Sanborn maps of Hartford, up to 1960

The CHS library has recently acquired a new, complete set (4 vols, 1922-23) of Sanborn  Fire Insurance maps for Hartford with updates through 1960.  The Sanborn fire insurance maps were originally compiled to help insurers assess the value of property, identify risk factors, and underwrite losses.  The company mapped approximately 12,000 cities and towns, beginning in 1867 and continuing for more than a hundred years.  The maps provide a lot of information, including building outline, size and shape; construction materials; height; building use; windows and doors; street and sidewalk widths; house numbers and more.  Factories are labeled with the owners’ names, as well as the products manufactured there.  In large industrial and commercial buildings even individual rooms and their uses are shown. Also depicted are pipelines, railroads, wells, water mains, dumps, and heavy machinery likely to affect the properties’ vulnerability to earthquakes, fire, and floods.

 Because cities were mapped several times, the maps enable researchers to trace the architectural history of individual buildings or entire cities.  Social historians use them for analyzing many things, from commuting patterns to the evolution of parks.  Environmental historians use them to study the impact on the environment of past uses of buildings.

 The library already owned a set of these maps for Hartford with updates through 1932.  With the acquisition of the new set with updates through 1960, researchers will be able to compare the Hartford of the early 1930s with the Harford of 1960, a period of time in which the city changed in many significant ways.

 

 

Tavernkeeper’s account book

Sometimes in the archives world I feel as if I am in a time warp.  Yesterday it was the Connecticut’s 9/11 Memorial Board and today, I am back in the 18th century!  A very recent purchase is an account book kept by Ichabod Brewster of Lebanon, Connecticut from 1752-1762.  Yes, another account book, but Brewster kept a tavern and probably did business with nearly the entire population of Lebanon at one time or another.  Among the libations he sold–filip, punch, cider and rum in any size from a dram to a pipe to a gill.  Only occasionally is there an entry for oats (so the horses did not get much, it would seem).  He appears to have delivered liquor to events as well as serving at this tavern.  He bills people for rum “at the election” or “at the coal pit.”  I know I read in my history books back in high school that rum was often present at elections–often to woo voters one way or another–but it is another thing to see an entry from an account book of the time that mentions the fact.

As a side occupation, Brewster was a cobbler so there are numerous entries of repairing and making shoes sprinkled among the liquor.  He also sold sugar, molasses and butter.  Many of the accounts were settled with cash, which seems unusual, but there are still a number in which individuals paid with their labor or service.

Connecticut’s 9/11 Memorial Board

It is often hard to accept the concept that history is as recent as yesterday. That concept was put to the test recently when the CHS library acquired mementos from the 9/11 tragedy. The Connecticut Helps Office of Family Support invited victims families and friends to contribute to a Memorial Board in March 2002. The board contained pictures, letters, artwork, and poems and traveled throughout the state for two years. The Memorial Board reappeared again, in a slightly different format, in 2006 when the CHS prepared an exhibit honoring the vicitims and families of 9/11 on the fifth anniversary of the tragedy. Many tributes to the victims are what we call “ephemeral”, meaning they don’t usually exist long after the event. Museums have been trying to document the reaction to 9/11 by collecting this ephemeral material, like “Have you seen . . .” posters plastered along the routes surrounding the World Trade Center. We are extremely grateful that the Office of Family Support encouraged the Memorial Board and then gave the items to us to preserve for posterity. With this kind of material available, we shall, I hope, “never forget”.

Mohican Rifle Corps

Many of our military records revolve around units that served during the Revolution and the Civil War. Like other states, Connecticut maintained a militia between those two conflicts, and the records of the First Mohican Rifle Corps, 1840-1844, provide a picture of the workings of the militia. The Mohican Rifle Corps was part of the 9th Regiment, 6th Brigade and was stationed in Norwalk, commanded by P.L. Cunningham. The return of members’ names to the Selectmen of Norwalk in 1844 includes 41 men with names such as Quintard, Selleck, Jarvis, Knapp, Peck and Parmelee. The records include an orderly book, secretary’s records and the constitution and by-laws of the corps.