All Non-Digital Titles

New Haven was the first planned city in the United States, and thus, it has an incredible array of buildings from every point in time from American history.

Not only does New Haven have time on its side, but it's also the home of Yale and its School of Architecture, and many prominent architects have designed buildings in this Connecticut city. Author Colin M. Caplan is a native of New Haven and an active member of the local architecture and preservation community. He founded Magrisso Forte, a design-based consulting firm dedicated to fostering awareness of New Haven's cultural resources. This book details 18 walks and 9 guided driving/biking tours around the city.

A History of Connecticut Food aims to acquaint the reader with the long and storied relationship of the state's people and their provisions.

Each chapter will focus on a different crop, livestock, game, or prepared dish that Connecticut has either pioneered or made its own. Along with these brief histories, the book will feature traditional and modernized recipes. In short, A History of Connecticut Food will both inform the people of Connecticut about their culinary past and inspire them to explore it.

Read the history of Mystic, Connecticut, from quiet farming village to wartime shipbilding powerhouse, to the charming nautical- themed destination it is today.

Tucked away in a natural port, Mystic has long been home to seagoing adventure. In A History of Mystic, Connecticut, author and former Mystic Seaport librarian Leigh Fought relates the compelling story of this picturesque coastal community. Forged from the brutal Pequot War, for years Mystic was a quiet little farming village. Then came the War of 1812. Mystic's upstart venture capitalists seized on the war's dislocations to transform the settlement into a shipbuilding powerhouse. The shipyards launched vessels by the hundreds and an industry was born. The Civil War, steam-powered ships and the decline of commercial whaling halted Mystic's shipbuilding boom. Yet the town recovered, transforming itself into the charming nautical-themed tourist destination that has enchanted millions. Read Fought's comprehensive narrative to discover Mystic's role in New England's thrilling maritime saga.

Avon, Connecticut, has had a long history of people who challenged conventions and persevered through tragedy. There was the clock peddler’s encounter with Abraham Lincoln, a suffragist’s political showdown with her cousin Eleanor Roosevelt and a man who betrayed his brother-in-law, Thomas Edison. Before the Heublein Tower, art patron Daniel Wadsworth built the first of three viewing towers on Avon Mountain. Following the courage of local abolitionist David Bartlett, Black Civil War soldier Leverett Holden fought for emancipation. Shocking events included one of the first murder cases in America to test the insanity defense, homicides at a house doomed for bloodshed and the horrific factory fire that shattered the lives of immigrant families. Scott Lewis reveals the stories of the visionaries and victims who shaped the town of Avon’s future.

In the early 1900s, George Weiss, later the general manager of the New York Yankees, helped establish New Haven as a baseball town by drawing stars such as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb for exhibition games. The semiprofessional West Haven Sailors kept that tradition alive in the 1930s and 1940s. That same era was a heyday for Yale, as Yale Field saw legends such as Lou Gehrig and Ted Williams take on the Elis. Ruth returned in 1948 to present a copy of his biography to the Bulldog captain, future president George H.W. Bush. Baseball in New Haven details the return of professional baseball in 1972 with the Eastern League's West Haven Yankees and finishes with the New Haven Ravens, an Eastern League expansion team in 1994.

Berlin focuses on the townspeople-the doctors and merchants, artists and artisans, poets and painters. The town has three population centers: East Berlin is separated from Kensington and Berlin by a highway and a line of hills, and each of these sections has retained its villagelike atmosphere. The book highlights the diversity of Berlin's religious community and the spirit of ecumenicalism that spread throughout its neighborhoods. Individuals who appear include the Leatherman, a gentle person who traveled through Berlin in ages past, and the Goat Man, the personification of the kind neighbor. Dr. Willard Wallace said it very well, "Berlin is just Berlin . . . people of many different religious and ethnic backgrounds who live successfully together."

Bethel brings to life the people, places, industries, and institutions of this independent town from the 1860s through the 1950s through vintage photographs.

