Heroes & The Historical Society June 19

Dione Longley and Buck Zaidel will give an illustrated lecture at a reception being held Friday June 19 at 7 p.m. in The Inn at Middletown, 70 Main Street.  The purpose of the event is both educational and practical as the admission will go to to raise funds for the maintenance of the Middlesex County Historical Society’s headquarters, the General Joseph Mansfield House. As for the educational component, Longley and Zaidel are the co-authors of "Heroes for All Time: Connecticut Civil War Soldiers Tell Their Stories", recently published by Wesleyan University Press. The book presents the war straight from the minds and pens of its participants: rich passages from soldiers’ letters and diaries complement hundreds of outstanding period photographs, some from the Historical Society’s collection. Rare war artifacts pictured make a connection to the men and boys who once owned them. While so many books written about the Civil War feature the activities of generals and politicians, Heroes for All Time tells the stories of the men in the trenches and the families waiting at home for news of their loved ones.

Dione Longley is an independent historian and writer. For two decades, she served as the director of the Historical Society and curated a number of exhibits chronicling the history of Middletown, including the award winning Civil War exhibit, "Hard-tack, Salt Pork, and Faith." Buck Zaidel, a dentist and longtime Civil War enthusiast, collects objects and images related to Union soldiers’ daily lives. He has exhibited at Civil War and antique arms shows across the country and contributed items to museum exhibitions, including "Photography and the American Civil War" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

The price for the event, including a dessert reception following the talk, is $35.00 per person. The book will be available for purchase and inscription. Those wishing to purchase the book in advance and having it inscribed prior to the event for pick-up at the event may do so by purchasing a ticket for $80.00. To purchase tickets, call the Historical Society at 860-346-0746. Join us as we commemorate the end of the bloody conflict that took roughly 6000 Connecticut lives in the struggle to save the union and abolish slavery.

Middlesex Country Historical Society Annual Meeting + Riverfront Story

The history of Middletown’s riverfront and its future will be explored at the annual meeting of the Middlesex County Historical Society to be held on Wednesday, April 29 at the newly opened Middletown Senior and Community Center located in the former Eckersley-Hall School, 61 Durant Terrace.  The business portion of the meeting will begin at 6:30 pm with the program to follow at 7:00 pm.

Society Director Deborah Shapiro will begin the program with her lecture, “Down by the Riverside.”  She will trace the history of the waterfront from 18^th century private ownership to today’s mostly municipal ownership, highlighting properties from the present-day Harbor Park to city-owned land across from the Rushford Center.  To conduct her research, she searched the land records in the Town Clerk’s Office and then scoured Society archives to learn about the businesses operated by the owners.  The transition of maritime activities from the early agricultural and slave trade to waterfront lumber and coal yards and enamel manufacturing will be richly illustrated with photographs from the Society’s collection.

Shapiro will be joined by Michiel Wackers, the Director of the Department of Planning, Conservation, and Development who will speak about the future plans for the riverfront as overseen by the Middletown Riverfront Redevelopment Commission.  By the city becoming a member of the Mattabasett District, land now occupied by the Middletown waste water treatment plant will be freed up for development along with other city owned parcels.  Wackers will discuss major aspects of the comprehensive plan.

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The Senior and Community Center is handicapped accessible and has parking.  The program is free and open to the public, although donations are welcome.  For further information, contact the Historical Society at 860-346-0746.

Author Elisabeth Petry "Overcoming the Odds"

The Middlesex County Historical Society presents author Elisabeth Petry who will speak on the topic, “Overcoming the Odds: Anna Louise James and Ann Petry Gamble and Win” on Tuesday, February 24 at 7:00 pm.  The program, co-sponsored by Russell Library, will be held in the Hubbard Room of the library located at 123 Broad Street, Middletown.  The illustrated talk will expand on essays included in the recently published book, "African American Connecticut Explored" (The Driftless Connecticut Series & Garnet Books/Wesleyan University Press), and will illuminate the lives and work of these two remarkable women.

Petry, the great-niece of Anna Louise James and daughter of Ann Petry, will reveal the reasons Miss James became the first African American woman to obtain a pharmacy license and operate a pharmacy for more than forty years in Old Saybrook.  She will also discuss the writings of her mother, a best selling novelist, and will include readings from her essay, “Just Like Georgia, Except for the Climate: Black Life at Mid-Century in Ann Petry’s The Narrows,” which appeared in "African American Connecticut Explored".

