CTDA Members
| Name | Member Since | About |
|---|---|---|
| Acton Public Library | 2022 | In 1854, forty women of the town of Old Saybrook contributed one dollar toward a book purchasing fund, adopting the name “Ladies Circulating Library.” By 1865, the collection had grown to almost five hundred books. By 1870, the collection had grown to eight hundred volumes and was moved to a building owned by local resident and political and social activist, Thomas C. Acton. This collection of personal letters, receipts and ephemera covers over 165 years of library history spanning two centuries. |
| American School for the Deaf | 2016 | This school has served as the "Mother School" in providing an exemplary model educational program; a site for teacher training and practicum; and as a springboard from which trained and experienced educators of the deaf went forth to educate and to start other schools for the deaf all over the country and to help found a college in Washington, D.C. |
| Ancient Burying Ground Association | 2021 | The Ancient Burying Ground Association works to preserve and restore Hartford’s oldest historic site and to educate the public about its role in the history of Colonial Connecticut and the new Republic. |
| Avon Free Public Library | 2014 | The Avon Free Public Library can be traced back to 1791 when Rev. Rufus Hawley started collecting money from residents to purchase books for a community library. In 1798, Samuel Bishop, a prominent citizen, began offering library services within his home with a collection of 111 titles. The library is a member of Library Connection, Inc., the cooperative regional automated circulation and online catalog database system, Encore, to which 30 libraries belong. Our mission is to serve as the center of enrichment for the Avon community providing free and convenient access to information, literature, culture and the arts through a variety of media and technologies. |
| Barnum Museum | 2016 | Phineas Taylor Barnum's impact reaches deep into our American heritage, and the story of his vast contributions are preserved in his Bridgeport, Connecticut, museum. Conceived and funded by P. T. Barnum, the Barnum Museum has proudly served an international audience since 1893, and is one of our country's great national treasures. |
| Bethel Public Library | 2016 | The Library had a humble beginning when in 1909, an ordinance established the Bethel Public Library. From 1910 when the library opened in one room over what was then A.J. Lynch’s store on Greenwood Avenue to July 2005 when the newly renovated Library opened for business the Bethel Public Library has responded to the changing needs of the community. |
| Bibliomation Libraries | ||
| Bill Memorial Library | 2016 | On October 15, 1888, Frederic Bill sent identical letters to a group of Groton citizens in which he stated that he wished to found a library to honor the memory of his two sisters, Eliza and Harriet. For this purpose he had selected some 1700 books and provided cases to be installed in an upper room of the First District schoolhouse, which then stood on the site of the present Groton Heights School. His aim in the selection of these books, according to his letter, was that "in the volumes collected there may be found that which will tend to stimulate a high ambition, strengthen good resolve, cultivate the taste an afford pleasure to all who may read them." The library was opened for the distribution of books on November 20, 1888, with 1750 volumes on hand. |
| Bridgeport History Center, Bridgeport Public Library | 2015 | The Bridgeport History Center’s foundations were laid in the 19th century by Bridgeport citizens who cared about their community and wished to document it for future generations. The department was formally founded in 1936, and it is a proud part of the Bridgeport Public Library System. We continue this tradition of documentation by continuously acquiring material that speaks to Bridgeport’s rich past, vibrant contemporary community, and ensures access to this material for present and future generations. |
| Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts | 2019 | The Shepherd M. Holcombe Archives, established in 2001, ensure that The Bushnell's glorious tradition will be documented and preserved for generations to come. A vast compilation of historic photographs, books, brochures and primary source materials--along with the Hall's famous backstage autograph walls…collectively capture the sweep and brilliance of Bushnell presentations provided to Connecticut audiences over nearly a century. |
| Case Memorial Library | 2015 | The Case Memorial Library is the public library serving the town of Orange, Connecticut. Our thanks to Barbara Eickmeyer, Technical Services Assistant, for her work on transcribing the text of the Amity Star |
