Grating the Nutmeg

March 1^st marks the start of Women’s History Month. To celebrate, we’ve gathered a sampling of five episodes that share the incredible stories of Connecticut women throughout history. Click on the links below, and then press play on the next page for your next good story. We hope you enjoy these episodes and are inspired by the great women of Connecticut history!

113. Yale Needs Women: In 1969, women were permitted entry to undergraduate study at Yale for the first time. However, they did not enjoy the same experience as their male peers. Isolated, singled out as oddities and sexual objects, and barred from many of the school’s privileges, the young women nonetheless changed Yale in ways it never anticipated. Tune in to this episode featuring historian and Yale alumna Anne Gardiner Perkins, author of Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant and New Haven leader Constance Royster, one of Yale’s first women undergrads.

134. “Another Name for Happiness:” The Life of Ann Plato: In this episode, Antoinette Brim-Bell, Professor of English at Capital Community College, talks about Ann Plato, one of the first Black women to publish a book in the United States. Ann Plato is part of Capital 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. 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.

137. An American Woman Artist Abroad – Mary Rogers Williams: Author Eve Kahn’s book, Forever Seeing New Beauties: The Forgotten Impressionist Mary Rogers Williams, 1857 – 1907, offers a rare insider view of the challenges women artists faced in the late 19th century. Kahn drew from a collection of Williams’ letters home describing her desperation to escape her teaching job at Smith College to paint and travel abroad. Hear how Williams talked her way into artist James McNeill Whistler’s London home, and about drawing from a cadaver at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

144. A Visit to the Katharine Hepburn Museum at “The Kate” in Old Saybrook: This episode features an interview with Executive Director Brett Elliott 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). The Katharine Hepburn Museum and "The Kate" are must-see Connecticut destinations!

158. Theodate Pope Survives the Sinking of the Lusitania  You’ve probably heard of the Titanic, but have you ever heard of the Lusitania? This British transatlantic luxury liner was hit by a German submarine torpedo and sank within an hour. One of the surviving passengers was Theodate Pope, the architect and owner of what is now the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington. Why did she sail on a British ship when Britain was at war? How was Spiritualism linked to this story? How was an oar instrumental to Pope’s survival? Tune in to this episode to hear Pope’s first-hand accounts of the sinking and its after-effects.

Are they pirates, profiteers or legitimately authorized extensions of George Washington’s almost non-existent American Navy? We’ll find out with guest historian Eric Jay Dolin, author of Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American RevolutIon.

Dolin will underscore an element missing from most maritime histories of the American Revolution: a ragtag fleet of private vessels — from 20-foot whaleboats to 40-cannon men-of-war helped win the war, including some 200 from Connecticut. Armed with cannons, guns, muskets, and pikes, thousands of privateers tormented the British on the Atlantic and in bays and harbors on both sides of the ocean. 

Eric Jay Dolin is the author of sixteen books, including Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America, a topic we look forward to exploring in an upcoming episode of Grating the Nutmeg. Rebels at Sea was awarded the Morison Book Award for Naval Literature, conferred by the Naval Order of the United States, and was a finalist for the New England Society Book Award.  His forthcoming book, to be published in May, 2024, is Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World. Dolin lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts, with his family.

Thanks to my guest Eric Jay Dolin. To find out more about his work, go to  www.ericjaydolin.com.

Today’s episode is the second in our 2024 series on Connecticut’s maritime history-I hope you’ve had the chance to listen to episode #180 on Colonial Connecticut and the West Indies. If you love these seafaring tales, you’ll find dozens of stories to read on our website at ctexplored.org under the Topics button here: https://www.ctexplored.org/travel-transportation/

Eric Jay Dolan’s presentation at the New Haven Museum is now available on their YouTube channel was part of New Haven250, an ongoing series of programming developed to complement America250. Culminating with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the series will highlight inclusive, local, and lesser-known stories, connecting past and present. Follow their Facebook page to find out more about upcoming programs.

Watch the taped presentation by author Eric Jay Dolan on the New Haven Museum’s YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpELt9K7u2TcAx6JHlsD62w/videos

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This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history.

181. Hartford and the Great Migration, 1914-1950

In the February 4^, 2024 issue of the New York Times, journalist Adam Mahoney describes the Great Migration as a time when millions of Black people left the South to escape segregation, servitude and lynching and went North in search of jobs and stable housing. In this episode, host Mary Donohue will discuss Hartford and the Great Migration with Dr. Stacey Close. Connecticut Explored’s book African American Connecticut Exploredpublished by Wesleyan University Press has just celebrated its 10^th anniversary. Dr. Close served as one of the principal authors for this groundbreaking volume of essays that illuminate the long arc of Black history in Connecticut.

A native of Georgia, Dr. Close has worked in higher education for more than 25 years. A professor of African American history at Eastern Connecticut State University, Close received his Ph.D and M.A. from Ohio State University and his B.A. from Albany State College, a Historically Black College in Georgia. He is currently working on a book project entitled “Black Hartford Freedom Struggle, 1915-1970.”

Thanks to my guest Dr. Stacey Close. Read his article published in Connecticut Explored here:

https://www.ctexplored.org/southern-blacks-transform-connecticut/

Subscribe to get your copy of Connecticut Explored magazine delivered to your mailbox-subscribe at https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/connecticut-explored

Was your family part of the Great Migration? Be sure to listen to GTN episode 127 to find out how to put your family’s history together for future generations with Black family historians Jill Marie Snyder and Hartford’s Orice Jenkins.

https://gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com/127-telling-your-family-story-with-jill-marie-snyder-and-orice-jenkins

Can you use your power of giving to make a $250 dollar donation? We would love to send you our brand-new Grating the Nutmeg t-shirt as a thank you!  Donor and t-shirt recipient Jack Soos writes “I love how this podcast uncovers amazing stories and historical insights right in our backyard! Thank you so much and keep up the good work!”