A native of Old Saybrook, Elisabeth Petry is a writer and former journalist and lawyer.  Her first book, a collection of letters that she edited, is titled "Can Anything Beat White?: A Black Family’s Letters".  Her second is "At Home Inside:  A Daughter’s Tribute to Ann Petry", published in 2008.  Liz has also taught English and is conducting a weekly writer’s workshop for military veterans.  She lives with her husband, Lawrence Riley, in Middletown.

Copies of "African American Connecticut Explored" as well as copies of Petry’s books will be available for purchase and inscription.  Russell Library is handicap accessible.  For further information, contact the Historical Society at 860-346-0746.

Logbooks, Slavery, Racism, Middletown & Loss of Memory

Anne Farrow, author of "The Logbooks: Connecticut's Slave Ships and Human Memory" (Wesleyan University Press), will speak this Thursday evening (12/040 at 7 p.m. in the small sanctuary of Congregation Adath Israel, 8 Broad Street in Middletown. The author conducted research at the Middlesex County Historical Society and the Society is sponsoring this event.

This from the press release: "In 1757, a sailing ship owned by Gurdon Salstonstall, an affluent Connecticut merchant, and captained by John Easton of Middletown, sailed from New London to the tiny island of Bence in Sierra Leone, West Africa, to take on fresh water and slaves. On board was the owner’s son, Dudley Salstonstall, on a training voyage to learn the trade. "The Logbooks" explores that voyage and two others documented by young Salstonstall. When writer Anne Farrow discovered the significance of the logbooks for the Africa and two other ships in 2004, her mother had been recently diagnosed with dementia. As Farrow bore witness to the impact of memory loss on her mother’s sense of self, she also began a journey into the world of the logbooks and the Atlantic slave trade, eventually retracing part of the Africa’s long-ago voyage to Sierra Leone. As the narrative unfolds in The Logbooks, Farrow explores the idea that if our history is incomplete, then collectively we have forgotten who we are—a loss that is in some ways similar to what her mother experienced. Her meditations are well rounded with references to the work of writers, historians, and psychologists."

Having read the book on my recent trip to Chicago, which happened to coincide with the grand jury decision in Ferguson, MO, Ms. Farrow touches on a number of issues that the United States is still coming to terms with, particularly how this country has treated and continues to treat African Americans in the years since slavery was banned.  Also, the book was researched and written during the time that the author's mother was slipping into dementia, totally losing her memory save for jumbled recollections from her childhood. In the book, the loss of personal memory is compared to the loss of "national memory", the ability or, perhaps, the desire to forget or ignore traumatic events or worse, trivialize them.  

The talk is free and open to the public - a good will donation is always welcome.  Parking is on the street and in the north side of the parking lot behind Adath Israel that is directly behind the former First United Methodist Church.  

For more information, call the Historical Society at 860-346-0746. To learn more about Ms. Farrow's book, go to www.upne.com/0819573056.html.

The Book on Prudence Crandall

Donald E. Williams, Jr., the author of the recently published book Prudence Crandall’s Legacy: The Fight For Equality in the 1830s, Dred Scott, and Brown v. Board of Education, will be the featured speaker at a program sponsored by the Middlesex County Historical Society at 7:00 pm on Thursday, November 13, at Congregation Adath Israel.  Williams will be joined by Kazimiera Kozlowski, the curator of the Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury, Connecticut, who will offer remarks about the museum.

Prudence Crandall, Connecticut’s Official State Heroine, was a schoolteacher who fought in the early nineteenth century to integrate her school in Canterbury and educate black women.  Her acceptance of black girls into the school unleashed a storm of controversy that catapulted her to national notoriety and drew the attention of the most prominent pro- and antislavery activists of the day.  Crandall was arrested and jailed, and Williams’ account details her legal legacy.  Crandall v. State was the first full-throated defense mounted for civil rights in United States history.  The arguments by attorneys in Crandall played a role in two of the most fateful Supreme Court decisions, Dred Scott v. Sandford, and the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education.

Williams served as the President of the Connecticut State Senate from 2004 through 2014, and represented the 29th Senate District of Connecticut from 1993 through 2014. In addition to his career in public service, he has served as an attorney, educator, and journalist. He graduated from Syracuse University and earned his law degree from Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and inscription.

Congregation Adath Israel, located at the corner of Broad and Old Church Streets, is handicap accessible plus there is parking in the rear of the building.  The program is free and open to the public, although donations are welcome.  For further information, contact the Historical Society at 860-346-0746.

Tom Callinan Comes Home to Sing War Songs

The Middlesex County Historical Society presents the CD-release concert for Middletown native Tom Callinan’s latest recording entitled “We Owe Allegiance To No Crown” on Tuesday, April 1, at 7:00 pm in the Hubbard Room at Russell Library, 123 Broad Street in Middletown.  The recordings contains seventeen songs from and about the War of 1812, along with contemporary compositions (mostly original), based on facts, legend, and lore and will be available for purchase at the conclusion of the concert. 

