BHC Special Events/Announcements
Afro-Caribbean Genealogy – with Sandra Taitt Eaddy
Saturday, January 4, 2025
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Do you have Afro-Caribbean roots? Then we have the perfect event for you! Caribbean-born Sandra Taitt-Eaddy is a distinguished genealogist with over 20 years of experience in Afro-American and Caribbean genealogy. Her work includes renowned projects such as Finding Your Roots and Who Do You Think You Are?
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My Town, My Story. Public Launch.
Saturday, January 11, 2025
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
MTMS is a digital community archiving platform created to preserve your community’s history and highlight the voices that make it special. We value your perspective and your potential to shape Bridgeport’s history. Please join us to learn more about the My Town, My Story project and how you can contribute.
First floor program room
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Genealogy Programs Online – Free from American Ancestors
Tuesday, January 14 - March 13, 2025
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to log into one these excellent, free seminars offered by American Ancestors:
- Choosing a DNA Test for Your Research Goals – Tuesday, January 14, 2025, 3:00–4:00 p.m. (ET) Presented by Melanie McComb
- Researching Famine Irish Ancestors in Ireland’s Poor Law – Thursday, February 13, 2025, 3:00–4:00 p.m. (ET) Presented by Rhonda R. McClure
- Friend or Foe: Researching Colonial Ancestors During the American Revolution – Thursday, March 13, 2025, 3:00–4:00 p.m. (ET) Presented by David Allen Lambert
Registration is necessary, but the seminars are free to attend.
Jasper: The People’s Mayor
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
12:00 am
“When the old parties win, Bridgeport always loses– but everybody wins with Jasper!”
It may be surprising to learn that Bridgeport’s city government was run by Socialists for nearly thirty years. During the election of 1933, frustrated with the scandals surrounding the Democratic and Republican parties, many voters decided to take their chances with a longtime sidewalk politician known as Jasper McLevy, a relentless campaigner promising implementation of progressive reform. Following McLevy’s mayoral victory, and electoral victory of his fellow Socialist Party members in other positions, the city of Bridgeport would see drastic changes, including improved infrastructure, expanded affordable housing, and honesty in government.
From Fields of Promise: Gee’s Bend, Alabama to Bridgeport
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
12:30 am
Have you heard about Gee’s Bend, Alabama and its connection to Bridgeport? Gee’s Bend is a remote village in west Alabama whose tenant farmers became self-sufficient land owners through an innovative Depression era program by the Farm Security Administration. In the 1950s-60s, many people from Gee’s Bend became activists during the civil rights movement. Some migrated north for work to cities like Bridgeport or Detroit and established “colonies” there. Over generations, those with roots in Gee’s Bend spent time in both locations, sending children back and forth between the two communities and visiting for holidays.
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BHC x CTDA: Bridgeport’s history, now more searchable than ever
Find BHC Materials ONLINE
The Bridgeport History Center has been a proud part of the Connecticut Digital Archive for years now, taking advantage of this unique digital preservation platform that invites cultural institutions from all around Connecticut to share digitized material. Since March of 2020, BHC has worked hard to take advantage of CTDA’s hosting, search features, and support in order to make more of it’s holdings available and easier to search.
BHC is proud to share its updated CTDA space. Explore Black Bridgeport. Get to know our Archives and Manuscripts better. Did you know we have yearbooks digitized? All of our Grassroots Historians articles are available too, along with postcards and Mary Witkowski’s newspaper articles. You can search within the Bridgeport History Center’s collections only, or expand it to all of CTDA in order to find more material.
New and Noteworthy at BHC
The Bridgeport History Center updates our new and noteworthy page on a regular basis! Check back to see what we’ve added and you can come in and use. This page was last updated on April 22, 2022.
New Oral Histories
Bridgeport and New Haven Puerto Rican Oral Histories, 2023-2024
Fifth year Yale University doctoral candidate Amanda Rivera conducts oral histories to facilitate her research on the bilingual education movement in Bridgeport as led by Puerto Ricans in the 1970s. Rivera interviews community members about this topic in both Bridgeport and New Haven from 2023-2024. The interviews she conducted are now part of the History Center holdings as an oral history collection.
New Special Collections
BHC has long held biographical newspaper clipping files. Now researchers can view the list of names included in this substantial collection.
New Photographs
BHC has been continuing to add photographs to the Connecticut Digital Archive. There are over one thousand images available, with more on the way! Don’t see what you’re looking for? Contact us on our contact form.
New Digital Collections
BHC has one of the best newspaper clippings collections in the state. Explore some of the initial offerings from this vast resource.
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.
BHC Events & Regular Monthly Programming
Afro-Caribbean Genealogy – with Sandra Taitt Eaddy
Saturday, January 4, 2025
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
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Featured Articles
The New Bridgeporters: Men of Maplewood and Growth of a Community
By Abraham Lima
This is Part 3 of a 5 Part Series at the Bridgeport History Center:
To read the previous articles, use the guide below to navigate.
- Part 1 “En El Principio, Los Mojados en USA” and “What are Tortillas?” https://bportlibrary.org/hc/hispanic-populations-and-culture/when-the-aztec-eagle-began-her-soar-over-bridgeport-part-1/
- Part 2 – “From Puebla York, Oaxakeepsie, and Mexchester” https://bportlibrary.org/hc/business-and-commerce/when-the-aztec-eagle-began-to-soar-over-bridgeport-part-2-from-puebla-york-oaxakeepsie-and-mexchester-2/
The New Bridgeporters: Men of Maplewood and Growth of a Community (more…)
When the Aztec Eagle Began to Soar Over Bridgeport: Part 2 – From “Puebla York”, “Oaxakeepsie” and “Mexchester”
by Abraham Lima
This is Part 2 of a 5 Part Series at the Bridgeport History Center:
The tri-color flag of Mexico, the green red and white. In the middle stands an eagle on a cactus with a snake, the legacy of this eagle, the eagle the Aztecs saw in the middle of the lake with artificial islands they would build soon surrounding the spot. A sign of Huichilopochtli the war god. On it was built Tenochtitlán- or as we say today, Mexico City.
This eagle soars over 2,000 miles away, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, resides the largest Mexican population, both largest foreign born and Mexican descendant population, of any city in New England, ahead of Boston and New Haven. This is her story. (more…)