You can help us continue to produce the podcast by donating directly to Grating the Nutmeg on the Connecticut Explored website at ctexplored.org.   Click the donate button at the top and then look for the Grating the Nutmeg donation link at the bottom.

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history.

Image: Shiloh Baptist Church women's group, 336 Albany Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut Museum of Culture and History. 

Although Connecticut sometimes seems like such a small, isolated place on the map, it was connected to the far-flung, complex, cosmopolitan British empire even in the 17^th century.  This year on Grating the Nutmeg, we’re going to explore Connecticut’s maritime history with episodes on Colonial Connecticut’s trade with the British colonies of the Caribbean, privateering during the American Revolution and the whaling ships sent around the globe in the nineteenth century. Connecticut’s maritime entrepreneurs made fortunes by sending ships to sea and employed sailors, shipbuilders, traders, drovers, provisioners, and more.

In this episode, we talk about sugar. Sugar production in the tropical climate of the British islands of the West Indies made men tremendous fortunes. But to cultivate and process sugar cane into sugar required vast amounts of labor. As my guest Dr. Matt Warshaurer wrote in the Summer 2023 issue of Connecticut Explored “The fields and mills of the Caribbean were worked by African peoples stolen from their homes, placed in shackles and delivered to British colonies in North American and the Caribbean.” Connecticut’s ships delivered food and building materials to the islands and returned with sugar, rum and molasses. These were then traded for finished goods from England-furniture, china, glass, textiles. We’ll hear today about how the trade route known as the “Triangle Trade” moved people, products, and goods across the  Atlantic Ocean, helping to make British plantation owners as well as some Colonial Connecticut families rich.

My guests today are Dr. Matt Warshauer, professor of history at Central Connecticut State University.  The author of five books and countless articles and reviews, Warshauer has written extensively on Andrew Jackson, slavery and the Civil War. Dr. Warshauer serves on the editorial board for Connecticut Exploredmagazine and in the Summer 2023 issue authored the feature story “Connecticut’s Sweet Tooth: The Sugar Trade and Slavery in the West Indies”.

To read this story, please go to https://www.ctexplored.org/connecticuts-sweet-tooth-the-sugar-trade-and-slavery-in-the-west-indies/

Dr. Katherine Hermes, the publisher of Connecticut Explored, has published extensive research on the Atlantic world and Colonial Connecticut.  She is the director and historian for the award-winning public history  project  “Uncovering their History: African, African-American, and Native-American Burials in Hartford’s Ancient Burying Ground, 1640-1815”. She recently completed two new projects for the Ancient Burying Ground Association including one telling the stories of people with connections to the West Indies and one on women-Black, White and Indigenous-who rest in the Burying Ground. 

To read more about these projects, please go to:

https://www.africannativeburialsct.org/

https://ancientburyingground.com/projects/telling-new-stories/

https://www.ctexplored.org/unburying-hartfords-native-and-african-family-histories/

And to listen to earlier podcasts, please go to:

https://gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com/149-the-middle-passage-west-africa-to-connecticut

https://gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com/78-uncovering-african-and-native-american-lives-in-17th-18th-century-hartford

We have brand new Facebook and Instagram pages under Grating the Nutmeg - please follow us and you’ll get behind the scenes photos, sneak peeks of new content, and info on how to purchase our new merchandise! 

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Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. You can help us continue to produce the podcast by donating directly to Grating the Nutmeg on the Connecticut Explored website at ctexplored.org   Click the donate button at the top and then look for the Grating the Nutmeg donation link at the bottom. Make a $250 dollar donation and we’ll send you our brand new Grating the Nutmeg teeshirt.

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

This is Mary Donohue. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history.

179. Connecticut’s Benedict Arnold: America’s Most Hated Man

This is our first new episode for 2024 and we’ve got some big news! Thanks to you-our listeners-we had 30,106 downloads in 2023! That’s our best year ever! We have brand new Facebook and Instagram pages under Grating the Nutmeg-please follow us and you’ll get behind the scenes photos, sneak peeks of new content, and info on how to purchase our new merchandise!

In today’s episode, we discuss one of the most well-known sons of Connecticut and one that is one of the most perplexing! My guest is Jack Kelly, historian and author of the new book God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America’s Most Hated Man. Kelly believes a reevaluation of Arnold’s career with his string of heroic achievements as well as his betrayal of the American patriot cause is needed. In Connecticut, Benedict pivots from being a greatly admired hero of the Battle of Ridgefield on the American side to being the commander of the British troops that burned New London and massacred American militia men at Fort Griswold. How could this happen?

Jack Kelly is an award-winning historian and novelist. His books about Revolution and early America include Band of Giants and Valcour. Kirkus Reviews described his latest book, God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America’s most Hated Man as “a dazzling addition to the history of the American Revolution.” 

Jack has received the DAR History Medal. He is a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow in Nonfiction Literature and has appeared on NPR, C-Span and the History Channel. He lives and works in New York’s Hudson Valley.

