Office of the Connecticut State Historian

       Thanks to the efforts of so many of you, I have received a steady stream of suggested titles for a "Top 100 Books In Connecticut history. (Please continue to send them to me at walt@uconn.edu). The list below includes all the suggestions received to date, descriptions of the tiles, when furnished by the recommender, and the name of the person or persons who have recommended the title. Previously unlisted titles - or titles being recommended again by new people - appear in this article in blue. 

        I'll be closing out this search for the best books on CT history on Monday, February 21st. So please dust off those bookshelves and see if there are some titles you'd like to add to the list. The criteria are broad - any kind of book, primary or secondary sources, fiction or non-fiction. If you think it is one of the best book about CT history you've read, let me know.  Thanks Much - WWW

Acts of the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England volumes I and II. – Rebecca Walsh.

 A couple of years ago, when I was reading Uncas I emailed Michael Oberg with a question. In his response he suggested I look in the Acts of the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England. I had never even heard of the records of the United Colonies.  I am very grateful Oberg pointed them out to me.  Anyone researching the Connecticut colony in the seventeenth century needs to be aware of the Acts of the Commissioners.

All Politics is Local, Christopher Collier – Deb Hannah

An American Family: The Great War and Corporate Culture in America – Ferdinando Fasce, (Ohio State University Press, 1993 (published in English in 2002) – Ann Smith

 (Immigrant workers at Scovill in Waterbury during WW I; winner of the OAH Foreign Language Book Prize).

Arcadia Publishing's (Connecticut Town) series – various – Ron Gagliardi

 I believe they have published over 100 books about municipalities and historic venues and topics in our state.  Their books are omni-present in Barnes and Noble and other book stores.  Of all the books about Connecticut history I would guess that their books are the volumes one would find in the most Connecticut homes.  (They estimate that about 10% of the homeowners in a town or city will buy the book for that municipality.) 

Arsenic Under the Elms – Virginia McConnell­– Amy Trout

The Autobiography of John Fitch. (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society,1976) Frank D Prager, ed. – Richard DeLuca

Henry Austin: In Every Variety of Architectural Style –James F. O’Gorman  (Wesleyan University Press, 2008) – Ann Smith 

Battle of the Bush : Dramas elaborated from the startling events of the New England Wars of an Hundred Years. Boston : R. Caverly, 1884-85. By  Caverly, Robert Boodey – Faith Davison

Battle of Stonington,  Tertius deKay – Deborah Donovan

The Bible - Leslie Ramatowski

A brief history of the Pequot War. [Thomas Prince, ed.] Readex Microsoft Corporation, Ann Arbor, MI, 1966 - Mason, John.  – Faith Davison

And/or

History of the Pequot War: the contemporary accounts of Mason, Underhill, Vincent and Gardiner. The Helman-Taylor Company, Cleveland, 1897. Orr, Charles. – Faith Davison

I have grouped these two authors together for their similar disdain for people other than the white settlers. I believe it is a fair representation of the sentiments held by the majority of their era.(Faith Davison)

             Mason is far more generous in his account than the others toward the Indian allies.

Building Greenwich: Architecture and Design, 1640 to the Present – Rachel Carley (Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, 2005), – Ann Smith

Children and the Criminal Law – Nancy Steenburg – Donald Rogers

City: Urbanism and Its End – Douglas W. Rae – Brian Distelberg

Colonial Connecticut: A History (Millwood, N.Y.: KTO Press, 1979) – Robert J. Taylor – Christopher Collier

Colonial Period in American History.  vol 2 – C. M. Andrews – Christopher Collier

A Complete History of Connecticut. [2 volumes]New Haven, CT : Maltby, Goldsmith and Co., and Samuel Wadsworth, 1818. - Trumbull, Benjamin.

Connecticut: A Bicentennial History, by David M. Roth – Diana McCain

The Connecticut American Revolution Bicentennial Commission series of booklets on various subjects in Revolutionary Connecticut – Diana McCain

Connecticut. Colonial and State Records – Christopher Collier, Faith Davison

. The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut from 1636 to1775. The first ones edited by  J. Hammond Trumbull, and the later ones by Charles J. Hoadley. These give one a flavor for the doings of the General Assembly and the matters that concerned our citizens for the first 140 year and best yet, they are accessible on line.

www.colonialct.uconn.edu

Connecticut State Library Finding Aids – Faith Davison

"http://www.cslib.org/archives/FAIndexes" www.cslib.org/archives/FAIndexes.

