Grating the Nutmeg
206 episodes - English - Latest episode: 11 days ago - ★★★★★ - 45 ratingsConnecticut is a small state with big stories. GTN episodes include top-flight historians, compelling first-person stories and new voices in Connecticut history. Executive Producers Mary Donohue, Walt Woodward, and Natalie Belanger look at the people and places that have made a difference in CT history. New episodes every two weeks. A joint production of Connecticut Explored magazine and the CT State Historian Emeritus.
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Episodes
98. Two Stories From World War II
July 15, 2020 04:01 - 21 minutes - 7.98 MBIn "Two From World War II." state historian Walt Woodward presents two stories he wrote for this Fall's special "Remembering World War II" edition of Connecticut Explored Magazine. The first tells how Pratt & Whitney Aircraft prepared for the coming crisis. The second tells the story of Gordon H. Stirling, Connecticut's 1st World War II hero.
97. Uncovering African American Women's Fight for Suffrage
July 09, 2020 15:34 - 35 minutes - 82.7 MBIn this episode, Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society talks to historians Brittney Yancy and Karen Li Miller about their ongoing project to uncover the suffrage work of women of color in Connecticut. African American women rallied for the woman’s suffrage cause, determined to ensure black women’s inclusion and electoral self-representation. if you’d like to learn more about this topic, visit the CHS’s website at CHS.org/wocvotes. For a broader look at the woman’s suffr...
96. Rough Justice for Nathan Hale
June 15, 2020 16:45 - 33 minutes - 64.2 MBState historian Walt Woodward takes a new look at the actions surrounding the Revolutionary War execution of state hero Nathan Hale, and finds there are still some burning questions left to be answered about this hasty and irregular event. It’s a story from Walt's new book Creating Connecticut: Critical Moments That Shaped a Great State, just out from Globe Pequot Press. As you’ll soon hear, when looking for answers about the Rough Justice handed out to Nathan Hale by the British in New Yor...
95. Beware of the Sea, for it is a Wide, Wide Love
May 26, 2020 19:43 - 27 minutes - 26.4 MBIn this episode CT Explored publisher Elizabeth Normen draws inspiration from the haunting words of her great-great grandmother, the wife of a sea captain during the Great Age of Sail. Her ancestor was one of hundreds of women in the 19th century who made the difficult choice to leave all they knew and those they loved for the uncertainly of a life at sea. What were the joys and hardships for women who made that choice? Find out in this episode of Grating the Nutmeg. Find more stories abo...
94. Connecticut’s Jewish Farmers
May 03, 2020 23:28 - 33 minutes - 78 MBMary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored and co-author of the book A Life of the Land: Connecticut’s Jewish Farmers explores the story of Connecticut’s Jewish farmers in the last century. Surprised that there were Jewish farmers? Many people are but scores of newly arrived Jewish immigrants were assisted in making their lives in poultry and dairy farming throughout the state. Some farms developed into resorts catering to vacationing urbanites seeking a bigotry free relaxing v...
93. Connecticut and the Pandemic of 1918
April 16, 2020 00:51 - 31 minutes - 59.9 MBState historian Walt Woodward used his recent shelter-in-place time to create a podcast about the deadliest disease to ever hit Connecticut. The influenza pandemic of 1918, like C0VID-19, stopped life as people-knew-it in its tracks. Emergency Hospital #16 New Haven[Library of Congress] He asked the questions we’re asking about today’s pandemic to pandemic of a century ago. Where did it come from? How did it spread? Who did it affect the most? How did the medical community respond to ...
92. Connecticut’s Carnegie Libraries: Bricks, Bucks and Books
March 31, 2020 18:17 - 27 minutes - 63.9 MBArchitectural historian Mary Donohue digs deep to uncover which local libraries in Connecticut were funded by robber baron, steel tycoon and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie at the beginning of the 20th century. Why did the City of New Haven turn down a generous gift of $300,000 from Carnegie in 1903 meant to build a large public library? How did communities apply for library construction grants from Carnegie and what were the requirements? What were the strings attached to accepting the mone...
91. Tom Linskey's Hearth-Cooked Feast
March 16, 2020 18:19 - 51 minutes - 101 MBTwice a year, restoration carpenter Tom Linsky and his wife Sally Irons host a heart-cooked colonial feast in their historic 18th century Portland home, as a benefit for their favorite charities. For those events Chef Tom Linskey spends an entire week prepping, preparing, and cooking a totally hearth-cooked panoply of colonial dishes to serve for the benefits' guests. Last month (February 2020), State Historian Walt Woodward stopped in to see Tom throughout the week to learn about hearth-co...
