In 1936 Governor Wilbur L. Cross penned what is widely regarded as one of the most lyrical Thanksgiving Proclamations ever written. A former English Professor and Dean of Graduate Studies at Yale, Cross was elected as Connecticut’s 71st Governor in 1931. He served four terms and was defeated by Raymond E. Baldwin in 1938.

While the 1936 Thanksgiving Proclamation is a familiar piece today, in years past some of the other Thanksgiving Proclamations were equally well known. A Hartford Courant editor wrote in 1968 that “…the late Wilbur Lucius Cross in 1935 issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation that remains one of the classics of American prose.” His 1931 proclamation was noted for being one sentence of 176 words. He was quoted in a November 6, 1936 Hartford Courant article as having said “I wrote the proclamation in one sentence so that it would have to be quoted in full, if at all.”

It was his 1938 proclamation however that is a real treasure, as he was filmed reading it on December 9, 1938. It was the first time a Connecticut Governor had ever appeared in a sound film.

The Connecticut State Library is proud to bring you that historic film and all eight of Governor Cross’s official Thanksgiving Proclamations. The film can be viewed on our YouTube channel and the proclamations can be viewed in our Flickr collection.

On behalf of the staff and board of the Connecticut State Library, Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Following the NDNP guidelines, the $274,034 grant will allow Connecticut to add 100,000 pages, digitized from microfilm of newspapers published in the state between 1836 and 1922. An advisory committee consisting of an historian, journalist, educator, librarian, and archivist will select the newspapers to be scanned.

“This is a great honor for Connecticut – a state where newspapers have always been important,” said State Librarian Kendall Wiggin.  Wiggin noted that while Connecticut boasts the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper, the Courant, by 1875, there were 78 newspapers being published in the state, including 17 dailies and 51 weeklies.

This project builds upon the earlier Connecticut Newspaper Project (1991-2002) which inventoried the state’s newspaper repositories, cataloged the newspapers and preserved over 1,000,000 pages of 437 newspapers on microfilm. The State Library has already worked with digitizing newspapers through its Newspapers of Connecticut project.  This has short runs of 86 titles from 1821-1929, for a total of 3,243 issues from 31 towns.

John N. Barry, Chair of the State Library Board noted that “This grant will allow the State Library to continue its work in providing easier access to the significant issues and events of our history.  Connecticut’s newspapers are irreplaceable sources of obtaining knowledge, and this digitization grant will continue the modernization of preserving Connecticut’s rich history.”

The Connecticut State Library will present Kevin Johnson as William Webb, an African-American Civil War Soldier from Connecticut at the Connecticut State Library, 231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, Thursday June 20, 2013 from Noon to 12:45. Private Webb was an actual soldier, a native of Hartford. He was recruited in 1863 and served in the Twenty-Ninth (Colored) Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry in several battles in Virginia. Johnson’s portrayal of Webb is told from an emotional and exciting first-person perspective that vividly illustrates the struggle of the African-Americans in the Colored Infantry during the Civil War. He tells of his early life in Hartford, his recruitment and training, and the traumatic final battles of the Civil War. The presentation is based on extensive research in the collections of the Connecticut State Library and the Museum of Connecticut History.

Johnson’s presentation is part of the State Library and Museum of Connecticut History’s Third Thursday BrownBag Lunchtime speaker series which features a variety of speakers on various aspects of Connecticut history. All programs are free and open to the public. Attendees are welcome to bring and enjoy their lunch during the presentation.

Thursday, June 20, 2013
Noon – 12:45 p.m.
Connecticut State Library ~ Memorial Hall

About the Speaker: Kevin Johnson is an employee of the State Library’s History and Genealogy Unit. He has been presenting William Webb for more than twelve years and has given 506 presentations in schools, libraries, historical societies and other venues around the state.

About the State Library: The Connecticut State Library is an Executive Branch agency of the State of Connecticut. The State Library provides a variety of library, information, archival, public records, museum, and administrative services to citizens of Connecticut, as well as the employees and officials of all three branches of State government

The Connecticut Forestry Association, later named the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, was founded by a group of concerned citizens who met at the Weatogue home of Reverend Horace Winslow on December 30, 1895.  The association’s leadership voted on October 5, 1929 to establish a Trails Committee to administer the trails system.  Today, the Blue-Blazed Hiking Trail System is approximately 825 miles of trails maintained by hundreds of volunteers working in cooperation with many public and private landowners.  All of the items in the exhibit are part of RG 169:007, Connecticut Forest and Park Association records which were donated by the Connecticut Forest and Park Association to the Connecticut State Library on December 17, 2012.

The exhibit may be viewed Monday through Friday 9:00 to 4:00; and Saturday 9:00 to 2:00 through August.  All exhibits are free and open to the public.

You can read more about the project on the Historypin blog. If you want to get involved you can share your own stories, find out how to set up a school or community event, or add an institutional collection to the Hurricane Sandy project.

To see the rest of Connecticut State Library’s content visit our Historypin Channel. If you have questions about our Historypin channel or content please contact Christine Pittsley at christine.pittsley@ct.gov

This latest issue of the Connecticut State Library’s newsletter includes the following:

• Surprises at the State Library by Ken Wiggin
• After Thirty Years: Visual Surprises from the State Archives by Mark Jones
• Publication of Volume XX, The Public Records of the State of CT, 1819-1820 by Douglas Arnold
• Cryptographic Curiosity from the Connecticut State Library by Bonnie Linck
• Across the Cataloger’s Desk by Bill Anderson
• 10 Myths about CT Public Libraries by Tom Newman
• Gems by Jenny Groome
• Adoption of the Regulation concerning Real Property Electronic Recording by LeAnn R. Power
• Third Thursdays at the Connecticut State Library