New Book Releases

On the banks of the Mystic River, the Connecticut community of Mystic has a maritime history that stretches back beyond the founding of the nation. Starting as a Native American settlement, the area switched hands--first to the Dutch, then to the English--before finally becoming a part of the United States after the Revolutionary War. Mystic's location made it an ideal port for coastal commerce. As the nation grew, so did Mystic, with the village using its unique location to serve both the coastal fishing industry and the US Navy. The Mystic drawbridge serves as a reminder of the community's maritime heritage. In its current state, Mystic serves as both a cradle to some of Connecticut's oldest families and a tourist attraction for those wanting to sample vintage New England life.

Woodmont on the Sound inhabits a small corner of the world: one square mile with a mile and a half of shoreline on Long Island Sound. It is a borough within the city of Milford, and at the beginning of the 20th century it became a popular summer resort, as trolleys ran through the area from New Haven to Bridgeport. Stately wooden hotels, inns, and cottages welcomed guests for days, weeks, or the entire summer season. Woodmont was a destination for those seeking sun, swimming, boating, and fishing during the hot summer months. Before electricity, telephones, and automobiles, postcards were a fun and vital communication between Woodmont residents and the outside world.

Founded in 1646 and known as "the Whaling City," New London has played an important role in American history since Colonial days. Its natural harbor at the mouth of the Thames River connects the city to the sea. Around the turn of the 20th century, New London flourished as the hub of southeastern Connecticut. With roots as one of the main ports for the whaling industry, the city became home to a wealthy summer resort called the Pequot Colony. Over the years, dramatic changes occurred as a result of natural disasters, such as the 1938 hurricane, and man-made changes, such as the 1960s redevelopment project. Historical postcards offer a glimpse into bustling city life during this exciting time.

This fascinating collection of picture postcards documents the history of Westport and Weston, from the late 1800s through the 1950s.

From the 1890s through the 1920s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication, and many of the postcards produced during this ""golden age"" can today be considered works of art. Westport, Connecticut, a tourist mecca with an artistic reputation, has been captured on numerous postcards featuring scenes of the New England town's shore, its restaurants and inns, and its stately homes and gardens. The neighboring town of Weston, where the beauty of the surroundings is paramount, featured captivating nature scenes. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores across the country, survive as telling reminders of an important era in America's history. This fascinating new history of Westport and Weston, Connecticut, showcases more than two hundred of the best vintage postcards dating from the late 1800s to the 1950s.

For the residents of the Naugatuck Valley, in the days before shopping malls and highways, downtown Waterbury was the place to go.

The clock tower, the horse fountain, the Palace Theater, the curved building on Grand and Meadow Streets, abandoned mills, buried rivers, railroads to nowhere-these are some of the familiar and not-so-familiar landmarks of Waterbury. Who built them and why? Waterbury: 1890-1930 is a step back to a time when Waterbury was a major industrial center. Expanding factories were at peak production, churning out enormous quantities of brass products, and the city was struggling to keep pace with its own population explosion.

The gilded city of Hartford triumphantly returns in this volume, Victorian Hartford Revisited, a compilation of many never before published images of Victorian splendor and incredible architecture. The social, economic, cultural, and architectural center of the state went through unparalleled growth after the Civil War. Demand for new technology made Hartford not only the political capital but the epicenter of the Industrial Revolution in the region. Tremendous wealth accumulated and materialized in the form of extensive estates, historic parks, magnificent schools, churches, public buildings, grand hotels, and a multitude of immigrant housing. This once Colonial port city along the Connecticut River rose to epitomize America's Victorian age, and it is captured within these impressive pages.