Grating the Nutmeg

About this podcast

Grating the Nutmeg scratches beneath the surface of Connecticut's history with stories from Connecticut Explored, the state's most popular history magazine, and new content unique to this podcast. All are stories about the past well worth hearing in the present. A joint production of the State Historian and Connecticut Explored, our goal is to give you great history you look forward to listening to

Grating the Nutmeg

Episodes

2021
Yale Needs Women
In 1969, women were allowed entry to undergraduate study at Yale for the first time. Their experience was not the same as their male peers enjoyed. Isolated from one another, singled out as oddities and sexual objects, and barred from many of the school’s privileges, the young women nonetheless met the challenge of being first and changed Yale in ways it had never anticipated. Mary Donohue interviews historian and Yale alumna Anne Gardiner Perkins, author of Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant and New Haven leader Constance Royster, one of Yale’s first women undergrads. Anne Gardiner Perkins is an award-winning historian and higher education expert, and the author of Yale Needs Women, which won the 2020 Connecticut Book Award. Ms. Royster holds a J.D. from Rutgers University Law School – Newark, and a B.A. cum laude from Yale University. This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan. Ms. Donohue has documented Connecticut’s architecture, built environment and popular culture for over 30 years. Contact her at marydonohue@comcast.net
March 1, 2021
44 min
112. And So The Tomb Remained
What secrets about the past can an ancient tomb reveal? The answers, as State Archaeologist emeritus Nick Bellantoni explains, are many, surprising, and incredibly interesting. In this conversation about Nick's new book, And So the Tomb Remained: Exploring Archaeology and Forensic Science in Connecticut's Historical Family Mausolea, State Historian Walt Woodward and Bellantoni, who in his 30 plus years as state archaeologist entered more tombs that any other archeologist, talk about Nick's experiences doing restoration, recovery work, and crimonal investigations in the tombs of some of Connecticut's oldest and most powerful families.
February 15, 2021
59 min
The New Haven Black Panther Trials
Fifty years ago, Ericka Huggins and Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers were on trial for their lives in New Haven. In this episode, Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society takes a look back at the New Haven Black Panther trials, using some of the many primary sources available. To learn more about the New Haven Black Panther Trials: To see Robert Templeton’s courtroom sketches of the Black Panther Trials, go here. The trial transcripts are available digitally through Yale Law School’s Lillian Goldman Law Library. The online exhibit, “Bulldog and Panther: The 1970 May Day Rally and Yale,” at Yale University Library, covers the events leading up to the May Rally, and its aftermath. The recording of Alex Rackely’s interrogation can be heard via Youtube through this link to the New Haven Independent’s reporting of its discovery. Editor Paul Bass co-wrote, with Douglas W. Rae, Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale, and the Redemption of a Killer. Yohuru Williams’s essay, “The New Haven Black Panther Trials,” appears in African American Connecticut Explored, published through a collaboration between Connecticut Explored and the Amistad Center for Art & Culture. Williams is also the author of Black Politics, White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Black Panthers in New Haven. And in these two Connecticut Explored articles online below: https://www.ctexplored.org/the-hartford-chapter-of-the-black-panthers-an-interview-with-butch-lewis/ https://www.ctexplored.org/the-new-haven-black-panther-trials/ You can learn more about this topic by tuning in to a virtual talk by Dr. Yohuru Williams, historian and founder of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, on February 24, 2021. "No Haven: Civil Rights, Black Power and Black Panthers in New Haven," hosted by the Connecticut Historical Society, will be streamed live on Crowdcast and available after for re-watch. Click here to register. Natalie Belanger is the Adult Programs Manager at the Connecticut Historical Society. You can contact her at natalie_belanger@chs.org. Produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan. Photo Credit: Black Panther Community News Service, CHS Collection, 2018.22.2