To find out more, go to his website: https://JackKellyBooks.com 

and newsletter: https://jackkellyattalkingtoamerica.substack.com

To find out more about Benedict Arnold, check out these Connecticut Explored stories-

https://www.ctexplored.org/benedict-arnold-and-the-battle-of-ridgefield/

https://www.ctexplored.org/benedict-arnold-turns-and-burns-new-london/

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From New Haven’s world-renowned pizza, to Connecticut’s connection to the Bauhaus, and uncovering the suffrage work of African American women in Connecticut, listen to all ten of Grating the Nutmeg's most streamed episodes now! We’ve been podcasting for nine years - that’s nearly 200 episodes of sharing Connecticut’s big stories. To celebrate, tune in to our top-streamed episodes of all time and then explore the rest! All you need to do is visit ctexplored.org/listen, click "Listen Here," and look for our post of the top 10 most streamed episodes for your next good story (or 10!). Enjoy! 

Please use your Power of Giving to help us continue to offer the podcast at no charge to our listeners-students, teachers, and CT history fans around the country.   Could you make a $5 or $10 dollar monthly donation? To make your monthly or one-time donation go to ctexplored.org and look for the Grating the Nutmeg link under the donation tab!

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history.

Top 10 Most Streamed GTN Episodes of All Time

Grating the Nutmeg enters its ninth year in 2024. Wow! We have covered many different topics over the course of our nearly 200 episodes–from Connecticut’s trees, to witches, to our more recent CTE Game Changers Series–and we are excited for what’s in store for 2024. Thank you to everyone who has made our podcast possible!

We shared the top five episodes from 2023, now we want to celebrate the top ten most listened-to GTN episodes of all time. Enjoy our top downloaded episodes and then explore the rest! Just click on the links below, and then press play on the next page for your next good story.

93. Connecticut and the Pandemic of 1918 It’s hard to believe that the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic hit its peak nearly four years ago. In this episode, we discuss the influenza pandemic of 1918, which like COVID-19, stopped life-as-we-knew it in its tracks. What are the similarities and differences between the two pandemics? Where did the 1918 influenza come from? How did its impact change Connecticut and its people?

77. The Delicious History of Pizza in New Haven Perhaps one of the greatest debates of the Northeast – which state makes the best pizza? To many, New Haven, Connecticut holds the spot as the best pizza destination. How did this city gain its world-class pizza reputation, and why “apizza?” What is the trinity of pizza places in New Haven?

96. Rough Justice for Nathan Hale Hale the hero or Hale the liar? This episode provides a new twist on a story we thought we knew in full using a previously unknown account of Hale’s arrest by Consider Tiffany. Is there any legitimacy in Tiffany’s or William Hull’s accounts? How do historians account for lapses and contradictions in the historical record? Why were the British so fired up to execute Connecticut's state hero?

18. Gov. John Dempsey-Son of Cahir How did John Dempsey’s mother inspire him to take risks for those in need? How did his father inspire his belief that those with power have the responsibility to help those who do not? How did a streetlight change John’s life? Tune into this episode to learn more about one of the most popular, and effective, Connecticut governors, and how his traits and programs were informed by experiences he had as a boy in Cahir, Ireland.

124 Lydia Sigourney, Benedict Arnold, & The Battle of Bunker Hill What do Lydia Sigourney, Benedict Arnold, and the Revolutionary War battle of Bunker Hill have in common? Listen to this reading of Sigourney’s book, Sketch of Connecticut Forty Years Since, to see the past through a double historical lens. Discover life in early-American Norwich as well as insights into the ways in which Norwich remembers Benedict Arnold and the Battle of Bunker Hill. This is a great episode to listen to as we prepare for the 250^th anniversary of the United States in 2026.

100. The Unlikely Legend – and History – of the Charter Oak The legend of the Charter Oak has deep roots in our state. But why has Connecticut been so heavily invested in a legend about a tree, a piece of paper, a meany-head monarch, and a crafty, independent group of subjects? Listen to this episode where we provide historical details of the Charter Oak and discuss to what degree the history matches up to the legend.

70. Anni and Josef Albers in Connecticut This episode celebrates the 100^th anniversary of the most influential design school of the twentieth century, the Bauhaus, and Connecticut’s connection to it – Modern artists Anni and Josef Albers. What was the Bauhaus? What is the significance of its name and architectural history? How did Anni and Josef meet? Discover how the Albers escaped Germany and why they came to Connecticut, as well as what happened to the Bauhaus. Plus, learn more about the Albers’ Connecticut home and one of Josef’s painting series.

129. Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America You’ve probably seen the iconic, blue-domed Colt Armory off of I-91 on your drive to Hartford. You also may have heard of Colt Park or the Colt addition to the Wadsworth Athenuem. So, who was Sam Colt? Tune into this episode to learn more about Colt’s youth, family tragedies and mysteries, and his early businesses and failures. Find out whether there’s any truth to the inspiration behind his revolver design, and why “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” is a fitting saying for Colt.

97. Uncovering African American Women’s Fight for Suffrage 2020 marked the 100^th anniversary of the ratification of the 19^th amendment. For a long time, women of color were excluded from the history of women’s suffrage. In this episode, Brittney Yancy and Karen Li Miller discuss the project they developed to uncover the suffrage work of women of color in CT. Learn how it came together, their research methods, and the significance of the project and its name. Discover the important suffrage and activism work of women such as Mary Townsend Seymour, Sarah Lee Brown Fleming, and Mary A. Johnson that bring a complexity to the history of suffrage.

149. New London and the Middle Passage (CTE Game Changer Series) One of the sites on New London’s Black Heritage Trail is the Amistad pier, which marks the 1761 arrival of The Speedwell, carrying 74 enslaved persons. Although the ship’s records don’t show where the Africans aboard ended up, the probate record of Normand Morison shows 21 enslaved West Africans were placed on his farm in Bolton. In this episode, Kathy Hermes, Lonnie Braxton, and Tom Schuch discuss why this was a momentous event and what other stories it helps to tell. They also discuss the Black Heritage Trail and its significance, and the impact of the slave trade on Connecticut and its trading networks. Plus, learn why Morison and Benedict Arnold are important to this story and the story of New London.

