218. Connecticut in the Industrial Revolution: Making Buttons in Cheshire
Release Date: 10/01/2025
239. Sam Colt Mines the West (10th Anniversary Encore Release)
Grating the Nutmeg
In celebration of our 10th anniversary, we are bringing you a remastered edition of an episode recorded in 2017 at the University of Hartford as part of the Presidents’ College and ’s “Connecticans in the American West” lecture series. In this episode, Dr. Leah Glaser tells the story of Sam Colt’s investment in the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company in the 1850s, a company that was incorporated in Cincinnati, Ohio to exploit silver mines in the new Arizona Territory. As we found out in Grating the Nutmeg episode #129 Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter that Changed American, Colt...
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238. Living on the Edge: New England, New Netherland, and New Sweden
Grating the Nutmeg
In the 1600s, Connecticut settlers had to contend with a multitude of threats to their survival, both as individuals and as a colony. Those threats weren't just internal — poor harvests, disease, religious strife — but external, too. The colonists were caught up in a complicated web of international diplomacy, vulnerable to the ambitions of imperial powers like the Spanish, the Dutch, the English, and....the Swedes? In this episode, Natalie Belanger chats with Elizabeth Hines, Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida. Dr. Hines is working on a book about Anglo-Dutch...
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237. Mary Barlow: Hartford’s Fallen “Six-Triple-Eight” Soldier
Grating the Nutmeg
This episode tells the story of one of the women depicted in The Six Triple Eight, a 2024 WWII war drama film by Tyler Perry that tells the true story of the 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion. Mary Jewel Barlow was one of only three members of the 6888th Postal Directory Battalion who died in service during World War II and one of only four women buried in the Normandy American Cemetery in France. The 6888 was an all-Black, all-female Women’s Army Corps battalion. A real young woman from Hartford’s North End, Barlow’s life and sacrifice deserve recognition. The guest is . A...
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236. Greater Hartford’s West Indian Diaspora (10th Anniversary Encore Release)
Grating the Nutmeg
In celebration of our tenth anniversary, we are bringing you a remastered edition of an episode recorded in 2018 by Dr. Walter Woodward, Connecticut State Historian Emeritus with Dr. Fiona Vernal and former Hartford History Center Program Manager Jasmin Agusto. Dr. Vernal serves on the Connecticut Explored magazine Editorial Board. She holds a BA in history from Princeton University and a PhD. from Yale University. She is an associate professor of history and Africana studies and director of EPOCH: Engaged Public, Oral, and Community Histories at the University of Connecticut. Since this...
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235. Awakenings and Revolutions: The Harts, Saybrook, and the New Nation
Grating the Nutmeg
From the high seas to the town square, we’re bringing you the story of a New England family navigating revolution, economic expansion, and nation building. is a new look at the residents of the Old Saybrook Historical Society’s Gen. William Hart House and the Hart family of Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Moving between the Connecticut River estuary, Hartford, New London, Boston, New York, and as far as Ohio and the West Indies, the story reveals the Harts’ surprising connections to major moments of Connecticut’s and our nation’s early history. Author and historian Elizabeth...
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234. Saving Connecticut’s Historic Barns
Grating the Nutmeg
In 2006, , then the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, realized that historic barns across the state were being demolished or allowed to fall down. What could be done to save them? Where were they? How many are there? How can we get people across the state to be interested in barns? All of this was unknown. My guest, Todd Levine, was hired to help answer those critical questions. Todd is currently the Environmental Review officer and Connecticut Freedom Trail Coordinator at the . He is an architectural historian and received his graduate degree from the Savannah College...
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233. Rough Justice for Connecticut State Hero Nathan Hale (10th Anniversary Encore Release)
Grating the Nutmeg
Happy 250th birthday to our nation and 10th anniversary to Grating the Nutmeg! In celebration of our 10th anniversary, we are bringing you a remastered edition of an episode recorded in 2020 with , Connecticut State Historian Emeritus. Dr. 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 book from Globe Pequot Press. As you’ll soon hear, when looking for answers about the...
