Connecticut as a Maker State: The Smith and Winchester Company of South Windham, Part IIJamie Eves, Windham Town Historian, 22 Feb. 2020As I wrote in a previous blog, a package arrived at the Mill Museum recently, containing a historical treasure: a copy of A Century of Pioneering in the Paper Industry. Published in 1928, it … Continue reading Smith and Winchester, Part 2
Smith and Winchester, Part 1
Connecticut as a Maker State: The Smith and Winchester Company of South Windham, Part IJamie Eves, Windham Town Historian, 9 Feb. 2020A package arrived in the mail recently, containing a historical treasure: a copy of A Century of Pioneering in the Paper Industry. Published in 1928, it is a short, illustrated history of the Smith … Continue reading Smith and Winchester, Part 1
Charlotte Waldo, Connecticut’s First Woman Mail Carrier
Charlotte Waldo: Connecticut's First Woman Mail CarrierJamie Eves, Windham Town Historian, 14 June 2019One of the great things about working at a history museum is that people are always showing (or giving) you artifacts, stories, and information. You never stop learning. A friend from Ashford, CT, recently gave me a faded photocopy of a tattered … Continue reading Charlotte Waldo, Connecticut’s First Woman Mail Carrier
Amy Hooker
Amy Hooker: Union OrganizerJamie Eves, Windham Town Historian, 13 June 2019For several years now, I have used bits and pieces of spare time trying to track down information about Amy Hooker, an early 20th-century Connecticut labor leader about whom little is known ... even though she appears in a song by state troubadour Hugh Blumenfeld!"I … Continue reading Amy Hooker
Doing Hard History
Doing Hard HistoryJamie Eves, Windham Town Historian, 4 June 2019One of the highlights of the year for public historians in Connecticut is the annual conference of the Connecticut League of History Organizations, held this year on June 3 at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. The conference provides a chance to network with other … Continue reading Doing Hard History
The Stories Behind the Artifacts
The Stories Behind the Artifacts Jamie Eves, Windham Town Historian, 23 May 2019 I love artifacts because they tell stories. The things themselves are interesting, to be sure. And many of them, like most of the quilts in the Mill Museum’s new exhibit, Under Cover Stories, are breathtaking works of art. But it is … Continue reading The Stories Behind the Artifacts
Working Museums
Working Museums Jamie Eves, Windham Town Historian, 19 May 2019 The Windham Textile and History Museum – a.k.a., the Mill Museum – is what I think of as a working museum, meaning that the staff and volunteers are continually engaged in doing actual history. The Museum accepts, preserves, and catalogs new artifacts. It engages in … Continue reading Working Museums
The Methodist Melee on Main Street
The Methodist Melee on Main Street Jamie Eves, Windham Town Historian, 19 May 2019 Angry and despairing, in August 2017 I attended a rally in my town of Willimantic, CT, to protest the violence in Virginia, where a gang of Neo-Nazi thugs invaded the home of the University of Virginia, shouted white supremacist slogans, threatened … Continue reading The Methodist Melee on Main Street
My Experience with an Old Willimantic Building
My Experience with an Old Willimantic Building Jamie Eves, Windham Town Historian, 13 April 2019 My friend, Nicholas Khan, is working on an art graduate school project. He asked folks in Willimantic, CT, to write up their experiences with some of the city's historic buildings. This is what I wrote. As the Executive Director of … Continue reading My Experience with an Old Willimantic Building