What better way to spend the holidays than curled up next to the fireplace with a mug of hot chocolate and your favorite Grating the Nutmeg episode! To celebrate, we’re spreading history cheer for all to hear. Just click on the episode links below, press play on the next page, and enjoy our holiday episodes of Grating the Nutmeg past.

 Soup and Stories. What do the Shroud of Turin and a world renowned nuclear physicist, a beer-drinking donkey, a walking catfish, Farmall tractors, the Blizzard of 1888, spooky houses, polaroid cameras, snorkels, and the songs from the Wizard of Oz have to do with the little towns of Lebanon and Columbia? Listen and hear as we celebrate one of the best things about the holiday season: storytelling!

A Connecticut Christmas from Twain & Stowe.  Enjoy music performed by the New England Ensemble while listening to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s story which beautifully illustrates the moment in Connecticut history when the popularity of Christmas intertwined with political upheaval. Then, place yourself in the shoes of celebrities such as Grace King and Bret Harte as you tour the restored Mahogany Suite at the Mark Twain House. Picture yourself spending wintery nights in the library and waking up to Canace Wheeler’s shimmering wallpaper while you learn about Olivia Clemens’ Christmas generosity.

Three Centuries of Christmas at the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum. Oyster soup or plum pudding, anyone? Charles Lyle shares how three eras between the 18^th and 20^th centuries decorated their homes, set their tables, and incorporated food during the holidays. Tune in to learn how to receive guests for your own historical holiday celebrations. Plus, hear about the creation of Santa Claus and why the Isaac Stevens House’s Christmas tree is decorated with fruits and topped with a pineapple.

Connecticut Christmas Stories & Song. Why was Raymond’s grandparent’s Victorian Christmas party such a famous festival and key childhood memory? How does a moralistic, classist tale that questions religion and involves family issues provide insight into human emotion and feelings of peace on Earth? How does Santa Claus prepare for his Christmas visits? Find out in this episode, plus venture down Walt Woodward’s memory lane to his days as a country music songwriter in Nashville.

“John Norton’s Vagabond,” A Victorian Christmas Story. Step back in time and find yourself in the wintery woods of the Adirondacks with rustic woodsman John Norton and his dogs, Rover and Sport, as they plan a Christmas dinner for all, even vagabonds. In trapper terms, vagabonds were people who stole other men’s traps and poached their furs. Listen to Norton’s plan unfold in this story by Rev. William Henry Harrison, the father of the American Outdoor movement.

Did you ever think the universe was trying to tell you something? I just finished reading Anderson Cooper’s book on the Vanderbilt family. In it, he describes family patriarch Commodore Vanderbilt’s interest in Spiritualism and clairvoyance. Cooper writes “Evidence suggests that the Commodore had begun attending seances as early as 1864, but given the mainstreaming of Spiritualist practices in the 1860s and ‘70s, this was not as unusual as it may sound. The period immediately after the Civil War had seen a dramatic rise in the Spiritualism movement and other alternative modes of healing and perception, driven largely by the staggering loss of life experienced during the Civil War.”  We explored heiress Theodate Pope Riddle’s obsession with Spiritualism in Grating the Nutmeg episode #109 but what did Hartford’s most famous resident of the Gilded Age, Mark Twain, think about it? And what about the ghosts seen in the Twain House? Whether you  believe in the afterlife, don’t believe in it at all, or just want to come to your own conclusions, this is an episode for you!

Guests today are Mallory Howard, Assistant Curator at The Mark Twain House & Museum and Dr. Jason Scappaticci, historian and Associate Dean of Student Affairs at Connecticut State Community College Capital in Hartford.

And if you need more ghostly insight after listening to this episode, the Mark Twain House is sponsoring a book talk on Dec. 14^, 2023 at 7:30pm with television’s Ghost Hunters Adam Berry and Steve Gonsalves in conversation discussing their debut books. Tickets are available on the museum’s website at marktwainhouse.org 

If you want more Spiritualism and ghost stories, check out Grating the Nutmeg Episode 109. Communicating with the Spirits: Theodate Pope Riddle. Listen here: https://gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com/109-communicating-with-the-spirits-theodate-pope-riddle

You can purchase author Steve Courtney’s book “We Shall Have Them With Us Always” The Ghosts of the Mark Twain House at the Mark Twain House Museum gift shop.

Dr. Jason Scappaticci can be reached at jason.scappaticci@gmail.com

image: Samuel Clemens experimenting in Nicola Tesla’s lab in 1894. Courtesy of The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Connecticut.

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Grating the Nutmeg is the podcast of Connecticut history and 2023 winner of an Award of Merit for excellence from the Connecticut League of History Organizations. Brought to you by Connecticut Explored, Connecticut’s premiere history magazine. Subscribe now at ctexplored.org  

It’s almost the end of 2023. Please use your Power of Giving to help us continue to offer the podcast at no charge to our listeners-students, teachers, and CT history fans around the country.  Podcast episodes were downloaded over 29,000 times this year! Could you make a $5 or $10 dollar monthly donation? To make your monthly or one-time donation go https://ctexplored.networkforgood.com/projects/179036-support-ct-history-podcast-grating-the-nutmeg

Thank you so much for your support!

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. 

