Tag: new haven history

The First Engraving, 1775

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"The primary cause of the first regular engraving being performed in New Haven appears to have been the battle or action at Lexington. When the news of this affair reached New Haven, Arnold, as has been stated, started with about forty volunteers. Among this number were Mr. Amos Doolittle, and a Mr. Earl, a portrait painter. These young men were, no doubt, powerfully excited by what they saw and heard at the scene of action, and on their return to New Haven endeavored to show to their excited countrymen pictorially the opening scenes of the great contest which had now fully begun."

Battle of the Bonhomme Richard and the Serapis, 1779

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"On September 23, 1779, Captain John Paul Jones fought a battle without parallel in naval history. Hitherto the contest upon the sea had been mainly a predatory warfare of privateers, aimed at the destruction of commerce and the plunder of merchant vessels. The young republic was without a navy proper. Called 'Pirate Jones' by the English, for retaliating on the coast of England for the atrocities committed on the coast of America, the captain of the Bon Homme Richard gallantly refused the sword of the surrending captain of the Serapis — but did take his ship."

This was Connecticut: images of a vanished world, by T. S. Bronson

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"The great majority of photographs in this book are from the collection of the New Haven Colony Historical Society. But in order to give broader scope to this visual document of life in early Connecticut, other sources were used as well. These include the collection of Mrs. Edith LaFrancis (for all the striking photographs taken by George and Alvah Howes), the Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University (for selected scenes of life at early Yale)..."

The Connecticut Shore of the Sound, illustrated by William M. Gibson.

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"Numerous converging and intersecting railways, extensive manufactures, and a considerable West-India commerce, contribute to the life and wealth of this beautiful city. Its suburbs are adorned with tasteful villas, and afford inviting drives and charming prospects. Of principal interest among its suburban attractions are the crags known as East and West Rocks — two bold and striking bluffs of trap-rock, lifting themselves, in magnificent array of opposition, about four hundred feet out of the plain which skirts the city. Their geological origin was probably some anomalous volcanic convulsion; and their grim heights may have sentinelled, in remote ages of our planet, the flow of the Connecticut River between their august feet to the Sound."

The Landing at Quinnipiac, by Ernest Hickock Baldwin

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"No lighthouses guided the sailors, No breakwater sheltered the bay; No bridges of steel spanned the rivers — Just wilderness bordered the way."

The Development of the Green as a Public Square, by Henry Taylor Blake

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"As the city grows more dense and thronged around it, its use as a convenient spot for public buildings can no longer be thought of, but its priceless value as a breathing and resting and gathering place for the people becomes constantly more conspicuous. May it be guarded from enroachment in the future more jealously than in the past; and may our successors in its care of every race and lineage protect its soil, and cherish its traditions with that affectionate veneration which is the heritage and the test of every true son and daughter of New Haven!"

Elm City, by Herbert Randall

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"A song-sparrow waited till late with its lay, then mingling, as sunshine and rain, his sweet vesper warble from birches and oak, fused thankfulness over the plain; the lashes of evening drooped over the blue; The lights from a train rumbled by; but day was at rest, as by mother-heart blest, a crescent-moon love-watching nigh. The picture returns like a vision from Faust, dissolves in the mem'ry of night."

We revere thee, Rock, that long has stood.

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"East Rock is a bold and beautiful promontory of almost fearful height, near the fine city of New Haven, Connecticut. It commands an extensive and delightful view of the town, the adjacent country to some extent, the bay, and Long Island itself, which resembles a huge confused mass of deep summer clouds, as viewed in the edge of the southern horizon apparently floating over the sound."

The Clear Day. Richard First.

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"The Richard Platt lot was on the southwest side of what is now Chapel Street, New Haven, facing the present grounds of Yale College and extending in the rear to land allotted to Rev. Peter Prudden. Richard is said to have built a house on this plot before his move to Milford, Conn., and, though he gradually disposed of his New Haven holdings after he relocated, he continued to own land in New Haven for a number of years."

The Thomas P. Merwin House, the William Bartlett House, and the Eighmie Patent Shirt

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"Thomas P. Merwin, then one of the young dry goods merchants of the city, occupying the double store on Chapel street, adjoining the New Haven National bank, was married to Harriett A. Warner, daughter of Gaius F. Warner, the malleable iron manufacturer, by the Rev. William T. Eustis, pastor of that church, who was then one of the most popular preachers in the city. Four children have blessed that union, all of whom are living in this city to congratulate this couple upon fifty years of their happy married life. Mr. and Mrs. Merwin established their home on College street, enlarging the same from time to time as the growing family necessitated, where they still reside."