Visiting Giants

  20 July to 22 July 2023 - Bantam CT to Clinton CT

We left rural Connecticut and traveled to the coastal region to visit Yale and the homes of literary giants Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was a stormy day when we visited the homes in Hartford, but a gorgeous sunny day for Yale. Garrett and Alexandra (family friends,) who are living near Yale, met us for a delicious New Haven pizza lunch and then gave us a personal tour of the campus.  Alexandra works on campus and Garrett ran the Navy ROTC program as part of his military service. It was wonderful catching up with them and seeing the sights. It was hard to select pictures for this blog, so.... there are a lot!

This company makes the most delicious ice cream! Based in Bantam, they have expanded to a bakery and cafe in addition to their ice cream products.

We passed through Litchfield on our way to Clinton.  It has a very pretty green running down the middle of the main street.  A concert was just starting when we went through. Beautiful buildings, like this church, run along the street, along with significant homes like the birthplace of Harriet Beecher Stowe.

We traveled through some hilly country, but it was beautiful.

Lots of prosperous farms and large homes in this area.  I get the impression that this is a summer retreat for the wealthy from New York.

Once we set up camp, we took a short ride over to the coast to see the ocean.  I realized then that this was really the Long Island Sound, and I was going to have to wait a bit longer to see waves.  This little hamlet, Madison, is a beach summer cottage town with lots and lots of big, beautiful homes.

The Mark Twain Visitor Center had a very nice little museum and gift shop.  This full-size Lego sculpture was in the entryway.

Mark Twain lived in this home, with his family, for 17 years.  They were his most successful years, he wrote some of his most important works here including, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, but at the end, he lost his fortune due to bad investments. He paid his debts back by going on a five-year lecture tour of the world.

Some of the actual luggage used by Mr. Twain and his family.  I expect they had helpers moving this stuff from place to place.

The cafe was full of these whimsical mobiles, all commissioned by the foundation.

The rooms were large and spacious with 13-foot ceilings! He had running water plumbed in the bathrooms, quite a luxury for the times.

We didn't get a picture of the outside of Harriet Beecher Stowe's home, since a thunderstorm was starting.  She lived here for the last 23 years of her life. She was an artist as well as a writer.  A very active abolitionist, her book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, became a bestseller, second only to the Bible.  It was influential in both the United States and the U.K. in fueling the anti-slavery movements. Unfortunately, the content was portrayed with negative stereotypes about black people in articles and plays and movies, so the original impact was overshadowed.

Harriet became a wealthy woman from her writings and lived a luxurious lifestyle.

Both Mark Twain and Charles Dickens declared that Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven (part of Yale College) was the most beautiful street in America.  

Since 1937, this has been the home of Yale's presidents.  It has a very impressive and large yard. 

One of Yale's many dorms.  The older ones reminded me of Notre Dame's older dorms - windows that weren't very energy efficient and no air conditioning.

Grove Street Cemetery, opened in 1796, is the resting place for many famous people.  This memorial is of Roger Sherman, a Founding Father, who is the only person to sign all four major papers - Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.

Yale has secret societies, as anyone who watched The Gilmore Girls would know.  This is a society's building (known as a tomb,) on campus and with no windows.  No one apparently knows what goes on inside these tombs. One of the oldest, Skull and Bones (founded in 1832,) includes both Bushes and John Kerry as alums.  

This is the tomb of Book and Snake, founded in 1863.  Henry Louis Gates Jr is an alum.  

This is the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript library.  Anyone with an id can make an appointment to go into the stacks and view the books.  I would think some, like the Guttenberg Bible, require a few more credentials.

One of the copies of Audubon's The Birds of America is on permanent display in the library. The pictures were made by printing the outlines and hand coloring using watercolors.  Audubon employed over fifty colorists for the books.  The pages are huge - something like 39 inches high and 28 inches wide.

The stone panels that make up the library walls allow light in, but not enough to impact the rare books.

Another library, Sterling Memorial Library was completed in 1930. The architect had wanted a commission to build a church but didn't get it.  So, he designed the library in the style of a European cathedral.

What appears to be an altar at the end of the hall is actually the circulation desk.

The stained glass is all black and white.

This is a portrait of Yale's first seven women Ph.Ds. They received their degrees in 1894. Yale was one of the first universities to admit women.

A Lego sculpture of Woolsey Hall. Built in 1901, it contains a concert auditorium that seats over 2,600!

Memorial Quadrangle Gate contains the crests of the five branches of the armed services.

The entrance to Yale Rep.  Many famous actors graduated from the Yale Theater Arts program, including Angela Bassett, Sigourney Weaver, and Tony Shalhoub.

There is a tradition that prospective students rub the toe of Theodore Woolsey's statue for luck in being selected. Woolsey was a former Yale president. Garrett thinks if you rub the big toe especially hard, you could get a full scholarship!

Connecticut Hall is one of the original buildings on Yale's campus.  The area you see in front is part of Old Campus. Graduation takes place here every year.

This statue of Nathan Hale was made to scale.  He was not a very big person, at least in stature.  The sculptor chose to show him in shackles, just before his death. Hale graduated from Yale in 1773 at age 18. 

We had a wonderful day with Alexandra and Garrett! This picture is in front of the Law School.