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Historical Museums
American Clock and Watch Museum
100 Maple Street, Bristol, CT 06010
Tel. (860) 583-6070
American production clocks and the history of Connecticut clocks and the Industrial Revolution, housed in an 1801 mansion with a period garden.
Barnes Museum
85 North Main Street, Southington, CT 06489
Tel. (860) 628-5426
Antique furniture, glassware, and orientalia in a home built by Amon Bradley.
Canton Historical Museum
11 Front Street, Canton, CT 06019
Tel. (860) 693-2793
Nineteenth-century dolls, toys, antique tools, farm implements, machinery, and transportation, with a working craft center, blacksmith shop, general store, and a diorama built to scale depicting Collinsville in 1900 with a working railroad system.
Frank Chiarenza Museum of Glass
39 West Main Street, Meriden, CT 06451
Tel. (203) 639-9778
A fine collection of pressed and mold blown glass.
Connecticut Antique Machinery
Route 7,P.O. Box 425, Kent, CT 06757
Tel. (860) 927-0050
Cream Hill School, one of the country's first agricultural schools, and exhibits on railroads, stationary steam engines, combustion engines, mining, and agriculture.
Connecticut Fireman’s Historical Society Museum
230 Pine Street, Manchester, CT 06040
Tel. (860) 649-9436
Collection of hand- and horse-drawn fire apparatus, early motorized fire engines, and fire memorabilia.
Connecticut Fire Museum
58 North Road, East Windsor, CT 06088 (Exit 45 off I-91)
Tel. (860) 623-4732
Antique firefighting apparatus and related equipment.
Connecticut Historical Society
1 Elizabeth Street, Hartford, CT 06105
Tel. (860) 236-5621
Nonprofit library (includes manuscripts and genealogy center) and education center with interactive multimedia exhibitions.
Connecticut River Museum
67 Main Street, Essex, CT 06426
Tel. (860) 767-8269
Museum at Steamboat Dock that tells the story of Connecticut’s river valley through changing exhibits and activities.
Connecticut State Library
231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106
The principal library for the state’s government, with collections in law and legislation, public administration and policy; state, federal, and local government; and Connecticut history and genealogy as well as the largest collection of Connecticut newspapers in the state, all publications of the U.S. government, and all publications of the state’s agencies; also provides access to the state archives. The state supreme court holds sessions on the far side of the atrium. Space permitting in the gallery, observers may watch the proceedings.
Connecticut Trolley Museum
58 North Road, East Windsor, CT 06088 (Exit 45, I-91)
Tel. (860) 627-6540
An antique streetcar offering a nostalgic three-mile ride, with old-time whistles and brass bells. Ask about special holiday events.
Gillette Castle State Park
67 River Road, East Haddam, CT 06423
Tel. (860) 526-2336
A twenty-four-room castle built by the Shakespearean actor William Gillette on 184 acres overlooking the Connecticut River.
Golden Age of Trucking Museum
101 Southford Road, P.O. Box 1314, Middlebury, CT 06762
Tel. (203) 577-2181
Exhibits devoted to preserving and interpreting the history of American truck transportation with a special emphasis on the 1950s, the Golden Age of trucking.
Governor’s Residence
990 Prospect Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105
Tel. (860) 524-7356
A gracious Georgian Revival structure built in 1909, offering one-hour tours by appointment.
Hartford Police Museum
101 Pearl Street, Hartford, CT 06103
Tel. (860) 722-6152
Pictures, artifacts, and information on the 135+-year history of the police department and the Hartford community; learn about women in policing, the training of officers, and a typical day in the life of a policeman.
Edward E. King Museum
840 Main Street, East Hartford, CT 06108
Tel. (860) 289-6429
Tobacco and aviation history.
Luddy/Taylor Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum
145 Lang Road, Northwest Park, Windsor, CT 06095 (Exit 48 off I-91)
Tel. (860) 285-1888
Equipment and artifacts help tell the history of Connecticut’s Tobacco Valley, known worldwide for shade-grown tobacco leaves that were used to wrap finer cigars.
Lutz Children’s Museum
247 South Main Street, Manchester, CT 06040
Tel. (860) 643-0949
A “do touch” museum, with exhibits in natural history, art, social studies, history, and science (including a live animal collection).
Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center
110 Pequot Trail, P.O. Box 3180, Mashantucket, CT 06338-3180
Tel. (800) 411-9691
A state-of-the-art, tribally owned museum devoted to the culture and history of Native Americans and the American Northeast.
Menczer Museum of Medicine and Dentistry
230 Scarborough Street, Hartford, CT 06105
Tel. (860) 236-5613
Medical and dental artifacts dating from the American Revolution, with library dating from 1846 and exhibits that trace the development of medicine and dentistry during the past couple of decades.
Military Historians Westbrook Museum
North Main Street, Westbrook, CT 06498
Tel. (860) 399-9460
Large collection of military uniforms, with exhibits on meads and awards, combat vehicles, women’s uniforms, and the instruments and costumes of military bands.
Museum of American Political Life
(at the University of Hartford)
200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06117
Tel. (860) 768-4090
Collection includes posters, banners, rare textiles, flags, prints, and cartoons from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, also political buttons and memorabilia, extensive Lincoln collection, torchlight parade objects, and archival material.
Museum of Connecticut History
231 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, CT 06106
Tel. (860) 757-6535
Portraits of Connecticut’s governors, the “Fundamental Orders” of 1638-39 that made Connecticut the Constitution State, state constitutions, and the world-famous Colt Firearms collection.
Museum of Fife and Drum
62 North Main Street, Ivoryton, CT 06442
Tel. (860) 767-2237
A visual and musical history of America on parade, with artifacts, from the American Revolution to the present day.
