New Book Releases

When early photographers began recording scenes around Simsbury, the town was over 200 years old and changing with the times.

Photographs taken in 1885 during a mile-high balloon ride trace railroads, rather than the old canal, running through the town. Grand Victorian mansions, some of them summer residences, arose among cherished family homes on farms dating from colonial times. The mills in the Tariffville section and Toy, Bickford & Company near the center of town provided housing for workers who arrived from Europe. Townspeople sent their youngest children to one of 12 district schools. By 1917, the town could boast of a centrally located public high school as well as two private boarding schools. In Simsbury, images capture the mix of old and new until the advent of World War II.

From 1837 to 1900 the tiny borough of Stonington, Connecticut was a major transportation hub on the route between New York and Boston. Steamboats leaving Manhattan followed Long Island Sound to Stonington Harbor where passengers boarded trains for the rest of the journey to Providence or Boston.

Stonington's Steamboat Hotel, built in 1838 near the piers and railroad yard, was home to saloons, restaurants, a pool hall, a cigar shop, a tailor and a barber shop. Merchants, hotel keepers and saloon workers passed through the building, each with their own unique story. Many of them were immigrants or first-generation Americans, and they are a window onto a late 19th-century class of merchants and service workers.

Join local author Stuart Vyse as he reveals a lively portrait of remarkable harmony in a small village that was far more diverse than it is today.

Bethel brings to life the people, places, industries, and institutions of this independent town from the 1860s through the 1950s through vintage photographs.

Separated from Danbury in 1855, Bethel was settled as early as 1700. Studies of the town's unique and colorful past have been somewhat neglected until recently, however, as many assumed that existing histories of Danbury were all that was needed to document the area's beginnings. With Bethel, town historian Patrick Wild brings to life the people, places, industries, and institutions of the independent town from the 1860s through the 1950s for the first time through a remarkable series of vintage photographs. The hat-making industry was critical to the Bethel economy, and the arrival of the Danbury-Norwalk Railroad in 1852 allowed commerce in this field to blossom. Hatting remained Bethel's primary enterprise until the end of the 1960s, and the town is often associated with this successful venture. Bethel is also known as the birthplace of an American legend, the great showman P. T. Barnum. The fountain that Barnum donated to his hometown is showcased in this work in a series of outstanding photographs taken before the tragic destruction of the landmark in 1923. Patrick Wild is a member of the Bethel Historical

Historic photographs tell the story of the illustrious New London Police Department from 1868 to today.

New London, Connecticut, established its first permanent police force in 1868 when a nightwatch and police station were approved by city council. In the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, the busy port of New London doubled in population, reaching almost 20,000 by 1910 with just 17 patrolmen keeping order. In January 1924, the council approved the hiring of a woman as a police officer. In the early 1960s, a police union was formed by members of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association to provide better working conditions. By the early 1990s, the department had moved into its current building and updated its computer-aided dispatch, added mobile computers in police cars, digitized its maps, and created a new records management system. The current department chief's office overlooks a bus and train depot, a busy deepwater port, and a city that draws thousands of people every summer.

West Hartford depicts the rich and interesting history of this community.

In 1854, West Hartford formally separated from Hartford. West Hartford, compiled in honor of the town's sesquicentennial, showcases its history from earliest settlement to more recent happenings, including the 2003 Cow Parade. With more than two hundred photographs, many previously unpublished, West Hartford recalls the past of this interesting community and celebrates its present. The Central Theater marquee survives, while Burnham's grocery, the Elm Theater, and the West Hartford Lanes, all pictured in these pages, are only memories. Other landmarks, such as the Quaker Lane Diner, the Woman's Exchange, Hall's Market, and the Kingswood Market, continue to serve the community.

Connecticut's history is full of engaging and fascinating stories, rocks that are national monuments, the "people's sculptor," football players on chapel finials, moons on the Travelers calendars, artists Frederic Church and Eric Sloane and even a Thanksgiving Day touch football game with a future president.

These are tales from Greenwich to Enfield, from Sharon to Old Lyme and so much in between. Follow along with historian Wilson Faude in this "must-have" Connecticut book as he traverses the state in search of hidden history.

Read the history of Mystic, Connecticut, from quiet farming village to wartime shipbilding powerhouse, to the charming nautical- themed destination it is today.

