Lecture Series: Connecticans in the American West-February 2017

Winter 2016/2017: Connecticans in the American West

“Connecticans in the American West”

February 14, 21, 28, 3:30 – 5 p.m.

In collaboration with the Presidents’ College, University of Hartford. Lectures held on University of Hartford campus. For questions, call 860-768-4495

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February 14: The Untold Story of Connecticut and the Mexican Front
Dave Corrigan, Curator, Museum of Connecticut History

In March 1916, Mexican Revolutionary Francisco “Pancho” Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico. By June, 2,500 Connecticut National Guardsmen were stationed in Nogales, Arizona, joining nearly 150,000 National Guard troops to secure the border with Mexico. Less than a year later, the Connecticut troops were in France as the U.S. entered World War I. Soldiers’ diaries and photographs chronicle their time in the West, a story that few Connecticans know.

February 21: Teaching on the Frontier
Allison Speicher, assistant professor of English, Eastern Connecticut State University

Catharine Beecher, sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, transformed the teaching vocation in part through her efforts to send Connecticut-trained female teachers west to frontier schools. What the teachers encountered when they arrived varied from great enthusiasm and well-established schools to total indifference and ramshackle one-room schoolhouses. Through letters written home, Speicher tells the story of these educational pioneers.

February 28: Mining for Silver in the Arizona Territory
Leah Glaser, associate professor of history and public history, Central Connecticut State University

In 1857 – 1858, Samuel Colt invested $10,000 in cash and $10,000 worth of firearms in the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company. The company’s sense that their troubles were over was premature. Even so, Colt left an indelible stamp on Arizona—a place he never visited. Glaser’s talk will be based on her and Nicholas Thomas’s essay in the Journal of Arizona History (Spring 2015).