From their unsung labors to society-changing accomplishments, Connecticut’s women have contributed to diversified fields of endeavor. During colonial times, they kept farms, homes, and businesses running—despite restrictions that then, and long after, barred them from the same rights as men. Among those pioneering national and local change in the 1800s are educator-abolitionist (and state heroine) Prudence Crandall and women’s suffrage advocate Isabella Beecher Hooker. Twentieth-century notables include Mary Townsend Seymour, champion of African Americans’ civil rights, and Ella Grasso, first woman to be elected a US governor in her own right. Today, the Connecticut Women’s Heritage Trail connects new generations to the histories of these and other women.
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- Book: The Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to New York, in the Year 1704. Kept by Madam Knight. Reprinted in 1865 – Archive.org
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- Painting: Attributed to Osbert Burr Loomis, Nancy Toney, oil on canvas, ca. 1862. Most likely Connecticut’s last enslaved person – From the collection of the Loomis Chaffee School Archives, Loomis Chaffee School, Windsor, Connecticut
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- Convention program of the First International Woman Suffrage Conference and the 34th Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Washington, DC, 1902. Isabella Beecher Hooker is listed as the President of the Connecticut chapter – Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division
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- Photograph: Anna Louise James behind the soda fountain in the James’ pharmacy, ca. 1909-1911 – Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
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- Photograph: The Belgium booth at “The Allied Market,” The Sister Susie Society’s first World War I fundraiser fair, held on the Washington Green on August 5, 1916 – Gunn Memorial Museum
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- Photograph: Women grinding barrels of automatic 45s, in Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Plant, Hartford, Connecticut, ca. 1914-1918. U.S. Army Signal Corps photo – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
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- Photograph: “Girl “passing leaves” to “stringer.” Both 14 years. Hackett Farm. Location: Buckland, Connecticut” photographed by Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee, 1917 – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
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- Photograph: Arrest of White House pickets Catherine Flanagan of Hartford, Connecticut (left), and Madeleine Watson of Chicago (right), August 1917 – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Records of the National Woman’s Party
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- Photograph: Suffragette Helena Hill Weed of Norwalk, serving a three-day sentence in D.C. prison for picketing July 4, 1917 – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
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- Photograph: The Red Cross Ambulance Corps pose in front of the Red Cross Motor Division ambulance. The women of the Ambulance Corps were trained in motor mechanics by the Y.M.C.A., ca. 1917 – 1919 – Connecticut State Library, Dudley Photograph Collection of Hartford During World War I (PG 034)
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- Photograph: Women of the Polish Liberty Loan Committee (World War I) pose outside the Liberty Bond hut in front of the Old State House, ca. 1917-1918 – Connecticut State Library, Dudley Photograph Collection of Hartford during World War I
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- Photograph: “Cooking Lab in Grove Cottage, 1919.” The Connecticut Agricultural College helped train nutritionists to teach women on the home front how to prepare meals with other foods through its Extension Service – University of Connecticut Libraries, Archives and Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center
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- Photograph: National Woman’s Party members picketing the Republican convention, Chicago, June 1920 – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
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- Photograph: “Cheney Silk Mills. Favorable working conditions. Location: [South Manchester, Connecticut” photographed by Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee, 1924 – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
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- Photograph: First-generation Americans whose parents represent Italy, Greece, and England, these three girls work side by side at the punching machine, Pioneer Parachute Company, Manchester, Connecticut, 1942 – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
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- Object: Uniform of Virginia Grover Bulkeley, Greater Hartford Chairwoman of the Woman’s Organization for War Savings during World War II – Connecticut Historical Society, gift of Virginia Grover Bulkeley
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- Photograph: Shuttle driver employed at Landers, Frary and Clark plant, New Britain, Connecticut, 1943 – >Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Office of War Information Photograph Collection
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- Photograph: A worker at the Stanley plant wrapping finished bolts and butts for shipping, New Britain, Connecticut, 1943 – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Office of War Information
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- Photograph: Mrs. Constance Motley at a news conference with Medgar Evers and Jack Greenberg, September 28, 1962, New Orleans, Louisiana – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection
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- Photograph: Maria Sánchez, November 6, 1973 – Hartford History Center, Hartford Public Library, Hartford Times
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- Photograph: Ella Grasso and supporters following primary victory, May 23, 1974 – Hartford History Center, Hartford Public Library, Hartford Times Collection
This TeachITCT.org activity is sponsored in part by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Eastern Region Program, coordinated by Waynesburg University.
