| Connecticut Museum of Culture and History | |
| Established: | 1825 |
| Location: | 1 Elizabeth Street, Hartford, Connecticut, United States |
| Type: | History museum, library, archive, education center |
| Director: | Rob Kret |
| Publictransit: | Connecticut Transit Hartford 11 Simsbury-Granby Express 72 Asylum Ave |
The Connecticut Museum of Culture and History (CMCH), formerly the Connecticut Historical Society, is a private, non-profit organization that serves as the official state historical society of Connecticut. Established in Hartford in 1825, the CMCH is one of the oldest historical societies in the US.[1]
The Connecticut Museum of Culture and History is a non-profit museum, library, archive and education center that is open to the public. It houses a research center containing 270,000 artifacts and graphics and over 100,000 books and pamphlets.[2] It holds one of the largest costume and textile collections in New England.[3] It was known as the Connecticut Historical Society from its founding until 2023.[4]
In 1825, a petition signed by citizens of Connecticut including Thomas Robbins, John Trumbull, Thomas Day, and William W. Ellsworth, was presented to the Connecticut General Assembly, calling for the establishment of a society to preserve historical materials.[5] The General Assembly gave its consent, and the Connecticut Historical Society was established to collect objects important to the history of the Connecticut, and the United States more generally.[6] The first elected officers were Trumbull, Day, Robbins, Thomas Church Brownell and Walter Mitchell.[6]
With the rise in prominence of Hartford in the 1820s, the society's committee decided to house its first meetings in the city.[7] Yet despite a flurry of activity, the society became inactive after 1825 and it was not until 1839 when new interest regained.[8] The first official quarters for the CMCH were over a store at 124 Main Street in Hartford.[9]
The society's new ideals and direction were spearheaded by educationalist Henry Barnard, who recommended that the society enroll members from around the state, encouraged a history and genealogy magazine and retrieved speakers for lectures who could address groups throughout Connecticut.[10]
As its collections expanded, the historical society moved into a room in the newly built Wadsworth Athenaeum in 1843.[11] By 1844, the collections had grown to include 250 bound volumes of newspapers, 6,000 pamphlets, and various collections of manuscripts, coins, portraits and furniture.[12] New officers were elected including David D. Field.[13] The CMCH appointed Thomas Robbins as its first librarian because of his extensive book collection and antiquarian expertise.[14]
Under Robbins's tenure, the new quarters were open six days a week and interpretive tours of objects were given.[15] Some early objects in the collection were a chest of William Brewster, a tavern sign of General Israel Putnam and a bloodstained vest worn by Colonel William Ledyard at the Battle of Groton Heights.[15] After the death of Robbins in 1856, Connecticut historians James Hammond Trumbull and Charles J. Hoadly contributed to the society's work through various published research and lectures.[16] The first woman elected in the organization was Ellen D. Larned in 1870.[17]
In 1893, the society hired Albert Carlos Bates as a full-time librarian and it was under his tenure that membership doubled, the annual income increased five-fold and the collection grew.[18] To accommodate the expanding collection, the CMCH bought a house on Elizabeth Street, which had previously belonged to the inventor Curtis Veeder, in the West End of Hartford.[19] The building was altered between the 1950s and 1970s, to accommodate book stacks, exhibition galleries, an auditorium and a reading room.[20]
In the early 2000s, the CMCH hired Bruce Mau[21] and Frank Gehry to design a new museum near Trinity College, but lack of funds prevented the project from happening.[22] From 2003 to 2007, CMCH operated the Old State House and created a permanent exhibit "History Is All Around Us".[23] [24]
Permanent exhibits include "Making Connecticut", about the history of Connecticut, and "Inn & Tavern Signs".[25] There are also galleries for temporary exhibitions. Recent exhibit topics include the American School for the Deaf, women and needlework,[26] the Kellogg brothers lithography firm, women's basketball,[27] the Amistad,[28] a history of cleanliness,[29] the Civil War[30] and Eliphalet Chapin, an 18th-century furniture maker.[31]