Connecticut Explored and our podcast, Grating the Nutmeg , have featured many of the heritage trails that mark the important histories and sites of Connecticut’s people. Preservation Connecticut has undertaken a survey of LGBTQ+ heritage sites across the state. Now, Grating the Nutmeg and Preservation Connecticut have teamed up to bring you a three-episode podcast series that pairs new research on LGBTQ+ identity and activism with accounts of the Connecticut places where history was made. The ep...
Jul 01, 2025•42 min•Season 4Ep. 212
American whale oil lit the world. The Industrial Revolution couldn’t have happened without it. Connecticut was part of the whaling industry of the nineteenth century that sent thousands of American ships manned by tens of thousands of men to hunt whales across the world’s oceans. Stonington, Mystic, New London, and New Haven were part of New England’s predominance in successful whaling. In fact, New London, Connecticut is known today as the “Whaling City”. My guest Eric Jay Dolan is the author o...
Jun 15, 2025•51 min•Season 4Ep. 211
In this episode, host Mary Donohue visits the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, a place that includes stellar architecture, art by some of the most renowned artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and an exhibition that tells the story of Waterbury’s rise as a manufacturing powerhouse. The Mattatuck Museum is an art and regional history museum on the Green in downtown Waterbury, that started out as a historical society in 1877. Our guest is Rebecca Lo Presti, Assistant Curator. She serve...
Jun 01, 2025•40 min•Season 4Ep. 210
In this episode, Natalie Belanger of the CT Museum of Culture and History tells the story of the Good Will Club, the forerunner of the youth club movement that got its start in Hartford. But the story of the club can't be separated from that of its founder, a woman who's an inductee of the CT Women's Hall of Fame for her barrier-breaking work in the legal field. There are lots of ways to learn more about the history of the Good Will Club and about Mary Hall. Here’s a partial list of sources cons...
May 15, 2025•20 min•Season 4Ep. 209
We’re celebrating May, Historic Preservation Month, with an episode on the Modern houses of the 1950s and 1960s. Could you live in a glass house? New Canaan, Connecticut’s Mid-Century Modern homes designed after the Second War are world famous. In addition to Philip Johnson’s Glass House, now a museum, New Canaan has homes designed by Marcel Breuer, Eliot Noyes, Frank Lloyd Wright and Edward Durell Stone. Each one is a part of architectural history and is a masterwork of the era’s most talented ...
May 01, 2025•41 min•Season 4Ep. 208
In her new book, Book and Dagger, How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of the World , Dr. Elyse Graham tells the story of academics, like Yale literature professor Joseph Curtis, who hunted down German spies and turned them into double agents, and Sherman Kent, a Yale history professor who rose to become the head of analysis for all of Europe and Africa. At the start of World War II, the United States found itself in desperate need of an intelligence agency. The Office of Strate...
Apr 15, 2025•41 min•Season 4Ep. 207
Last year in episode 186, we talked about Grove Street Cemetery’s pioneering role as the first planned cemetery in the country. The design of Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven in the 1790s used several of the features that became standard, like family plots and established walkways. Today, we’re going to move the clock forward and discuss the rural cemetery movement of the 19th century with Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford as a signature example. Established in 1864, Cedar Hill Cemetery encompas...
Apr 01, 2025•31 min•Season 4Ep. 206
Coffee is more than a hot drink or a boost of caffeine. For Connecticans, it’s hundreds of years of history. It has fueled new ideas, social reform, and workers’ rights. It is comfort in wartime and connections across cultures. It is universal, yet distinctly local. In this episode, the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History 's Natalie Belanger chats with her colleague, Karen Li Miller, about the Museum's new exhibition exploring these connections, Coffee — A Connecticut Story . Make sure to ...
Mar 15, 2025•34 min•Season 4Ep. 205
Carousels are marvels of brightly painted animals, mechanical excellence, music and lights. Located in a historic mill building in Bristol, the Carousel Museum houses well over 100 antique wooden carousel animals including white rabbits, pigs, lions and even an alligator. The museum has a full-size carousel inside the building complete with beautifully painted horses and Wurlitzer music - and you can take a merry-go-round ride during any season of the year. Plus, you can take a peek into their r...
Feb 28, 2025•34 min•Season 4Ep. 204
The New Haven Museum staff and their community partners have reinterpreted the Amistad story in an exhibition that takes a new angle on the familiar story of the Amistad. The 1839 Amistad Revolt was led by 53 West African captives who were being trafficked from Havana’s slave markets on the schooner La Amistad after being kidnapped from their homeland. For nearly 19 months in New Haven, the Amistad captives worked closely with anti-slavery activists who formed the Amistad Committee and connected...