In this episode of Grating the Nutmeg, Natalie Belanger sits down with acclaimed crime writer M. William Phelps to get to the bottom of a notorious early 20^th century Connecticut murder story. In the 1910s, Amy Archer Gilligan operated an innovative business in Windsor: a convalescent home for the ill and elderly. Her benevolent facade, however, hid a deadly purpose: a business plan that depended on constant inmate turnover, aided by arsenic poisoning. You'll hear all about how the case was broken by a neighbor who happened to write for the Hartford Courant, in a story involving midnight graveyard autopsies, poisoned lemonade, a shady doctor, and the birth of the Connecticut State Police. And oh yeah, the story got turned into a blockbuster Broadway comedy and a 1944 movie starring Cary Grant.   

If you want more historical true crime content, check out the latest exhibition at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History. Called "Connecticut's Bookshelf," the exhibit covers 300 years of reading, writing, and publishing in our state. A "true crime" section in the exhibit features stories that document Connecticut's centuries-old fascination with criminal mayhem. Go to connecticutmuseum.org for details.

Thanks to our guest! M. William Phelps is the author of 45 books; exec-producer, writer and host of the #1 true-crime podcast franchise Paper Ghosts; a frequent television consultant and contributor, and more. 

Contact Natalie Belanger at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, Hartford, Connecticut.

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Grating the Nutmeg brings you top-flight historians, compelling first-person stories, and new voices in Connecticut history. Your donation will ensure that Executive Producers Mary Donohue and Natalie Belanger can bring you a fresh episode at no cost every two weeks! GTN works with museums around the state to spotlight places that you’ll want to visit, books published by Connecticut authors, new exhibit openings, and more.

Use your Power of Giving to help us continue to offer the podcast at no charge to our listeners-students, teachers, and citizens around the country. In 2023 podcast episodes were downloaded over 28,000 times! Make your monthly or one-time donation at  https://ctexplored.networkforgood.com/projects/179036-support-ct-history-podcast-grating-the-nutmeg

Subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, at https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/connecticut-explored

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history.

Witchcraft accusations began in Connecticut in May, 1647, with the trial and execution of Alice Young of Windsor, 45 years before the better-known witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts.  Connecticut had witchcraft accusation outbreaks in the early 1660s in Hartford and again in Fairfield in 1692, with criminal trials ending in 1697.  In colonial Connecticut, dozens of women, and some men associated with them, were accused of witchcraft. The colony hanged eleven people.

In May, 2023, Connecticut’s General Assembly moved to clear the names of all those accused of witchcraft in the state and issue an apology. State lawmakers, descendants of the accused, and local historians organized to present testimony and pass a resolution declaring the accused innocent. House Joint Resolution 34, "Resolution Concerning Certain Witchcraft Convictions In Colonial Connecticut," passed 376 years after the state put Alice Young to death.

Today, Dr. Kathy Hermes talks with Beth Caruso about the history of witchcraft and the exoneration project, and with Sarah Morin about newly discovered evidence that accusations of witchcraft continued well into the 1700s in Connecticut.

Beth Caruso is a Windsor author who writes historical novels, including her novel One of Windsor about Alice Young, and has published original research about the Connecticut witch trials. She and Katherine Hermes are the authors of “Between God and Satan: Thomas Thornton, Witch-Hunting, and Religious Mission in the English Atlantic World, 1647–1693.” Connecticut History Review 61, no. 2 (2022): 42-82.

Sarah J. Morin is a project archivist at the Connecticut State Library. She has processed institutional and manuscript collections at the Connecticut State Library, the University of Connecticut, and two historical societies in Massachusetts

Kathy Hermes is the publisher of Connecticut Explored and professor emerita in history at Central Connecticut State University.

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Subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, at https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/connecticut-explored  

Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. Did you know that you can make a monthly donation to Grating the Nutmeg by setting it up once on our website? You can help us continue to produce the podcast by donating directly to Grating the Nutmeg on the Connecticut Explored website at ctexplored.org   Click the donate button at the top and then look for the Grating the Nutmeg donation link at the bottom. Donations in any amount are greatly appreciated. Thank you!

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Kathy Hermes and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. 

Podcast host and historic preservationist Mary Donohue started following a project on Facebook four or five years ago. It was based on a very simple idea-sleeping overnight in historic buildings-but it was also genius. The project was the Slave Dwelling Project. Joseph McGill,Jr., a Black historic preservationist and Civil War reenactor based in South Carolina, had begun this groundbreaking project to sleep overnight in the countless and very underappreciated former slave dwellings that still stand across the country. What has this to do with Connecticut? McGill not only sleeps at residences across the South but the North and West too. In Connecticut, he has slept at buildings owned by the Greenwich Historical Society and in New London at the Hempstead Houses owned by Connecticut Landmarks. At each stop, events and campfires are held to explore with the public the way the history of the enslaved has been told.

When Donohue discovered that Joe had a new book coming out in the summer of 2023, she immediately pre-ordered it and read it the week she received it. Sleeping with the Ancestors How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery authored by Joseph McGill, Jr. and journalist Herb Frazier was published by Hachette Books.

In this episode, Donohue interviews author Joe McGill, Jr. and Nicole Thomas. Thomas was born and raised in New London. She gained in interest in local history 20 years ago after her

 mother purchased a historic home.

Nicole works for Connecticut Landmarks as the Assistant Site Administrator at the Hempsted Houses Museum and is also a researcher for New London’s Black Heritage Trail. The New London Black Heritage Trail was honored as a History Gamechanger Project by Connecticut Explored in 2022.

Thanks to our guests author and historic preservationist Joe McGill, Jr. and historian and site manager Nicole Thomas.