| Central Connecticut State University | 2020 | CCSU's Elihu Burritt Library includes Special Collections & Archives to preserve and improve access to university and Connecticut history. |
| Chaplin Public Library - Chaplin Bicentennial, 2022 Collections | 2023 | |
| Connecticut Association of Health Science Librarians | 2018 | We're a Connecticut-based community of medical and health science librarians supporting research and evidence-based practice through shared resources, educational programming, and mentorship. |
| Connecticut College | 2018 | The College Archives serves as the institutional memory of Connecticut College. Its collections tell the College's story through official records and the voices of past and present members of the Conn community. |
| Connecticut Digital Archive | 2013 | The CTDA is a collaborative member organization that supports digital preservation and access for all Connecticut's people. We believe that the stories and experiences of every person and group in Connecticut are important to all of us. Keeping and sharing them creates a common cultural understanding and a richer historical legacy. |
| Connecticut History Illustrated | ||
| Connecticut History Illustrated Featured Topics | ||
| Connecticut Landmarks | 2016 | Founded in 1936 as the Antiquarian & Landmarks Society, we are a state-wide network of twelve significant historic properties that span three centuries of New England history. Our museums are starting points, "landmarks in every sense," for deeper exploration and greater appreciation of the Connecticut experience. The historic, landmark properties span four centuries of Connecticut history and include: the Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden, Bethlehem; the Butler-McCook House & Garden and Main Street History Center, Hartford; the Buttolph-Williams House, Wethersfield; the Hempsted Houses, New London; the Isham-Terry House, Hartford; the Nathan Hale Homestead, Coventry; the Phelps-Hatheway House & Garden, Suffield. |
| Connecticut League of History Organizations | 2020 | The Connecticut Digital Archive serves as the digital preservation system for the Connecticut League of History Organizations' Connecticut Collection (CTCo) platform. Objects are managed in CTCo and sent to the CTDA for digital preservation and access. You can visit CTCo using the link in the menu below. |
| Connecticut Museum of Culture and History | 2016 | A private, nonprofit, educational organization established in 1825, the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History is the state’s official historical society and one of the oldest in the nation. Located at One Elizabeth Street in Hartford, the Connecticut Museum houses a museum, library, and the Edgar F. Waterman Research Center that are open to the public and funded by private contributions. The Connecticut Museum’s collection includes more than 4 million manuscripts, graphics, books, artifacts, and other historical materials accessible at our campus and on loan at other organizations. The Connecticut Museum collection, programs and exhibits help Connecticut residents connect with each other, have conversations that shape our communities, and make informed decisions based on our past and present. |
| Connecticut State Colleges & Universities | 2021 | The Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (CSCU) provide affordable, innovative and rigorous programs for students to achieve their personal and career goals as well as contribute to the economic growth of Connecticut. |
| Connecticut State Library | 2015 | The Connecticut State Library is an Executive Branch agency of the State of Connecticut. The State Library provides a variety of library, information, archival, public records, museum, and administrative services for citizens of Connecticut, as well as for the employees and officials of all three branches of State government. |
| Connecticut State Museum of Natural History | 2017 | The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Office of State Archaeology are home to the University of Connecticut's Anthropological Collections that represent the single largest repository of Connecticut Native American, colonial and industrial artifacts in existence. |
| CTDA-TEST pdf | ||
| Deep River Public Library | 2018 | The Deep River Public Library opened its doors to the public on May 26, 1900, offering 675 volumes to choose from. Mrs. Nellie Post was employed as the first librarian. |
| Dodd Center | 2019 | The Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute (HRI) at the University of Connecticut advances human rights knowledge and practice through research, teaching, and engagement. |
| Easton Public Library | 2019 | In 1933, a group of Easton visionaries voted to create a public library in their town. The Easton Public Library opened in the basement of Samuel Staples School with a budget of $200 from a state grant and $50 from the local P.T.A. |