February 1, 2021
22 min
Polish Jewish History, World War II and a Jewish Child’s Survival
In this episode, join Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored to learn more about Polish-Jewish history and how our guest Dr. Leon Chameides survived the Nazi occupation of Poland as a Jewish child. Despite the fact that many American Jews trace their family to Poland, there are many misconceptions about Polish history and the history of Polish-Jewish relations. Dr. Leon Chameides was born in Poland in 1935 and spent the war years hidden in a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic monastery. He went to England in 1946 and came to the United States in 1949. He was Director of Pediatrics at Hartford Hospital for 10 years. To read more about Dr. Chameide’s life and family, look for his book Strangers in Many Lands, available on Amazon books. For more information about Hartford’s Jewish history, go to the website of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford at https://jhsgh.org/ and for more about Connecticut’s connection to the Holocaust, go to the website of Voices of Hope at http://ctvoicesofhope.org/ For more about Connecticut’s military history, go to https://www.ctexplored.org/connecticut-at-war/ Mary M. Donohue is the Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored. She has documented Connecticut’s architecture, built environment and popular culture for over 30 years. Contact her at https://www.granthousect.com/ This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan.
January 18, 2021
54 min
Communicating with the Spirits: Theodate Pope Riddle
In 1938 pioneering female architect and founder of the Hill-Stead Museum, Theodate Pope Riddle of Farmington enjoyed an excursion through Europe. While in London she participated in three sittings with trance mediums, continuing an avocational interest in spiritualism that lasted 34 years. Hear more about Riddle’s efforts to scientifically prove the ability to communicate with the deceased in this episode hosted by Mary Donohue, Asst Publisher of Connecticut Explored and Melanie Bourbeau, Curator and Director of Interpretation and Programs at the Hill-Stead Museum. If you’d like to learn more about the Theodate Pope Riddle and Spiritualism, visit the museum’s website at https://www.hillstead.org/ and read Bourbeau’s article in the Winter 2020-21 issue of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut History. Theodate Pope Riddle was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame-read more here: https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/theodate-pope-riddle For more on Spiritualism in Connecticut, go to the website of Connecticut Explored for these articles at: https://www.ctexplored.org/isabella-beecher-hooker-and-the-spirit-of-reform/ https://www.ctexplored.org/the-pine-grove-spiritualist-camp/ Mary M. Donohue is the Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored. She has documented Connecticut’s architecture, built environment and popular culture for over 30 years. This episode was produced by Mary M. Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan. Want a daily dose of Connecticut history? Subscribe to TODAYINCTHISTORY.com and follow Connecticut Explored on Facebook and Instagram.
January 1, 2021
31 min
2020
Up and Down the River - Creating a Mohegan Radio Drama
Mohegan Medicine Woman, Tribal Historian, and award-winning playwright and screenwriter Meissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel does a virtual sit-down with state historian Walt Woodward to talk about the radio drama Up and Down the River she and her equally accomplished daughter Madeline Sayet recently wrote, produced, and directed for Hartford's Heartbeat Ensemble. The five short plays provide a unique and important window into key moments in Mohegan history and culture. Zobel provides both a writer's and a people's perspective on the stories, and tells how everyone can - for a limited time - hear the radio drama for free on the Heartbeat Ensemble website
December 15, 2020
56 min
Miss Florence’s Boardinghouse and American Impressionism