Tucked away in a natural port, Mystic has long been home to seagoing adventure. In A History of Mystic, Connecticut, author and former Mystic Seaport librarian Leigh Fought relates the compelling story of this picturesque coastal community. Forged from the brutal Pequot War, for years Mystic was a quiet little farming village. Then came the War of 1812. Mystic's upstart venture capitalists seized on the war's dislocations to transform the settlement into a shipbuilding powerhouse. The shipyards launched vessels by the hundreds and an industry was born. The Civil War, steam-powered ships and the decline of commercial whaling halted Mystic's shipbuilding boom. Yet the town recovered, transforming itself into the charming nautical-themed tourist destination that has enchanted millions. Read Fought's comprehensive narrative to discover Mystic's role in New England's thrilling maritime saga.

While Middlesex County is one of the most historic communities in the nation, some of its past is little known.

Researchers found dinosaur tracks in Middlefield that date back 200 million years. The author of Dr. Dolittle, Hugh Lofting, lived in Killingworth, and a young Dr. Seuss spent summers in Clinton. Constance Baker Motley, the first female African American federal judge, resided in Chester. A Portland lake has water levels that fluctuate for no apparent reason. An Essex blacksmith shop was America's oldest continuously run family business. Local authors Robert and Kathleen Hubbard reveal these and many other unforgettable stories.

A History of Connecticut Food aims to acquaint the reader with the long and storied relationship of the state's people and their provisions.

Each chapter will focus on a different crop, livestock, game, or prepared dish that Connecticut has either pioneered or made its own. Along with these brief histories, the book will feature traditional and modernized recipes. In short, A History of Connecticut Food will both inform the people of Connecticut about their culinary past and inspire them to explore it.

Norwich State Hospital (NSH), established in 1904, was more than just a series of mortar and brick buildings to house and treat persons suffering from mental illness.

For nearly 100 years, generations of people dedicated their careers and lives to developing NSH as a humanitarian community for mental illness rehabilitation. NSH gained international attention from some of the world's most renowned psychiatrists for being the first state hospital to boast a brand-new state-of-the-art building to house all occupational therapies under one roof. Although NSH closed in 1996, the structure has continued to be one of Connecticut's most notable historical landmarks, despite its ongoing demolition and redevelopment. Today, Norwich State Hospital is still alive in the timeless, emotional memories employees and family members share of what it was like to work and grow up in a place where employees were not just employees and patients were not just patients; they were family.

Long neglected in the annals of American music, the Nutmeg State's influence on the history of rock'n'roll deserves recognition.

Connecticut's musical highlights include the beautiful harmonies of New Haven's Five Satins, Gene Pitney's rise to fame, Stamford's the Fifth Estate and notable rockers such as Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Rivers Cuomo of Weezer and Saturday Night Live Band's Christine Ohlman. Rock Hall of Famers include Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz of the Talking Heads and Dennis Dunaway of the Alice Cooper Band. Some events became legend, like Jimi Hendrix's spellbinding performance at Yale's Woolsey Hall, Jim Morrison's onstage arrest at the New Haven Arena and teenage Bob Dylan's appearance at Branford's Indian Neck Folk Festival. With in-depth interviews as well as rare, never-before-seen photos, author Tony Renzoni leads a sonic trip that captures the spirit and zenith of the local scene.

Since 1938, when the Merritt's first 7-mile section was opened to traffic, millions have shared a fascination for Connecticut's Merritt Parkway and its bridges.

A survey made in 1928 called for a two-lane macadam highway to run from Stratford to Greenwich; with $1 million of state money, construction started on the Merritt Highway in 1932. Opened for 38 miles on September 2, 1940, it became known throughout Fairfield County as the ""Queen of Parkways."" Discover the beginnings of this groundbreaking advance in American travel in Traveling the Merritt Parkway. This pictorial history preserves and pays tribute to the history of the Merritt, and explores the construction of the parkway, as well as the little-known parent highway for which the earliest bridges were constructed, including White Plains Road in the town of Trumbull.

The celebrated history of New Haven often overshadows its fascinating and forgotten past.

The Elm City was home to America's first woman dentist, an architect who designed the tallest twin towers in the world and a medical student who used toy parts to create an artificial heart pump. The city's share of disasters includes Connecticut's worst aviation crash, a zookeeper who was mauled to death and a fire at the Rialto Theater. Local authors Robert and Kathleen Hubbard reveal the rich and fascinating cultural legacies of one of New England's most treasured cities.