By Steve Thornton For some Bridgeport workers in the early 20th century, union organizing was both a family affair and a love affair. Matilda Rabinowitz and Benjamin J. Legere were such a couple. (Think of the film stars Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton, who played John ...
A Witch Hanged in Bridgeport By Eric D. Lehman In the middle of the 17th century, Bridgeport was simply a no-man’s land between the growing colonial villages of Stratford and Fairfield. That is no doubt why the citizens of these Puritan communities decided to hang a witch ...
By Mary K. Witkowski Editor: Ann Marie Virzi Alice Whiting Farrar had many passions: music, church, education and above all, her family and their home on Bridgeport's East End. Skills she learned at a young age, especially sewing,served her well as a mother running a household with ...
Mary and Eliza Freeman and houses A History of Connecticut’s Golden Hill Paugussett Tribe, by Charles Brilvitch. Charleston, S.C.: History Press, 2007 Binder: Mary & Eliza Freeman Houses, Bridgeport, CT: Structural Condition Survey and Report, prepared by Norden, James F., P.E.; Gibble Norden Champion Brown Consulting Engineers, Old ...
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. In ...
By Benjamin Ortiz During the late 40's and early 50's, Bridgeport was an important nucleus for the migration of Puerto Ricans and many Cubans. They left their Caribbean homeland in search of better opportunities for their families. These pioneering families such as the Pericas, Faria, Medina, Diaz, Arias, and Batalla, are just ...
Marge Schneider should be an inspiration to young women today. During World War II, Marge Schneider lived with her family on Barnum Avenue near Central. With the flurry of war around her, Marge took a job at the Bridgeport Brass Company on Grand Street. Marge ...
By Andy Piascik In September 1956, the House Committee on Un-American Activities, commonly known as HUAC, came to Connecticut. The purpose was to hold hearings about activities of the Communist Party in New Haven and Bridgeport. HUAC had been formed in 1938 and was in its ...
If it is true that the test of a society is how well it cares for its most vulnerable people, then Bridgeport’s health care workers can be proud of the high standard they have set. For decades they have fought for improved patient care, increased ...
Fanny Crosby, whose formal name was Francis Van Alstyne, was one of the corner stones of Bridgeport and a beacon for Bridgeport women. Her creative ingenuity inspired people all over the world, and her songs have been sung by generations of church-goers. As early as age 8, ...
by Steve Thornton Their names are not well known today: Ruth Scott, Elsie Vervane, Mrs. C. Weaver and her daughter Eva, But these Bridgeport workers played an important role in the historic campaign for the right to vote.They were four of thirteen Connecticut women who had ...
1812-1899 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 ...
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 ...
By Mary Witkowski In these days of analyzing confusing elections and examining consequential figures in our past, people who cleared a path for our future stand out. Margaret E. Morton had an extraordinary career in Connecticut politics that was sparked by her role in a Bridgeport ...
This young lady was amazing. In 1942, Marge Schneider lived with her family on Barnum Avenue near Central Avenue. With the flurry of war around her, Marge took a job at the Bridgeport Brass Company on Grand Street. Marge walked to work. With the men all ...
By Carolyn Ivanoff Mrs. W. T. Hincks, Woman's Chairman of the Liberty Committee, delivering a large subscription to someone up on a reviewing stand Maude Morris Hincks, 1873-1956, was a Bridgeport suffragist and activist. She was reputedly the first woman in Connecticut to receive a drivers license. ...
By Mary Witkowski Eleanor Painter was, according to the Bridgeport Post March 18, 1945, a “Veteran Teacher… Leader in Cultural Activities in the City since 1864.” When Nellie Painter got to school in June of 1891, she knew she would be posing for a photograph. She had ...
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, ...
By Mary K. Witkowski Birth: January 5, 1835, Prarie Ronde, Michigan Died: October 23, 1926, Baltimore, Maryland August 18th, 1920. Olympia Brown smiled to herself with satisfaction. After working diligently for the rights of women since she was young, she could at last take a deep breath. She ...
In 1878 an unusual murder took place in Bridgeport which captured the attention of the public. There were two perpetrators in the murder: Frank Bassett and his common law wife Lorena Alexander. Bassett and Alexander lived in a tenement in Barnum’s old carriage factory in ...
By Carolyn Ivanoff Reading a newspaper you can witness the first draft of history from world to local news. In the spring of 1915 the sinking of the Lusitania factored largely in headlines along with the war in Europe. Local and national labor news would also ...
by Andy Piascik It was an event that lasted less than a day and involved only 50 people directly. It was organized, led and carried out by everyday workers and thus contradicted the mainstream narrative that only big people make history. Many of the participants were ...
Many Bridgeport residents have strong ties to the farming community in Alabama known as Gee's Bend. Gee's Bend was part of a larger plantation on the Alabama River that came into existence around 1830. After the Civil War, when the former slaves were given the option ...
As doctors in the late 1800s, brothers Dr. Lucien and Ira De Ver Warner became concerned with the use of the corset in women’s fashion. The corset was a piece of underclothing meant to give women an “hourglass” figure desirable at the time. But the ...
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 ...
By Mary K. Witkowski, Editor: Ann Marie Virzi In her 99 years on earth, Viola Bridgeforth, born in 1897, lived through many if not most of the profound changes that African-Americans and women in general experienced in the 20th century. Through all the changes, Viola Bridgeforth ...
