Stamford History Real Time

Shopping at Barnes & Noble benefits the Stamford Historical Society

As you may have noticed, we have switched our account from Amazon.com to Barnes & Noble, as Amazon.com has cut all "Associates" programs in Connecticut as of last month. Any purchase through clicking on the B&N logo or text link on our website, or this blog, will generate a percentage of income to the Stamford Historical Society  – and every nickle helps in these cash-strapped days!

Here is something to consider for the summer:

Children's Bestsellers List - shop now at BarnesandNoble.com.

You will find more links in the footer of our website pages. Meanwhile, enjoy browsing through our site and learn things about Stamford you never knew!

Thank you!

---

Searching the Marcus Research Library online

The Historical Society's Marcus Research Library book holdings are cataloged in the Ferguson Library's online catalog.  Adding data is still a work in progress, but users may go to the catalog for their research before visiting the society's research library.

The Ferguson Library recently changed its online catalog to a new system.  How to proceed with your search:   Go to the Online Catalog, and click on advanced search. Type in your search item and then scroll down to the bottom of the page where you find this box:

(this is a screen print only)

Click on "All libraries" and scroll to "Stamford Historical Society," then hit the search button.

Stamford's W.W.II Veterans Remembered, Jack Cavanaugh's review of 'An American Town Goes to War' by Tony Pavia

Stamford's W.W.II Veterans Remembered
By JACK CAVANAUGH
Published: February 25, 1996, the New York Times

THOUGH World War II had been over for almost two decades, Tony Pavia became fascinated with it and its effect on his hometown while growing up in Stamford in the 1960's. His father had served in the Pacific as a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy, and, although the elder Mr. Pavia seldom talked about it, most of his friends were also World War II veterans. Young Tony would occasionally hear them discuss the war among themselves.

read on

Tony Pavia will be honored on April 29 at a benefit dinner.

Useful links to Connecticut history and genealogy plus Library of Congress, Internet Archive, etc.

Still in the process of updating and redesigning our web pages before migrating them to our planned new site – we are getting there – here is a streamlined and updated list of local and regional cultural, historical, and library web links.

We've always had the Library of Congress link for our patrons' convenience, but now added the Internet Archive which has a lot of digitized books, audio, and moving images.

Update 1/29:

Ron Marcus reminded me of the Connecticut Ancestry Society, Inc.

Founded in 1954 as the Stamford Genealogical Society, it is the oldest genealogical society in Connecticut. It's original bulletin continues today as one of the best genealogical publications of its type in Connecticut. It publishes a large amount of Stamford related historical material in addition to other informative articles.

Connecticut Ancestry Webmaster Blog

The First Published History of Stamford Available Online

Historical address, delivered in the First Congregational Church in Stamford, Ct. : at the celebration of the second centennial anniversary of the first settlement of the town
By Rev. J.W. Alford
Dec. 22d, 1841
40 Pages, Publisher: New York, S. Davenport, 1842
Alvord, John Watson, 1807-1880
Includes bibliographical references

Internet Archive, free subscription

Abstract: "I propose to exhibit only such facts as have direct reference to the event which has summoned together this assembly: I need no apology, therefore, for giving a brief detail of what is, to most of you, familiar history. ....... But in closing, let me ask, where are those Fathers? Gone_! Where are those who first peopled this fair village? Long gone to dwell with the dead! `Dust mingles with dust - ashes to ashes,' but their spirits are with God. Where shall we be, when next this anniversary returns? Gone too!_even the youngest grown aged and passed away! Long before that time, the voice of the speaker will be hushed in death, and the ear of the hearer lie dull in the dark cold grave!_But the place will teem with another population, who will receive from us, not only their existence, but those influences which will mould their character. From us the future generations in Stamford are to receive their civil advantages, their literary institutions, and their religious privileges. Their intellectual and moral character, whatever it becomes, will be the living record of our worth and care, and in them we shall still live, either in infamy or honor. How important, then, that we act well our part, that posterity may bless, and Heaven reward us!" John Watson Alvord, pp. 5, 39-40.

This book is also available for review in the research library at the Stamford Historical Society headquarters.

E.B. Huntington's History of Stamford on Google Books

Elijah Huntington's

History of Stamford : Connecticut, from its settlement in 1641, to the present time, including Darien, which was one of its parishes until 1820. Stamford, Connecticut: Published by the Author; 1868

is now available as Google Book.

New Book on the Civil War: This Republic of Suffering

Books / Sunday Book Review
New York Times

Death’s Army

By GEOFFREY C. WARD

Published: January 27, 2008

Drew Gilpin Faust, the president of Harvard, has written an extraordinary new book about the enormous loss of human life in the Civil War — 620,000 men, North and South.

First Chapter: ‘This Republic of Suffering’ (January 27, 2008)

THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING
Death and the American Civil War.
By Drew Gilpin Faust.
Illustrated. 346 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. List Price $27.95.

New at the library: “Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692”

The society recently received a copy of Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692  (New Narratives in American History, Oxford University Press)  by Richard Godbeer, Professor of History at the University of Miami.  It discusses the events around the witch hunt of Elizabeth Clawson in Stamford in 1692.

From a book description at Amazon.com:   Few events in American history are as well remembered as the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.  But there was another witch hunt that year, in Stamford, Connecticut, that has never been examined in depth.  Now Richard Godbeer describes this “other witch hunt” in a concise, fascinating narrative that illuminates the colonial world and shatters the stereotype of early New Englanders as quick to accuse and condemn.

The society was able to provide Professor Godbeer with  information from our archives and publications.  More information.

The book may be viewed at the research library at headquarters on High Ridge Road.  It is also available in paperback.  The Ferguson Library has copies at the Main and Harry Bennett branches.