What is Connecticut’s story? What happened and who’s in it? Ambitious questions, and the Connecticut Historical Society’s new permanent exhibit, Making Connecticut, is the place to go to explore some answers. Opening on May 25, Making Connecticut is the state’s only overview exhibit of Connecticut history. Displaying more than 500 artifacts, clothing items, documents, images, and photographs, it’s about how Connecticut has changed from the 1500s to today, focusing on people, their lives and work, and the world around them.
The story begins with Native American Quinnetukut and moves through colonial life, Connecticut’s part in the American Revolution, industrialization, immigration, social upheavals, and changes in fashion, food, transportation, and recreation. Visitors can try out a Native American canoe, step into a “colonial house” and set a table for dinner or sweep the floor, then walk into a 1980s kitchen and consider the changes in the food we eat and how we cook it, get water, and keep clean. A Connecticut jobs area invites visitors to test their skills in a chair factory, a textile factory, a World War II factory assembly line, and on a shade tobacco farm. For deeper exploration, wall maps throughout the exhibit detail changes in town population, racial make-up, and immigration patterns. There is even a theater full of Connecticut movie posters and vintage film clips, like silent footage of 1930s Hartford and a 1967 commercial for Silly Putty.
Making Connecticut tells a broad story with objects, images, and documents from the vast collection of the Connecticut Historical Society. The exhibit is both a visually stunning display and an invitation for visitors to dig deeper into their own – and Connecticut’s – past. Making Connecticut is just the beginning – the tip of the iceberg – and visitors are encouraged to make use of the Connecticut Historical Society’s Research Center to discover more treasures that tell Connecticut’s story. Put a visit to Making Connecticut on your list of summer events!
