BHC Special Events/Announcements
Genealogy from Home – Online Resources!
Ancestry
– access millions of records for genealogy research: census, military, city directories, immigrations, and much more.
Family Search
– search millions of documents collected from all over the world and the LDS library catalog.
African American Heritage
– search essential historical records for African Americans, including Federal Census, Marriage and Cohabitation Records, Military draft and Service Records, Registers of Slaves and Free(d) Persons of Color, Freedman’s Bank, and more.
Genealogy Center – Allen County Indiana Public Library
– free databases: African American Gateway, Surname File, Family Bible Records, Military Heritage, Native American Gateway, and more.
Cyndi’s List – massive compilation of genealogy sites arranged by category
– from adoption to countries and states to land records, to ethnic and religious groups, to veterans and world wars, and everything in between.
Family Search
– Online Consultations – sign up for a free 20 minute online consultation with an experienced genealogist from the LDS library.
Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness
– get help from fellow genealogists from across the country.
BHC News
Genealogy Instructional Videos
- Genealogy 101: the Basics with Ancestry.com
- Pedigree Charts and Family Group Sheets
- Brick walls in research – 3 overlooked resources
- Immigration Records – National Archives and Records Administration
- Organizing and Preserving your Family History
- Ten Steps to Writing and Publishing Your Family History
- How to Handle Old Books
- RootsTech Session Videos – Latter Day Saints
Maps online!
Plat maps with details of lot apportionments and street details for cities across the United States
Maps with details on buildings prepared for the insurance industry
New Research Guides
Hot off the heels of finishing up the Records of the Warner Brothers Company, the Bridgeport History Center is pleased to present not one, not two, but three brand new research guides! Our women’s suffrage guide will help you celebrate a century of voting rights, the belatedly spooky guide to local witchcraft and hauntings will provide a different kind of January chill, and our comprehensive guide to material related to the Warner Brothers Company and the family will assist researchers who are keen to know more about one of Bridgeport’s biggest manufacturers.
Multi-media exhibit: Bridgeport Cultural Arts Center
We Are Artists Every One: The Art Center in Action, 1970-1986
The Art Center was far more than a place to learn visual arts, literary arts and music. The Art Center was a place to improve reading skills, get a meal, and gain exposure to burgeoning cultural, artistic, social, and political ideas. By the time of its closing in 1986, the Art Center had offered thousands of hours of art, photography, music and culinary instruction to city youth, adults, and senior citizens. Curator Michelle Black Smith
click here to visit the exhibit
New and open for research: the Records of the Warner Brothers Company!
The Bridgeport History Center is thrilled to announce that after a year long processing project, the Records of the Warner Brothers Company – originally the Warner Corset Company, and later known as Warnaco – is fully open and available for research.
Taking up an astounding 475 boxes, these records cover the undergarment company’s history from the 1870s to 1975. It features extensive advertising material that focuses on the evolution of women’s undergarments, along with behind-the-scenes business documents, fabric samples, and more.
Historians of fashion, Connecticut industries, and Bridgeport itself are sure to find something relevant to their research. Material can be requested for a viewing appointment now. The finding aid is available here.
Please be aware that image requests for the Records of the Warner Brothers Company may not be fulfilled due to the large amount of oversize material present. Thank you!
P.T. Barnum Research Collection – Now Available Online!
Many items from the P.T. Barnum Research Collection are now available online! Thanks to generous funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, researchers may access many items from the History Center and Barnum Museum collections: Over a thousand items — advertisements, books, magazines, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, prints, programs, records, sheet music, and souvenirs — all available through the Connecticut Digital Archives!`
History Center Photographs Online
History Center photographs are now available to search and view online. The images are part of the General Photograph Collection held by the BHC and feature street scenes. Please check back with us each month as we add new images to our site. (more…)
Family Search – BHC an Affiliate for Digital Records
The BHC is an affiliate for the Family Search program published by the LDS church. This means that patrons using the computers at the History Center may access thousands of digitized records in the Family Search program that were previously available on microfilm only. More records are being added each month, so stop by the History Center and do some searching in Family Search! (more…)
Bridgeport News Articles by M.K. Witkowski Now Online!