In this episode, Mary Donohue talks to Curator Amy Kurtz Lansing about one of the most beautiful places to visit in Connecticut - the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme. Did Old Lyme become the home to an art colony because of the good food at Miss Florence’s boardinghouse or because of the soft, lovely light on the salt marshes along the Lieutenant River? The episode uncovers the roots of the Old Lyme Art Colony and also new exhibitions up now including Celebrating 20 Years of the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection, an exhibit that marks the arrival of 190 works of art in 2001, a gift that transformed the Griswold Museum, and a second exhibition, the Centennial of the Lyme Art Association Gallery , the museum’s neighbor, that partially recreates their 1921 inaugural exhibition in their shingle style building designed by society architect Charles A. Platt, designer of the Freer Art Gallery in Washington, DC and the Lyman Allyn Museum in New London, Connecticut. Florence Griswold was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/florence-griswold For more information and photos go to the website of Connecticut Explored at: https://www.ctexplored.org/the-spirit-of-miss-florence-restored/ https://www.ctexplored.org/painting-with-needle-thread/ https://www.ctexplored.org/only-waiting-to-be-painted-the-inspirational-landscape-of-old-lyme/ To learn more about the Florence Griswold Museum and the current exhibitions, go to https://florencegriswoldmuseum.org/ Mary M. Donohue is the Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history. She has documented Connecticut’s architecture, built environment and pop culture for over 30 years. This episode was produced by Mary M. Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan. You can help us continue to produce Grating the Nutmeg. Please make a gift to Friends of Connecticut Explored and use coupon code Gratingthenutmeg to have your gift support the podcast. All gifts with this coupon code will be shared with the Office of the State Historian to support its outreach efforts. Go to ctexplored.org to make your donation.
December 6, 2020
32 min
Steve Grant's Legendary 1991 Source-to-Sea Connecticut River Journey Part 1
In the summer of 1991, reporter and environmentalist Steve Grant traveled the entire 410 miles of the Connecticut River from its source near the Canadian border in New Hampshire to the Long Island Sound by self-addled canoe. Throughout the 33 day journey, Grant reported on his voyage in stories for the Hartford Courant. His every-other-day tales made Grant a celebrity and his journey a legend. Twenty-nine years after that life-changing trip,State Historian Walt Woodward met Grant on the banks of the Connecticut River in Hartford, to talk about the journey, the man, and the river in another time. It's a fascinating two-part interview that covers everything from early 90's internet technology, to environmental restoration, to moose-induced traffic jams in the Great North Woods.
November 16, 2020
63 min
Steve Grant's Legendary 1991 Source-to-Sea Connecticut River Journey
In part two oof Steve Grant's Legendary 1991 Source-to-Sea journey on the Connecticut River, we'll talk about Some of the Connecticut RIver's endangered species, the issues that affected the river's health then and now, the celebrations at the end of the voyage, and what the journey means to Grant some thirty years one. To read Steve's work and see more of his nature photography visit thestevegrantebsite.com The song 'Great River" by Walt Woodward, was peformed by Walt and The Band of Steady Habits –– Rachel Smith, Teagan Smith, Jeremy Teitelbaum, Duke York, & Walt Woodward
November 16, 2020
60 min
Connecticut’s Rosie the Riveter: Working Women in WWII
In this episode, Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society takes a look at the iconic Rosie the Riveter character. To get the scoop on what it was like to be a real-life "Rosie" in CT during WWII, she speaks to Gretchen Caulfield, President of the American Rosie the Riveter Association. (https://rosietheriveter.net/) Get our Commemorative 75th Anniversary of World War II Fall 2020 issue-full of CT WWII stories-by subscribing to Connecticut Explored at our Special Podcast Sale Price! Get 6 issues for the price of 4 or 10 issues for the price of 8! Teacher rates excluded. Use the code NUTMEG on our website at https://www.ctexplored.org/subscribe/ And see photos of Connecticut’s own Working Women in WWII at this link: https://www.ctexplored.org/connecticuts-own-rosie-the-riveter/ This episode was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan.
November 1, 2020
39 min
Great Traditions - The Connecticut Election Cake