This is for CSL/A - One can examine the 200 finding aids .

“The State Librarian announces the successful completion of a project in the State Archives to make 200 finding aids, 120 of which cover records for town governments, to its collections available online.  Most of the State Library record groups had previously been described in paper finding aids available only at the History and Genealogy Unit at 231 Capitol Ave.  Archivist Paul Baran revised the finding aids prior to encoding them using EAD (Electronic Archives Description) and posting them. Publishing finding aids on the State Library's web site makes them accessible through Google and other Internet search engines. “For the first time,” State Librarian Ken Wiggin emphasized, “information about the rich treasure trove of historical records in the State Archives will be accessible over the Internet, a simple click away for the researcher.  What he/she will find are guides to the records of State agencies, some created in the twentieth century and some in the colonial era; local government records from across Connecticut; and gubernatorial records, such as the records of the recently deceased Judge Thomas J. Meskill. 

This is a major step forward for the State Archives and the entire library in fulfilling its mission of providing the public with access to historical materials for research.”  Baran stated that this posting is only the beginning. Next he will deal with very large record groups such as the Military Department for which the State Archives has hundreds of cubic feet of records that are in high demand by researchers. \ 

One can examine the 200 finding aids at HYPERLINK” "http://www.cslib.org/archives/FAIndexes" www.cslib.org/archives/FAIndexes.

The Connecticut Town: Growth and Development, 1635-1790. Bruce C. Daniels – (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1979.) – Christopher Collier, Diana McCain

Connecticut : A Fully Illustrated History Of The State From The Seventeenth Century To The Present. New York : Random House, 1961. Van Dusen, Albert E. – Faith Davison

Connecticut For the Union – John Niven – Christopher Collier

Connecticut Historical Collections, containing a general collection of interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc., relating to the history and antiquities of every town in Connecticut with geographical descriptions. New Haven: Durrie & Peck and J. W. Barber, 1838. Barber, John Warner – Faith Davison

A frozen slice of time in our history, with super woodcuts, just prior to CT becoming a major manufacturing entity.

. Connecticut History to 1763 : Puritans Against the Wilderness. Chester, CT : The Pequot Press, 1975. Van Dusen, Albert E, - Faith Davison 

Connecticut in Transition, 1775-1818 (1918), Richard J. Purcell – Douglas Arnold

This book has served for almost 100 years as the basic account of a crucial period in the state's history, dealing with Revolutionary politics, the partisan battles between Federalists and Republicans, the controversies over religious establishment, and the Constitution of 1818.

Connecticut: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites – Matthew Roth, with Bruce Clouette and Victor Darnell, (Society of Industrial Archaeology, 1981) – Ann Smith 

Connecticut Past and Present. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1939. Shepard, Odell.  – Faith Davison

Shepard's also responsible for a work of fiction about a Mohegan during the Revolutionary Era, Holdfast Gaines.

Connecticut's Public Schools: A History, 1650-2000 (2009), Christopher Collier – Douglas Arnold

This marvelously detailed book is the definitive study of its subject.

Connecticut Railroads: An Illustrated History, by Gregg Turner – Laura Katz Smith

Connecticut Speaks For Itself : Firsthand Accounts Of Life In The Nutmeg State. Hartford, CT : Connecticut Humanities Council, 1996. Shuldiner, David P. [Editor].

Testimony from minority subjects about growing up in/coming to CT.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,  Mark Twain,  – Deborah Donovan

Connecticut's Years of Controversy - Oscar Zeichner – Stephen McGrath

 Dear Liberty: Connecticut's Mobilization for the Revolutionary War (1980). Richard Buel, Jr., - Douglas Arnold

An impressive study of the raising and support of Connecticut's troops during the Revolution and of the ebbs and flows of public morale during the conflict.