90. Bob Steele, the Voice of Connecticut Radio
March 01, 2020 05:00 - 30 minutes - 58.2 MBBob Steele, the Voice of Connecticut Radio For more than sixty years, Bob Steele was the voice of Southern New England, entertaining listeners of WTIC AM with his wit and humor. Connecticut author Paul Hensler has written the first-ever biography of Steele, chronicling his hardscrabble beginnings in the Midwest, his early career as a boxer, and his almost accidental hiring as an announcer at WTIC in the midst of the Great Depression. In this episode, recorded at the CT Historical Society w...
89. Why Teaching African American History in Connecticut Matters
February 15, 2020 05:00 - 37 minutes - 69 MBCT Explored publisher Elizabeth Normen sits down with Dr. Benjamin Foster and Connecticut State Representative Bobby Gibson to talk about their efforts to pass legislation requiring teaching African American history in Connecticut, their vision for the curriculum, and why it matters. “When kids started to say math is for whites,” Foster, a longtime educator says, “I knew we had to do something” to reconnect students with their rich history of contributions to this nation. We wish to than...
88. Educated For Freedom
February 01, 2020 05:01 - 1 hour - 152 MBAnna Mae Duane has written an amazing new book about James McCune Smith and Henry Garnet, two African American boys who met as young students at the New York African Free School on Mulberry street. Their intertwined, but very different lives of antebellum antislavery activism helped define the possibilities for blacks in American Society. State historian Walt Woodward interviews UCONN English professor Duane, who talks about Educated for Freedom, and the inspiring and informat...
87. Time Capsule: Dirt Floor Studio and Connecticut Music
January 14, 2020 18:41 - 24 minutes - 45.6 MBIn the Winter 2019 issue of Connecticut Explored, Museum of Connecticut History curator Dave Corrigan tackles the obsolescence of everyday objects such as typewriters that were replaced by personal computers. With the advent of digital recording, CDs, and streaming music services, perhaps no industry has experienced more rapid change in the last 20 years than the music industry. But as historians, we know that some people value doing things in the traditional way. In today’s episode, Assi...
86. Who Paid for the American Revolution? The Founding Fortunes
January 02, 2020 16:25 - 58 minutes - 111 MBIn our first episode for 2020, state historian Walt Woodward interviews author and historian Tom Shachtman talks about his just released book, The Founding Fortunes: How America's Wealthy Paid for and Profited From America's Revolution. In this fascinating economic history covering the years from the Birth of the Republic to the end of the War of 1812, Shachtman asks an important question most historians don't consider: Who paid for the war for independence? The answers come with some pr...
85. Connecticut Christmas Stories & Song
December 21, 2019 12:59 - 36 minutes - 70.2 MBFor your holiday enjoyment, State Historian Walt Woodward has gathered together three historic Connecticut Christmas stories, and a Christmas Song: Francis S. Parsons "The Christmas Party" (1923), Louise Chandler Moulton's "What Came to Olive Haygarth" (1867), Abby Allin's "Old Santa Claus (1850), and Walt Woodward's own "A Children's Christmas." Happy Holidays From All the Grating the Nutmeg Team.
84. War, Maps & Mystery
December 16, 2019 21:09 - 35 minutes - 107 MBMaps tell stories. In this episode of Grating the Nutmeg, Natalie Belanger and Ben Gammell of the CT Historical Society uncover the little-known story of 18th-century cartographer Bernard Romans. A new exhibit of his maps at the museum pieces together the life story of a bold, talented, and adventurous immigrant to Connecticut who put his considerable skills to work for the American cause and may have paid the ultimate price for it. “War, Maps, Mystery: Dutch Mapmaker Bernard Romans and ...
83. Exit Interview with a History Icon
December 01, 2019 05:10 - 46 minutes - 52.8 MBFor more than a generation, Kendall F. Wiggin has been one of the most influential champions of history issues and institutions in Connecticut. At the end of 2019, Ken is retiring after 21 years as Connecticut's State Librarian. In a revealing interview, State Historian Walter Woodward sat down with Ken for a wide-ranging discussion about his agency's complex role in preserving the state's past, the effect of the Internet on historical research and libraries, the role of Connecticut hi...
