The Traprock Landscapes of New England

The Traprock Landscapes of New England
Author: Peter M. LeTourneau
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2017-01-03
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0819576832

Stunning photography and fact-filled text reveal new perspectives on southern New England's most unique natural region. A picturesque journey through the traprock highlands from New Haven, Connecticut to Amherst, Massachusetts, this book captures the majesty of wild windswept cliffs, panoramic summit vistas, and intimate details of the natural world through the eyes of an artist and the mind of a scientist. By tracing the influence of natural history on cultural development in the Connecticut Valley, the authors present a compelling argument that the rocky highlands are landscapes of national significance, where the particular combination of geology, geography, water resources, climate, and human settlement fostered vital developments in Early American science, education, agriculture, manufacturing, technology, and the creative arts. Through vibrant color photographs of high alpine crags and lush forests, thundering waterfalls and splashing cascades, and close-up views of the rocks, flowers, and birds, The Traprock Landscapes of New England presents the incomparable beauty of the region as never before. Overflowing with information, long-time fans, first-time visitors, nature lovers, rock climbers, history buffs, land use managers, and many others will find plenty to satisfy in the detailed text and captions, crisp photos, historical images, informative maps, and more. Showcasing popular locales, and revealing "secret spots," this must-have resource will encourage old friends and newcomers alike to visit the rugged crags once called "the boldest and most beautiful" landscapes in New England. A Driftless Connecticut Series Book, funded by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

New Haven’s Sentinels

New Haven’s Sentinels
Author: Jelle Zeilinga de Boer
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2013-10-21
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0819573752

West Rock and East Rock are bold and beautiful features around New Haven, Connecticut. They resemble monumental gateways (or time-tried sentinels) and represent a moment in geologic time when the North American and African continents began to separate and volcanism affected much of Connecticut. The rocks attracted the attention of poets, painters, and naturalists when beliefs rose about the spiritual dimensions of nature in the early 19th century. More than two dozen artists, including Frederick Church, George Durrie, and John Weir, captured their magic and produced an assortment of classic American landscapes. In the same period, the science of geology evolved rapidly, triggered by the controversy between proponents and opponents of biblical explanations for the origin of rocks. Lavishly illustrated, featuring over sixty paintings and prints, this book is a perfect introduction to understanding the relationship of geology and art. It will delight those who appreciate landscape painting, and anyone who has seen the grandeur of East and West Rock.

Charles I's Killers in America

Charles I's Killers in America
Author: Matthew Jenkinson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2019
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0198820739

After the Restoration the men who signed Charles I's death warrant fled to New England, becoming folk heroes for America's earliest historians and novelists. This is the story of the lives and afterlives of these regicides, and the truth behind the attempts by King Charles II's government to bring the 'king-killers' to justice.

Forever Seeing New Beauties

Forever Seeing New Beauties
Author: Eve M. Kahn
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2019-10-02
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0819578754

The story of New England's own Mary Cassatt Revolutionary artist Mary Rogers Williams (1857—1907), a baker's daughter from Hartford, Connecticut, biked and hiked from the Arctic Circle to Naples, exhibited from Paris to Indianapolis, trained at the Art Students League, chafed against art world rules that favored men, wrote thousands of pages about her travels and work, taught at Smith College for nearly two decades, but sadly ended up almost totally obscure. The book reproduces her unpublished artworks that capture pensive gowned women, Norwegian slopes reflected in icy waters, saw-tooth rooflines on French chateaus, and incense hazes in Italian chapels, and it offers a vivid portrayal of an adventurer, defying her era's expectations.

Stone Breaker

Stone Breaker
Author: Kathleen L. Housley
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2023-03-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0819500291

Stone Breaker is an in-depth, accessible biography of a true American polymath, James Gates Percival. A poet, linguist, and unstable savant Percival was also a brilliant geologist who walked thousands of miles crisscrossing first Connecticut and then Wisconsin to lay the foundation for the work of generations of Earth scientists. Exploring the confluences of literature, art, and geology, Kathleen L. Housley reveals how one of most famous poets of the 1820's became a renowned geologist with his groundbreaking 1843 work Report on the Geology of the State of Connecticut. The book includes historic photographs and paintings of the Connecticut landscape.