To find out more about the Slave Dwelling Project, go to their website at slavedwellingproject.org and follow Joe on Facebook on the Slave Dwelling Project page. His book is available on Amazon.

To find out more about upcoming events at the Hempsted Houses go to ctlandmarks.org and follow them on Facebook at The Hempsted Houses. I highly recommend booking a tour with Nicole to experience the place where this history happened.

To read more about enslaved man Adam Jackson at the Hempsted Houses, click here: https://www.ctexplored.org/adam-jacksons-story-revealed/

 For more information on the Greenwich Historical Society’s recreation of an enslaved person’s sleeping area, visited by McGill in 2012, read more here:

https://www.ctexplored.org/slave-quarters-in-bush-holley-house/

And for more articles that explore the long arc of Black history in Connecticut, find out more here:

https://www.ctexplored.org/african-american-history-in-connecticut-2/

https://www.ctexplored.org/slavery-in-connecticut/

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Subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, at https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/connecticut-explored

Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. You can help us continue to produce the podcast by donating directly to Grating the Nutmeg on the Connecticut Explored website at ctexplored.org   Click the donate button at the top and then look for the Grating the Nutmeg donation link at the bottom. Donations in any amount are greatly appreciated-we thank you!

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. 

From the rural backwater of Hartland, Connecticut in 1773, Asher Benjamin would rise to become one of the most important figures of early American architecture. In addition to training as a skilled finish carpenter, he published the first architectural guidebooks-how-to books by an American-born author. These went through many editions and left a lasting record of how Federal-period craftsman could build the many stunning churches and homes from the earliest years of our country. He may have even held the first architectural school in America-more about that in this episode.

In this episode, architectural historian Mary Donohue interviews guests William Ranauro, author of Asher Benjamin, American Architect, Author, Artist, published by Outskirts Press in 2021 and Lynn Mervosh, Site Administrator for the Phelps-Hatheway House and Garden in Suffield, Connecticut. Mr. Ranauro is one of the speakers for the  upcoming  Asher Benjamin Symposium. 

Today’s episode is inspired by an upcoming symposium sponsored by Connecticut Landmarks to celebrate the work and legacy of Asher Benjamin, one of the most influential members of the first generation of American architects. Take in a full day of learning and gorgeous Fall foliage  at the site of his first formal architectural commission, the Phelps-Hatheway House & Garden in Suffield, Connecticut. The symposium is on October 7^th, 2023-to find out more and to register go to ctlandmarks.org

 Thank to guests William Ranauro and Lynn Merosh. To find out more about upcoming events at the Phelps-Hatheway House and Garden,  go to ctlandmarks.org. And don’t forget to register today for the upcoming Asher Benjamin Symposium at ctlandmarks.org. William Ranauro’s book Asher Benjamin American Architect, Author, Artist is available on Amazon.com

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 Subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, at https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/connecticut-explored  

Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. Did you know that you can make a monthly donation to Grating the Nutmeg by setting it up once on our website? You can help us continue to produce the podcast by donating directly to Grating the Nutmeg on the Connecticut Explored website at ctexplored.org   Click the donate button at the top and then look for the Grating the Nutmeg donation link at the bottom. Donations in any amount are greatly appreciated-we thank you!

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. 

This fall the Connecticut Museum is hosting the Smithsonian traveling exhibition ¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues / En los barrios y las grandes ligas. It explores the historic role that baseball has played as a social and cultural force within Latino communities across the world, and how Latinos in particular have influenced and changed the game. 

You can’t find a better local story about baseball, family, and community than that of the Springer family of New Britain. In this episode, Natalie Belanger chats with George Springer, Jr. George is a very proud dad. His daughters Nicole and Lena played collegiate softball, and both went on to play for the Puerto Rican National team. His son, George Springer III, plays right field for the Toronto Blue Jays. In 2017, when he played for the Houston Astros, he was an MLB All-Star and named World Series MVP. 

But if George Jr. Is a proud dad, he’s equally a proud son. You’ll hear him tell the story of how his dad, George Springer Senior, migrated to Connecticut from Panama in the 1950s and blazed a trail as an educator, overcoming racial prejudice that denied him access to some jobs, all while instilling a love of sports in his son.  George tells us about the ways that sports, particularly baseball, helped to foster community in the ethnically diverse towns like Bristol and New Britain where he and his dad raised their families.  

You can learn more about the Springer family and the Pleibol exhibition at connecticutmuseum.org. The exhibition is open through November 5, 2023. 

image: 1976 Forestville Little League World Series team, George Springer Jr. pictured, courtesy of the Bristol Sports Hall of Fame.

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Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. You can help us continue to produce the podcast by donating directly to Grating the Nutmeg on the Connecticut Explored website at ctexplored.org   Click the donate button at the top and then look for the Grating the Nutmeg donation link at the bottom. Donations in any amount are greatly appreciated-we thank you!

Subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, at https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/connecticut-explored

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history.

In any gift shop in New England, you’ll probably find lighthouses pictured on tea towels and tee shirts and in snow globes. Lighthouses are fondly thought of as community landmarks and icons.

Connecticut has fourteen active lighthouses, two of which are maintained as private aids to navigation; six are standing but inactive. Some are located on dry land but a significant number are located in the waters of the Long Island Sound. Some are now private homes, but many can be enjoyed by the public including several that are periodically opened to the public by some of the state’s history museums. As early as the 1880’s, the federal government encouraged lighthouse keepers to open the lighthouses to visitors and tourists.

The National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 provides an opportunity for the preservation of federally-owned historic light stations. The NHLPA program is a partnership among the United States Coast Guard; National Park Service, Dept. of the Interior; the General Services Administration and new stewards such as the New London Maritime Society and the Norwalk Seaport Association.