82. Writing with Scissors: Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe and American Scrapbooks
November 18, 2019 20:04 - 50 minutes - 115 MBHow did Mark Twain aka Samuel Clemons use scrapbooks to fight unscrupulous publishers who reprinted his work without paying him? Why did celebrities like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony keep scrapbooks? How did abolitionists, suffragettes, and African Americans use scrapbooks to tell their story? Before the era of google and Instagram, how did American use scrapbooks to curate printed stories that contained information they wanted to save for the future? In th...
81. Wilbur L. Cross, Connecticut Yankee
November 01, 2019 10:50 - 57 minutes - 65.4 MBSay the name Wilbur Cross and most Connecticans think of a parkway. Wilbur Cross the man, however, was a Connectican of extraordinary accomplishment. Born in 1862 in the factory village of Gurleyville, he became a world-class scholar, author, educational reformer, founding Dean of the Yale Graduate school, and, starting at age 68, a popular four-term governor who guided Connecticut through the worst years of the Great Depression. In this episode, state historian Walt Woodward ...
80. Novelist Ann Petry and Exploring the Family Tree
October 18, 2019 02:29 - 38 minutes - 89.3 MBOur guest, Elisabeth Petry is a journalist. She knows how to uncover a clue, follow a lead, and tell a good story. Her mother was bestselling novelist Ann Petry, whose 1946 debut novel The Street became the first novel by an African American to sell more than a million copies. In this episode, Liz tells us more about her family tree—the James and Lane Families—four generations of strivers and achievers descended from self-emancipated slaves, who settled in New Haven, Hartford, and Old Saybr...
79. Gov. Ned Lamont, "100 Years of Fake News and Real and Fake Wars"
September 23, 2019 17:37 - 42 minutes - 48.5 MBEvery Governor of our state makes history, but there have been very few who know their history as well as Connecticut’s current governor Edward M. "Ned" Lamont.” In this very special episode, Mary Donohue and Walt Woodward, along with Connecticut Explored publisher Elizabeth Normen and producer Patrick O'Sullivan went to the state capitol to talk with Governor Lamont about a speech – and now audio essay he recorded for this podcast – titled “100 Years of Fake News and R...
78. Uncovering African and Native American Lives in 17th - 18th Century Hartford
September 02, 2019 19:06 - 29 minutes - 71.4 MBFour hundred years ago, in August 1619, more than 20 kidnapped enslaved African people were sold to the Virginia colonists. Slavery was well established in the early Connecticut Colony, too. Traded, sold, given as gifts, and subjected to beatings as documents attest, the enslaved people of Hartford suffered no less than enslaved people anywhere. In today’s episode, Connecticut Explored’s Mary Donohue finds out about an innovative, model project that uses fine-grained scholarship to uncover...
77. The Delicious History of Pizza in New Haven
August 18, 2019 14:20 - 51 minutes - 59.3 MBFood historian and author of Pizza in New Haven Colin M. Caplin tells State Historian Walt Woodward and co-host Betsy Golden Kellem the fascinating story of the creation and rise to world-class celebrity of New Haven Pizza. Join us at Modern Apizza in New Haven for a lunch-time food and information feast you won’t want to miss. And at the end, you’ll hear about a special offer that might have you joining Walt Betsy and Colin for another podcast lunch and another slice of New Haven Pizza.
76. The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan in Connecticut in the 1920s
August 01, 2019 16:44 - 18 minutes - 42.8 MBIn this installment of GTN, Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society takes a walk through the museum's archival collection of documents related to the Ku Klux Klan. You'll learn about the Klan's sudden rise, and rapid fall, in 1920s Connecticut, a dark time when Connecticut was torn by disagreements over immigration policy and the changing demographics of United States. To learn more, you can join Natalie at the Connecticut Historical Society on September 14, 2019 for a ga...
75.For Whom The Tolls Toll. The History of Toll Roads in Connecticut.
July 16, 2019 10:00 - 1 hour - 82.6 MBIn this Gate-leg Table interview with state historian Walt Woodward, transportation historian Richard DeLuca takes us on an expert's tour of Connecticut's long history of charging people to get from here to there. From turnpikes to bicycle roads, the state highway system to the parkways and toll roads Connecticut got rid of in the 1980s, DeLuca provides the background you need to make good decisions about The Toll Question in Connecticut. DeLuca is the author of POST ROADS AND IRON HORSES an...
74. Post WWII: 1949 Travel Diary of Beatrice Auerbach with Congresswoman Chase Woodhouse
July 01, 2019 16:07 - 40 minutes - 93.6 MBTwo of Connecticut’s most influential women, Beatrice Fox Auerbach, the owner of G. Fox, the largest privately-owned department store in the United States at the time and U.S. Congresswoman Chase Going Woodhouse, the second woman to be elected to the US Congress from Connecticut, spent seven weeks travelling through 10 countries in the Middle East and Europe in 1949. Only four years after the end of WWII and one year after the founding of the new nation of Israel, Auerbach and Woodhouse were...
