Hartford Seen


Book Description

Hartford Seen is the first modern-day art photography book focused exclusively on Connecticut's capital city. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Pablo Delano relocated from Manhattan to Hartford in 1996 to teach photography at Trinity College. On his daily drive to work, he was struck continually by the city's visual beauty and complexity. He left the car and began to explore, using his camera as a means of gaining a deeper understanding of what he found. In this personal meditation on Harford's built environment, Delano implements a methodical but intuitive approach, scrutinizing the layers of history embedded in the city's fabric. He documents commercial establishments, industrial sites, places of worship, and homes with a painter's eye to color and composition. His vision tends to eschew the city's better-known landmarks in favor of vernacular structures that reflect the tastes and needs of the city's diverse population at the dawn of the 21st Century. Over the last 100 years Hartford may have transformed from one of America's wealthiest cities to one of its poorest, but as suggested by Hartford Seen, today it nevertheless enjoys extraordinary cultural offerings, small entrepreneurship, and a vibrant spiritual life. The city's historical palette consists mostly of the brownstone, redbrick, and gray granite shades common in New England's older cities. Yet Delano perceives that it is also saturated with the blazing hues favored by many of its newer citizens. With more than 150 full-color images,Hartford Seen vitally expands the repertoire of photographic studies of American cities and of their contemporary built environments.




The Hartford Book


Book Description

Poetry. In Samuel Amadon's intense, second collection, a sequence of meditative and darkly comic postmodern narratives about what it is like to be from Hartford, Connecticut, we stagger with the speaker down the streets of his still-present past, together with a motley cast of crackheads, liars, scoundrels, and unlikely heroes. "The speaker is on the rack and only timidly aware of the torture he cannot help wreaking. Our poetry will never be the same now Amadon has spoken, our language can be entirely different. Happily for us." Richard Howard "These poems are street-smart, buoyantly lyrical, and they possess something beautiful and permanent at their core. Samuel Amadon does for Hartford what Koch, Schuyler, and O'Hara have done for New York City." Tracy K. Smith"




One Hundred Years of Hartt


Book Description

The University of Hartford's Hartt School celebrates its centennial in this lavishly illustrated book. The Hartt School holds unique qualities that continue to distinguish it from other performing arts institutions. Through personal and official written communications, school newsletters, speeches, and the exquisite quality of artistic expression, a belief in the value of art is continually reinforced, often with great eloquence, sometimes with humor, and always from the heart.




Families of Early Hartford, Connecticut


Book Description

This book contains the genealogical records of over 950 families of early Hartford, Connecticut. The records that were used were mainly church records, sexton's records, and probate records and are arranged alphabetically by family name.--From Preface.




Wicked Hartford


Book Description

One of the oldest cities in America, Hartford holds plenty of sinful stories. Famed inventor and industrialist Samuel Colt sold arms to both the North and South in the buildup to the Civil War. The notorious Seyms Street jail was the subject of national criticism and scandal for its deplorable conditions. Local journalist Daniel Birdsall fought to expose corruption in the powerful insurance industry and local government at the expense of his own printing presses. Tension between unions and "robber barons" such as Jay Gould spilled into the streets during the Gilded Age. Author Steve Thornton takes readers on an exciting journey through the seedy underbelly of Hartford's past.




Hartford County Trolleys


Book Description

During the golden age of the trolley, Hartford County was crisscrossed with over 200 miles of trolley lines, reaching to all major cities and towns in the county. Only 8 out of the 29 cities and towns in the county were without some type of public transit. A busy and prosperous area, Hartford County played a major role in banking, insurance, and manufacturing during the trolley era in Connecticut.




John Hartford's Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes


Book Description

"John Hartford's Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes" contains 176 of John's original compositions, most never before available, taken from the sixty-eight handwritten music journals he kept between 1983 and 2001. Interspersed with stories, quotes, rare photos, and his own personal artwork, this is a fiddle anthology unlike any other. A peek inside the unique mind of a prolific musician and composer, "Hartford's Mammoth Collection" will inspire musicians, artists, music historians, and anyone who loves the creative process.




Hartford


Book Description

Since the development of photography in the mid-nineteenth century, the camera has been used as a tool of both discovery and preservation. Photographs bring alive our image of the past and can open a floodgate of memories and nostalgia or inspire curiosity and a sense of history. This intriguing visual history contains over two hundred photographs, all from private collections, of Connecticut's capital. These rare and previously unpublished views tell of Hartford's rich history--the Bushnell Memorial, the state capitol without its dome, and the great post office that filled the east lawn of the Old State House. They also tell of favorite places, such as De Pasquale's and Pippi's on Front Street and the Parma and the movie theaters and stores that filled Main Street. The photographs reveal a great deal about change and the energy and vision that has made Hartford the diverse and dynamic community it is today.




A Guide to Historic Hartford, Connecticut


Book Description

Hartford, Connecticut, was settled as an agrarian society with fertile fields and abundant crops at the confluence of the Connecticut and Little (later Park) Rivers by Reverend Thomas Hooker and his Puritan congregation. Navigation on the rivers quickly established the city as a center for commerce. Author Daniel Sterner delves into the history of Hartford with tours from Bushnell Park to Asylum Hill and through Frog Hollow. Discover the many people, places and events that have shaped the capital of the Constitution State.




The Hartford Circus Fire


Book Description

Through firsthand accounts, interviews with survivors and a gripping collection of vintage photographs, author Michael Skidgell attempts to make sense of one of Hartford's worst tragedies. Almost 7,000 fans eagerly packed into the Ringling Brothers big top on July 6, 1944. With a single careless act, an afternoon at the "Greatest Show on Earth" quickly became one of terror and tragedy as the paraffin-coated circus tent caught fire. Panicked crowds rushed for the few exits, but in minutes, the tent collapsed on those still struggling to escape below. A total of 168 lives were lost, many of them children, with many more injured and forever scarred by the events. Hartford and the surrounding communities reeled in the aftermath as investigators searched for the source of the fire and the responsible parties.