Connecticut is a small state with big stories. GTN episodes include top-flight historians, compelling first-person stories and new voices in Connecticut history. Executive Producers Mary Donohue, Walt Woodward, and Natalie Belanger look at the people and places that have made a difference in CT history. New episodes every two weeks. A joint production of Connecticut Explored magazine and the CT State Historian Emeritus.
239. Sam Colt Mines the West (10th Anniversary Encore Release)
In celebration of our 10th anniversary, we are bringing you a remastered edition of an episode recorded in 2017 at the University of Hartford as part of the Presidents' College and Connecticut Explored's "Connecticans in the American West" lecture series.
In this episode, Dr. Leah Glaser tells the story of Sam Colt's investment in the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company in the 1850s, a company that was incorporated in Cincinnati, Ohio to exploit silver mines in the new Arizona Territory. As we found out in Grating the Nutmeg episode #129 Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter that Changed American, Colt had had a string of business flops before becoming perhaps the richest man in Connecticut. Colt never set foot in Arizona but that didn't mean he didn't pour energy, money, and firearms into the venture. How did the Apache, the Civil War, and a myriad other challenges intervene? DID Colt leave an indelible impression on the American West or fade away in failure?
Dr. Glaser received her Ph.D in American History from Arizona State University. She is a professor of history at Central Connecticut State University.
Further Reading:
REVOLUTION IN INDUSTRY: AN AMERICAN MANUFACTURING EMPIRE ON HARTFORD'S SOUTH MEADOW, 1855-1945
Coltsville National Historical Park
Historic Resource History Study
Leah S. Glaser, Katherine Hermes, Matthew Warshauer, Lauryn West
September 30, 2026
https://ncph.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Coltsville-National-Historical-Park-Historic-Resource-Study-Web.pdf
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Don't forget to subscribe to Connecticut Explored magazine today. And please set up your monthly donation to Grating the Nutmeg at ctexplored.org so we can continue bring you newresearch in Connecticut history, compelling first-person stories and fresh voices.
This remastered episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at https://www.highwattagemedia.com/ Follow Grating the Nutmeg on Facebook and Instagram.
Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!
1 Oct 2026
238. Living on the Edge: New England, New Netherland, and New Sweden
In the 1600s, Connecticut settlers had to contend with a multitude of threats to their survival, both as individuals and as a colony. Those threats weren't just internal — poor harvests, disease, religious strife — but external, too. The colonists were caught up in a complicated web of international diplomacy, vulnerable to the ambitions of imperial powers like the Spanish, the Dutch, the English, and....the Swedes?
In this episode, Natalie Belanger chats with Elizabeth Hines, Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida. Dr. Hines is working on a book about Anglo-Dutch relations in the 17th century. In 2025, she did research at the Connecticut Museum to better understand the context of the Treaty of Hartford of 1650, in which Dutch and English colonists negotiated territorial boundaries between their North American colonies. Hines argues that the treaty became a tool for the Dutch in their goal of swallowing up the Swedish colony on the Delaware River. Though successful in the short term, the Dutch would soon lose all their land in North America to the English.
Her work shows that we need to study the Dutch, English, and Swedish empires together to understand early American history.
Thanks to Natalie Belanger of the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History for bringing us this unusual story!
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Don't forget to subscribe to Connecticut Explored magazine today - in your mailbox or your inbox! And please set up your monthly donation to Grating the Nutmeg at ctexplored.org so we can continue bring you the stories you want to hear!
This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at highwattagemedia.com/ Follow Grating the Nutmeg on Facebook and Instagram.
Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!
15 Sept 2026
237. Mary Barlow: Hartford's Fallen "Six-Triple-Eight" Soldier
This episode tells the story of one of the women depicted in The Six Triple Eight, a 2024 WWII war drama film by Tyler Perry that tells the true story of the 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion. Mary Jewel Barlow was one of only three members of the 6888th Postal Directory Battalion who died in service during World War II and one of only four women buried in the Normandy American Cemetery in France. The 6888 was an all-Black, all-female Women's Army Corps battalion. A real young woman from Hartford's North End, Barlow's life and sacrifice deserve recognition.
The guest is Orice Jenkins (https://oricejenkins.com). A renowned member of Hartford's jazz community, Jenkins is also a genealogist and award-winning author originally from Hartford. His research has been featured in The Washington Post, on the National Parks Service website, and the Journal of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society. Orice has meticulously researched Mary Barlow and brings that story to us. He is a returning Grating the Nutmeg guest - he was featured with Jill Marie Synder on episode #127 - Telling Your Family's Story.
Listen here: gratingthenutmeg.libsyn.com/127-telling-your-family-story-with-jill-marie-snyder-and-orice-jenkins
You can find out more about his work and contact information on his website at oricejenkins.com/
He is available for book talks, programs, and genealogical research.
For more about his book, The Early County Massacre: Goolsby vs. The State of Georgia, go to: https://oricejenkins.com/earlycountymassacre
Mary Barlow grew up in Hartford's North End. Be sure to go to the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History's website to plan your visit to see Drawn Here: Stories from Hartford's North End". In addition to the fabulous graphic novel artwork, the exhibit also has interesting items too.
connecticutmuseum.org/exhibition/drawn-here-stories-from-hartfords-north-end/
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Don't forget to subscribe to Connecticut Explored magazine today - our Fall issue is out-plan your fall color-season daytrips. And please set up your monthly donation to Grating the Nutmeg at ctexplored.org so we can continue bring you new research in Connecticut history, compelling first-person stories, and fresh voices.
https://simplecirc.com/shop/connecticut-explored
This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Mary Donohue and engineered by Patrick O'Sullivan at highwattagemedia.com/ Follow Grating the Nutmeg on Facebook and Instagram.
Follow executive producer Mary Donohue on Facebook and Instagram at West Hartford Town Historian. Join us in two weeks for our next episode of Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history. Thank you for listening!
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