73. Dept Stores, G.Fox and the Black Freedom Movement
June 17, 2019 00:40 - 36 minutes - 82.8 MBThis summer the Connecticut Historical Society is hosting an exhibition called Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow. It’s a traveling show that originated at the New-York Historical Society. The exhibition explores the struggle for full citizenship and racial equality that unfolded after the Civil War. Even though northern states like Connecticut did not institute Jim Crow segregation by law, discrimination and segregation were the norm in many public spaces, including elegant departmen...
72a BONUS EPISODE: Colin Calloway on Dartmouth as a School for Native Americans
June 08, 2019 04:01 - 38 minutes - 45.1 MBBONUS CONTENT: LECTURE ONLY
72. "Samson Occom the Man" - Mohegan Elder Beth Regan
June 01, 2019 04:01 - 58 minutes - 111 MBIn Part 2 of our Series Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the Founding of Dartmouth College and Its Roots in the town of Columbia. Mohegan Elder Beth Regan tells the story of Samson Occom. Occom, a Mohegan convert to Christianity, was educated by Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, became a teacher and minister, raised much of the money used to establish Dartmouth, and went on to found the utopian native Christian community of Brothertown, New York. Occom’s story as told by Mohegan elder Regan ...
71 Eleazar Wheelock, The Great Awakening, Samson Occom & the Indian School
May 07, 2019 14:46Recently, alumni of Dartmouth College, members of the Mohegan nation, the Columbia Historical Society and state and local officials gathered in the quiet corner town of Columbia to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of that Ivy League Institution. Why Columbia? That is where the Great Awakening minister Eleazar Wheelock, inspired by the educational achievements of Mohegan student Samson Occom, founded Moor’s Indian Charity School, the training school for indigenous missiona...
71 Eleazar Wheelock, The Great Awakening, Samson Occom & the Indian School
May 07, 2019 14:46Recently, alumni of Dartmouth College, members of the Mohegan nation, the Columbia Historical Society and state and local officials gathered in the quiet corner town of Columbia to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of that Ivy League Institution. Why Columbia? That is where the Great Awakening minister Eleazar Wheelock, inspired by the educational achievements of Mohegan student Samson Occom, founded Moor’s Indian Charity School, the training school for indigenous missiona...
70. Anni and Josef Albers in Connecticut
May 01, 2019 04:00 - 34 minutes - 78.7 MBThis episode celebrates the 100th anniversary of the most influential design school of the twentieth century, the Bauhaus, and Connecticut’s connection to it. Connecticut Explored’s Assistant Publisher Mary Donohue and conceptual artist, photographer and frequent Connecticut Explored contributor Bob Gregson talk about pioneering Modern artists Anni and Josef Albers, who escaped Nazi Germany in the 1930s and made New Haven their home in 1950. It’s a remarkable story. Josef was associated wi...
69. The Breach: Voices Haunting a New England Mill Town
April 15, 2019 04:00 - 45 minutes - 52.1 MBIt’s not very often that a historian interviews a poet for a history podcast, but in this episode state historian Walt Woodward interviews award-winning poet, novelist, essayist, environmentalist, and former Deputy Commission of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection David K. Leff about his new verse novel, The Breach: Voices Haunting a New England Mill Town (Homebound Books, 2019). The Breach is a fascinating study of decline in a New England factory vil...
68. Fort Trumbull’s Three Lives
March 29, 2019 16:25 - 22 minutes - 53.4 MBIn this podcast cross-over episode, Johnna Kaplan, author of Connecticut Explored's spring 2019 story about Fort Trumbull in New London, Connecticut is joined by her Going/Steadypodcast co-host Kerri Provost. Listen as they dive into the history of Fort Trumbull, a Connecticut state park that’s seen a devastating Revolutionary War battle, witnessed Prohibition-era high-speed boat chases, and housed a top-secret military research facility. Today Fort Trumbull is one of New London’s must-vis...
67. Louis Comfort Tiffany in New London
February 27, 2019 17:05 - 31 minutes - 72.2 MBThe story behind this episode started with the high-profile heist in 1991 of a stained-glass window from the nineteenth century mausoleum of a New London industrialist. The window was designed by world-famous artist Louis Comfort Tiffany. But the thieves hadn’t counted on a persistent detective. Tiffany, best known for his brilliant innovations in glass, had deep Connecticut roots. A new permanent exhibition about his work, including 100 fine- and decorative-arts objects, is now on view at...