Separated from Danbury in 1855, Bethel was settled as early as 1700. Studies of the town's unique and colorful past have been somewhat neglected until recently, however, as many assumed that existing histories of Danbury were all that was needed to document the area's beginnings. With Bethel, town historian Patrick Wild brings to life the people, places, industries, and institutions of the independent town from the 1860s through the 1950s for the first time through a remarkable series of vintage photographs. The hat-making industry was critical to the Bethel economy, and the arrival of the Danbury-Norwalk Railroad in 1852 allowed commerce in this field to blossom. Hatting remained Bethel's primary enterprise until the end of the 1960s, and the town is often associated with this successful venture. Bethel is also known as the birthplace of an American legend, the great showman P. T. Barnum. The fountain that Barnum donated to his hometown is showcased in this work in a series of outstanding photographs taken before the tragic destruction of the landmark in 1923. Patrick Wild is a member of the Bethel Historical

Bloomfield is a compilation of nineteenth- and twentieth-century photographs showing the lives of those who most influenced and characterized the communities of Wintonbury and Bloomfield. It is a pictorial history that revisits the early days, when industry was just beginning, and more recent times, as the town thrived with a progressive educational system and became the home of Connecticut General Insurance Company. While enjoying its closeness to Hartford, Bloomfield has developed a unique culture of its own, which is revealed in this fascinating history.

A charming collection of Bridgeport stories and historic images bring this eccentric, enchanting history to life.

In the late nineteenth century, P.T. Barnum was known worldwide for his traveling circus, but to the city of Bridgeport he meant much more. The city's mayor and benefactor, Barnum was also a mastermind at urban planning. Thus, amid Bridgeport's growing industrial factories, orchestras played from the bandstand at Seaside Park and bucolic hills surrounded Bunnell's Pond. In this collection of narratives, Eric D. Lehman captures the city's natural beauty and richly eccentric history. From the brave women of the Black Rock Lighthouse to war heroes of 'the nation's arsenal', from 'the tiniest general', Tom Thumb, to the tragic death of Jumbo the elephant, these are the best stories from Connecticut's 'Park City.'

Bridgeport at Work chronicles the working life of Bridgeport, a center of industry and home to several legendary individuals. P.T. Barnum, who made Bridgeport his adopted home, began an 1851 project that established an industrial center in East Bridgeport, spurring many other companies to set up in this remarkable city. Igor Sikorsky, Simon Lake, Lucien and I. DeVer Warner, Harvey Hubbell, Elias Howe, and for a short time even Buckminster Fuller all produced some of their best work in Bridgeport. World Wars I and II helped to build the munitions and defense industry in the city, and companies such as Remington Arms, the Lake Torpedo Boat Company, and Sikorsky Aircraft thrived. Bridgeport at Work shows the workers and companies, producing everything from Frisbie pies to firearms, that made Bridgeport the "Arsenal of Democracy," and an industrial leader at a crucial time in American history.

Bridgeport on the Sound portrays Bridgeport as not only an interesting and beautiful coastal city but also a historically significant one. By showing how the early inhabitants lived, worked, and played, it offers insight into how the past affects those connected with the city today. While coastal trade was booming, Bridgeport played an important role in the manufacture of wartime equipment during World Wars I and II. However, Bridgeport may be best known as the chosen hometown of America's greatest showman, P.T. Barnum, and as the site of a grand oceanfront park designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

With some two hundred stunning images, Bristol Firefighting relives the fire department's proud history over the past one hundred fifty years, as the old hand pump gave way to an 1881 Amoskeag steamer drawn by horses, which in turn moved aside in the early 1900s for a Pope-Hartford, a motorized auto chemical truck, which changed firefighting forever. Years later, Bristol was recognized throughout the country for owning the first American La France foam pumper, appropriately known as the Bristol Model. Bristol Firefighting recalls firsthand accounts of many infamous fires, told through the eyes of the local people who witnessed them. Most dramatically, it relates the stories of heroism, sacrifice, and bravery displayed by firefighters in their unending desire to serve and protect their community.

Burlington shows the faces of earlier generations of the same families who live in these hills and valleys today. It depicts the homes, barns, orchards, fields, schoolhouses, and mills when they were thriving with life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book captures the tenor of everyday situations as well as the drama of the Blizzard of 1888 and the flood of 1955.

The historic images in Candlewood Lake illustrate the history of the lake basin from its beginnings to the present day.

At the turn of the century, the Rocky River valley was a quiet, productive farming community nestled in the foothills of Connecticut's Berkshire Mountains. On July 15, 1926, the Connecticut Light and Power Company's board of directors approved a plan to create a lake for the purpose of producing electric power, a decision that changed the face of the valley forever. Plans moved quickly, and the company bought the valley land and built several dams to contain the water. On February 25, 1928, the fill-up began, and in a mere seven months, Candlewood Lake was born.

The historic images in Candlewood Lake illustrate the history of the lake basin from its beginnings to the present day.

