Every time a best of list is drawn up, naysayers pop up. One hundred best movies: Says who? World’s most beautiful women: But how about …? One hundred greatest athletes: Hey, wait a minute …
The exhibit currently on display by the Connecticut Historical Society, “50 Objects/50 Stories,” undoubtedly will bring the same responses. How can an exhibit of 50 physical objects that tell the story of our state do without items relating to Mark Twain, the Amistad, Prudence Crandall, the Hartford Courant, Katharine Hepburn?
Executive Director Jody Blankenship expects discussion and welcomes it. “We want to start a conversation,” Blankenship said.
The exhibit, by focusing on many well-known and not-so-well-known facets of Connecticut history, brings a lot of stories to light that are not as well known as those superstars of Nutmeg past and present.
There is the story of Adeline Gray, who in 1942 became the first human to jump out of a plane using a nylon parachute, made by Pioneer Parachute Co. of Manchester.
There is the story of Munson Hoyt of Norwalk, who proudly supported England during the American Revolution, and wore a red coat that is in remarkably fresh condition for a garment that is more than 230 years old.
There is the gavel used by Ella Grasso, the nation’s first woman to be elected governor without being the wife or widow of a previous governor.
There is the space suit — officially called an “Extravehicular Mobility Unit” — made by UTC Aerospace Systems in Windsor Locks and worn by NASA astronauts.
“There are various stories of Connecticut,” said Ben Gammell, the society’s coordinator of interpretive projects and curator of “50 Objects/50 Stories.” “Each object gives a little morsel of what this story is about.”
All the artifacts in the show are historically engrossing, but each has its own vibe. Gammell called the exhibit “a good mix of people’s own things from their attics and historical societies sharing objects that represent the stories of their communities.”
Some are goofy. The item representing the Hartford Whalers is a 45 of the team’s theme song, “Brass Bonanza,” which exhibit visitors can turn on if they want. A “Bellarmine Jug” from the 1600s, used to ward off witchcraft, is carved with an evil-looking face, and is accompanied by notes from a 1638 hellfire-and-damnation sermon by Thomas Hooker. A blob of hardtack food rations from the Civil War, saved by a soldier from Southington, is described as a vile-tasting, unappetizingly stiff chunk often infested with weevil larvae. A circa 1800 writing table from Litchfield Law School shows that even law students sometimes carve their names into their desks.
Other items are completely serious: Nathan Hale’s wartime diary, a map of the section of Ohio that used to be owned by Connecticut, a fossil from the bottom of the Connecticut River that retained impressions of wave movements. Arrowheads made by Pequot Indians from melted-down British flatware are surprisingly small and pointed, and an 1842 sermon by escaped slave J.C.W. Pennington demands an end to slavery. A pike made in Farmington for Torrington abolitionist John Brown was intended to be used by slaves who joined Brown’s insurrection.
A few “artifacts” could be bought by anyone with a few bucks: a tape rule by Stanley Works of New Britain, a Frank Pepe’s pizza from New Haven.
Actually, it’s just a Frank Pepe’s box. Blankenship said some stories the exhibit wanted to tell couldn’t be represented by the objects themselves. “We can’t put a shad in a display case, or tobacco,” he said. Or a pizza, or a chunk of ice from Burnside Ice Co. of East Hartford. The annual Shad Derby in Windsor is represented by a hat, the Connecticut tobacco industry by a tobacco sewing machine and the ice company by a pair of tongs.
The show is equally divided between artifacts from centuries and decades of long ago and contemporary artifacts. Among the most recent are UConn basketball jerseys worn by Diana Taurasi and Kemba Walker and two same-sex marriage licenses, one for State Sen. Beth Bye of West Hartford.
Blankenship said the exhibits are interesting beyond their existence in and of themselves. “There is something to be said here for how we define ourselves through our work, what purpose we provide,” he said. “John Brown’s pike, the purpose was freedom. The space suit, it’s exploration to the unknown.
“The items made here ultimately represent the values of a group of people who live here,” he said. “We have the tangible evidence here of who we are and who we aspire to be.”
All the items also can be seen in an online gallery at chs.org, which also includes about 100 additional items not in the exhibit. More submissions will be accepted for the online gallery until October.
“50 OBJECTS/50 STORIES” is at Connecticut Historical Society, One Elizabeth St. in Hartford, until Oct. 24. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Thursday noon to 5 p.m., Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit chs.org.
