ASCH

The Association for the Study of Connecticut History

This year’s annual meeting will be held at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury on Saturday, November 9. You have probably already received a copy of the program earlier this month but, I am enclosing another one with this newsletter to share with a colleague or to post on your organization’s bulletin board.

Betsy Fox has put together an excellent program on the subject of landscape of Connecticut. Speakers will present papers on the interpretation, preservation, and beautification of Connecticut’s landscape over the last century and a half. Conference participants are: William Hosley, Executive Director, Antiquarian and Landmarks Society; Victor Geraci, Associate Professor of History, Central Connecticut State University; Hildegard Cummings, retired Educator, Benton Museum of Art; and Charlene Perkins Cutler, Executive Director, Quinebaug-Shetucket Heritage Corridor, Inc. Thanks go to the Connecticut Humanities Council for supporting this conference

The annual meeting of ASCH will be held after lunch. At that time, the membership will consider and vote on the new bylaws and vote to extend the terms of existing ASCH officers for six months. This will be followed by the presentation of the Homer D. Babbidge, Jr. Award and the Betty M. Linsley Award. Patricia Thevenet, Corresponding Secretary, chairs the Awards Committee. The other members are Amy Trout and Richard DeLuca.

In the new bylaws, the annual meeting with election of officers will be moved to the spring meeting. The Babbidge and Linsley Awards will continue to be presented at the November meeting. Other notable changes in the bylaws are in style and order. The “legal” language of our current bylaws is giving way to a more simple style that makes them much easier to read and understand. A copy of these new bylaws is enclosed. For those who would like to compare them to the “old” edition, the bylaws were last printed in the Fall 1981 ASCH Newsletter, or you can contact me directly for a copy. My appreciation goes to Sally Whipple (chair) and Barbara Austen for undertaking this important project.

The 2002 spring meeting, held at the Lebanon Historical Society Museum, was attended by 40 individuals. Program chair, Sally Whipple, put together an interesting half day program that featured speakers, Lisa Wilson, Professor of History, Connecticut College, who talked about her research on the stepfamily of Silas Deane; and Tom Beardsley, Windham Municipal Historian, who talked about elite culture in Windham County during the late 19^th century. Stacia Caplanson, Director/Curator, Lebanon Historical Society Museum; Howard Wayland, President, Lebanon Historical Society; and Alicia Wayland, Lebanon Town Historian made presentations on the history of Lebanon and the development and growth of the Museum. Meeting participants were able to tour the Museum and the Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. House after the program.
For those planning ahead, Debra Mecky, Executive Director, The Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich, has invited ASCH to hold its spring 2003 meeting at the Bush-Holley Historic Site. The date of the meeting is Saturday, May 10. This date was selected so that we do not conflict with the National History Day program that is sponsored by the Connecticut Historical Society on May 3. The program is aimed for students in grades 6 through 12 who are encouraged to do research around a broad annual theme.

At its June 2002 meeting, the Board agreed to accept an offer by Central Connecticut State University to design and host an ASCH website on the CCSU server. Matt Warshauer, Associate Professor of History, CCSU and a member of the editorial Board of Connecticut History, is designing and will maintain the website in consultation with the Board. As many of you already know, there is a long history of association between ASCH and the Connecticut State University system, and support from CCSU administration, Provost Pearl Bartelt, and Katherine Hermes, Associate Professor of History, for this website is greatly appreciated. Final details are being worked out and the site will be up and running in the near future.

Bob Asher, editor of Connecticut History, reports that the next issue (Fall 2002, volume 41 #2) will be mailed around December 1. This issue will have articles by Nancy H. Steenburg, “Murder and Minors: “Changing Standards in the Criminal Law of Connecticut, 1650-1853”; Derek L. Mogck, “Connecticut Federalists in President Jefferson’s (Republican) Court: United States v. Hudson and Goodwin”; Lawrence Goodheart, “Murder and Madness: The Ambiguity of Moral Insanity in Nineteenth-Century Connecticut”; and David Drummond, “The Round Choker Mousetraps of Connecticut”. This issue will also include seven book reviews and several exhibition reviews.

Editor, Connecticut History: Robert Asher, 860-486-4553; asher@uconnvm.uconn.edu

2002 Nominations Chair: Brenda Milkofsky, 860-529-7656; weth.hist.society@snet.net