At the turn of the century, the Rocky River valley was a quiet, productive farming community nestled in the foothills of Connecticut's Berkshire Mountains. On July 15, 1926, the Connecticut Light and Power Company's board of directors approved a plan to create a lake for the purpose of producing electric power, a decision that changed the face of the valley forever. Plans moved quickly, and the company bought the valley land and built several dams to contain the water. On February 25, 1928, the fill-up began, and in a mere seven months, Candlewood Lake was born. Enjoy the rich history of Candlewood Lake in this collection of 15 historic black-and-white postcards.

Cheshire was established by farmers in 1694 as a parish of neighboring Wallingford. It is a classic New England town, built around a central green, graced by a white church with a tall, weather vane-topped, sentinel spire.

Surrounded by some of the state's main highways of today, the town's location and people have shaped the long and rich history of this proud Connecticut community. Cheshire chronicles the growth of a small, Colonial farm town through the early twentieth century. The book is an album of its prominent citizens and families and of its noteworthy sites and events. Stories from two hundred years of its history come to life on its pages. They include the passage of the Amistad captives through Lock 12 on their way to stand trial in Hartford, the tale of the wandering Leatherman, and rumors of gold buried in the center of town. The book's centerpiece is a collection of the works of E.W. Hazard, early lensman, featuring his photography of Cheshire's parades, celebrations, and streetscapes, some seen here for the first time in print, in what may be the largest assemblage of his craft in one publication.

Halfway between Boston and New York is a little town now called Clinton, located in Connecticut, whose history includes Dr. Seuss, Yale College and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

The small shoreline town 25 miles east of New Haven was founded in 1663 when a committee appointed by the General Court at Hartford laid out a settlement called the Homonoscitt Plantation. In 1838, following multiple name changes during the intervening years, it came to be known as Clinton. Clinton was the birthplace of Yale College in 1701; the hometown of choice for a family and their performing bears, who, for years, headlined with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey; and the place where Dr. Seuss spent his summers.

Full of mystery, magic, and stories stranger than fiction, discover  local legends, lore, and tales of the supernatural that will keep you up at night.

The emerald sheen illuminating the Sabbatarian burying ground, 8 Mile River's misty figures which emerge at the Devil's Hopyard, and flying demon skeletons on Charles Island these bizarre haunts are uniquely Connecticut. In the ghostly lore of the state, the ambient ramblings of the Leatherman still ring out in the caves of Harwinton's forests and the former residents of the Hale Homestead continue to roam the attic at night. Join authors and Paranormal United Research Founders, Thomas D'Agostino and his wife Arlene Nicholson, as they recount bone chilling mysteries from Putnam, Canton, New London and many more shadowy corners of the Nutmeg state.

The Connecticut Hurricanes Drum & Bugle Corps was founded in Derby, Connecticut, in 1932 as the John H. Collins Post Fife, Drum, and Bugle Corps.

Since its transformation to a competitive drum and bugle corps in 1955, the group has garnered notoriety throughout the region as well as national acclaim for its competitive success.Over the course of their 87-year history, the Hurricanes have become a highly regarded institution of the Lower Naugatuck Valley.They were first sponsored by the John H.Collins American Legion Post 24 and subsequently by the Sutter-Terlizzi American Legion Post 16 of Shelton, Connecticut.They are currently sponsored by the Emil Senger American Legion Post 10 of Seymour, Connecticut, and have continued to maintain strong community ties across the Naugatuck Valley region for nearly nine decades.

Throughout its history, Connecticut frequently led all states in the average number of   U. S. patents awarded per person.

Join local author Peter Hubbard as he reveals Connecticut’s role in the invention of the Hubble Space Telescope, vaccines, the Internet, and much more.

This is a the tale of America's oldest continually running ferry service and incldues stories of the people who passed through its doors.

America's oldest continuously operating ferry service began running between Rocky Hill and Glastonbury in 1655. More than one hundred have operated on the river since the seventeenth century. The stories of the captains, crews and passengers define the history and personality of the region. Learn how Captain Ham Sandwich got his name. Discover the bond between Katharine Hepburn and a real ferry queen, Cathey LaBonte. Authors Wick Griswold and Stephen Jones detail the history of these charming anachronisms and why they are still afloat today.

Long neglected in the annals of American music, the Nutmeg State's influence on the history of rock'n'roll deserves recognition.

