Page 9 – New London County Historical Society

NLCHS Announces History Day Scholarship

Posted on January 24, 2011April 25, 2019 by stevemanuel

The Board of Directors of the New London County Historical Society is pleased to announce that students from New London County who actively participate in the National History Day competition in Connecticut are now eligible for a $1,000 scholarship offered by the Society. The award will recognize the New London County student who advances furthest in the senior-level National History Day competition with a submission focused primarily on a topic of New London County history. National History Day Competition in Connecticut is supervised by the Connecticut Historical Society and will occur in phases during March, April and June 2011 at the District, State and National levels.

Please print the pdf announcement for information on eligibility, topics, criteria and registration.

Eligible Participants: You must be attending and in good standing at a public, private, or home high school in New London County (Grades 9, 10, 11 or 12).

Program Competition: You must actively participate in the 2011 National History Day Program competition, “Debate & Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences” in any of the following categories (documentary, paper or web site). In order to be eligible for this scholarship, your specific topic must focus primarily on persons or events that occurred in New London County.

Criteria of Scholarship Award: The $1,000 scholarship will be awarded to the New London County student (or students), who advances furthest in the National History Day Program competition as judged by the Connecticut Historical Society and Connecticut’s Old State House in accordance with the rules of the competition. Participants must send a copy of any program materials they submit for the competition to the New London County Historical Society at info@newlondonhistory.org, which may post them on its website. (The New London County Historical Society will in its discretion determine if a topic is primarily focused on persons or events in New London County. If there is a tie among submissions, the scholarship award will be equally divided and awarded to the best two submissions which NLCHS in its discretion will select.)

Registration Deadline: February 8, 2011 is the deadline for registration. To enter the National History Day in Connecticut competition, students must register with the Connecticut Historical Society and pay a $5 registration fee. Registration instructions may be found on the website for the National History Day Program of the Connecticut Historical Society at ct.nhd.org. Participants must send a copy of their registration to the New London County Historical Society by email at info@newlondonhistory.org.

Rules, Submission Deadlines and Competition Dates: This information also can be found at ct.nhd.org.

Questions: If you desire to confirm your eligibility, including your school location or whether your topic is sufficiently connected to New London County, you may contact us at (860) 443-1209 or by email at info@newlondonhistory.org.

Police Record Book 1854-1880 Donated to Historical Society

Posted on December 14, 2010April 25, 2019 by stevemanuel

The police record book listing every individual arrested for a crime in New London beginning in 1854 and continuing through 1880 has just been donated to the historical society. Essentially rescued from the trash as New London Police headquarters was in the process of being moved from its North Bank (formerly Bradley Street) location to its new building on Union Street (now the Stanton Building) in the 1950s, the book is simply an amazingly rich source of information.

There is an abundance of drunkenness, keeping a house of ill fame, visiting a house of ill fame, breach of the peace, and obtaining liquor under false pretenses; but in many respects it is surprising how quiet New London appears. The first page covers July, August and September of 1854 — there are only ten entries for all of August. But on that first page, two thefts were by boys, one nine years old, both of whom were sent to the State Reform School in Meriden for two years, their “term” and “place of imprisonment.”

There are a host of research projects that this one source can provide the data for. Although it’s doubtful we’ll ever know the difference between intoxication, drunkenness, common drunk, and intemperance (all of which appear ). And we can only imagine why Thomas Slate was arrested for stealing a sailboat in 1855. (His father’s portrait looks down upon us in the reading room.)

Konstanty Bucko joined the New London police force in 1939, retiring as a Detective Lieutenant in 1982. Mr. Bucko died in 2003 and his wife died just this year. His son William, cleaning out his parents’ house, recognized the value of this ledger and donated it to the historical society (for which we are very grateful).

War of 1812 Exhibit Planning Begins

Posted on December 14, 2010April 26, 2019 by stevemanuel

The Connecticut Humanities Council has announced the award of a $30,000 grant to fund the planning of a bicentennial exhibit on the War of 1812 and its effects on Connecticut and the region. Scheduled to open just after Independence Day weekend 2012 at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, the exhibit will feature items from the collections of the Stonington Historical Society, Mystic Seaport, the New London County Historical Society, the New London Maritime Society, and the Lyman Allyn.

“The Rockets’ Red Glare,” will focus on important local events including Commodore Stephen Decatur’s naval fleet taking refuge in the Thames River to avoid the British, the bombardment of Stonington, and the effects of the British blockade. “The exhibit will showcase our own Star – Spangled Banner,” says Meredith Brown, President of the Stonington Historical Society, who led the effort to get the five museums to collaborate on the exhibit. The Stonington Battle Flag and a coat worn by a Stonington defender wounded at the battle will be a couple of the objects that will be featured in the exhibit.

Operation Sail 2012 (OpSail) is scheduled to host a tall ships event in Boston harbor over the 4^th of July. They are currently in negotiation to follow up with a visit to New London for SailFest the next weekend. “It will be great if OpSail arrives in New London the week this exhibit opened!” stated Deborah Donovan, President of the New London County Historical Society. “Think of the opportunity to learn the history behind the fireworks.”

Developing an exhibit catalog with photographs and background information to accompany the exhibition is an integral part of this planning process. Historians Glenn Gordinier of Mystic Seaport and Nancy Steenburg of the University of Connecticut will provide some of that background. Published for the first time will be a manuscript written in 1828 by historian Frances Caulkins based on her interviews with survivors of the 1814 battle in Stonington. Author James Tertius de Kay, an expert on the US Navy during the War of 1812, will also be a contributor.