Museum on the Green
Main Street and Hubbard Street
Glastonbury, CT 06033
Exhibits about 300 years of Glastonbury history, including native Americans, the Smith sisters, and a soap factory, with farming and industrial artifacts.
Mystic Seaport
P.O. Box 6000, 75 Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic, CT 06355-0990
Tel. (860) 572-0711
A leading maritime museum with indoor and outdoor exhibits relating to boats, the sea, and shipbuilding with related artifacts and extensive educational programming.
National Shaving and Barbershop Museum
39 West Main Street, Meriden, CT 06451
Tel. (203) 639-9778
An extensive collection of shaving and barbershop memorabilia.
New Britain Industrial Museum
185 Main Street, 2d floor, New Britain, CT 06051
Tel. (860) 832-8654
Changing exhibits of products from the Stanley Works, Fafnir Bearing, American Hardware, and other firms located in the Hardware City of the World, with a glimpse of technology’s future.
New Britain Youth Museum
30 High Street, New Britain, CT 06051
Tel. (860) 225-3020
A museum dedicated to encouraging children and families to explore the history and cultures of Connecticut and the world. Changing exhibits of artifacts, a user-friendly puppet theater, and an area for activities, construction toys, and games.
New England Air Museum
Bradley International Airport, Windsor Locks, CT 06096 (Exit 40, I-91)
Tel. (860) 623-3305
Two huge display hangars feature dozens of aircraft, from “flying machines” to helicopters, modern jets, and World War II planes. Includes outdoor exhibits; inquire about open cockpit days.
New England Carousel Museum
95 Riverside Avenue, Route 72, Bristol, CT 06010
Tel. (860) 585-5411
Carousels and artifacts.
New England Civil War Museum
Vernon Town Hall, 14 Park Place, Vernon, CT 06066
Tel. (860) 871-1552.
Noah Webster House/Museum of West Hartford History
227 South Main Street, West Hartford, CT 06107
Tel. (860) 521-5362
Colonial birthplace of the author of the first American dictionary, with exhibits, tours, and hands-on activities reminiscent of the eighteenth century.
Northeast States Civilian Conservation Corps Museum
166 Chestnut Hill Road, Stafford, CT 06075
Tel. (860) 684-3430
A museum documenting the legacy of the CCC, a New Deal program that employed single men to build and rebuild America’s state and national parks during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Old Manchester Museum
126 Cedar Street, Manchester, CT 06040
Tel. (860) 647-9983
Manchester artifacts from homes, farm, and industries including the Pitkin Glass Works, Cheney Brothers, sports hall of fame, and silk mills; a military memorial exhibit features Civil War and Spencer rifles; a research and genealogy library specializing in local families.
Old State House
800 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06103
Tel. (860) 522-6766
Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington, Joseph Steward’s Museum of Curiosities, daily cannon firing, guided tours, historic reenactments of Amistad trial, American Puppet Theater, changing exhibitions, and shop.
Railroad Museum of New England, Inc.
P.O. Box 4658, Waterbury, CT 06704
Tel. (203) 575-1931
An hour-long ride through scenic central Connecticut on the Naugatuck Railroad, which opened in September 1849 from Bridgeport to Winsted.
Shoreline Trolley Museum
17 River Street, East Haven, CT 06512
Tel. (203) 467-6927
An authentic trolley car making a three-mile trip through woods and a meadow.
Sloane-Stanley Museum and Kent Iron Furnace Site
Route 7, P.O. Box 917, Kent, CT 06757
Tel. (860) 927-3849
Eric Sloane (1905-1985), a noted Connecticut artist and writer, donated the fine early American tools on exhibit in this museum, which occupies a building and land donated to the state by the Stanley Works.
Somers Mountain Museum of Natural History and Primitive Technology
332 Turnpike Road, Somers, CT 06071
Tel. (860) 749-4129
Indoor and outdoor displays relating to native American artifacts and primitive living skills.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center
77 Forest Street, Hartford, CT 06105
Tel. (860) 522-9258, ext. 317
Home of the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and other books, carefully restored, with many of her possessions and paintings; carriage house has exhibit with artifacts on the national and international response to her antislavery novel.
Submarine Library Museum
440 Washington Street, Middletown, CT 06457
Tel. (860) 346-0388
Submarine memorabilia from World Wars I and II.
Tolland Jail and Warden’s Home
Junction of Route 74 and 195, Tolland, CT 06084 (Exit 68 off I-84)
A jail on the green, with thirty-two cells used until 1968, and a home with four nineteenth-century furnished rooms and exhibits on Tolland’s early businesses and on native American stone implements.
Vintage Radio/Communications Museum
33 Mechanic Street, Windsor, CT 06095
Tel. (860) 673-0518
History of radio from the 1920s to the 1970s, with sound effects room, motion picture projectors from hand crank to sound on film, library, and video viewing room.
Washington Street Cemetery
Washington Street, Middletown, CT 06457
Site on the Freedom Trail that holds the graves of local African-Americans, some of whom fought with the Connecticut Twenty-ninth Regiment and other African-American units of the Civil War.
Windham Textile and History Museum
157 Union-Main Streets, Willimantic, CT 06226
Tel. (860) 456-2178
Museum dedicated to preserving the history of the textile industry and located across from Willimantic’s American Thread Company; focuses on the period 1870-1930, the height of the Industrial Revolution.
In nearby Massachusetts
Historic Deerfield, Inc.
Box 321, Deerfield, MA 01342-0321
Tel. (413) 774-5581
A museum of New England history within a carefully preserved 330-year-old village in western Massachusetts.
Old Sturbridge Village
One Old Sturbridge Village Road, Sturbridge, MA 01566
Tel. (508) 347-3362
A 200-acre recreation of a colonial village with seasonal events and demonstrations of crafts and trades and reenactments of early American ways of life.
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