 The Development Of Religious Liberty In Connecticut – M. Louise Greene – Christopher Collier

The Diary of Joshua Hempstead – Joshua Hempstead – Deborah Donovan, Edward Baker  

Documentary Life of Nathan Hale (New Haven: By the author, 1941) – George Dudley Seymour – Walter Powell

Compiled and written by one of Connecticut's greatest antiquarians, Seymour's passion for Hale is quite evident.  in this book--a volume that has antiquarian, historic, and documentary value. After all, is there not value in learning of someone who carried a passion for studying "Connecticut's State Hero" as far as  purchasing the family Homestead in Coventry, or promoting statues, stamps, and more? 

Domesticating the Street: The Reform of Public Space in Hartford, 1850-1930. (Ohio State University Press, 1999) -  Peter C. Baldwin – Elizabeth Normen

Early Connecticut Meetinghouses, J. Frederick Kelly – Izzy Rossi

Not all of his history and dates have held up over the 75+ years since these were written but they're still the most comprehensive surveys to date and document many structures that no longer exist.

Early Domestic Architecture of Connecticut – J. Frederick Kelly – Izzy Rossi

Not all of his history and dates have held up over the 75+ years since these were written but they're still the most comprehensive surveys to date and document many structures that no longer exist

Enduring Traditions : the Native peoples of New England. Westport, CT : Bergin & Garvey, 1994. Weinstein, Laurie Lee. – Faith Davison

Erastus Hodges, 1781-1847 – Theodore B. Hodges  (Torrington Historical Society, 1994) – Ann Smith

Farmington in Connecticut _ Christopher P. Bickford - Leslie Vander Meulen Canavan

Even though it is the story of only one town, the indepth coverage of that town is outstanding.  This book is a combination of genealogy book,geography book, social history book, military history book and so much

more ~ a well-written and researched book which should be on the shelf of every serious CT historian or genealogist.  As a Stanley/Cowles/Porter/Hart/Peck descendant I might be prejudiced, but I read it through like a novel, it's a book not to be missed.

The Face of Connecticut: People, Geology, and  the Land– Michael Bell – Susan Barlow, Faith Davison

This is good for those who need a quick fix on our geology, which has directed a lot of our development. Another book would be Dean Snow’s The Archaeology of New England. [New York, et al : Academic Press, 1980] Which has a usable section on geology, too. Lucianne Lavin’s new book will also have a geological chapter.

Describes the formation of Connecticut's land and relates our  history to our geology. Full of great illustrations and maps, and  now out of print, but you can read the whole thing online at the Talcott  Mountain Science Center web site here:http://www.tmsc.org/face_of_ct/contents.htm_

(http://www.tmsc.org/face_of_ct/contents.htm)

...or pick up a used copy online.

The First Twenty Years of Railroads in Connecticut, by Sidney Withington – Laura Katz Smith

From Puritan to Yankee: Character and the Social Order in Connecticut, 1690-1765 - Richard L. Bushman (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.– Craig Hendricks – Kyle Zelner – Christopher Collier

 a great study of religious and social change in Connecticut in the late 1600s and early 1700s.

Gentle Puritan – Edmund Morgan – Christopher Collier

Governor Wilbur L. Cross, Connecticut Yankee: An Autobiography (Yale University Press: 1943) – Walter Powell, Christopher Collier

A colleague and contemporary of Phelps--and Governor--his legacy is surely more than a "Highway.

Governor-And Company of Connecticut, and Moheagan Indians, by Their Guardians. Certified Copy of Book of Proceedings before Commisioners of Review, MDCCXLIII. London : printed by W. and J. Richardson, 1769. – Faith Davison

 Anyone who would like to know the early history of the land transactions, treaties, etc., of early Ct would do well to dip into this book. It is refreshing to find that the representatives from the colony of New York tried to get a fair hearing for the Indians who had their land taken from them, and that they even followed it up after the hearings with memorials to the Lords of the Board of Trade and Plantations.

