ConnTours Puts the State's History Just an App Away

Connecticut Humanities has launched a new mobile app - aptly named ConnTours.

ConnTours serves as a mobile-friendly guide to unique and interesting places that make up the Connecticut landscape, according to officials. The app is currently being piloted with four theme-based tours which explore sites connected to notable women, Connecticut’s role in the American Revolution, its unique architectural landmarks, and its complicated relationship to slavery.

In addition to the theme-based tours, ConnTours also offers more localized town and city-based tours that will allow users to get out of their cars and better explore the communities where so much history took place. The app provides short introductions to the history of each stop, images, maps, links to social media, directions to each stop, and links to resources that will allow users the opportunity to plan their visit.

The ConnTours app, the newest initiative from Connecticut Humanities, is available for FREE in Google Play and the Apple App Store.  For users interested in learning more about particular topics, subject-specific links are provided to Connecticut Humanities’ award-winning digital history project, ConnecticutHistory.org, as well as to resources housed at libraries, museums, and cultural institutions throughout the state.

There is also a do-it-yourself feature. ConnTours offers users the opportunity to create their own tours by tagging sites near their current location or sites of particular interest to them. These tagged sites will then show up in a list of “Favorites” that can be accessed at any time, allowing users to explore Connecticut’s unique historic and cultural sites at their own pace and on their own schedules.

Much of the initial content found on ConnTours was made possible through collaborations with partners throughout the state, including the State Historic Preservation Office within the Connecticut State Department of Economic and Community Development, the Connecticut Office of Tourism, the Litchfield Historical Society, the Connecticut Historical Society, the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, the Groton Public Library, and the Ridgefield Historical Society.

The goal:  for individual users to get inspired to get out and explore all the interesting and distinctive places that shape the history and culture of Connecticut.

Connecticut Humanities - the nonprofit state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities - has encouraged curiosity, understanding, and critical thinking through grants, partnerships, and collaborative programs since its founding in 1974. Current initiatives in addition to ConnTours and ConnecticutHistory.org, are Teach It, the Connecticut Center for the Book, Book Voyagers, and a competitive granting program.