“Although most people know the national anthem, ‘The Star – Spangled Banner,’ I’m not sure that fifty percent could tell you it’s connected to the War of 1812,” stated Edward Baker, Executive Director of the New London County Historical Society. “Our plan is to create a major exhibit, combining our stories and collections in order to have a bigger impact. Hopefully we can change that percentage.” Baker will serve as the project director for the exhibit. Curator for the exhibit, guiding the process of choosing artifacts and stories will be Fred Calabretta, Mystic Seaport Curator.

The Connecticut Humanities Council grant to the New London County Historical Society will be used to pay for services from exhibit designers, photographers, a book designer and editor, plus consultants with expertise in historic textiles and lighting design. Work on the initial proposal for the exhibition began a year ago. With the approval of the grant funding, planning for both the exhibit and the book begin in earnest.

Captain Moses Rogers Gets His Due

Posted on November 1, 2010November 16, 2014 by stevemanuel

John Laurence Busch, author of the just-released book, Steam Coffin~Captain Moses Rogers and the Steamship Savannah Break the Barrier, will be the speaker at the 14 November, Second Sunday lecture for the New London County Historical Society. The presentation will be given at the event room of the Harbor Towers, 461 Bank Street, in New London.

New London native son Moses Rogers gained his lasting renown as the captain of the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, this work details how that amazing feat was achieved. Rogers was not only the captain, but the champion as well, of the idea that such a venture was even possible. National Maritime Day, recognizing the contributions of America’s merchant mariners, is declared by the President each year on 22 May, the anniversary of Rogers’s departure from Savannah, Georgia, on his voyage.

“The greatest obstacle to building an ocean-going steam vessel in 1818 was overcoming the predominant doubt as to how such a craft could prevail against the incalculable, unpredictable powers of Nature at sea.” Fulton’s first successful steamboat venture was created on the Hudson River only eleven years earlier. Building a craft with the strength to cross the ocean seemed foolhardy at best and wasting precious cargo space to store sufficient fuel for such a long voyage seemed folly. Wooden paddlewheels on the side of the ship, the only technology available at the time, made any such vessel vulnerable to heavy seas.

Rogers and his syndicate were able to face and overcome these difficulties and more. Rogers was the first to venture out of the safety of a river body with a steamboat and proved his abilities in Charleston and Savannah, Georgia. His partners were some of the first to try the new “corporate” business structure. And they found a buyer for the ship once it crossed the Atlantic.

Busch scoured archives and libraries from Savannah, Georgia, to Portland, Maine, in search of information for this 700 page volume. Some of his research was conducted at the New London County Historical Society and at Mystic Seaport.

This meeting of the Historical Society will be hosted by Anthony Silvestri, project manager of New London Harbour Towers, who remarked, “We are always looking for creative ways to collaborate with the community.” The program will begin at 3 PM; refreshments will be served. The program is free for members of the Historical Society and Harbor Tower residents; there is a $5 fee for others. Copies of the book are available for sale for $35 at the Shaw Mansion, and at the program.

For more information please call 860.443.1209 or email <edward at newlondonhistory.org>.

Thunderstorms

Posted on October 1, 2010April 26, 2019 by NLCHS

Thunderstorms

[Oct. 1754] Saturd 5 fair. I was about home all day fitting up Cask for Cyder. I Rid out to Crossman Lot to water the Cattle. Thundr & Lightning in the night & a Storm of wind & Rain.

“Thunder and lightning” are fairly common with rain storms in this part of New England all through the summer and into the fall, as they were in Hempstead’s time. What has changed is our perception of them.

Well into the eighteenth century, it was the thunder that was assumed to be the dangerous part of the combination. When you think about an age without our capabilities to measure the transmission of sound and light, this makes sense. If you have ever had a tree or pole near your house struck by lightning, you know that the noise of the thunder accompanying it is impressive—and simultaneous. Looked at objectively, it does appear that the thunder is more important, since no harm came earlier from clearly visible lightning.

In the earlier parts of the diary Hempstead refers a couple of times to damage done by thunder and lightning. When the meetinghouse was struck on August 31, 1735, he records “a Terable Clap of Thunder & Lightning Came Struck ye meeting house in Divers places. . .” By July of 1743 he had changed the order to record “the malocholy News of the Death of 2 Ladds by Lightning & Thunder & the horse. . .” And in June of 1745 he records a thunder and lightning storm and says “the Lightning Struck Mr Stewarts Windmill on Townhill & Shattered the Arms & Shafts & ye Toyle & Stares.”

Hempstead had an inquiring and rather scientific mind, but it is doubtful that he actually thought of lightning as causing damage separately from the thunder. Although he does not use it, the term “thunderbolt” was in common usage well in to the nineteenth century. And we still generally refer to “thunderstorms” even now that we know what part of the storm we really need to worry about.

Being a modern person (even if I haven’t yet mastered Facebook), when indexing the diary I indexed lightning but not thunder. I assumed, of course, that lightning had struck the meetinghouse, rather than the “Terable Clap of Thunder. . .” that Hempstead and his contemporaries knew had caused the damage and injuries.

Note: The first chapter of Richard Cullen Rath’s book, How Early America Sounded (Cornell University Press, 2003), addresses the perception of thunder in the seventeenth century, along with other noises of the natural soundscape.