Forgotten Voices

Forgotten Voices
Author: Carolyn Wakeman
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2019-10-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0819579246

An inclusive early history of an iconic New England church The history inscribed in New England's meetinghouses waits to be told. There, colonists gathered for required worship on the Sabbath, for town meetings, and for court hearings. There, ministers and local officials, many of them slave owners, spoke about salvation, liberty, and justice. There, women before the Civil War found a role and a purpose outside their households. This innovative exploration of a coastal Connecticut town, birthplace of two governors and a Supreme Court Chief Justice, retrieves the voices preserved in record books and sermons and the intimate views conveyed in women's letters. Told through the words of those whose lives the meetinghouse shaped, Forgotten Voices uncovers a hidden past. It begins with the displacement of Indigenous people in the area before Europeans arrived, continues with disputes over worship and witchcraft in the early colonial settlement, and looks ahead to the use of Connecticut's most iconic white church as a refuge and sanctuary. Relying on the resources of local archives, the contents of family attics, and the extensive records of the Congregational Church, this community portrait details the long ignored genocide and enslaved people and reshapes prevailing ideas about history's makers. Meticulously researched and including 75 color illustrations, Forgotten Voices will be of interest to anyone exploring the roots of community life in New England. The book is the joint project of the Old Lyme meetinghouse and the Florence Griswold Museum. The museum will host a major exhibit in 20192020, exploring the role of the meetinghouse.

Along the Valley Line

Along the Valley Line
Author: Max R. Miller
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2017-08-15
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 0819577383

The Connecticut Valley Railroad once carried both passengers and freight along the west bank of the Connecticut River between Hartford and Old Saybrook. Completed in 1871, today the railroad is known throughout New England for the nostalgic steam-powered excursion trains that run on a portion of the line between Essex and Chester. Until now the history of this popular tourist attraction has been the stuff of local lore and legend. This book, written by railroad historian and former vice president and director of Valley Railroad, Max R. Miller, provides the first comprehensive history of the Connecticut Valley Railroad through maps, ephemera, and archival photographs of the trains, bridges, and scenery surrounding the line. Offering tales of train wrecks, ghost sightings, booms and busts, Along the Valley Line will be treasured by railroad enthusiasts and historians alike.

Under the Dark Sky

Under the Dark Sky
Author: Steven G. Smith
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2018-05-08
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 081957841X

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Steven G. Smith showcases the picturesque Thames River basin, which extends from southern Massachusetts through Connecticut to the Long Island Sound. The river and its watershed help define the borders of a valley that is unique among its East Coast neighbors, considered to be the last place where dark night sky can be viewed between Washington, D.C. and the Boston metro area. Locals like to call the area the "Quiet Corner" or the "Last Green Valley." In 1994, the U.S. Congress designated parts of the area as a Natural Heritage Corridor because it is one of the last remaining stretches of green in the area and boasts some of the largest unbroken forests in southern New England. This full-color documentary photo essay explores this Atlantic gem, through the faces of the people and the landscapes. An excellent gift and an educational resource, the book includes a foreword by noted outdoor writer Steve Grant.

The Listeners

The Listeners
Author: Roy R. Manstan
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2018-09-04
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0819578371

An untold story of scientists and engineers who changed the course of World War I Roy R. Manstan's new book documents the rise of German submarines in World War I and the Allies' successful response of tracking them with innovative listening devices—precursors to modern sonar. The Listeners: U-boat Hunters During the Great War details the struggle to find a solution to the unanticipated efficiency of the German U-boat as an undersea predator. Success or failure was in the hands and minds of the scientists and naval personnel at the Naval Experimental Station in New London, Connecticut. Through the use of archival materials, personal papers, and memoirs The Listeners takes readers into the world of the civilian scientists and engineers and naval personnel who were directly involved with the development and use of submarine detection technology during the war.

Paved Roads & Public Money

Paved Roads & Public Money
Author: Richard DeLuca
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2020-09-03
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0819573043

Paved Roads & Public Money describes the evolution of transportation systems in modern Connecticut. It is the second book in a two-volume study that begins with the bicycle craze of the 1880s, and ends with the efforts of the Malloy and Lamont administrations to revitalize Connecticut transportation in the twenty-first century. The story includes aviation, highways, bridges, ferries, steamboats, canals, railroads, electric trolleys, and water ports in Connecticut and along the multi-state travel corridor from New York to Boston. Drawing on a wide array of primary material, Richard DeLuca examines how land, law, and technology have shaped the state and its transportation systems, giving special attention to the state's two largest transportation monopolies: the New Haven Railroad and the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The book focuses on key events in the development of transportation and legislation. It is arranged chronologically, and by highlighting themes from each period shows the implications of the state's transportation history on current debates about infrastructure and funding. It features 50 illustrations and three appendices: population by geomorphic region, a list of controlled access highways, and a list of notable highway bridges.