Grating the Nutmeg

230. Pursuing Happiness: New Horizons Village

In 1955, a group of disabled young adults living at New Britain Memorial Hospital signed a letter declaring their intention to seek out "adventuresome living for the physically handicapped." They formed a nonprofit called New Horizons and set out on a thirty-year journey to raise money and navigate legal barriers in order to realize their most cherished dream: a housing complex for the disabled, run by the disabled. In 2026, New Horizons Village in Farmington turns 40. In this episode, Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Museum [https://www.connecticutmuseum.org] gives you a capsule history of the New Horizons movement and speaks with current residents and staff about what New Horizons means to them. Many thanks to our participants: Patricia Robothom, Gary Strickland, Chuck Hutchins, Jen Carver, and Pam O'Neil. Special thanks to Stephanie Tetreault for her assistance in facilitating these interviews! The story of New Horizons is featured in the Connecticut Museum [https://www.connecticutmuseum.org]'s newest exhibition! The Museum is marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with a new exhibition. Rebellious [https://www.connecticutmuseum.org/exhibition/rebellious/%22%20%5Co%20%22https://www.connecticutmuseum.org/exhibition/rebellious/] reflects on moments throughout Connecticut history when its people came together, pushed back, and sparked change to pursue their own visions of life, liberty, and happiness in America. You'll see artifacts and learn stories stretching from the American Revolution to the modern civil rights revolution. ----------------------------------- Don't forget to subscribe to Connecticut Explored [https://www.ctexplored.org] magazine today-our summer issue is full of fun ideas for daytrips and staycations! And set up your monthly donation to Grating the Nutmeg at ctexplored.org This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at highwattagemedia.com/ [https://www.highwattagemedia.com/] Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky. Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!

229. Irish Immigration in Art from the Fairfield Great Hunger Museum at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum

Famine Irish, lace-curtain Irish, shanty Irish: the Irish Diaspora has shaped Connecticut's European immigrant history from the 1840s. Traces of Irish history and culture in the state are not only found in archival and artifact collections but also through the historic buildings, neighborhoods, and cemeteries that stand across the state. Whether they were immigrants, expatriates, refugees, or indentured servants when they arrived from Ireland, 14 percent of Connecticut's current residents claim Irish ancestry. In today's episode, we take you to a new exhibition, A Journey of Hope: The Irish American Immigrant Experience [https://lockwoodmathewsmansion.com/exhibit/a-journey-of-hope-the-irish-american-immigrant-experience/] curated by Ireland's Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield now on exhibit at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum. The exhibit has about 30 art pieces on view ranging from a 1714 map of Ireland to contemporary paintings completed in 2019. For anyone who's watching The Gilded Age television show, a trip to the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion will immerse you in French Second Empire grandeur of the type seen on the show. One of the things that makes the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion perfect for the Irish immigration exhibit is that the mansion had Irish women as domestic servants and tells their story, that of the "Bridget's" as they were known, in the mansion's second floor live-in servants' quarters. Our guest is John Foley, President of Ireland's Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield, a new non-profit dedicated to sharing the story of the Irish Diaspora, picking up where the now closed museum at Quinnipiac University left off after Covid. Foley will share the plans for a new museum building to house the collection. Our thanks to the staff of the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum for the tour of the exhibit and the house. A Journey of Hope: The Irish American Immigrant Experience [https://lockwoodmathewsmansion.com/exhibit/a-journey-of-hope-the-irish-american-immigrant-experience/] curated by Ireland's Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield will be up until Sept 6, 2026, so it's the perfect summer day trip! To find out more about the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum go to their website at lockwoodmathewsmansion.com/ [https://lockwoodmathewsmansion.com/] I also want to thank my guest John Foley and encourage you to visit the website of Ireland's Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield at ighmf.org/ [https://www.ighmf.org/] -------------------------------------------------- Don't forget to subscribe to Connecticut Explored [https://www.ctexplored.org] magazine today - our summer issue is full of fun ideas for daytrips and staycations! And set up your monthly donation to Grating the Nutmeg at ctexplored.org This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at highwattagemedia.com. [https://www.highwattagemedia.com/] Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky. Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!