History Center Head Emeritus Mary K. Witkowski wrote over 450 articles for the Bridgeport News during her tenure at the BHC. From the Historical Collections articles explore many facets of Bridgeport history –people, places, and things– from the renowned to the quirky, and will take readers on a delightful journey through the City’s past.
BHC Events & Regular Monthly Programming
Heroes & Villains
Did Jack the Ripper Visit Bridgeport? Who Was the Mysterious Fred B. Beleno?
by Michael J. Bielawa
One hundred and thirty years ago this autumn, in 1888, Jack the Ripper terrorized the Whitechapel neighborhood of London, England. The madman brutally murdered five women. Then vanished. Never to be heard from again. Or was he? Some 21st century Ripperologists, as Jack the Ripper investigators are dubbed, think that the unknown assailant journeyed to America. Did Jack the Ripper voyage to Bridgeport, Connecticut? (more…)
Bridgeport at Work
Art Selleck: A Tribute to a Fireman Historian 1920-2004
By Rob Novak, Bridgeport Fireman
Arthur “Art” H. Selleck was born in Bridgeport in 1920, living there for five years before moving to Nichols. He attended Harding High School in the Park City, since Trumbull had no High School at the time. He would later recall witnessing a house fire as a youth in Nichols, (more…)
Women
New Research Guides
Hot off the heels of finishing up the Records of the Warner Brothers Company, the Bridgeport History Center is pleased to present not one, not two, but three brand new research guides! Our women’s suffrage guide will help you celebrate a century of voting rights, the belatedly spooky guide to local witchcraft and hauntings will provide a different kind of January chill, and our comprehensive guide to material related to the Warner Brothers Company and the family will assist researchers who are keen to know more about one of Bridgeport’s biggest manufacturers.
Bridgeport at War
Bridgeport’s Better Breakfast Program
by Brittney Murphy
When the United States entered World War II in 1941, the nation embraced for total mobilization. In addition to marshaling military resources, the federal government enlisted the cooperation of civilians, businesses, the media, and local governments to assist in the war effort. (more…)
African American Heritage
Father Panik Village: the Place Where Dreams Refused to Die
By Britney Murphy
On December 22, 1939, Father Stephen J. Panik, proudly addressed the audience attending the groundbreaking ceremony for Bridgeport’s first public housing project. The erection of what would become Yellow Mill Village was the culmination of years of hard work on the part of Father Panik, city and state officials, and Bridgeport residents.[1] Father Panik considered the Village to be, “perhaps the greatest Christmas gift that ever was given to the people of Bridgeport, –not a promise, but the beginning of a reality, fine, decent homes for about 5,000 people.”[2] (more…)
Architecture
Casa Frouge, “Bridgeport’s First Luxury Apartment Building”
By Andy Piascik
When the 84-unit Casa Frouge high-rise on Cartright Street on Bridgeport’s West Side opened in 1955, its developer the Frouge Construction Company billed it as the city’s “first luxury apartment building” and “the outstanding apartment residence in New England.” Located across North Avenue from Mountain Grove Cemetery, the high rise is nine stories high with ten apartments on floors one through eight topped by four penthouse units. (1) (more…)
Maritime
Kathleen Moore, 1812-1899
By: Mary K. Witkowski
The story of Kate Moore, the lighthouse keeper who kept the lights aglow in Black Rock Harbor is a wonderful tale of the sea of long ago.
In 1817, Captain Stephen Moore was injured while unloading goods from a ship. Stephen then applied for a job through the United States Lighthouse service as a lighthouse keeper. He was given the position as the Keeper of the Fayerweather Lighthouse. (more…)
Art
Three Women
By Michelle Black-Smith
In the spring of 2018, I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with three unique, creative, and insightful people. These individuals inhabit all four spaces – Black, Woman, Artist, Bridgeport Native – and they do so with great pride, expression and articulation through their various art forms and discussion. We watched a vocal interpretation of Nina Simone’s tour de force Four Women performed by Dianne Reeves, Angelique Kidjo, Lizz Wright and Nina’s daughter, Simone before the start of our discussion. This article might have been titled Two Women. I had to convince Wendy Bridgeforth that despite her near twenty-year hiatus from the professional art scene, she belonged in the circle. (more…)