Feb 15, 2025•42 min•Season 4Ep. 203
After a campaign initiated by schoolchildren, Prudence Crandall was designated the Connecticut State Heroine by the Connecticut General Assembly on Oct. 1, 1995. You may not know Connecticut has a state heroine, or you might have some inkling that Crandall was maybe a spinster Quaker schoolmarm, who had an unsuccessful school in the hinterlands of eastern Connecticut. Founded in 1833, the Crandall Academy educated more than two dozen Black women during its eighteen-month existence. In this episo...
Feb 01, 2025•56 min•Season 4Ep. 202
In this episode, Host Mary Donohue talks to Griffin Dunne, actor, producer and director and now New York Times best-selling author about his family memoir The Friday Afternoon Club. His Hartford to Hollywood family includes generations of writers, movie producers, journalists, and actors including his father Dominick Dunne, uncle John Gregory Dunne, and aunt Joan Didion. This prominent family dynasty has part of its roots in Irish-American Connecticut, coming from Ireland to Derby and Hartford. ...
Jan 15, 2025•58 min•Season 4Ep. 201
We did it!! This is our 200th episode of Grating the Nutmeg! Thanks to our listeners, we have travelled across the state during every time period to bring you vivid, fascinating stories from our state’s history. Become a podcast subscriber to get notified every time there’s a new episode! During this holiday season, it seemed like the perfect time to bring you the story of Connecticut’s biggest toymaker! Of all the toys that are enshrined in the National Toy of Fame, two stand out as having soli...
Dec 19, 2024•36 min•Season 3Ep. 200
In the mid-20th century, Hartford's G. Fox and Co. was one of the most successful family-owned department stores in the United States. Today, many Connecticans have fond memories of visiting G. Fox at the holiday season -- marvelling at the Christmas Village atop the marquee and meeting Santa in Toyland. In this episode, Natalie Belanger and Jen Busa of the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History talk about the history of the store, owner Beatrice Fox Auerbach's commitment to customer service,...
Dec 01, 2024•45 min•Season 3Ep. 199
We all know a little about New England and Connecticut’s European maritime history. Dutch traders came to North America to trade for beaver pelts and English colonists came to start new communities such as Hartford. But a new exhibition at the Mystic Seaport Museum doesn’t rehash this history - it looks to reveal African and Indigenous perspectives on water and the sea. Entwined: Freedom, Sovereignty, and the Sea is an exhibition that surveys the interplay of maritime histories through Indigenou...
Nov 15, 2024•43 min•Season 3Ep. 198
Early voting has already started in the 2024 presidential election and I just couldn’t resist the suggestion by my guests to explore what Samuel Clemens alias Mark Twain, Hartford’s greatest Gilded Age humorist, had to say about the United States presidents. Was Twain the John Stewart or John Oliver of his day? Known for his sharp wit and scathing satire, what presidents met with his approval? Corruption, national identity, the power of big business, and America’s global role were just as contes...
Nov 01, 2024•44 min•Season 3Ep. 197
Have you got your Halloween costume ready? Been on any graveyard tours this month? Well, this story for you! I’d never thought of body snatching as having anything to do with Connecticut but as this episode proves, the disappearance of a young women’s body lead to a New Haven riot. I’ll get the details from Richard Ross author of the new book American Body Snatchers, Merchandising the Dead in 19th Century New England and Washington, DC. Dick Ross is a retired college librarian and professor emer...
Oct 17, 2024•43 min•Season 3Ep. 196
Most people know something about Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens. After all, he wrote his most famous books while living in Hartford, Connecticut. His 25-room house on Farmington Avenue cost over $40,000 in 1874 dollars. Raised as a child in Missouri, he became world famous for his wit and humor both in print and on stage. But what if the man who served as Twain’s butler for 17 years had a story that was just as powerful and gripping as Twain’s? In today’s episode we are going to meet...
Oct 01, 2024•47 min•Season 3Ep. 195
In this episode, you'll hear about the remarkable life and legacy of the man that Lin-Manuel Miranda called "America's favorite fighting Frenchman," the Marquis de Lafayette. This month marks the 200th anniversary of Lafayette's visit to Connecticut, part of his so-called "Farewell Tour" of America in 1824. Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History spoke with Julien Icher of the Lafayette Trail about the Marquis' role in the American Revolution, and how his farewell tour ...
Sep 15, 2024•37 min•Season 3Ep. 194
Author Steve Thornton asks “Who really makes history”? In his new book, Radical Connecticut: People’s History in the Constitution State , co-authored by Andy Piascik, guest Steve Thornton tells the stories of everyday people and well-known figures whose work has often been obscured, denigrated, or dismissed. There are narratives of movements, strikes, popular organizations and people in Connecticut who changed the state and the country for the better. Unlike a traditional history that focuses on...
