Main St. at the Old State House

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Exhibit opened this month in Memorial Hall at the State Library’s Museum of Connecticut History, 231 Capitol Avenue in Hartford.  The exhibit documents King’s and Governor Dempsey’s communications concerning the civil rights movement, Connecticut’s response to King’s death, and the creation and work of the Connecticut Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commission.  Included in the exhibit are remarks, telegrams, programs, photographs, proclamations, posters, lists, and brochures.

A State Archives intern recently completed an online finding aid for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commission records (RG 154:003).

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 29, 1929 to Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King in Atlanta, Georgia.  He was ordained at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in February 1948.  On June 18, 1953 Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott were married.  In 1957 he helped co-found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).  King was a pivotal leader in the non-violent civil rights movement from 1955 to his death in 1968.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray as he walked on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis on April 4, 1968.

United States Representative John Conyers introduced legislation four days after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death for a national holiday.  President Ronald Reagan signed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day into law on November 2, 1983.  The first national celebration occurred on January 20, 1986.  Governor William A. O’Neil issued Executive Order Number 15 on January 10, 1986 creating the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commission with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities as its secretariat.

The Connecticut General Assembly in 1989 passed Public Act 89-258, “An Act Creating the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commission,” to ensure the “commemoration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the state is meaningful and reflective of the spirit with which he lived and the struggles for which he died.”  The commission, which is still active today, is composed of nineteen appointed commissioners, who work to plan an annual celebration in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., sponsor a youth conference and provide reports on activities in the state.

The exhibit may be viewed Monday through Friday 9:00 to 4:00; and Saturday 9:00 to 2:00 through mid-April.  All exhibits are free and open to the public.

 Bruce Stark, retired Assistant State Archivist, will discuss the impact of a newspaper story published over a decade ago, its rapid acceptance by the public, and what an analysis of the historical record reveals about it.  Mr. Stark’s research into primary sources attempts to separate fact from fiction in a case where a newspaper article about a ”slave plantation” in Salem, Connecticut, based upon two flawed sources, rapidly became transformed into established truth – that there was a huge slave plantation in a rural town in the middle of nowhere.

The talk will be presented on Thursday, January 19, 2012 from Noon to 12:45 in Memorial Hall, Connecticut State Library, 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford.   Stark’s talk is part of the State Library and Museum of Connecticut History’s Third Thursday Brown Bag Lunchtime speaker series which features a variety of speakers on various aspects of Connecticut history. All programs are free and open to the public.

Thursday, January 19,  2012
Noon – 12:45
Connecticut State Library ~ Memorial Hall

About the Speaker:
Bruce P. Stark served as Assistant State Archivist at the Connecticut State Library before retiring in 2009.  His areas of expertise include General Assembly, judicial, and municipal records, with a special emphasis on those concerning people of color.  A former president of ASCH,  Stark has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Connecticut and has written and spoken extensively on Connecticut history subjects.

 About the State Library:
The Connecticut State Library is an Executive Branch agency of the State of Connecticut. The State Library provides a variety of library, information, archival, public records, museum, and administrative services to citizens of Connecticut, as well as the employees and officials of all three branches of State government. The Connecticut State Archives and the Museum of Connecticut History are components of the State Library.

A Stormy Season of Change
This Fall has been particularly stormy – first with Hurricane Irene and then the great snow storm. Libraries across the state were there for anyone …

The Day Jack Johnson Boxed at Camp Hines, Niantic, Connecticut
While I was looking through town folders in our Picture Group 200, Connecticut Cities and Town Collection, 1885-1965, I came across a folder for Niantic, Connecticut and looked inside. I found around fifty black and white snapshots of something called Camp Hines …

Your Legislator Said What?
It is not uncommon for many of us to rely on how the media portrayals of our elected officials.  Many times political coverage is editorialized with very few direct quotes.

The Photography of Lewis Sprague Mills
The church in this photograph no longer exists.  The graves surrounding the church were moved to Barkhamsted Center in 1939 in anticipation of the coming man-made flood.

Recovery of Public Records in Connecticut
In 2004, The Council of State Historical Records Coordinators, The Society of American Archivists, and The National Association of Government Archives & Records Administrators. (NAGARA) issued a “Statement Regarding the Sale of Historical Public Records through Online Auctions”

Connecticut Forum on Digital Initiatives
On October 28, 2011 the Connecticut State Library hosted an event called the Connecticut Forum on Digital Initiatives. The purpose of this Forum was to bring together people from academic, public and research libraries, museums, historical societies…

Ancestry.com Digitizing Partnership
There has been a great deal of activity this past year in the small, closet sized room that the camera operator from Ancestry calls home.

Storm Stories
We grew up with our elders telling us just how different today was from ‘their days.”  The day before Tropical Storm Irene struck, I realized just how different today was.

Museum of Connecticut History Curator David Corrigan will discuss the controversy that arose during the Civil War over the portraits of two Governors. The talk will be presented on Thursday, December 15, 2011 from Noon to 12:45 in Memorial Hall, Connecticut State Library, 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford. Corrigan’s talk is part of the State Library and Museum of Connecticut History’s Third Thursday BrownBag Lunchtime speaker series which features a variety of speakers on various aspects of Connecticut history. All programs are free and open to the public.

Former Governors Isaac Touceyand Thomas Seymour were both accused of harboring Southern sympathies in the early days of the Civil War and the removal of their portraits was seen as a fitting humiliation for the two men and also a warning to others who opposed the war. At the time their portraits were hanging in the Old State House. Mr. Corrigan will discuss the events leading up to the debate and the final resolution of the issue. The Toucey and Seymour portraits now hang in Memorial Hall at the State Library along with the portraits of seventy-one former governors. In 1830 the state acquired its first gubernatorial portrait, that of Gov. Oliver Wolcott, by the Litchfield artist Ralph Earle, which originally hung in the State House on the Green in New Haven. Twenty-five years later, the state purchased a group of 22 portraits of Connecticut governors from the Hartford artist George Frederick Wright. The collection was housed in the Hartford State House from 1855 until 1878, when it was moved and installed in the State Library in the new State Capitol. It remained there until 1910 when it was hung in Memorial Hall.

Thursday, December 15,  2011
Noon – 12:45
Connecticut State Library ~ Memorial Hall

About the Speaker: Mr. Corrigan has been a Curator at the State Library’s Museum of Connecticut History since 1982. He has written numerous articles and given many presentations about various aspects of the Museum’s extensive collections. Mr. Corrigan is a frequent contributor to and a member of the Editorial Team of Connecticut Explored .

Connecticut Hall, Yale University, New Haven

The Connecticut State Library has just added twenty-one new towns to our online collection of historic homes from the WPA Architectural Survey, they are Naugatuck, New Britain, New Canaan, New Fairfield, New Hartford, New Haven, New London, New Milford, Newington, Newtown, Norfolk, North Branford, North Canaan, North Haven, North Stonington, Norwalk, Norwich, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Orange and Oxford.

Digitized materials include survey forms and photos from the Census of Old Buildings in Connecticut. Also known as “The WPA House Survey”, the project took place from 1934 through 1937 under the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.). The survey forms provide descriptions of nearly 5,000 buildings. Photographs were taken of most buildings and clipped to the survey forms. Some forms also include sketches of interior and/or exterior architectural details and a brief history of the building.

Just in time for the holiday, our digitization crew has scanned in the famous 1936 Thanksgiving proclamation of Connecticut Governor Wilbur L. Cross. Both the text of the proclamation & the scanned in material are available at http://www.cslib.org/thanksproc.htm.