| Ellen Elias-Bursac Collections | ||
| Enfield Public Library | 2018 | Enfield has a rich history and the Enfield Public Library is in the process of making that history more accessible to the community. By working with community partners like the Enfield Historical Society, the Connecticut State Library and the Friends of the Enfield Public Library, we have been able to digitize historic issues of the Enfield Press and the Yale Photographic Collection. |
| Fairfield Museum and History Center | 2015 | The Fairfield Museum and History Center’s research library offers a wealth of materials on the history of Fairfield and Fairfield County from 1639 to the present. |
| Farmington Libraries | 2021 | The Farmington Room is the library’s research collection of primary sources related to local history and genealogy. Included in the collection are histories of Farmington and other area towns (particularly Farmington’s seven daughter towns: Southington, Berlin, Bristol, New Britain, Burlington, Avon and Plainville), genealogies of major Farmington families, and library archives and scrapbooks. |
| Florence Griswold Museum | 2014 | During the early years of the 20th century, the Lyme Art Colony, centered in Miss Florence Griswold’s boardinghouse, became America’s most famous summer art colony. Today this museum of art and history tells the story of how Connecticut played a pivotal role in fostering an authentic American art. Located in the village of Old Lyme, Connecticut, the Museum is devoted to serving a growing audience made up of a loyal network of friends and visitors from around the world. |
| Franklin Street Works | 2021 | |
| Granby Memorial High School Collections | 2024 | Granby Memorial High School is a public high school in Granby, Connecticut. |
| Greater Bridgeport Bar Association | ||
| Greenwich Historical Society | 2019 | The Greenwich Historical Society was founded in 1931 to collect and chronicle this vibrant history and has actively pursued its mission at the Bush-Holley Historic Site since purchasing Bush-Holley House in 1957. The scope of the collections of the Library & Archives at the Greenwich Historical Society is wide and varied, and includes personal papers, genealogical material, photographs, maps and plot plans, and the records of educational and religious organizations, businesses and associations. |
| Groton Public Library | 2015 | The Groton Public Library Historical Room houses the Groton Collection—primarily books of historical and genealogical interest to the community, along with a small collection of manuscript and archival materials relating to Groton. |
| Hagaman Memorial Library | 2017 | |
| Hartford History Center, Hartford Public Library | 2015 | Hartford Public Library’s history spans more than 235 years. We can trace its very beginnings to the Library Company, formally organized in 1774. |
| Hartford Medical Society | 2015 | The Hartford Medical Society has been in continuous existence for over 160 years. The Society’s rules, adopted September 15th of 1846, state: “The object of this Society, is to maintain the practice of Medicine and Surgery in this city upon a respectable footing; to expose the ignorance and resist the arts of quackery; and to adopt measures for the mutual improvement, pleasant intercourse, and common good of its members.” |
| Hartford Public High School Museum & Archive | 2021 | |
| Historical Society of Easton | 2022 | Our Mission is to preserve, promote, and interpret our town's unique industrial, social, cultural, architectural, and environmental history. |
| Ivoryton Library Association | 2014 | The Ivoryton Library, organized in 1871, is one of the few libraries in the state housed in its original structure, built in l889, that has continued to function as a library for over l00 years. The library has great significance for the village of Ivoryton because much of the present landscape and environment in the community is due to the unique ivory-cutting industry that flourished here during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The library, perfectly placed in the center of this once factory village, was built in part with funds from the ivory factory, Comstock, Cheney & Co. It is difficult to imagine that Ivoryton was at one time the center of the ivory cutting trade in the United States. A photographic exhibit of the Comstock Cheney ivory trade resides in the library as part of a permanent collection. Currently there are 9,000 books and other items on the shelves of the library, including archives on the library history, the ivory trade, and local history. |
| Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford | 2021 | The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford (JHSGH) collects and preserves materials that document the Greater Hartford Jewish community. Through an array of publications, exhibitions and partnerships, we tell the stories of Jewish life, culture and contributions to our part of Connecticut. Founded in 1971, JHSGH has grown from an attic closet to a respected community archival center. JHSGH is a member-supported organization and a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford. |
| Kent Memorial Library, Suffield | 2017 | After its founding in 1940, the Suffield Historical Society chose the library to be the repository of its documents and photographs. The Kent Memorial Library’s historical collection is one of the richest in the state, and is a haven for researchers of early Connecticut and Suffield history. |
| Litchfield Historical Society | 2017 | The mission of the Litchfield Historical Society is to illuminate the rich and nationally-significant history of Litchfield, enabling each of us to construct meaning from the past for the present and future. |
| Lyman Allyn Art Museum | 2014 | The Lyman Allyn Art Museum, located in New London, Connecticut, was founded in 1926 at the bequest of Harriet Upson Allyn (1840 -1926). The museum opened in 1932, displaying a collection built by the first Director, Winslow Ames, which famously consisted of only thirteen works! Today, the permanent collection consists of over 17,000 paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18th through 20th centuries. |
| Lyme Public Hall and Local History Archives Collections | 2023 | Dedicated to the appreciation of Lyme’s history, culture, and community through the preservation and use of the historic hall, archives, and historical programs. |
| Mark Twain Library Association | 2021 | The Mark Twain Library Association is a private, non-profit corporation providing free public library services to the town of Redding. Honoring the vision and legacy of its founder, the Mark Twain Library offers the Redding community a center for intellectual, educational, social and cultural enrichment, providing a wide variety of materials, resources, and programs for all ages. |
| Mattatuck Museum | 2014 | The Mattatuck Museum was established as the Mattatuck Historical Society in 1877 to preserve the history of that part of Connecticut "anciently known as Mattatuck" - roughly the ten town region surrounding present-day Waterbury. In the 1960s the Historical Society expanded its mission to "collect and exhibit the works of Connecticut artists." The Mattatuck Museum is known for engaging its community in an understanding of the past and providing vision and leadership for the future through its exhibits and collections of national significance that interpret the history of the region and the art of Connecticut. |
| Meriden Public Library | 2021 | The Meriden Public Library inspires lifelong learning, creates possibilities, and strengthens our community. |
| Mystic Arts Center | 2014 | Mystic Arts Center, a part of the Connecticut art scene for 100 years, is a place where culture, tradition, and the charm of small town New England converge. Founded in 1913 by a group of prominent artists rooted in the philosophy of the 19th century French landscape painters, Mystic Arts Center today serves as an arts and culture center for southeastern Connecticut. |
| Mystic Seaport Museum | 2014 | Mystic Seaport is the nation’s leading maritime museum. Founded in 1929 to gather and preserve the rapidly disappearing artifacts of America’s seafaring past, the Museum has grown to become a national center for research and education with the mission to “inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience.” The Museum’s 41,000 square-foot Collections Research Center (CRC) is home to the G.W. Blunt White Library, a 75,000-volume research library where scholars from around the world come to study America’s maritime history. |
| New Britain Museum of American Art | 2015 | The New Britain Museum of American Art's founding in 1903 entitles the institution to be designated the first museum of strictly American art in the country. The singular focus on American art and its panoramic view of American artistic achievement make the New Britain Museum of American Art a significant teaching resource available to the local, regional, and national public. |
| New Haven Museum | 2014 | The New Haven Museum was founded in 1862 as the New Haven Colony Historical Society, which remains its corporate name. From the beginning, the institution sought to collect, preserve, and make available for research the materials which document the history of the greater New Haven area. |
| Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society | 2021 | The Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society (NWH & WHHS) is located in the restored 18th-century birthplace and childhood home of Noah Webster, the creator of the first American dictionary and “Blue-Backed Speller”, a teacher, lawyer and early abolitionist. The home was restored by the Noah Webster Foundation and opened to the public as a museum in the late 1960s. In 1970, the West Hartford Historical Society merged with the Foundation. |
