Bridgeport Working: Voices from the 20th Century

Visit the Bridgeport History Center’s award winning  labor history exhibit:

Oral Histories

Picture Gallery

Bridgeport Labor Timeline and much more

click to enter

Brustad the Norwegian Hercules

A colorful part of the city’s circus heritage is being brought roaring back to life. The Bridgeport History Center at the Bridgeport Public Library proudly announces that the library has been named one of this year’s “Save America’s Treasures” grant recipients. Made possible by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the $26,703 grant is earmarked for preservation, conservation and digitization of the History Center’s collection of 47 Barnum and London circus posters.

The Acme of Sensations

The Frog and the Ox

Bridgeport is the historic home of showman and mayor P.T. Barnum as well as the site of the original Winter Quarters of the Barnum and Bailey Circus. The Winter Quarters were located where Went Field now stands in the city’s West End.

The Save America’s Treasures award will help clean, repair, and strengthen these works of 19^th century advertising art. Once this is accomplished the rare collection will be digitally photographed and made accessible to the public on the History Center’s website.

Save America’s Treasures makes critical investments in the preservation of our nation’s most vital and endangered cultural treasures, which illustrate, interpret, and embody the great events, ideas, and individuals that contribute to America’s history and culture. Collectively, Save America’s Treasures projects are as diverse as the peoples and cultures of this country. They tell our nation’s story and ensure that America’s legacy is passed on to future generations. Other institutions being awarded this year include Yale University Peabody Museum’s 19th-Century Dinosaur Collection and Harvard University’s assortment of historic Alaska native kayaks.

Mary K. Witkowski, Bridgeport City Historian and Head of the Bridgeport History Center reflects on the significance of this year’s award, “Receiving this grant money is an honor and certainly assists with the Bridgeport History Center’s continuous  efforts in preserving Bridgeport’s most  precious collections. But the award touches the community’s heart more so when one realizes that this year, 2011, marks the 175^th anniversary of the City of Bridgeport. This grant is a perfect birthday gift to Bridgeport and all the city’s citizens!”

Hoops in Connecticut

Please join Fairfield author Don Harrison for a signing and discussion of his new book: “Hoops in Connecticut: The Nutmeg State’s Passion For Basketball”

Many names familiar to area basketball  fans appear in the book, such as Norwalk’s Calvin Murphy, New Haven’s John Williamson and a bevy of Bridgeport stars, including Walter Luckett, Wes Matthews, John Bagley and Chris and Charles Smith.

Memoir Writing Class

The Bridgeport History Center has sponsored a Bridgeport Memoir Writing Class since 2002. Our class has continued to write about memories of not only Bridgeport, Connecticut, but about the stories that we find have linked our lives.

We all have shared landscapes of memories, be it a football game, high school, or daily life. Newcomers are welcome! Please join us on the second Saturday of each month at 2:00 PM.

For more info call Mary Witkowski, 203 576-7417

Selections from our Memoir Writing class can be viewed at:

http://www.bridgeportmemoir.com/

Genealogy Roundtable

3rd Thursday of each month @ 12:30-1:30 p.m.

Join us for the History Center’s monthly genealogy roundtable.  Patrons interested in researching their family trees meet at the library to discuss their work and share strategies. Both beginners and longtime researchers welcome.