In this episode, Executive Producer Mary Donohue interviews guests Susan Tamulevich, Executive Director of the New London Maritime Society since 2008, during which time the NLMS became the steward of three area lighthouses, and Jordan Jackson, a Grating the Nutmeg listener and lighthouse fan who shares her first-hand account of visiting the Sheffield Island Lighthouse in Norwalk Harbor administered by the Norwalk Seaport Association.

There are many ways to visit Connecticut’s lighthouses. In the summer, the New London Maritime Society takes visitors by boat to see both the interior and exterior of its two lighthouses located in the Long Island Sound. The Norwalk Seaport Association also schedules summer boat trips out to Sheffield Island. The Cross Sound Ferry from New London has a cruise that includes sailing by eight lighthouses available until October 9^th. Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven is open until November 1^st-a perfect place for a close look at an early lighthouse, a walk on the beach or a sandwich.

For more information, visit these websites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lighthouses_in_Connecticut

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lighthouses_on_the_National_Register_of_Historic_Places_in_Connecticut

https://www.nlmaritimesociety.org/

https://www.seaport.org/

https://www.ctexplored.org/stoningtons-first-family-of-lighthouse-keepers/

https://www.ctexplored.org/two-if-by-sea-new-londons-harbor-light-stoningtons-old-lighthouse-museum/

New London photos courtesy of New London Maritime Society and Sheffield Island Lighthouse photos courtesy of Jordan Jackson.

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Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. You can help us continue to produce the podcast by donating directly to Grating the Nutmeg on the Connecticut Explored website at www.ctexplored.org/   Click the donate button at the top and then look for the Grating the Nutmeg donation link at the bottom. Donations in any amount are greatly appreciated-we thank you!

Subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, at https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/connecticut-explored

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history.

It’s the summer of Barbie. Barbiecore, an homage to the stylish doll, is everywhere in fashion and home furnishings. It’s time to think pink!

So this episode is on Connecticut’s own Victorian Barbie Dream House - Roseland Cottage in Woodstock. How many shades of pink has Roseland Cottage been? We’ll find out! Executive Producer Mary Donohue talks to Laurie Masciandaro, site manager of Roseland Cottage museum owned by Historic New England.

Laurie holds a Masters Degree in American History from the University of Connecticut and is a frequent speaker on Connecticut’s historic gardens. Read more in this Connecticut Explored article written by Laurie at https://www.ctexplored.org/sample-article-a-presidential-july-4th/

To find out more about upcoming events at Roseland Cottage go to roselandcottage.org  

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Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. You can help us continue to produce the podcast by donating directly to Grating the Nutmeg on the Connecticut Explored website at ctexplored.org   Click the donate button at the top and then look for the Grating the Nutmeg donation link at the bottom. Donations in any amount are greatly appreciated-we thank you!

Subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, at https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/connecticut-explored

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history.

Connecticut Senator George P. McLean’s crowning achievement was overseeing passage of one of the country’s first and most important wildlife conservation laws, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The MBTA, which is still in effect today, has saved billions of birds from senseless killing and likely prevented the extinction of entire bird species.

In this episode, Executive Producer Mary Donohue interviews Will McLean Greeley. He grew up with a deep interest in American history, politics, and birds.  After retiring from a 35-year career in government and corporate market research, he began a four-year research and writing journey to learn more about George P. McLean and his legacy.  A Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington, Senator George P. McLean, Birdman of the Senate, published by the Rochester Institute of Technology Press in 2023, is his first book. The new book puts McLean’s victory for birds in the context of his distinguished forty-five-year career marked by many acts of reform during a time of widespread corruption and political instability. McLean rose from obscurity as a Connecticut farm boy to serve as Governor of Connecticut and as a senator from Connecticut in Congress where he advised five US presidents and helped lead change and shape events as a US senator from 1911 to 1929.

Senator George P. McLean established the McLean Game Refuge in 1932 as a life sanctuary to preserve over 3,000 acres of meadows and forests he feared would be lost to development and resource exploitation. Today the wildlands have grown to over 4,400 acres, and protect hundreds of animal species. For more information, go to https://mcleancare.org/game-refuge/

To contact the author or to schedule a book talk, please go to:

https://willgreeley.com

To purchase your copy of A Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington, Senator George P. McLean, Birdman of the Senate, please go to the independent bookstores shown below:

• RJ Julia (all locations)
• Breakwater Books, Guilford, CT
• Books on the Common, Ridgefield, CT
• Byrd's Books, Bethel, CT

To order online go to the RIT Press website: https://press.rit.edu/search-results-grid/?keyword=Mclean or Amazon.com

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Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history is the winner of a 2023 Award of Merit for excellence from the Connecticut League of History Organizations.  We count on your support to be able to bring you fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg every two weeks. You can help us continue to produce the podcast by donating directly to Grating the Nutmeg on the Connecticut Explored website at ctexplored.org   Click the donate button at the top and then look for the Grating the Nutmeg donation link. We appreciate your donations in any amount -thank you!

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at www.highwattagemedia.com/

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history.

This episode was recorded on July 5^th, 2023 just two days after the 160^th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg-the turning point of the American Civil War. With more than 50,000 estimated casualties, the three-day engagement was the bloodiest single battle of the conflict. It’s been said that there are over 5,000 books written about the three-day battle-what more can be uncovered? GTN Executive producer Mary Donohue interviews Bridgeport historian Carolyn Ivanoff, author of We Fought at Gettysburg, Firsthand Accounts by the Survivors of the 17^th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, published in 2023 by Gettysburg Publishing. We Fought at Gettysburg follows the 17^th Regiment through the Gettysburg Campaign and beyond in June and July of 1863. The book contains first-hand accounts of men who lived through the trauma of combat and survived to write about it. They describe what they saw, thought and felt on the battlefield.