Guide to the History and Historic Sites of Connecticut, by Florence Crofut – Diana McCain

The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut River Valley – William Hosley, et. al, (Wadsworth Athenaeum, 1985) – Ann Smith, Diana McCain

History of Ancient Windsor - Henry R. Stiles – Mike Salvatore

It's THE Bible for the history of Windsor, South Windsor, East Windsor, Windsor Locks, Elllington, Bloomfield, and some surrounding areas. His "History of Ancient Wethersfield" does the same for that area. 

History of Connecticut 5 vols. – Norris Osborne – Christopher Collier

History of the Connecticut Supreme Court - Wesley Horton – Donald Rogers

In terms of Connecticut legal/constitutional history,this book has to go down as a vital resource and starting place for studying the development of the state's constitutional history and judicial institutions. 

History of the Indians of Connecticut : from the earliest known period to 1850. Brighton, MI : Native American Book Publishers, [reprint of 1853 edition]. DeForest, John W. – Faith Davison

Some will find this author patronizing and not necessarily accurate in transcribing from CT records [I think he was dyslexic], but I think that he can be relied upon for a basic chronology  of the original population of Connecticut. This is a pretty astonishing work for a young adult. He would later raise a company of his own and go into the Civil War, after which he wrote a book on the Reconstruction on an area where he officially served, and some fiction.

History of the Indian Wars in New England. Bowie, MD : Heritage Books, Inc., 1990 [reprint of 1864 original]. Hubbard, William. – Faith Davison

Trumbull, Benjamin. A complete history of Connecticut. [2 volumes]New Haven, CT : Maltby, Goldsmith and Co., and Samuel Wadsworth, 1818.

I have grouped these two authors together for their similar disdain for people other than the white settlers. I believe it is a fair representation of the sentiments held by the majority of their era.

 History of New London, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1812 to 1860, Frances Manwaring Caulkins –  Deborah Donovan, Pat Schaefer

 History of Norwich, From its Possession by the Indians to the Year 1866 – Frances Manwaring Caulkins – Deborah Donovan, Pat Schaefer

History of Windham County, Ellen D. Larned, 2 vol., 1874 – Caroline Sloat

In It has been reprinted--and also may be found in its entirety on-line. Sure, it's an old-fashioned approach to doing local history, but in its chronological coverage, town-by-town, the reader will find many gems and a distinctive point of view about the quiet corner 125+ years ago.. 

Thomas Hooker, 1586-1647 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977) – "Frank Shuffleton – Christopher Collier

The Housatonic: Puritan River (1946) – Chard Smith – Tom Schachtman

Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain - Leslie Ramatowski

Indian Wars of New England. Heritage Books, Inc, Bowie, MD, 1998 reprint of 1910 edition. Sylvester, Herbert Milton. – Faith Davison

Three volumes, of which Volume 2 has the most CT information. 

Industrial Heritage in Northwest Connecticut: A Guide to History and Archaeology –  Robert Gordon and Michael Raber  (Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2000) – Ann Smith 

Kinley Hollow, a novel  – Gideon Hiram Hollister – Christopher Collier

Lists and Returns of the Connecticut Men in the Revolution 1775-1783  ( Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, Volume XII Bates, Albert Carlos (b. 1865) (Editor). New England Historic Genealogical, Boston, MA, 1998 reprint of 1909 book – Faith Davison

[Supplements the "Record of service of Connecticut men in the war of the Revolution, 1775-1783," pub. in 1889, by the Adhutant general’s office, and the "Rolls and lists of Connecticut men in the revolution, 1775-1783" pub. in 1901, as the eighth of this series of Collections. cf. Introduction, p. [ix]. Looking for individuals who served during the Am. Revolution in CT groups, these are your books. Useful  when looking for groups of people, too, if one has the time. The indexing is not perfect, so it can be a page-by-page search. A helpful feature is the notation at the top of each outfit’s entry showing the various battles  in which they fought.

Land of Steady Habits (1988) – Bruce Fraser – Tom Schachtman

The Legacy – Joe Lieberman – Carol Schiffer Clapp

Necessary for an understanding of the evolution of Connecticut politics.. 

A Landscape Transformed: The Ironmaking District of Salisbury, CT – Robert B. Gordon. (Oxford University Press.  2001) – Ann Smith

The literature of Connecticut history. Middletown, CT : The Connecticut Humanities Council, 1983. Collier, Christopher.  Faith Davison

Very handy.