(Image - Brookfield Registrars, chistinascucina.com) With elections leaving so many people with a bitter taste in their mouths, we're celebrating one of Connecticut's oldest – and for centuries best known – traditions; the Connecticut Election cake. In this conversation with Allie Kyff of the Connecticut Democracy Center at Connecticut's Old State House,state Historian Walt Woodward discusses the fascinating history of this delicious tradition. BAKE YOUR WAY TO GLORY! Join in a statewide election cake decorating contest held by Connecticut's Old State House. Celebrate a 200-year old Connecticut Election Day tradition by entering our Election Day Cake Virtual Contest. Inspire everyone to vote by baking a cake, decorating it, and entering to win! Bake your cake using the original Election Day Cake recipe or follow a recipe of your own choosing! Since our judges won't be able to taste your delicious creations, we are going to judge on decoration alone. Make a cake that you would love to eat on election day-- one that looks as good as it tastes, celebrates elections, and inspires voting! Watch our Facebook Live interview with State Historian Dr. Walt Woodward from September 23rd, Hartford's Election Day Cake: A Yummy Civic Tradition, to learn more about this great tradition. Make sure that your are following Connecticut's Old State House on Facebook, Instagram (@CTOldStateHouse) and Twitter (@CTOldStateHouse) or opt into our email list for October updates and the winning announcement on Monday, November 2, 20202! Rules: 1. Bake a cake and decorate it in a way that celebrates voting and inspires people to vote on November 3rd. 2. The cake MUST be non-partisan. 3. Cakes that promote an issue, party, or person will be disqualified. 4. Submit no more than three pictures of your cake. One photo must be of the entire cake either from above or at an angle. 5. Send your submission to ctdemocracycenter@gmail.com by 5pm on Monday, October 26, 2020. 6. Only one submission per person is permitted. 7. This contest is open to all ages. Winners and prizes will be announced on Monday, November 2, 2020. ------------------------------------------------- Please note that this is a virtual event. There is no in-person component.
October 15, 2020
48 min
Cannonballs and Skyscrapers: Keeler Tavern Museum
Owned by the same family for its first 200 years then purchased by star architect Cass Gilbert in 1907 for his summer home, the Keeler Tavern was there when the American Revolution’s Battle of Ridgefield happened and it has a cannonball embedded in the façade to prove it. New York City architect Cass Gilbert, designer of early skyscrapers like the Woolworth Building in New York City, kept all of the home’s Colonial charm and added to it! Find out. Cass Gilbert had a big impact on Connecticut’s architecture in Hartford, Waterbury, Waterford and New Haven. But there’s more to the Keeler Tavern than a pretty place! New research is enhancing the museum’s ability to tell women’s and African American history in programming for adults and children. The pandemic pushed many museums to reach out to their audience using new technologies. Hear more about how the Keeler Tavern Museum and History Center’s dynamic staff is telling their story and finding new audiences in 2020 with architectural historian Mary Donohue. Thank our guests Hildi Grob, Executive Director, Catherine Prescott, Chief Curator, and Melissa Houston, Educational Director from the Keeler Tavern Museum and History Center. See more at https://keelertavernmuseum.org/ Find a photo album for this episode at https://www.ctexplored.org/ Read more online at ctexplored.org in the article https://www.ctexplored.org/benedict-arnold-and-the-battle-of-ridgefield/ And read about architect Cass Gilbert in our online articles including https://www.ctexplored.org/glamour-and-purpose-in-new-havens-union-station/ https://www.ctexplored.org/longer-lasting-than-brass-waterburys-city-hall-restored/ https://www.ctexplored.org/seaside/ Our mid-reel sponsor is the Wilton Historical Society at http://wiltonhistorical.org/ Mentioned in the episode: Historical Interpreter-Cheyney McKnight at NotYourMommasHistory http://www.notyourmommashistory.com/ Playwrights: Joanne Hudson, Redding, CT and Royal Shiree, Lynchburg, VA This episode was produced by Mary Donohue, Assistant Publisher of Connecticut Explored, and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan. Music by Hyde.
October 1, 2020
40 min
The Perfect Screw
In this podcast from the memoir of Ellsworth S Grant, one of the state's great historians, Walt Woodward tells us about the invention of the world's best fastening device. It's a story that begins with Archimedes, and that came to fruition because of silk worms, Cornelius Vanderbilt, an entrepreneur named Dimoch, and an Irish inventor who gave this unique tool its name. It's a story for anyone who ever put together a piece of Ikea furniture - the story of the recessed hexagonal screw and the Allen wrench