Sep 01, 2024•45 min•Season 3Ep. 193
Have you ever discovered that one of your favorite places is being renovated? Like your grandmother’s kitchen, your favorite restaurant, or even a museum, and you worry that the charm or the appeal of the place might be gone after the renovation? Podcast editor Patrick O’Sullivan and Producer Mary Donohue went to just such a place, the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale in New Haven. We had both been to the museum many times before the pandemic. But, the newly-reopened Peabody Museum is n...
Aug 01, 2024•34 min•Season 3Ep. 192
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Hartford Circus Fire. In this episode of Grating the Nutmeg , Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History tells the story of the deadliest man-made disaster in Connecticut history. On July 6, 1944, the Big Top of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus caught fire during a matinee performance. Within ten minutes the tent was burned away, taking the lives of 168 people with it. Hundreds of people were injured, and thousa...
Jul 15, 2024•32 min•Season 3Ep. 191
July 1990 marked the passing of a landmark piece of federal legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Act, known as the ADA. To recognize this event and to celebrate Disability Pride Month, we are uncovering the legacy of disability rights leader, Phyllis Zlotnick (1942-2011). Zlotnick was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at birth. Beginning in the 1970's, Phyllis recognized she was being “shut out” of society, a phrase she used in her writings and public testimonies at the Connecticut State...
Jul 01, 2024•46 min•Season 3Ep. 190
We love a Sherlock Holmes "who done it" whether it's Basil Rathbone from the 1940s, Benedict Cumberbacth from the 2000s, or Millie Bobby Brown as Sherlock's sister Enola Holmes from the 2020s. But it was a Hartford-born actor who gave Sherlock Holmes his signature look - his curved pipe, deerstalker cap and magnifying glass. William Gillette was born into a wealthy Hartford family in 1853 but became a millionaire in his own right as an actor and a playwright. He was the first actor to be univers...
Jun 15, 2024•42 min•Season 3Ep. 189
June is PRIDE month and we’re celebrating by bringing you an episode about efforts to bring LGBTQ+ history to light. As one guest, historian William Mann writes, “Throughout its history, Connecticut’s LGBTQ population has moved from leading hidden, solitary lives to claiming visible, powerful, valuable, and contributing places in society.” In this episode, we talk about what historians have found in Connecticut’s Colonial records, some surprising connections to famous individuals and landmarks a...
Jun 01, 2024•51 min•Season 3Ep. 188
Did you know that comic books were invented in Connecticut? Well, sort of. There are lots of precedents for printing texts with images. But the origin of mass market comic book printing is 1930s Waterbury, where Eastern Color printing began by re-publishing comic strips from newspapers in magazine form. Eventually they partnered with Dell publishing to print the first original content American comic books. But today’s episode takes us a ways down Route 8 from Waterbury to Derby. From the 1940s t...
May 15, 2024•33 min•Season 3Ep. 187
It’s Spring in Connecticut and this episode is part of our celebration of May as Historic Preservation Month. Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven is the first planned cemetery in the country. The design of Grove Street Cemetery in the 1790s pioneered several of the features that became standard like family plots and an established walkway grid. It is also one of the most beautiful places in Connecticut and is designated as a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service. It is on the Co...
May 01, 2024•41 min•Season 3Ep. 186
In this episode, we uncover a Connecticut World War II story that features airplanes without engines. Sound crazy? You’ll learn how these engineless gliders helped beat the Nazis. Executive Producer Mary Donohue will also talk to the author of a new book that details the role that over 45 Connecticut companies played in producing the ammunition, weapons and machines that the United States needed as part of the massive war effort during World War II. Her guests today are Connecticut author Sharon...
Apr 15, 2024•40 min•Season 3Ep. 185
In this episode, we celebrate and commemorate National Borinqueneers Day coming up on April 13th. It recognizes the bravery, service, and sacrifice of the 65th Infantry Regiment, a United States Army unit that consisted mostly of soldiers from Puerto Rico and the only segregated Latino unit in the United States Army. But the honor and fidelity of the men of the 65th came into question in 1952 during the Korean War when 91 regiment members were arrested and tried for desertion and disobeying orde...
Apr 01, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 184
One of the most recognizable food brands in the world got started in a kitchen in Fairfield, Connecticut. In this episode, Natalie Belanger chats with historian Cathryn J. Prince about Margaret Rudkin, the woman who founded Pepperidge Farm. Read Prince's full-length article about Rudkin on the Connecticut Explored website here: https://www.ctexplored.org/pepperidge-farm-healthful-bread-builds-a-business/ Natalie Belanger is the Adult Programs Manager at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and Hist...
Mar 16, 2024•26 min•Season 3Ep. 183