Life On a Whaler – Nathaniel W Taylor MD

Millstone and Me  - Michael Steinberg – Mary Brown

The Most Famous Man in America –  Debby Applegate – Carol Schiffer Clapp

Native people of southern New England 1500-1650. Norman, OK : The University of Oklahoma Press, 1996 Bragdon, Kathleen Joan – Faith Davison

Native people of southern New England 1650-1775 [same publisher, 2009] Bragdon, Kathleen Joan. – - Faith Davison

Neighbors and Strangers – Bruce Mann – Donald Rogers

New England Dissent, 1630-1833: The Baptists and the Separation of Church and State – William G. McLoughlin – Christopher Collier

Newgate of Connecticut, its origin and Early History –  Richard Phelps – Ty Tryon

 Nook Farm: Mark Twain's Hartford Circle, Harvard University Press, 1950, - Kenneth Andrews – Elizabeth Normen

For an interesting discussion of Hartford 1850 to 1900 including religion, secular activities, politics and reform, literature, industry--the entire millieu from the perspective of the intellectual elite.   

William Lyon Phelps Autobiography With Letters (Oxford University Press, 1939) – Walter Powell

 It is hard to imagine Yale without "Billy Phelps," or Phelps without Yale? There are still a few graduates who remember him, and to contemplate his constant enthusiasm, wide variety of interests,  and contacts is exhausting even in the internet age.

Prospero’s America: John Winthrop, Jr., Alchemy, and the Creation of New England Culture 1606-1676 – Walter W. Woodward – Adam Delaura, Debroah Donovan, Marie Hall, Christopher Collier, Edward Baker  

Roger Sherman's Connecticut: Yankee Politics and the American Revolution (1971). Christopher Collier – Douglas Arnold

This compelling study of Sherman's career in its Connecticut and national context was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Republic of America – Emma Willard – Jessica Linker 

Romantic Connecticut – Michael Steinberg – Mary Brown

Society and Economy in Colonial Connecticut - Jackson Turner Main – Christopher Collier

A Speaking Aristocracy: Transforming Public Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut – Christopher Grasso (Chapel Hill: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1999) – Kyle Zelner

The Splendor Stays – Margaret Allis – Amy Trout

It awesome romance novel from 1942 about Saybrook’s Hart family

Stories in Stone, Jelle Zeilinga de Boer - Adam Delaura, Deborah Donovan

Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life – Joan Hendrick – Christopher Collier

Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain - Leslie Ramatowski

Uncas: First of the Mohegans. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2003. ISBN 0801438772. Oberg, Michael Leroy.

Uses primary sources for early history of the Tribe. The best biography of an early sachem that I have read. A good sources with plenty of citations.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe - Leslie Ramatowski

Travels in New England and New York, W. Baynes and Son, and Ogle, Duncan & Co., London, England, 1823 – Timothy Dwight – Christopher Collier

Victorian Hartford  (Postcard History Series) Thomas J. Nenortas – Edyta Shim 

War and Society in Colonial Connecticut. Harold E. Selesky (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990) – Kyle Zelner

Water for Hartford: The Story of the Hartford Water Works and the Metropolitan District Commission - Ken Murphy – Jonathan Pinney

It was a great read which not only covered the politics of rationing water for the city of Hartford, but also the logistics and engineering feats associated with the reservoirs and canals which connect or connected the sources. 

The Way of Duty: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America – Joy Day Buel & Richard Buel, Jr. – Christoper Collier, Douglas Arnold , Diana McCane

Another side of the American Revolution revealed through the story of Connecticut's Mary Fish Silliman and the daily impact of the conflict on her family. 