For more information or go contact author Carolyn Ivanoff, please go to:

Educator, Author, Independent Historian

P.O. Box 3294

Gettysburg, PA 17325

(203) 735-8739

https://sites.google.com/site/carolynivanoff/

Ivanoff offers book talks and programs in person and virtually. Programs include:

1) We Fought at Gettysburg--Stories of the Care Givers, Wounded and Honored Dead

2) We Fought at Gettysburg-- Comrades in Combat

To order your copy of We Fought at Gettysburg, please go to gettysburgpublishing.com or Amazon.com

Subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history at:  ctexplored.org/shop

Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. You can help us continue to produce the podcast by donating directly to Grating the Nutmeg on the Connecticut Explored website at ctexplored.org   Click the donate button at the top and then look for the Grating the Nutmeg donation link at the bottom. Donations in any amount are greatly appreciated-we thank you!

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history.

What’s being done to save the state’s industrial history? In today’s episode, Producer Mary Donohue talks to Renee Tribert, Preservation Services Coordinator for adaptive reuse and redevelopment for industrial buildings at Preservation Connecticut. Podcast audio engineer Patrick O’Sullivan and Donohue share some of their favorite places to go around the state where you can see old mills and factories that are being used for fun new uses and we hear from Ilona Somogyi, co-founder of Ball & Socket Arts in Cheshire, Connecticut about an old mill with a Cinderella story that will open this summer.

Connecticut was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.  Small brooks and rivers were dammed to create waterpower that turned machinery and the state’s textile, precision manufacturing and metal casting industries were born. Thousands of products were produced and the state attracted investors, inventors and immigrants to work in the factories. But as industry moved out in the last half of the 20^th century, these cathedrals of industry become vacant and abandoned across the state.

For more information about organizations and museums mentioned in this episode, go to:

Preservation Connecticut https://preservationct.org/

Mills https://preservationct.org/mills

Ball & Socket Arts https://ballandsocket.org/

493 W. Main Street, Cheshire, CT 06410

The Carousel Museum https://www.thecarouselmuseum.org/

95 Riverside Avenue, Bristol, CT 06010

The Archive https://linktr.ee/archivebridgeport

118 Congress Street, Bridgeport, CT 06604

Mongers Market https://www.mongers-market.com/

1155 Railroad Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06605

Two Roads Brewery  https://tworoadsbrewing.com/

1700 Stratford Avenue, Stratford, CT 06615

Real Art Ways  https://www.realartways.org/

56 Arbor Street, Hartford, CT 06106

Parkville Market https://parkvillemarket.com/

1400 Park Street, Hartford, CT 06106

Photo Credit: Ball & Socket Arts Cheshire, CT

Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. You can help us continue to produce the podcast by donating directly to Grating the Nutmeg on the Connecticut Explored website at ctexplored.org   Click the donate button at the top and then look for the Grating the Nutmeg donation link at the bottom. Donations in any amount are greatly appreciated-we thank you!

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Donohue may be reached at marydonohue@comcast.net

Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history.

It’s almost summertime and kids everywhere are already dreaming about their summer vacation. In 1964, Jimmy O’Sullivan of Cheshire, Connecticut had his heart set on a family outing from Connecticut to the see the World’s Fair in New York City’s Flushing Meadows Park with its futuristic, space-themed exhibits and “Peace Through Understanding” overarching theme. A short drive down Connecticut’s Merritt Parkway and over to Flushing Meadow Park put the O’Sullivan family squarely into the heart of the fair. O’Sullivan still has a photograph of himself at 9 years old in front of the fairs’ Unisphere, a 12-story-high stainless steel globe. The 1964-65 New York World’s Fair attracted approximately 50 million visitors including many from Connecticut during its two April-to-October seasons.

The guest for this episode is Dr. Jason Scappaticci, historian and Associate Dean of Student Affairs at Capital Community College in Hartford. Not only does Dr. Scappaticci have a keen interest in all things World’s Fair but he is an avid collector of souvenirs and mementos from the fair.

Many Connecticut companies had exhibits at the fair. Standouts include the Travelers Insurance Company’s building on the “Pool of Industry”. The building was designed to resemble the company’s trademark red umbrella. General Electric’s pavilion stood across from the Travelers. It included a Disney designed attraction called “Progressland”.

For more information on Connecticut’s connections to the fair, read Dr. Scappaticci’s article here: https://www.ctexplored.org/connecticut-at-the-new-york-worlds-fair/

Check out the Travelers exhibit “The Triumph of Man” recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeSS3SILD9Q

 Saint Mary, Mother of the Redeemer Church, includes both interior and exterior design features from the 1964 Vatican Pavilion purchased and included in his design by church architect William F. Herman, Jr. of Mystic. To visit, go to 69 Groton Long Point, Groton, Connecticut.

https://www.stmarysgroton.org/

Fresh episodes of Grating the Nutmeg are brought to you every two weeks with support from our listeners. You can help us continue to produce the podcast by donating directly to Grating the Nutmeg on the Connecticut Explored website at ctexplored.org   Click the donate button at the top of the home page and then look for the Grating the Nutmeg donation link. Your donation is vital to our ability to bring you well-researched episodes that bring out new facets of Connecticut history. Donations in any amount are greatly appreciated-we thank you!

This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/

Traveler’s Insurance Pavilion postcard image courtesy of the Connecticut Historical Society.