228. Sports Heaven: The Birth of ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut

If you are driving in Bristol, Connecticut-maybe you're going to Lake Compounce Amusement Park - and suddenly you spy a cluster of huge satellite dishes, you might wonder if space aliens had really landed. But what you've discovered is the home base of ESPN - originally entitled the Entertainment & Sports Programming Network - shortened to ESPN in 1985. Every year tens of millions of fans watch ESPN but 47 years ago, a 24-hour sports television cable network was considered a wild and impossible idea. Our guests on this episode are the authors of the new audiobook SPORTS HEAVEN: The Birth of ESPN [https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Sports-Heaven-Birth-ESPN/dp/B0G7L9KXNT] published by Hachette Audio on April 7, 2026. Historian Mike Soltys was hired in the summer of 1980 as a college intern by ESPN's founder, Bill Rasmussen, and served 43 years in ESPN's corporate communications department, the last 20 as a vice president. He returned to ESPN in 2024 as a part-time Historian. Mike is serving as producer of a documentary Sports Heaven: The Birth of ESPN and co-author of the accompanying book. Garrett Sutton is an attorney and best-selling author of business and entrepreneurial books. He is co-author with Mike of Sports Heaven and is also the Executive Producer of the documentary film. ------------------------------------- Don't forget to subscribe to Connecticut Explored [https://www.ctexplored.org] magazine today-our summer issue is full of fun ideas for daytrips and staycations! And set up your monthly donation to Grating the Nutmeg at ctexplored.org [https://www.ctexplored.org] This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at www.highwattagemedia.com/ [https://www.highwattagemedia.com/] Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky. Follow host and executive producer on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!

227. Pioneering Woman Sculptor Evelyn Beatrice Longman

I've got a story about an artist that I've been obsessed with for years. In this episode, Patricia Hoerth Batchelder talks about her new biography of Evelyn Beatrice Longman, The Woman Who Sculpted Golden Boy, Thomas Edison, and Other Monuments. Poor, motherless at five, and uneducated after elementary school, Longman made the highly ambitious claim at nineteen that she could create monumental sculpture. The book tells the story of how she created beauty, moved into upper class society, and succeeded in a field of art that was overwhelmingly dominated by men. Ms. Batchelder has worked for The Washington Star and written for The Tulsa Tribune before co-writing her father's memoir. She is married to Nathaniel Horton Batchelder III, the grandson of sculptor Evelyn Beatrice Longman Batchelder. Look for Evelyn Beatrice Longman, The Woman Who Sculpted Golden Boy, Thomas Edison, and Other Monuments [https://www.amazon.com/Evelyn-Beatrice-Longman-Sculpted-Monuments/dp/B0DK4HJ9X9] by Patricia Batchelder and published in 2025 on Amazon or at your favorite bookstore. It's also available at the publisher's website, Bloomsbury.com. There are two places I'd encourage you to visit when the weather warms up. The first is the Spanish-American War Memorial in Hartford's Bushnell Park. It's on the south side on Elm Street-if you go at lunch time, there might be food trucks. The second is Chesterwood, sculptor Daniel Chester French's summer estate in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It's only a smidge over the Connecticut border in the Berkshires and is run as a museum property by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Here's the website: chesterwood.org/ [https://www.chesterwood.org/] -------------------------------------------- Don't forget to subscribe to Connecticut Explored [https://www.ctexplored.org/] magazine today-our summer issue is full of fun ideas for daytrips and staycations! Remember, you can help us celebrate our 10th anniversary and keep the podcast alive by pledging $10 dollars a month. It's easy to set up a monthly donation on our website at ctexplored.org/ [https://www.ctexplored.org/] Connecticut history matters - be part of it! This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at highwattagemedia.com/ [https://www.highwattagemedia.com/] Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky. Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!

226. Abby (and Julia) Smith and Their Cows

Last year, in Episode 217, listeners were introduced to Hannah Smith. Born in 1767, Hannah was the matriarch of the non-conformist Smith Family of Glastonbury. In the 2020s, her diaries inspired Leonard Raybon, a music professor at Tulane, to compose an original mini-musical based on her writings. You can view the debut performance of "Hannah and Her Daughters" here [https://www.sacrednine.com/hannah]. This episode focuses on the next generation of the Smith family. Hannah Hickock married Zephaniah Smith of Glastonbury in 1786, and their marriage produced five daughters. Two of the daughters became nationally famous in the 1870s, around the time of the Bicentennial, for their stance in favor of women's suffrage. Natalie Belanger is joined by Diane Hoover, Education Director of the Glastonbury Historical Society [https://hsgct.org/], who told her about the Smith sisters' upbringing, their many talents, and how the two youngest became involved in the suffrage fight – in a protest that centered around their pet cows. You'll also hear about Julia Smith's achievements as a Biblical scholar, and how a romantic entanglement at the age of 87 provides a rather sad end to her remarkable life. Image: Portrait of Abby and Julia Smith, c. 1877, Library of Congress -------------------------------- Like Grating the Nutmeg? Want to support it? Make a donation! 100% of the funds from your donation go directly to the production and promotion of the show. Go to ctexplored.org [https://ctexplored.org/] to send your donation now. This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at highwattagemedia.com/ [https://www.highwattagemedia.com/] Follow GTN on our socials-Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky. Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!