Connecticut's musical highlights include the beautiful harmonies of New Haven's Five Satins, Gene Pitney's rise to fame, Stamford's the Fifth Estate and notable rockers such as Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Rivers Cuomo of Weezer and Saturday Night Live Band's Christine Ohlman. Rock Hall of Famers include Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz of the Talking Heads and Dennis Dunaway of the Alice Cooper Band. Some events became legend, like Jimi Hendrix's spellbinding performance at Yale's Woolsey Hall, Jim Morrison's onstage arrest at the New Haven Arena and teenage Bob Dylan's appearance at Branford's Indian Neck Folk Festival. With in-depth interviews as well as rare, never-before-seen photos, author Tony Renzoni leads a sonic trip that captures the spirit and zenith of the local scene.

Author Eric D. Lehman chronicles the lives of two dozen men and women who left their marks on Connecticut and the world as a whole.

Noah Webster, Charles Goodyear, P.T. Barnum and Katharine Hepburn all have Connecticut in common. Like so many other residents, they had an inventive spirit and drive that changed the course of history for the rest of the state. Some of the state's natives, like Eli Whitney and Henry C. Lee, pioneered new methods. Prudence Crandall and Helen Keller championed the rights of the underprivileged. Some, like Frederick Law Olmsted and Sol LeWitt, changed our perception of the world.

Profiled in Connecticut Whistle Stops are ten rail communities along the coast. Full of eye-catching photographs, the chapters highlight the impact that the rail line has had on Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, South Norwalk, Westport, Fairfield, Bridgeport, Stratford, Milford, and New Haven. The history offers all the elements of an award-winning movie: laborers building the railroad, America's best-known tycoons financing a rail monopoly and then running it into the ground, bankruptcy, and rebirth.

Connecticut's witch hunt was the first and most ferocious in New England, occurring almost fifty years before the infamous Salem witch trials.

Between 1647 and 1697, at least thirty-four men and women from across the state were formally charged with witchcraft. Eleven were hanged. In New Haven, William Meeker was accused of cutting off and burning his pig's ears and tail as he cast a bewitching spell. After the hanging of Fairfield's Goody Knapp, magistrates cut down and searched her body for the marks of the devil. Through newspaper clippings, court records, letters and diaries, author Cynthia Wolfe Boynton uncovers the dark history of the Connecticut witch trials.

Connecticut Yankees at Antietam honors the brave soldiers who fought in the single bloodiest battle of the Civil War.

September 17, 1862—The Battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day of the Civil War. In the intense conflict and its aftermath across the farm fields and woodlots near the village of Sharpsburg, Maryland, more than two hundred men from Connecticut died. Their grave sites are scattered throughout the Nutmeg State, from Willington to Madison and Brooklyn to Bristol. Author John Banks chronicles their mostly forgotten stories using diaries, pension records and soldiers' letters. Learn of Henry Adams, a twenty-two-year-old private from East Windsor who lay incapacitated in the cornfield for nearly two days before he was found; Private Horace Lay of Hartford, who died with his wife by his side in a small church that served as a hospital after the battle; and Captain Frederick Barber of Manchester, who survived a field operation only to die days later. Discover the stories of these and many more brave Yankees who fought in the fields of Antietam.

The town that began as “Swampfield” became Danbury, one of the best cities in Connecticut, the one-time capital of the hat industry, and the gateway of New England.

The founding families of Danbury, with names such as Thomas Barnum, Judah Gregory, and John Hoyt, left Norwalk in 1684 and traveled some 30 miles north. There, at the western edge of Connecticut, they settled in the surrounding wetlands, and in 1687, the town was decreed as Danbury. Over the years, the small community has grown from the first residents’ homes on Towne Street (today’s Main Street), and has become a city of over 80,000 people. From a pivotal role in the American Revolution, to the Great Danbury State Fair, and how Danbury became America’s “Hat City,” producing over 5 million hats a year and supplying the hat industry with 75% of its hat bodies.

With more than two hundred exceptional photographs and narrative, Deep River and Ivoryton tells the story of how ivory shaped the economy and culture of these villages. Two companies, Pratt, Read & Company and the Comstock, Cheney & Company, employed thousands of people in satisfying the demand for new pianos. Probably more than ninety percent of the ivory processed in this country was handled in Deep River and Ivoryton. The demand for new instruments slowed with the invention of the radio, followed by the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the flow of material stopped altogether in the 1950s, when the use of ivory in the United States was banned.

Derby's long history and contributions, from the town's beginnings in the 1600s to 1950, is revealed in this fascinating history.