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232. Guides for Black Travelers: New London’s Green Book Sites
Grating the Nutmeg
What’s the first thing you do when you want to take a trip? Look through Instagram to find things to do? Or Yelp for restaurants that serve local cuisine? Today travelers can follow social media influencers and websites that promise to give you an insider’s look at places to stay or the best discounted hotel rates. But for Black travelers in the Jim Crow era through the 1960s, it wasn’t easy to find places to eat or stay overnight. In this episode, we are going to talk about two national guides for Black travelers, both published beginning in the 1930s, and places that were included...
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231. John Hooker: Hartford’s Abolitionist Lawyer
Grating the Nutmeg
In this episode, you’ll be introduced to John Hooker, a Hartford lawyer, judge, and abolitionist as well as a reformer for women’s rights. Hooker was the president of the anti-slavery committee in Hartford, published the Charter Oak anti-slavery newspaper with the Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society of Hartford, and co-authored with his wife Isabella Beecher Hooker, the state bill in 1877 that gave married women more control of their property. Why isn’t he better known? Our guest for this episode is Erika Slocumb, Director of Interpretation & Visitor Experience at the ....
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230. Pursuing Happiness: New Horizons Village
Grating the Nutmeg
In 1955, a group of disabled young adults living at New Britain Memorial Hospital signed a letter declaring their intention to seek out "adventuresome living for the physically handicapped." They formed a nonprofit called New Horizons and set out on a thirty-year journey to raise money and navigate legal barriers in order to realize their most cherished dream: a housing complex for the disabled, run by the disabled. In 2026, New Horizons Village in Farmington turns 40. In this episode, Natalie Belanger of the gives you a capsule history of the New Horizons movement and speaks with...
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A button sounds like a very ordinary thing. But button production in Cheshire was part of Connecticut’s pioneering role in the precision manufacturing revolution of the nineteenth century. According to connecticuthistory.org, button production began with pewter buttons in the mid-eighteenth century but quickly turned to brass in the early nineteenth century. By 1860s, machines in the Scovill Brass factory in Waterbury produced 216,000 buttons per day. This type of industrial production volume for an everyday necessity such as buttons propelled investors and entrepreneurs to establish companies such as the Ball & Socket Manufacturing Company. But what were the benefits and costs of Cheshire’s industrial development during Connecticut’s Industrial Revolution?
Cheshire’s Ball & Socket factory has been transformed into a community arts center as we discovered in Grating the Nutmeg episode 167. New Lives for Old Factories. But its industrial past has not been forgotten-new research by noted historian Elizabeth Fox has been shared with the public in outdoor signage and a feature story in the Fall 2024 issue of Connecticut Explored. Fellow historian Agnes Wnuk has been researching the history of the factory and its effect on Cheshire. My guests Elizabeth Fox and Agnes Wnuk today will share what they’ve uncovered so far! Elizabeth “Betsy” Fox is a retired museum consultant. She lives in Cheshire and has been involved with Ball & Socket Arts as a volunteer for over ten years. She has also written some great articles for Connecticut Explored magazine. Historian Agnes Wnuk has been involved in preservation work at museums and libraries.
Ball & Socket Arts will present a public program on the oral history project and button production at 6:30pm on Nov. 13th, 2025 at the Cheshire Public Library. Get more information here: ballandsocket.org/events/2025/11/13/pushing-buttons-collecting-oral-histories-about-ball-socket-manufacturing
Did you know Waterbury, CT has been a hub of button-making for over 200 years? Buttons aren’t just functional; they’re miniature works of art! Opening October 12, Beau McCall: Buttons On! is the first-ever retrospective of the renowned textile artist known as “The Button Man,” showcasing his striking wearable and visual art created entirely with buttons. The exhibition is complemented by the Mattatuck Museum’s impressive Button Gallery, home to over 20,000 buttons, offering a unique blend of creativity and history through January 4. Get more information here: https://www.mattmuseum.org/exhibition/beau-mccall-buttons-on/
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If you love Connecticut history, be sure to support Grating the Nutmeg by bidding on some fabulous one-of-a-kind experiences in our online benefit auction! History matters! Get more information here: www.ctexplored.org/2nd-grating-the-nutmeg-auction/
To listen to our episode on Ball & Socket Art’s transformation, stream free here:
https://gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com/167-new-lives-for-old-factories-cheshires-ball-socket-arts
This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/ Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky.
Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!