’s Declaration of Rights-- in particular what it has to say about our right to a jury trial, freedom of religion, and right to an education. For the historian’s perspec

  Charles Lyle, executive director of the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum in Wethersfield, whets your appetite for a visit to the Webb, Stevens, and Deane houses to see how the holidays were celebrated in three eras: c. 1770, c. 1830, and c. 1930. Find out how, in the 1800s, Clement C. Moore and Thomas Nast created Santa Claus, and the origin of the New Year's resolution--all in this episode of Grating the Nutmeg!    This episode is sponsored by attorney Peter Bowman, holding distracted drivers accountable for their actions. Find out more at bowman.legal   For more great holiday listening, listen to episode 21 "A Connecticut Christmas Story by Harriet Beecher Stowe," and episode 11 to learn more about the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum. This episode was produced by Elizabeth Normen, and Patrick O’Sullivan.

Food historians Keith Staveley and Kathleen Fitzgerald join state historian Walt Woodward at his dinner table in Columbia for a talk about traditional New England holiday foods - authentic and not-so-authentic – and the stories behind them.  PLUS, Keith and Kathy brought along 9 truly historic and delicious New England food recipes, translated into modern cooking instructions kitchen-tested for authentic flavor.  Whether you want to wow your holiday dinner guests with some astonishing food facts, or cook up a dish or two they'll be talking about all year, this is your podcast.   Listen to the stories, then DOWNLOAD THE RECIPES AT Connecticut Explored     www.ctexplored.org/historic-holiday-recipes/ This episode is sponsored by attorney Peter Bowman, holding distracted drivers accountable for their actions. Find out more at bowman.legal Don't forget to listen to the special bonus add-on:a live reading  Gov. Samuel Huntington's 1786 Thanksgiving meditation, recorded at the special Thanksgiving dinner at the Sam

THE P T BARNUM YOU NEVER KNEW   In this special Connecticut Public Television audio documentary, we tell the story almost no one knows about the other side of PT Barnum. Almost everyone is familiar with Barnum's extraordinary career as a showman, entrepreneur, and creator of The Greatest Show on Earth, but "Barnum's Connecticut", which host Walt Woodward wrote and produced as a companion to CPTV's broadcast of the American Experience documentary "The Circus"  CPTV.org/thecircus shows a side of this world-changing impresario that will challenge anything you think about him right now. Featuring Kathy Maher of Bridgeport's Barnum Museum and Sally Whipple of Connecticut's Old State House in Hartford, this is an episode you don't want to miss.      And to hear the companion episode "Barnum's Circus" visit the Connecticut Public Television "The Circus" webpage 

This episode, the fourth in our 6-part series commemorating the Constitution of 1818, explores one of the main accomplishments of the state’s first constitution: the separation of church and state. Professor Robert Imholt challenges that assertion, though, arguing that the process to disentangle religion from the state began much earlier. Still, find out how deep our Puritan roots were as the state finally convened to write a state constitution in this episode of Grating the Nutmeg. This episode is sponsored by attorney Peter Bowman, holding distracted drivers accountable for their actions. Find out more at bowman.legal

In the 1910s, a group of Connecticut reformers formed a society aimed at solving a growing crisis – the spread of venereal diseases. The United States’ entry into WWI provided this so-called “social hygienist” movement with an unprecedented opportunity to influence the sexual mores of Americans. In this episode produced by Connecticut Historical Society’s Natalie Belanger, Natalie tells us how that worked out for these well-intentioned reformers—especially one George P. Thayer, a crusader for clean living that saw a little more in France than he'd bargained for.   This episode is sponsored by Attorney Peter Bowman. Find out more at bowman.legal. Read more about Connecticut in World War I at ctexplored.org in the Spring 2017 and Winter 2014/2015 issues.   

Hartford native Gerry Peterson has played golf with President Barack Obama and was inducted into the Black Golf Hall of Fame in 2015. Golf has always been a huge part of his life from his start as a kid caddie during the Depression to playing as a young executive at Aetna Life and Casualty. But what did it take for Peterson, a black golfer, to become a member of the whites-only Keney Park Golf Club in 1963? Gerry Peterson will tell us and historian Jeffrey Mainville , author of this summer 2018 issue’s story “The Midway Golf Club” will reveal Hartford’s part in the national struggle to end racial discrimination at municipal golf courses in America. This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan, PDO Films. Subscribe at ctexplored.org For more stories of struggle and triumph by Connecticut’s African American community, order your copy of our book African American Connecticut Explored, now in paperback, on Amazon. This episode was sponsor

Attorney Wesley Horton, president of the Connecticut Supreme Court Historical Society, outlines the main issues of debate as state delegates finally gather to draft a state constitution. What happened inside the convention? How do we know? Find out in this episode of Grating the Nutmeg. This episode was recorded at Connecticut's Old State House and produced by Elizabeth Normen.    This episode is sponsored by attorney Peter Bowman, holding distracted drivers accountable for their actions. Find out more at bowman.legal. And Connecticut Humanities, co-publisher of Connecticut Explored.    See Episode 45 for Constitution of 1818 Part I Trouble in the Land of Steady Habits See Episode 55 for Constitution of 1818 Part 2 The Collapse of Federalist Dominance   Read More! Buy the special 200th Anniversary of the Constitution of 1818 Fall 2018 issue of Connecticut Explored at ctexplored.org.

