Wadsworth Atheneum | inside the CHS

Ms 84342 Dollie McLean. This is a photographic reproduction by Robert J. Bitondi, and was included in the research collection, Black Women of Connecticut, for the CHS exhibition “Achievements against the Odds”.

Born (Dollie) Clarice Helene Simmons in Antigua, West Indies, Dollie McLean was raised in Manhattan, later lived in the Bronx, and graduated from both the University of Hartford and FIT. Mrs. McLean has been an avid participant in the arts throughout her life, having performed off-Broadway as an actress and dancer with various organizations like the Negro Ensemble Company. Continue reading →

Connecticut artist John Trumbull was an old man when he produced his iconic painting showing the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Connecticut in 1756 and was the son of Connecticut’s governor Jonathan Trumbull. Young Trumbull served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War from 1776 to 1777, part of that time as a personal aide to George Washington. He therefore knew many of the men in his famous painting. The original painting, completed in 1818, hangs in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. A smaller version was one of the main attractions at the Wadsworth Atheneum, when it opened in 1844. Located in Hartford, Connecticut, the Wadsworth Atheneum was America’s first public art museum. The Kellogg brothers’ lithography business was located right across the street. It’s tempting to think that they might have based their 1845 lithograph directly on Trumbull’s painting. I like to imagine the print prominently on view in the window of their shop on Main Street.