Viewed by many as "America's Second War of Independence," the War of 1812 is often overlooked or overshadowed by the American Revolution and the Civil War.  But many events of that conflict are burned into the American consciousness such as the burning of the Capitol and White House in Washington, D.C. and the failed bombardment by the British of Fort McHenry that inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the words of the "The Star-Spangled Banner." A little known fact of the war was that Federalist opposition to "Mr. Madison's War," particularly in New England, almost caused Northern states to secede from the union … nearly 40 years before the Civil War.

1814 was the year that most impacted Connecticut during the War of 1812, and of the seventeen songs on the CD six relate to people and events in Middlesex County during this bicentennial year.  In honor of the April 8^th raid and burning of the fleet in Essex, Tom has penned a trilogy: the lively "Save The Sloops, Brigs & Schooners"; the lament "Pine, Oak, & Tar"; and an attempt to address the many still-unanswered "Burning Questions At Potapaug".  "Enough!" recounts the valiant resistance of the Clinton militia, while "Irish Luck & Pluck" chronicles the naval journey of Captain Thomas Macdonough, who chose Middletown as his adopted home.  The period piece "The Constitution And The Guerriere" touts the victory of Captain Isaac Hull, who spent time in Middletown before taking command of "Old Ironsides".

A highly regarded folksinger, songwriter, storyteller, sea-chanteyman, and multi-instrumentalist, Mr. Callinan is now in his 37^th year as a full-time creative and performing artist.  During that time, he has cultivated a reputation as a collector and presenter of songs from America's past, as well as a creator of songs in the styles reminiscent of historical periods.  In recognition of his talent and achievements, Tom was named Connecticut’s first Official State Troubadour.  He and his wife, Ann Shapiro, founded CRACKERBARREL ENTERTAINMENTS, an agency that provides enrichment and family programming, primarily in the Eastern United States.

Russell Library is handicap accessible and this program is free and open to the public.  For further information, contact the Historical Society at 860-346-0746.  

The Historical Society Presents

On Tuesday March 4, the Middlesex County Historical Society presents a talk by local historian James Sarbaugh on Native American tribes in the Middletown area and their interactions with British settlers. The talk is a wonderful exploration of the clash and combining of cultures in the colonial era.  

The event, which is free and open to the public, takes place at 7 p.m. in the Hubbard Room of the Russell Library, 123 Broad Street in Middletown. For more information, go to www.middlesexhistory.org or call 860-346-0746.  

For Adam's Sake at Russell Library

The Middlesex County Historical Society is pleased to present Allegra di Bonaventura who will discuss her book, For Adam’s Sake, in the Hubbard Room at Russell Library at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, November 19. For Adam’s Sake has been described by John Demos, the author of Unredeemed Captive, as “A work of astonishing ingenuity, intellectual and emotional depth, and (most of all) brilliant writing.” It is the story of two families: Joshua Hempstead, a well-respected farmer and tradesman in New London, Connecticut and his slave of thirty years, Adam Jackson. Hempstead’s remarkable diary—kept from 1711 until 1758—is the basis of this engrossing narrative of family life and the slave experience in the colonial North. Significant primary documents from churches and various civic and private archives also serve as source materialdescribes the complexity of this master/slave relationship and traces the intertwining stories of two families until the eve of the Revolution. Slavery is often left out of our collective memory of New England’s history, but it was hugely impactful on the central unit of colonial life: the family. In every corner, the lines between slavery and freedom were blurred as families across the social spectrum fought to survive. In this enlightening study, a new portrait of an era emerges.

For Adam’s Sake describes the complexity of this master/slave relationship and traces the intertwining stories of two families until the eve of the Revolution. Slavery is often left out of our collective memory of New England’s history, but it was hugely impactful on the central unit of colonial life: the family. In every corner, the lines between slavery and freedom were blurred as families across the social spectrum fought to survive. In this enlightening study, a new portrait of an era emerges.

Allegra di Bonaventura is Assistant Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science at Yale University. She received a Ph.D. in History from Yale as well as a Juris Doctor.  She also holds a B.A. in History and an M.A. in German from Middlebury College. Her responsibilities include the academic affairs of the graduate programs in the Humanities, African American Studies, East Asian Studies, European and Russian Studies, International Development & Economics, and International Relations. She will have copies of the book for purchase and inscription.


 

Russell Library, located at 123 Broad Street in Middletown, is handicap accessible.  The program is free and open to the public.  For more information, contact the Historical Society at 860-346-0746.