| Norwalk Public Library | 2017 | Norwalk Public Library collections include historic newspapers, photographs, postcards, and maps. |
| Office of the State Historian | ||
| Predrag Dojcinovic Collections | 2023 | |
| P. T. Barnum Digital Collection | The P. T. Barnum Digital Collection draws from the holdings of the Barnum Museum and the Bridgeport History Center, Bridgeport Public Library, both located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The 1000+ archival items and artifacts selected for this collection pertain to the world-famous showman, Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891), and many of his associates, such as Charles S. Stratton (“Gen. Tom Thumb”), Jenny Lind, and Jumbo the Elephant, as well as his American Museum in New York City, circuses, four homes in Bridgeport, and other career, civic-life, and family-life topics. Both the planning and implementation phases of this project received generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. | |
| Russell Library | 2020 | Russell Library, serving Middletown, CT, has a wide variety of books, audiobooks, movies, free wifi, public computers, and events for all ages. |
| Slater Memorial Museum | 2014 | In 1886 William Albert Slater, the son of a wealthy Norwich industrialist, offered to memorialize his father, John Fox Slater, with a new building at the Norwich Free Academy. By 1888, recently appointed Norwich Free Academy Principal Robert Porter Keep convinced Slater to add to his gift of the building, funding adequate to acquire 227 plaster casts of classical and renaissance sculpture. Almost 600 photographs of the great works of European and ancient art and architecture were then added to the plan to create a museum that would serve the students of the Norwich Free Academy and the community by exposing them to cultures and aesthetics otherwise outside their reach. Over the course of more than a century, the museum has remained true to its mission as an educational resource for the Academy and the community. |
| Southern Connecticut State University | 2018 | SouthernDigital, the digital collections of the Hilton C. Buley Library at Southern Connecticut State University, is an ongoing project to display archival material that are owned by the university and/or community partners. The materials in the digital collection are out of copyright unless otherwise noted in the metadata of each item. For more information on digital collections at Southern, contact eref@southernct.edu. |
| Stanley-Whitman House | 2020 | Stanley-Whitman House is a living history center and museum that teaches through the collection, preservation, research, and dynamic interpretation of the history and culture of early Farmington, Connecticut. Programs, events, classes, and exhibits encourage visitors of all ages to immerse themselves in history by doing, acting, questioning, and engaging in colonial life and the ideas that formed the foundation of that culture. |
| The Cyrenius H. Booth Library | 2018 | The Cyrenius H. Booth Library was a posthumous gift of Newtown’s benefactress, Mary Elizabeth Hawley. It was named after her maternal grandfather who served as a physician in Newtown for fifty years, between 1820 and his death in 1871. The library was opened on December 17, 1932 with a capacity for 25,000 volumes. It was considered one of the most modern libraries of its time, containing features which are missing from many libraries even today. It was completely fire proof and its rooms were constructed with cork floors and acoustic ceiling tiles to deaden sound. The building also had a built-in humidifying unit and a centralized vacuum cleaner. The architect for this building was Philip Sutherland who also designed the Edmond Town Hall in Newtown |
| The Stonington Historical Society | 2014 | Our Society is dedicated to illuminating the more than 350 years of history of the Town of Stonington, located in the southeastern corner of Connecticut. We offer here records of the lives and fortunes of colonial settlers, blockade runners, ship captains, whale hunters, patriots, explorers, artists, and writers. |
| The Westport Library | 2022 | Founded in 1886, built in 1908, and transformed in 2019, The Westport Library is one of the most active and innovative public libraries in the nation, devoted to enriching the intellectual and creative lives of the community. |
| Town of Woodbridge | ||
| Trautman Garment Engineering Library | ||
