Preserving Connecticut
Museums Across the State
As both a state teeming with rich narratives and a goldmine for historic preservation, it comes as no surprise that Connecticut is home to a multitude of museums and historical societies. Each organization works both independently and in collaboration with similar statewide institutions to dutifully study and preserve each fragment of Connecticut’s past. Take the Wadsworth Atheneum, for example. From its home base in Hartford, the Wadsworth boasts an incredible collection of artwork and historic artifacts, all curated and placed on display for public viewing. Similarly, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center tells the story of Connecticut’s Indigenous peoples and maintains some amazing cultural artifacts from the Mashantucket Pequot tribe’s enthralling chronology.
However, Connecticut is not only home to well-known museums. Rather, there exist a variety of niche organizations and educational centers across the state, ranging from the Windham Textile and History Museum in eastern CT, which chronicles the fascinating story behind the infamous Thread City (present day Willimantic), to the Railroad Museum of New England, which focuses on the widespread web of railway systems throughout New England, both past and present. Each of these museums holds a piece to the puzzle that makes up Connecticut’s history. As such, this article aims to highlight the state’s more popular museums as well as bring to the forefront those museums that are perhaps overlooked by those unfamiliar with the intricacies of its timeline.
Mentioned briefly in the previous paragraph, the Wadsworth Atheneum, located in CT’s capital city, is arguably one of Connecticut’s greatest cultural centers. As one of the state’s premier art museums, it plays a paramount role in the organization and preservation of important artworks, both locally and internationally sourced. The museum was founded in 1842 by Daniel Wadsworth and is home to over 50,000 works of art, with a main focus on European and American art. The museum functions not only as a gallery space, but as a space for the exploration of local heritage and culture. The Wadsworth maintains an impressive collection of curated art objects, from the Greek and Roman art of antiquity, to works by famous artists such as Caravaggio and Dali. Through the employ of various community outreach programs and collaboration with an array of in-state organizations, the Wadsworth provides the public with incredible resources for art education within the public sphere.
Similar to the Wadsworth, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum seeks to educate the public as well as provide resources for further historical research. Rather than emphasizing the Eurocentric perspective, however, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum explores the histories of local Indigenous peoples and Indigenous peoples all across the northeast. The tribally-owned and operated museum, located in Ledyard, CT, was opened in August of 1998 and, since then, has worked to illuminate Native culture and firsthand histories. Through the use of interactive displays, dioramas, traditional exhibitions, and enormous gallery spaces, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum chronicles CT’s impressive natural history and sheds light on Indigenous stories. Like the Wadsworth, this museum is not simply a gallery space for public viewing. Rather, the efforts of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum go far beyond exhibitions and in-house archival work. The museum hosts public events and celebrations and, as further explained on the museum’s website, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum’s Research Center also partakes in the study and evaluation of ongoing field work to better bolster their catalogs and featured collections and further highlight such an integral part of New England’s historic narrative.
It is important, too, to take a look at the lesser known museums in Connecticut, to get a better sense of the immense efforts toward historical preservation taken both by the state’s government and by its residents. One such museum is the Railroad Museum of New England. This museum was opened in 1849 and is based out of Thomaston, though it is clear that its influence reaches toward all corners of the state via the very railroads it seeks to preserve. As a non-profit organization, it aims to explore the regional railroad heritage and offers both a series of educational exhibits as well as firsthand experiences to the public through train rides on the Naugatuck Railroad. The museum’s primary mission is to generate an appreciation for and understanding of the history of CT’s railway system and encourages the public to learn about a topic so interesting and important, yet so often overlooked.
Finally, the Windham Textile and History Museum falls into much the same category as the Railroad Museum of New England. To out-of-staters, perhaps the town of Willimantic– formerly known as the Thread City– does not quite come to mind. However, locals are often quite knowledgeable about Windham’s history, specifically its ties to the textile industry, from the colonial period all the way to our modern day. As its name suggests, the museum is located in Windham, a small city in eastern Connecticut, and, more specifically, in what used to be the headquarters of the American Thread Company of Willimantic. The museum is home to a vast collection of historic clothing, from wedding attire to colonial dress. It offers a variety of educational programs to the public, which seek to educate on topics such as thread production, machinery and the textile industry, and the greater social, cultural, and economic contexts surrounding the rise of textile production. Beyond that, the museum even offers more hands-on activities, such as weaving classes in an effort to garner public interest in Windham’s ties to the history of textiles.
It comes as no surprise that the CTDA contains an abundance of information concerning such an incredible network of museums, especially considering most of said museums actively work in collaboration with the Digital Archive itself. Within the repository, one can find an incredible selection of artifacts, including but not limited to flyers for public events and artist introduction videos from Mashantucket Pequot Museum, documentation for fundraisers run by the Windham Textile & History Museum, documentation on Connecticut’s railroads and train stations, and a drawing of the Wadsworth Atheneum. Simply searching up the name of each museum reveals a great many collections of historic artifacts and primary sources relating both to the history they seek to preserve and the organizations themselves, from the people that founded them to their current operations.
These institutions, like the Connecticut Digital Archive itself, work tirelessly to preserve all aspects of CT state history, even those that often go overlooked by anyone unfamiliar with its intricate past. From broad to niche, they each bring interesting artifacts and exhibits to the table and exist as the driving force behind statewide preservation efforts. Of course, the aforementioned organizations and museums only make up a small portion of Connecticut’s museums and cultural centers, but they offer a brilliant glimpse into the state’s efforts toward preservation. Their existence ensures that Connecticut’s history will endure for generations to come, a truly commendable mission.
For more information on museums mentioned in this article or for information on other CT museums, visit the links below!
https://www.ctvisit.com/articles/curating-art-history-and-fun-connecticuts-museums