Here is the first pictorial history of Derby, a community with a glorious Colonial past, a manufacturing era that spurred development throughout Connecticut's lower Naugatuck Valley, and a strong and enduring interest in its heritage. Derby traces the community from its early beginnings in the 1600s to 1950. Derby is unique in many ways. It has what is probably the oldest public burial ground in the country. It operated the first electric railway in New England at a time when there were only 12 others in the entire land. And today, it has the distinction of being the state's smallest municipality, with an area of only 5.4 square miles.

In Durham, Connecticut, captured moments of time afford a precious glimpse into the lives of the early residents of this small, central Connecticut town.

Situated between Hartford and New Haven, Durham was a natural stopping place for many early travelers, but with its rich farmland and plentiful sources of water power, it quickly became much more. Given Durham's proximity to Yale University, most of its residents were very well-educated farmers. This resulted in a colorful social history and a beautiful collection of architectural styles along the main roads.

Grand celebrations, patriotic and agricultural, are shown here as well as a pictorial progression through more than 200 years of life in rural New England. In the captions that accompany each picture, those familiar with the town will recognize names of local streets and landmarks and meet the people for whom the places are named. Those who only know Durham through the Durham Fair will gain insight into the beginnings of this very popular event.

Join author Russell C. Shaddox as he tells the history of East Haddam in stunning images.

Perched along the Connecticut River, much of East Haddam sits on land originally purchased from Native Americans in 1662 for 30 coats (about $100). From that modest beginning sprang a town whose residents became famous patriots, scholars, and explorers. Driven by industries common to 1700s river towns - lumber, agriculture, and shipbuilding - East Haddam spent the 19th century transforming into one of the area's largest manufacturers of cotton twine, netting, and fabric. Prosperity brought an influx of immigrants. As the 1900s dawned, many of the mills shuttered due to faltering demand, and the town turned to its natural beauty to attract a growing leisure class. Resorts of all varieties popped up in town, changing East Haddam from the "Twine Capital of America" to the "Catskills of Connecticut." The town was home to many prominent residents, including a governor, business magnates, fine artists, scholars, and popular stage actor William Gillette, who helped shape the iconic image of Sherlock Holmes. With the resorts in turn seeing a decline in the late 20th century, the town faced another wave of change. Still, with a deep history and a varied beauty that includes stunning forest, hilltop, and river views, East Haddam continues to captivate.

Enfield: 1950-1980 traces the changing landscape of Thompsonville, Enfield, and North Thompsonville through the carpet-making days to the town's recent past. Exceptional photographs depict major highway construction and the development of the regional mall district, the destructive forces of the 1955 flood and of fires throughout the years, and the unique leaders, businesses, and events that have shaped the town of today.

In Enfield, Connecticut, the rich history of this New England town is enlivened by over 200 photographs from the 1880s to the 1950s.

Since its founding in 1683, Enfield has experienced a wealth of changes, including the inception of a Shaker community that made Enfield its home for more than a century, the emergence of an immigrant population, and the rise and fall of its two key industries of carpet and gunpowder. Thompsonville's carpet mill operation grew into a huge industrial complex and became the center of village life, while the gunpowder industry took hold in Hazardville, peaking in prosperity during the Civil War and subsequently declining as the need for wartime products waned.Preserved within these pages are a variety of images of the people who have contributed to the town's unique character. View rare snapshots of Enfield's founding families as well as its immigrant workers, and learn about the influence that the peaceful Shaker community had on the area, both in terms of fellowship and craftsmanship.

Barbara Austen and Barbara Bryan compiled this set of images to bring Fairfield's past into focus, helping us to envision more clearly the bright future of the area.

In the fall of 1639, Roger Ludlow, a founder of the colony of Connecticut, led a small group of men and a large herd of cattle to the shore of Long Island Sound, where they established a settlement that became known as Fairfield. With this exciting new photographic history, the members of the Fairfield Historical Society have created a unique look back in time. More than 200 rare photographs in this book document the dramatic changes that have occurred in Fairfield's landscape and population during the last 130 years of its 350-year history. Agriculture dominated Fairfield's economy from its founding to the mid-nineteenth century. With the rise of neighboring Bridgeport as an industrial center in the 1860s to 1920s, laborers and business owners moved to Fairfield, and the once-rural landscape was transformed into suburban home lots. Today the town's population is a vibrant mix of commuters, local business people, and young families.