NLCHS Annual Meeting 2009

Sunday 13 August at Fort Trumbull Conference Center

90 Walbach Street, New London

4:30 Reception, 5:30 Business meeting, 6 pm Wortman Presentation

Tickets $20 for members, $25 for others

Call Shaw Mansion 860.443.1209 to make reservations

Books will be available for purchase

New London and the Beginning of the Naval Air Corps

Everyone “knows” the history of how the New London Navy Yard became a submarine base after it was established by acting Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt in 1916. But how many of you are aware of the beginning of the Naval Air Corps and its connection to New London at the same time period? It’s time you learned—and the NLCHS Annual Meeting, Sunday 13 September, at the Fort Trumbull Conference Center, will give you the perfect opportunity. Marc Wortman, author of The Millionaires’ Unit, will be sharing the almost unknown story of how the Yale University Flying Club became one of the first flight wings of the Navy. His presentation, from 6 pm to 7, will follow a cocktail reception with hors d’oeuvres beginning at 4:30 and the annual business meeting. Call today 860.443.1209, to purchase tickets; members $20.

The Millionaires’ Unit is the story of a gilded generation of young men from the zenith of privilege: a Rockefeller, a Morgan, the son of the head of the Union Pacific Railroad, several who counted friends and relatives among presidents and statesmen of the day. They had it all and, remarkably by modern standards, they were prepared to risk it all to fight a distant war in France. Driven by the belief that their membership in the American elite required certain sacrifice, schooled in heroism and the nature of leadership, they determined to be first into the conflict, arriving in France ahead of America’s declaration that it would join the war.

At the heart of the group was the Yale flying club, six of whom are the heroes of this book. They would share rivalries over girlfriends, jealousies over membership in Skull and Bones, and fierce ambition to be the most daring young man over the battlefields of France, where the casualties among flyers were chillingly high.

Marc Wortman is an award-winning freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous national magazines. He lives in New Haven. His new book, The Bonfire, on the Civil War burning of Atlanta has just been released.

“The Millionaires’ Unit is a fascinating tale of heroism and adventure that builds to a soaring, page-turning climax.”  — Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea and Mayflower

Commerce and Culture: Architecture and Society on New London’s State Street  was an exhibit on display at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum from October 2005 to April 2006. Mounted by guest curator, Abigail Van Slyck, Dayton Associate Professor of Architectural History at Connecticut College, she put the students of her architectural history senior seminar to work scouting out the best images from all the local repositories to tell the story of the cultural and social history of New London’s downtown core.  The exhibit used photographs, maps, and objects to show the evolution of New London and its people through the changes that took place on this one street – from the period of the founding, through the growth of wealth of a busy port and regional commercial center, and including the difficult attempts to revitalize the downtown after it was commercially deserted for suburban malls.

The exhibit garnered an award of merit from the Connecticut League of History Organizations, the Wilbur Cross Award from the Connecticut Humanities Council, and a Leadership in History Award from the American Association for State and Local History.

While this attempt to translate that formal exhibit to the internet loses some of the impact of mural size photographs, we hope that as you explore the images presented here you’ll be able to get a sense of the changes in the community through the presentation of changes in the architecture.

[July 1738] Tuesd the 4th fair. this morning about 6. Clock my Daughter in Law Stephens wife was DD of a Son in a hopefull way to do well. I was at home foren mending the Cart. aftern in Town Executing Deeds of Conveyance for ye ministry Land to Divers persons. Adam began to Mow before ye Door.

A different view of the fourth of July, 40 years before it became known as Independence Day. Here we see some of Hempstead’s typical shorthand: foren, or fore-noon, for morning, and aftern for afternoon. The wife of Hempstead’s son Stephen, Sarah Holt Hempstead, was “delivered of a son,” Thomas, in 1738 who didn’t do as well as was hoped. A second son named Thomas is born in 1740.

Adam is Hempstead’s slave, whose work is recorded in the diary on a very regular basis. But in this case, Hempstead is recording something a bit more significant, the beginning of the hay mowing season. In 1728 Adam’s first mowing is recorded on 1 July; in 1732 on 10 July. In the seasonal realm of farm work this marks the beginning of one of the most labor intensive and all-summer-long tasks. A good mower would have been expected to mow about an acre of ground a day; and then there was the raking, putting the hay up into stacks, loading onto a cart, carting and then unloading and putting the hay up — although, at this early time the lack of large barns meant the hay was stacked in the field much longer.

To modern farmers this may seem like a late start, but when cutting hay with a scythe, one would wait until the grass was thick and heavy so that there could be a good cut and resistance against the blade. The first cutting of hay is always the rankest, has the largest quantity, but the lowest quality. The second cutting, later in the season, called the rowen, was lower in quantity but greater in food value. Of course, few farmers of the time would have used the phrase, “food value,” but they would certainly be able to know that the rowen was prefered by their livestock.

See an index all the Joshua Hempstead Blog postings.