  Dr. Richard Buel Jr., Professor Emeritus, Wesleyan University, describes the political climate that led to the Constitution of 1818 and how we must look to what was happening in France, and the ongoing conflict between England and France to understand what was happening here.  This episode is sponsored by attorney Peter Bowman, holding distracted drivers accountable for their actions. Find out more at bowman.legal. And Connecticut Humanities, co-publisher of Connecticut Explored.   

Part 1 - Henry 'Opukaha'ia Two young native men.  Henry Opukaha'ia, a native of Hawaii, who died in Cornwall, CT in 1818. Albert Afraid of Hawk, a Lakota Sioux native who died in Danbury in 1900.  Nick Bellantoni was the archaeologist tasked with helping return the remains of each of these men to their homes and families, more than a century after they had died.  Hear him tell their strangely connected and deeply moving stories in this special two part Grating the Nutmeg episode based on Bellantoni's new Wesleyan Press book The Long Journeys Home: The Repatriations of Henry 'Opukaha'ia and Albert Afraid of Hawk    This podcast is sponsored by attorney Peter Bowman, holding distracted drivers accountable for their actions. Find out more at bowman.legal. And Connecticut Humanities, copublisher of Connecticut Explored. 

PART TWO: ALBERT AFRAID OF HAWK  Two young men. Henry Opukaha'ia, a native of Hawaii, who died in Cornwall, CT in 1818. Albert Afraid of Hawk, a Lakota Sioux native who died in Danbury in 1900.  Nick Bellantoni was the archaeologist tasked with helping return the remains of each of these men to their homes and families, more than a century after they had died.  Hear him tell their strangely connected and deeply moving stories in this special two part Grating the Nutmeg episode based on Bellantoni's new Wesleyan Press book The Long Journeys Home: The Repatriations of Henry 'Opukaha'ia and Albert Afraid of Hawk     

     In an unforgettable interview, historian Barbara Beeching describes the creation of a black middle class in Hartford – not in the twentieth century, but back in the 1800s. It's a tale full of insights and surprises – not the least of which is Beeching herself.       BONUS: For reasons that will become clear in the 1st five minutes, this  episode may make you want to upgrade your Bucket List. WWW   This episode is sponsored by Attorney Peter Bowman—find out more at bowman.legal, and Connecticut Humanities, co-publisher of Connecticut Explored, visit cthumanities.org.

In this episode recorded at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Twain scholar and University of St. Joseph Professor of English Emerita Kerry Driscoll explores one of the last unexamined aspects of American author and humorist Mark Twain. Twain, a resident of Hartford from 1871 to 1891, wrote some of his most beloved works while living in Hartford and was generally known for championing the underdog. But Driscoll unflinchingly reveals here and in her book, Mark Twain Among the Indians and Other Indigenous Peoples, Twain’s blind spot when it came to America’s first peoples. Want to win a copy of Mark Twain Among the Indians? Share the podcast on Facebook (facebook.com/CTExplored), Twitter (twitter.com/CTExplored), and Instagram (@ct_explored) and tag us to be entered in the drawing. Expires 7/15/18 This episode is sponsored by Attorney Peter Bowman—find out more at bowman.legal, and Connecticut Humanities, co-publisher of Connecticut Explored, visit cthumanities.org.

In 2010, Jamaicans became the largest foreign born population in Connecticut. At the same time, Jamaicans have the highest percentage of property ownership in Hartford County of any foreign born group. How did so many West Indians come to call Connecticut home? University of Connecticut Associate Professor Fiona Vernal documents this 70 year transformation in her traveling exhibit "Home Away From Home: Greater Hartford's West Indian Diaspora," currently at the Hartford Public Library.  HPL's Jasmin Agusto and I asked Fiona to share this fascinating story with Grating the Nutmeg listeners. Its a great story, told by a natural-born story-teller.    This episode presented by Attorney Peter Bowman, helping the seriously injured and holding distracted drivers accountable for their actions. More at bowman.legal. And Connecticut Humanities, co-publisher of Connecticut Explored magazine. The episode was produced by Walter Woodward. 

What do you think of when you hear "New Haven?" Yale University? The New Haven Green? IKEA? How about the beach? Today we’re taking you on a trip to the beach in New Haven! Morris Cove on the east shore of New Haven Harbor is a world apart from the rest of the city. A sandy beach, an armed attack by the British, a vanished amusement park, and the summer home of the New Haven Museum all come to light in this episode of Grating the Nutmeg. We’ll hear from Jason Bischoff-Wurstle, director of photo archives and Ed Surato, librarian for the New Haven Museum about why Morris Cove was called the “Newport of Connecticut.” Learn about one of the most interesting summer day trips in Connecticut, and plan to attend Morris Cove Day on June 9, 2018. Find out more about Morris Cove Day at morriscoveday.wordpress.com. For more information about the Pardee-Morris House, visit newhavenmuseum.org This episode was hosted and produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan.  This episode was sponsored by attorney P