66. Sharon Cures: One Small Town of Medical Marvels
February 15, 2019 16:24 - 38 minutes - 43.6 MBRecently, US News and World Report ranked Connecticut 4th best among the 50 states in the quality of our healthcare. We have great research universities and teaching hospitals, and pharma, biotech, and medical engineering companies most states envy. That’s what makes this podcast so surprising. This is the story of how the little Litchfield County hill town of Sharon – with a population of 2700 people – has produced some of our state’s leading medical innovators. And it’s been doing so for c...
65. Norwalk's Village Creek Ahead of Its Time
February 01, 2019 18:48 - 25 minutes - 58 MBAfter World War II, one Connecticut community made a conscious effort to reject racial segregation. The founders of Village Creek in Norwalk created a cooperative neighborhood which promised not to discriminate based on "race, color, creed or politics." Over the next decades, the Villagers faced criticism from many quarters, but the community survived and thrives today. In this episode, Natalie Belanger and Melica Bloom of the Connecticut Historical Society take a look at the founding...
64. Best Winter History Reads
January 13, 2019 13:32 - 58 minutes - 66.5 MBState Historian Walt Woodward asked five of Connecticut's leading voices for the history community, what their favorite winter history reads are this year. Briann Greenfield of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, State Librarian Ken Wiggin, Sally Whipple of the Old State House, Jason Mancini of CTHumanities, and Christina Volpe of the Connecticut League of History Organizations, each shared the books that are providing them a fascinating escape from bleak midwinter, the 2019 edition.
63. Why the Constitution of 1818 Matters Today
December 18, 2018 19:31 - 43 minutes - 98.6 MBThis is the fifth in our series of talks presented by Connecticut’s Old State House commemorating the 300th anniversary of Connecticut’s first state constitution. In this episode judges Henry Cohn and Jon Blue wrap up our discussion of the state’s first constitution in “Why the Constitution of 1818 Matters Today.” This has been a great series pairing historians and legal scholars. In the first in the series, episode 45, state historian Walt Woodward provides the historian’s view of the ...
62. Three Centuries of Christmas at the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum
December 03, 2018 17:22 - 30 minutes - 72.2 MBCharles Lyle, executive director of the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum in Wethersfield, whets your appetite for a visit to the Webb, Stevens, and Deane houses to see how the holidays were celebrated in three eras: c. 1770, c. 1830, and c. 1930. Find out how, in the 1800s, Clement C. Moore and Thomas Nast created Santa Claus, and the origin of the New Year's resolution--all in this episode of Grating the Nutmeg! This episode is sponsored by attorney Peter Bowman, holding distracted drive...
61. Feasts, Facts & Fictions : Cooking REAL New England Holiday Foods
November 17, 2018 23:55 - 47 minutes - 54.9 MBFood historians Keith Staveley and Kathleen Fitzgerald join state historian Walt Woodward at his dinner table in Columbia for a talk about traditional New England holiday foods - authentic and not-so-authentic – and the stories behind them. PLUS, Keith and Kathy brought along 9 truly historic and delicious New England food recipes, translated into modern cooking instructions kitchen-tested for authentic flavor. Whether you want to wow your holiday dinner guests with some astonishing fo...
60. SPECIAL CPTV Audio Documentary: BARNUM'S CONNECTICUT
November 02, 2018 19:27 - 45 minutes - 52.6 MBTHE P T BARNUM YOU NEVER KNEW In this special Connecticut Public Television audio documentary, we tell the story almost no one knows about the other side of PT Barnum. Almost everyone is familiar with Barnum's extraordinary career as a showman, entrepreneur, and creator of The Greatest Show on Earth, but "Barnum's Connecticut", which host Walt Woodward wrote and produced as a companion to CPTV's broadcast of the American Experience documentary "The Circus" CPTV.org/thecircus shows a sid...
59. Constitution of 1818 Part 4: Milestone in Church State Relations?
October 15, 2018 14:31 - 40 minutes - 93.3 MBThis episode, the fourth in our 6-part series commemorating the Constitution of 1818, explores one of the main accomplishments of the state’s first constitution: the separation of church and state. Professor Robert Imholt challenges that assertion, though, arguing that the process to disentangle religion from the state began much earlier. Still, find out how deep our Puritan roots were as the state finally convened to write a state constitution in this episode of Grating the Nutmeg. This ...