Noah Webster: Life and Times of an American Patriot – Christoper Collier

Gideon Welles; Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy (Oxford University Press US, 1973) – John Niven – Christopher Collier

The Winthrop Woman, by Anya Seton. (historical fiction) – Diana McCain

The Witch of Blackbird Pond,  Elizabeth Speare. – Deborah Donovan

A Woman in Business: The Life of Beatrice Fox Auerbach  – Virginia Hale – Edyta Shim

Women Before the Bar – Cornelia Hughes Dayton – Donald Rogers

Yankee Dreamers and Doers: The Story of Connecticut Manufacturing, 2nd ed. (n.l.: The Connecticut Historical Society & Fenwick Productions, n.d.) - Ellsworth S. Grant – Rick Lambert, Laura Smith 

Connecticut Explored, the state's award-winning history magazine, is about to release a special issue dedicated to Connecticut's role in the American Civil War.Among the topics featured in the upcoming issue are: 

It began in the upholstery room of a dry goods company, spread to the Salvation Army Barracks and a Turkish Bath. Then the flames crossed Bank street and took on the rest of downtown. Before the fire was brought under control. 42 buildings had gone up in flames and Waterbury was a disaster area. The date was February 2, 1902.  More  

Thanks to ECHO Underway For Posting this Story.

      Producers from the PBS show History Detectives will be filming at the Unionville Museum Monday, January 31st, for a segment about a "John Brown Pike" a viewer in Ohio brought to them for examination. 

       While fund-raising in Connecticut in 1857, Brown contracted with Charles Blair of the Collins Company in Collinsville, to make 1000 pikes to be used during the slave uprising he planned to trigger through his raid on the Federal Armory at Harper's Ferry. 

       Blair, a master forger, agreed to make the pikes - essentially long spears for use by footsoldiers - for $1 a piece. According to Cliff Alderman, President of the Unionville Museum, after Brown failed to pay Blair the full amount promised for the pikes, Blair stopped work on them. In 1859 he turned over the materials he had assembled to Chauncey Hart of Unionville, who finished the initial 500 pikes that Blair had started and then made 450 more. 

     Legend holds that Hart was charged with conspiracy and arrested, notes Alderman,  but was later released upon testifying that he did not know the intended use of the pikes.

     Auctioneer and appraiser Wes Cowan is the Investigator who will visit. 

Thanks to Cliff Alderman, President, Unionville Museum, for furnishing this story. 

For Alden O'Brien, giving life to the thirty-year diary  of Sylvia Lewis Tyler of Bristol, CT and later Ohio's Western Reserve, has been a labor of love.

Your Tax Dollars At Work. As of last Friday a number of bills regarding the recognition, commemoration, or teaching of state history had been proposed for passage by the current session of the General Assembly. Listed below are the numbers,  topics, and proposers of the bills, with links to pdf files the bills themselves. Thanks to State Archivist Mark Jones for forwarding this. 

Bill 141  Sen. MacLachlan   AN ACT CONCERNING THE INCLUSION OF THE HISTORY AND MEANING OF VETERANS' DAY AND MEMORIAL DAY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CURRICULUM.  More

More

Bill 557 Sen. Cassano AN ACT DESIGNATING IRISH-AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH AND

ITALIAN-AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH. More

Bill 567 Rep. Adinolfi AN ACT CONCERNING THE POSTING OF THE DECLARATION OFiNDEPENDENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES IN SCHOOLS. More

Bill 5734 Rep. D'Amelio Rep. Serra AN ACT RECOGNIZING ITALIAN AND ITALIAN-AMERICAN

HERITAGE MONTH. More

Bill 5801 Rep. Nicastro AN ACT CONCERNING A STATE SONG OF REMEMBRANCE. More

Today marks the 25th Anniversary of the formal recognition of Martin Luther King day as a national holiday. Many people are unaware of the formative influence King's summer experience as a youth working in Connecticut's tobacco fields had on his view of race relations. “Negroes and whites go [to] the same church,” he noted in a letter to his parents. “I never [thought] that a person of my race could eat anywhere.” More &  More & More

Phineas Taylor Barnum's capacious character straddled two different and chronologically distant worlds. On the one hand, he embodied the sleight-of-hand deception of the early nineteenth-century Yankee Peddler; on the other, the promotional genius of the twenty-first century reality TV idol-maker. His "brash showman's personality," says Charles Baxter,"was an egg from which many monsters have hatched." More

Until it went up in flames in August of 1929, the Bantam Lake Icehouse ( 2 football fields long and holding 112 million pounds of ice) was just one of the places that made Connecticut a center of the lucrative ice-harvesting industry. More