188. Revealing Queer Lives: Connecticut’s LGBTQ History
Grating the Nutmeg
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 and at the end of the episode, there’s a recommendation for three places to...
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187. Derby's Charlton Comics: "No Other Place Like It"
Grating the Nutmeg
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 to 1991, Derby was the home of Charlton Comics, unique for being a one-stop shop that...
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186. New Haven’s Pioneering Grove Street Cemetery
Grating the Nutmeg
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 Connecticut Freedom Trail. Executive Producer Mary Donohue’s guests are...
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185. Connecticut Industries Unite for WWII Victory: Pratt, Read & Co Gliders
Grating the Nutmeg
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 Cohen and Melissa Josefiak, Executive Director of the Essex Historical Society....
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184. The Borinqueneers: Puerto Rico’s Men of the 65th Regiment
Grating the Nutmeg
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 orders. How could this happen to such a distinguished and decorated unit of the...
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183. Margaret Rudkin of Pepperidge Farm
Grating the Nutmeg
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: Natalie Belanger is the Adult Programs Manager at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History. You can see the Margaret Rudkin Pepperidge Farm Cookbook in their current exhibition, , open now through September 8, 2024....
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Celebrate Women’s History Month with Grating the Nutmeg
Grating the Nutmeg
March 1st marks the start of Women’s History Month. To celebrate, we’ve gathered a sampling of five episodes that share the incredible stories of Connecticut women throughout history. Click on the links below, and then press play on the next page for your next good story. We hope you enjoy these episodes and are inspired by the great women of Connecticut history! : In 1969, women were permitted entry to undergraduate study at Yale for the first time. However, they did not enjoy the same experience as their male peers. Isolated, singled out as oddities and sexual objects,...
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182. Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution
Grating the Nutmeg
Are they pirates, profiteers or legitimately authorized extensions of George Washington’s almost non-existent American Navy? We’ll find out with guest historian Eric Jay Dolin, author of Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American RevolutIon. Dolin will underscore an element missing from most maritime histories of the American Revolution: a ragtag fleet of private vessels — from 20-foot whaleboats to 40-cannon men-of-war helped win the war, including some 200 from Connecticut. Armed with cannons, guns, muskets, and pikes, thousands of privateers tormented the British on the...
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181. Hartford and the Great Migration, 1914-1950
Grating the Nutmeg
181. Hartford and the Great Migration, 1914-1950 In the February 4, 2024 issue of the New York Times, journalist Adam Mahoney describes the Great Migration as a time when millions of Black people left the South to escape segregation, servitude and lynching and went North in search of jobs and stable housing. In this episode, host Mary Donohue will discuss Hartford and the Great Migration with Dr. Stacey Close. Connecticut Explored’s book African American Connecticut Exploredpublished by Wesleyan University Press has just celebrated its 10th anniversary. Dr. Close served as one...
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180. Colonial Connecticut: Sugar, Slavery and Connections to the West Indies
Grating the Nutmeg
Although Connecticut sometimes seems like such a small, isolated place on the map, it was connected to the far-flung, complex, cosmopolitan British empire even in the 17th century. This year on Grating the Nutmeg, we’re going to explore Connecticut’s maritime history with episodes on Colonial Connecticut’s trade with the British colonies of the Caribbean, privateering during the American Revolution and the whaling ships sent around the globe in the nineteenth century. Connecticut’s maritime entrepreneurs made fortunes by sending ships to sea and employed sailors,...
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Learn more about the Nutmeg state’s connection to the comic industry by visiting the Connecticut Museum’s exhibition, Connecticut’s Bookshelf now on display at the museum in Hartford. Jon B. Cooke’s book, The Charlton Companion, is available in digital form online at twomorrows.com
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This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/
Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Help us produce the podcast by donating to non-profit Connecticut Explored at https://ctexplored.networkforgood.com/projects/179036-support-ct-history-podcast-grating-the-nutmeg
Photo Credit: My Secret Life, Charlton Publications, Vol. 1, No. 25, Sept. 1958. Connecticut Museum Collection.