58. Keeping it Clean in World War I
October 01, 2018 16:47 - 31 minutes - 71.1 MBIn the 1910s, a group of Connecticut reformers formed a society aimed at solving a growing crisis – the spread of venereal diseases. The United States’ entry into WWI provided this so-called “social hygienist” movement with an unprecedented opportunity to influence the sexual mores of Americans. In this episode produced by Connecticut Historical Society’s Natalie Belanger, Natalie tells us how that worked out for these well-intentioned reformers—especially one George P. Thayer, a crusader f...
57. Breaking Golf’s Color Line in Hartford
September 15, 2018 04:00 - 44 minutes - 108 MBHartford native Gerry Peterson has played golf with President Barack Obama and was inducted into the Black Golf Hall of Fame in 2015. Golf has always been a huge part of his life from his start as a kid caddie during the Depression to playing as a young executive at Aetna Life and Casualty. But what did it take for Peterson, a black golfer, to become a member of the whites-only Keney Park Golf Club in 1963? Gerry Peterson will tell us and historian Jeffrey Mainville , author of this summer ...
56. Constitution of 1818 Part 3: The Constitutional Debates
August 31, 2018 17:33 - 34 minutes - 79.5 MBAttorney Wesley Horton, president of the Connecticut Supreme Court Historical Society, outlines the main issues of debate as state delegates finally gather to draft a state constitution. What happened inside the convention? How do we know? Find out in this episode of Grating the Nutmeg. This episode was recorded at Connecticut's Old State House and produced by Elizabeth Normen. This episode is sponsored by attorney Peter Bowman, holding distracted drivers accountable for their action...
55. Constitution of 1818 Part 2: The Collapse of Connecticut Federalists’ Dominance
August 29, 2018 21:01 - 45 minutes - 104 MBDr. Richard Buel Jr., Professor Emeritus, Wesleyan University, describes the political climate that led to the Constitution of 1818 and how we must look to what was happening in France, and the ongoing conflict between England and France to understand what was happening here. This episode is sponsored by attorney Peter Bowman, holding distracted drivers accountable for their actions. Find out more at bowman.legal. And Connecticut Humanities, co-publisher of Connecticut Explored.
54. The Long Journeys Home Part 1 - Henry 'Opukaha'ia
August 01, 2018 08:05 - 35 minutes - 40.4 MBPart 1 - Henry 'Opukaha'ia Two young native men. Henry Opukaha'ia, a native of Hawaii, who died in Cornwall, CT in 1818. Albert Afraid of Hawk, a Lakota Sioux native who died in Danbury in 1900. Nick Bellantoni was the archaeologist tasked with helping return the remains of each of these men to their homes and families, more than a century after they had died. Hear him tell their strangely connected and deeply moving stories in this special two part Grating the Nutmeg episode base...
54. The Long Journeys Home Part 2 – Albert Afraid of Hawk
August 01, 2018 08:00 - 37 minutes - 43.4 MBPART TWO: ALBERT AFRAID OF HAWK Two young men. Henry Opukaha'ia, a native of Hawaii, who died in Cornwall, CT in 1818. Albert Afraid of Hawk, a Lakota Sioux native who died in Danbury in 1900. Nick Bellantoni was the archaeologist tasked with helping return the remains of each of these men to their homes and families, more than a century after they had died. Hear him tell their strangely connected and deeply moving stories in this special two part Grating the Nutmeg episode based o...
53. Hopes and Expectations: Creation of a Black Middle Class in Hartford
July 16, 2018 08:00 - 1 hour - 74 MBIn an unforgettable interview, historian Barbara Beeching describes the creation of a black middle class in Hartford – not in the twentieth century, but back in the 1800s. It's a tale full of insights and surprises – not the least of which is Beeching herself. BONUS: For reasons that will become clear in the 1st five minutes, this episode may make you want to upgrade your Bucket List. WWW This episode is sponsored by Attorney Peter Bowman—find out more at bowman.legal, a...
52. Mark Twain’s Native American Problem
July 01, 2018 04:00 - 39 minutes - 77.5 MBIn this episode recorded at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Twain scholar and University of St. Joseph Professor of English Emerita Kerry Driscoll explores one of the last unexamined aspects of American author and humorist Mark Twain. Twain, a resident of Hartford from 1871 to 1891, wrote some of his most beloved works while living in Hartford and was generally known for championing the underdog. But Driscoll unflinchingly reveals here and in her book, Mark Twain Among the Indians and Oth...