10 Connecticut History Organizations Earn Awards For Advancing Understanding of History

The Connecticut League of History Organizations is recognizing excellence in presenting Connecticut history, honoring the work of 10 history organizations with Awards of Merit. The awards recognize institutions that enhance and advance the understanding of history in Connecticut, and demonstrate the highest professional standards.

The purpose of the awards is to recognize the care, thought, and effort invested in these contributions and to inspire and encourage others by acknowledging exceptional contributions to state and local history.  They will be formally announced at an awards ceremony and event to be held by the organization on Tuesday, April 19.

Projects include most types of public-facing research and interpretive work, including but not limited to exhibitions, research projects, websites and digital history/digital humanities projects, online exhibitions, books and other publications, educational and other public programs, talks and lecture series, documentaries/films/videos, demonstrations, restorations, preservation projects, etc. 

The 2022 award recipients are:

·         American Clock and Watch Museum, Joseph Ives and the Looking Glass Clock

·         Barnum Museum, Barnum's Letters from Abroad: A Blog Series Based on P.T. Barnum's 1845–1846 Copybook

·         Chester Historical Society, These Few Lines: Chester in the Civil War as Depicted in the Correspondence between Willis and Nancie Ayers

·         City of Norwalk Historical Commission, Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Mathews Park interpretive panels

·         Connecticut Historical Society, "Communities in Action" and "Which Side Are You On?" distance learning programs

·         Connecticut Historical Society, Common Struggle, Individual Experience: An Exhibition about Mental Health

·         Friends of Wood Memorial Library, Nowashe Village

·         Mattatuck Museum, history gallery reinterpretation

·         Norwalk Historical Society, Norwalk's Changing Communities, 13,000 BC to 1835

·         Thompson Historical Society, The Nine Lives of No. 9

In addition, CLHO will recognize Dr. Karl Peter Stofko for individual achievement.  Individual Achievement awards are intended for people who have made significant and longstanding contributions to Connecticut history beyond the local level. Stofko has served as East Haddam Municipal Historian, a member of the Connecticut Freedom Trail Committee and chairman of the Annual Venture Smith (1729-1805) Day Celebrations at First Church Cemetery in East Haddam.