September 17, 2020
34 min
Sophie Tucker, Hartford’s Red Hot Mama
Sophie Tucker was one of the 20th century's most successful and highest paid performers. A singer and humorist, she transitioned successfully through vaudeville, recordings, Broadway, radio, movies, nightclubs and finally television. Born into a Jewish family that immigrated from Eastern Europe, her parents ran a kosher restaurant in Hartford’s Front Street district. Many of the threads that run through her life resonant with women now including body positivity, female agency, an artist’s control of their own work and career as well as a rags to riches immigrant success story. This episode includes snippets from three of her most famous songs-“One of These Days” by African American composer Sheldon Brooks; “I’m the Last of the Red Hot Mama’s” by Milton Agar and Jack Yellen, and “My Yiddishe Momme” by Jack Yellen. Tucker never forgot Hartford and contributed to numerous local charities. She left almost 400 scrapbooks documenting her full career to the New York Public Library. She was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame in 1999. https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/sophie-tucker For more information and photos go to the website of Connecticut Explored at https://www.ctexplored.org/sophie-tucker-last-of-the-red-hot-mamas/ Tor read more about her mother and the “Handkerchief Brigade” go to https://www.ctexplored.org/the-handkerchief-brigade/ Look for a new online exhibition in late Sept, 2020 on the website of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford at https://jhsgh.org/ Mary M. Donohue is the Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history. She has documented Connecticut’s architecture, built environment and pop culture for over 30 years. This episode was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan. To hear more episodes of Grating the Nutmeg subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio or at gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com. And for more great Connecticut history stories, subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, at ctexplored.org
August 30, 2020
21 min
The Unlikely Legend – and History – of the Charter Oak
For our 100th episode, a revealing new look at Connecticut's oldest and most iconic legend - the Charter Oak. State historian Walt Woodward dug deep into this time-honored tale, and offers a new, true, and sometimes amusing look into the history behind this foundational legend.
August 19, 2020
45 min
Connecticut’s Mount Rushmore Connection
In this episode of Grading the Nutmeg, Mary Donohue, Asst. Publisher of Connecticut Explored, reveals Connecticut’s connection to Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, and the run up to his most contentious project, the Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota. Perhaps the largest outdoor sculpture in the country, Mount Rushmore has been controversial since it was proposed. Where it’s located, who it commemorates, and its sculptor are all part of the national conversation now. Built on Native American land, it features the faces of four American presidents--two of whom were slaveholders (Washington and Jefferson) and two of whom were involved in efforts to uproot Western Native American tribes (Lincoln and Roosevelt). And the sculptor behind the design, Connecticut resident Gutzon Borglum? He was someone who, according to the New York Times article “How Mount Rushmore became Mount Rushmore” published July 1, 2020, formed great bonds with leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and participated in their meetings to secure funding for the Stone Mountain project in Georgia. Borglum also espoused white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideas. To read the full article, go to https://www.ctexplored.org/connecticuts-mount-rushmore-connection/ To read more about his career, go to http://www.tfaoi.com/newsm1/n1m582.htm This episode was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan. To hear more episodes of Grating the Nutmeg subscribe on itunes, iHeartRadio, GooglePlay, Sound Cloud or at gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com. And for more great Connecticut history stories, subscribe to Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history, at https://www.ctexplored.org/
August 1, 2020