| Trinity College | 2015 | Founded in 1823, Trinity College is a liberal arts college of 2200 students on 100 acres in Hartford, Connecticut. Our mission to "engage, connect and transform" is supported by a wide range of arts and sciences majors, programs, internships, and Liberal Arts Action Lab. Trinity's digitized collections are sourced from college and library archives, and student and faculty scholarship. Collections include college publications, student theses, prints, photos, ephemera, teaching materials and more. |
| United States Coast Guard Academy Library | 2020 | The Library, located in Waesche Hall, provides the resources, spaces and services to support academic success and encourage lifelong learning. Our mission is to provide quality library services, resources and facilities to the cadets, faculty and staff of the United States Coast Guard Academy. |
| University of Connecticut | 2013 | The University of Connecticut is a national leader among public research universities, with more than 30,000 students seeking answers to critical questions in classrooms, labs, and the community. A culture of innovation drives this pursuit of knowledge throughout the University’s network of campuses. Connecticut’s commitment to higher education helps UConn attract students who thrive in the most competitive environments, as well as globally renowned faculty members. Our school pride is fueled by a history of success that has made us a standout in Division I athletics. UConn fosters a diverse and vibrant culture that meets the needs and seizes the opportunities of a dynamic global society. |
| University of Connecticut Archives & Special Collections | 2013 | |
| University of Connecticut School of Law Library and Archives | ||
| University of Hartford | 2020 | |
| Wadsworth Atheneum | 2014 | The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the oldest public art museum in the United States, was founded in 1842 by Daniel Wadsworth, one of the first important American patrons of the arts. Its collections of nearly 50,000 works of art span 5,000 years and feature the Morgan collection of Greek and Roman antiquities and European decorative arts; world-renowned baroque and surrealist paintings; an unsurpassed collection of Hudson River School landscapes; European and American Impressionist paintings; modernist masterpieces; the Serge Lifar collecton of Ballets Russes drawings and costumes; the George A. Gay collection of prints; the Wallace Nutting collection of American colonial furniture and decorative arts; the Samuel Colt firearms collection; costumes and textiles; African American art and artifacts; and contemporary art. Daniel Wadsworth planned to establish “a Gallery of Fine Arts,” but he was persuaded to establish an “atheneum,” a term used in the nineteenth-century for a cultural institution with a library, works of art and artifacts, devoted to history, literature, art and science. |
| Watertown History Museum Collections | 2024 | |
| West Haven Public Library | 2020 | The mission of the West Haven Public Library is to provide people of all ages free, public access, and qualified guidance and direction to books, media, and cultural events in a comfortable, user-friendly, environment that meets the informational, educational, and life-long learning interests of the entire community. |
| Windham Textile & History Museum | 2016 | The Windham Textile and History Museum (The Mill Museum of Connecticut), located in the historic former headquarters of the American Thread Company of Willimantic, Connecticut, is a non-profit educational institution housing a museum, a library, and an archive. Through its exhibits, programs, and collections, the museum preserves and interprets the history of textiles, textile arts and the textile industry, with special emphasis on the experiences of the craftspeople, industrial workers, manufacturers, inventors, designers, and consumers. The museum also promotes greater understanding of major trends and changes in technology, economy, immigration, society, environment, and culture that shaped Connecticut, New England, and the United States from the colonial period to the present. |
| Woodbury Public Library | 2017 | The mission of the Woodbury Public Library is to strengthen and empower the community by using multiple media platforms and technologies to provide information, services, and programs that educate, inspire, entertain, and advance understanding and quality of life for people of all ages. |
Read Stories from the CTDA
There are so many stories hidden in the CTDA and among its members. Read about people and events represented in the CTDA and about projects and programs CTDA members are involved with in our Newsmagazine: CTDA Connect.
Read recent stories from CTDA Connect like the ones below on our Storymaps platform
- Park River: A River Forgotten, by Ethan Arcata
- Transformation in Transportation, by Vaia Poursaitidou
- Powerful Women in Connecticut Series, by Vaia Poursaitidou
- and more...
Read earlier CTDA Connect articles from 2019 - October 2023 on the Medium publishing platform