22 min
Two Stories From World War II
In "Two From World War II." state historian Walt Woodward presents two stories he wrote for this Fall's special "Remembering World War II" edition of Connecticut Explored Magazine. The first tells how Pratt & Whitney Aircraft prepared for the coming crisis. The second tells the story of Gordon H. Stirling, Connecticut's 1st World War II hero.
July 15, 2020
22 min
97. Uncovering African American Women's Fight for Suffrage
In this episode, Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Historical Society talks to historians Brittney Yancy and Karen Li Miller about their ongoing project to uncover the suffrage work of women of color in Connecticut. African American women rallied for the woman’s suffrage cause, determined to ensure black women’s inclusion and electoral self-representation. if you’d like to learn more about this topic, visit the CHS’s website at CHS.org/wocvotes. For a broader look at the woman’s suffrage movement in CT, you can see the exhibit “A Vote of Her Own: The Long Fight for Woman Suffrage” on view at the CHS in fall 2020. And don’t forget to order your copy of the Summer issue of CT Explored at ctexplored.org with the article “Uncovering African American Women’s Fight for Suffrage” by Karen Li Miller, available at ctexplored.org/shop Read more about Mary Townsend Seymour at https://www.ctexplored.org/audacious-alliance-mary-townsend-seymour/ Thank you to our guests. This episode was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan. Photo credit: Mary A. Johnson (center) with Elizabeth R. Morris (left) and Rosa J. Fisher (right) representing Hartford’s Colored Women’s Liberty Loan Committee, 1918. Photographer Edward M. Crocker, The Hartford Courant, State Archives, Connecticut State Library.
July 9, 2020
36 min
Rough Justice for Nathan Hale
State historian Walt Woodward takes a new look at the actions surrounding the Revolutionary War execution of state hero Nathan Hale, and finds there are still some burning questions left to be answered about this hasty and irregular event. It’s a story from Walt's new book Creating Connecticut: Critical Moments That Shaped a Great State, just out from Globe Pequot Press. As you’ll soon hear, when looking for answers about the Rough Justice handed out to Nathan Hale by the British in New York in 1776, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
June 15, 2020
34 min
Beware of the Sea, for it is a Wide, Wide Love
In this episode CT Explored publisher Elizabeth Normen draws inspiration from the haunting words of her great-great grandmother, the wife of a sea captain during the Great Age of Sail. Her ancestor was one of hundreds of women in the 19th century who made the difficult choice to leave all they knew and those they loved for the uncertainly of a life at sea. What were the joys and hardships for women who made that choice? Find out in this episode of Grating the Nutmeg. Find more stories about brave women in our Summer 2020 issue commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage, available now at ctexplored.org, including important stories about Native American and African American women and the right to vote. And for more stories about Connecticut’s maritime history, see the Spring 2009 issue online at ctexplored.org. Please support us by subscribing at ctexplored.org. This episode was produced by Elizabeth Normen and Patrick O’Sullivan. Thanks for Moira O’Sullivan for narrating portions of the story.
May 26, 2020
28 min

Grating the Nutmeg

About this podcast

Categories

About this podcast

Categories

Grating the Nutmeg

Episodes

Yale Needs Women

112. And So The Tomb Remained

The New Haven Black Panther Trials

Polish Jewish History, World War II and a Jewish Child’s Survival

Communicating with the Spirits: Theodate Pope Riddle

Up and Down the River - Creating a Mohegan Radio Drama

Miss Florence’s Boardinghouse and American Impressionism

Steve Grant's Legendary 1991 Source-to-Sea Connecticut River Journey Part 1

Steve Grant's Legendary 1991 Source-to-Sea Connecticut River Journey

Connecticut’s Rosie the Riveter: Working Women in WWII

Great Traditions - The Connecticut Election Cake

Cannonballs and Skyscrapers: Keeler Tavern Museum

The Perfect Screw

Sophie Tucker, Hartford’s Red Hot Mama

The Unlikely Legend – and History – of the Charter Oak

Connecticut’s Mount Rushmore Connection

Two Stories From World War II

97. Uncovering African American Women's Fight for Suffrage

Rough Justice for Nathan Hale

Beware of the Sea, for it is a Wide, Wide Love