We are pleased to announce the inaugural year of the Edward F. Gerber Fellowship, a paid six-month fellowship to prepare students or recent graduates for professional positions in the historic preservation, museum, or public history fields through practical training and original research. This year’s recipient, Anna Fossi, is currently completing her master’s degree in public history at Central
Connecticut State University and is interested in local and community history projects, with particular emphasis on LGBTQ, Indigenous, and popular culture histories. Anna will use her experience in research and oral history documentation to work with the people of East Bridgeport’s Washington Park neighborhood to bolster our preservation efforts for future projects with the historic churches and larger community.

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Prior to the advent of photography in the mid 1800’s, artists would either paint a person’s portrait or cut paper profiles ….both popular ways to recreate images for posterity. Paper cut silhouettes were widely popular in the United States from approximately 1790-1840.

This art form was named for the French Finance Minister, Etienne de Silhouette in the mid 1700’s. He was known for doing things cheaply and was also fond of making these images from paper himself. The phrase, “ a la silhouette” ( In The Manner Of ), was applied to things which were clearly made in the simplest form.
Despite their simplicity, they were beautiful and striking resemblances. Many of the highest social class citizens sought to have their image created in this artistic manner.
Paper-cut silhouettes , sometimes known as shadow portraits, did not lose their popularity when photography was officially invented in 1829. Prominent folks continued to enjoy sitting for a silhouette artist.
In more recent times, these charming images have caught the eye of a new generation who appreciate the Silhouette as a unique way to capture a loved one’s image.

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Bayard Rustin (1912- 1987) was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and was raised as a Quaker which introduced him to the ideology of nonviolence. Additionally, his grandmother Julia Davis Rustin was an early member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Rustin was able to meet many influential figures during his youth such as W.E.B. Du Bois.

Bayard Rustin went on to co-found the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) with other young activists in Chicago. The ideology of CORE was heavily influenced by Gandhi, and they began with sit-ins in the 1940s, and the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947, a precursor to the Freedom Rides. In 1963 Rustin served as the deputy director for the March of Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a concept thought of by activist A. Philip Randolph.

However, Rustin’s role in the civil rights movement remained in the background, as he was an openly gay man. He had been arrested for homosexuality in 1953, causing fellow civil-rights leaders to want to distance him from the movement, or at least relegate him to the background. Therefore, Rustin remained an advisor and key organizer in some of the most significant civil rights events in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. He would go on to fight for gay and lesbian rights in the 1970s, stating:

“Twenty-five, 30 years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian.”Bayard Rustin, immediately to Martin Luther King Jr.’s right during his “I Have a Dream” speech.

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The beginning of the suffrage movement is often cited as the 1848 Seneca Falls convention which was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. At this meeting, attended by over 300 men and women, they drew up the "Declaration of Sentiments," intended to mirror the Declaration of Independence. While the original document is lost to this day, the suffragists used it to identify the lack of equality women had under the legal and political system. Among some of these issues were, of course, not having the right to vote, as well as divorce and custody laws, a lack of social freedoms, and employment opportunities.

Following the Seneca Falls convention, the natural question was how exactly women would attain the vote. After the 15th amendment passed, which granted voting rights to African-American men but excluded women, it became clear they would need their own amendment. Through a combination of work at both the state and national level over 70 years after the movement began, the 19th amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920. Connecticut was the 37th state to ratify the 19th amendment, on September 14, 1920.

The Connecticut Women Suffrage Association (CWSA) was formed in 1869 by Frances Ellen Burr and Isabella Beecher Hooker. Opponents, such as the Connecticut Association Opposed to Women Suffrage, argued that suffrage would only add to the "burdens" created by social progress for women. At its height in 1917, the CWSA had 32,000 members. Among those were three New Milford residents, Mary B. Weaver, Ella C. Wright and Annie Hunter Pettibone.

The following primary source documents from the collections of the New Milford Historical Society illustrate the involvement of these three New Milford women in the CWSA, along with arguments the CWSA used to convince those on the fence to support suffrage, and finally, how Mary B. Weaver used this new enfranchisement to not only vote, but to become an elected representative.

C.W.S.A., "Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association Registration Book 1919-1920," 1919. Box 3. RG 101, Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association Collection. Connecticut State Library. The names of three New Milford women, Ella C. Wright, Annie Hunter Pettibone and Mary B. Weaver, can be found registered in the records of the Connecticut Women Suffrage Association. This particular document shows that they attended the Litchfield County Conference on October 21st, 1919.

For the most part, the women involved in the movement were white and upper middle class, as these were the women who had the means and free time to dedicate to suffrage work. Ella, Annie and Mary seem to reflect this pattern. Ella was the wife of physician George Wright, Annie was married to John Pettibone, superintendent of the New Milford school system, while Mary B. Weaver would go on to serve as a State Senator.

Although only three New Milford women were formal members of the C.W.S.A., it is likely that they would have brought information about meetings and updates on the movement back to women who may not have had the ability to attend.

"The Change in the Status of Women Makes Votes For Women the Next Natural Step." Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association, 1912. New Milford Historical Society This is one of the flyers made by the Connecticut Women Suffrage Association, intended to point to the fact that women"s role in society has changed significantly throughout the last 125 years since the signing of the Constitution, and therefore their rights should reflect this change. Note that this flyer implies that women were always "mentally competent," but society had not recognized it until recent years. It should be noted that this document could be promoting some of the more exclusionary and often racist and classist suffragist rhetoric, specifically concerning how "mentally or morally incompetent" could be defined here. For example, the 1893 National Association for Women Suffrage (NAWSA) convention passed a resolution that called to attention the fact that in most states there are "more women who can read and write than all negro voters…. and foreign voters…" and if an educational requirement was added to vote, the enfranchised, educated women could outnumber those who society at large did not want to give a voice to.

"This Dealer Givers Her No Choice." Woman"s Journal; Official Organ of The National American Suffrage Association, August 31, 1912, Vol. XLIII, No. 34 edition. New Milford Historical Society. One of the major appeals of suffrage was that it could enable women to enact social change and reform. Originally the arguments for suffrage were concerned with what the vote could do for women, and transitioned into what women could actually do for the government and the community. This political cartoon in the Woman"s Journal highlight a number of these so-called "social housekeeping" issues that women were concerned with, namely, clean streets, better factory conditions, and pure water. In her 1909 essay "Why Women Should Vote," activist Jane Addams argued that as society becomes more complicated, women had the right to extend their responsibility beyond managing their homes. For example, outside conditions, such as poor conditions at a factory her daughter may be working at that lead to disease or injury, made it impossible for her individual devotion to her family to be enough to keep them safe. Additionally, there was a significant overlap in membership between NAWSA and the Women"s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). As New Milford had a Temperance Union of their own, it is apparent that this was one of the issues that concerned these local men and women.

Mary B. Weaver, Representative for New Milford in Connecticut State Legislature. "The Feminine Element in the Connecticut Legislature: Seven Women Members." New Milford Historical Society. Suffrage opened the door for women to become legislators, and enact change at the source. By 1923, there were seven women serving in the Connecticut State Legislature. During her terms as Representative for New Milford, Mary B. Weaver followed through on the social issues that the suffrage movement had emphasized. Rep. Weaver was clerk of The Committee on Humane Institutions, and reported back on her visits to the different institutions that are under the Department of Welfare. At a meeting of the League of Women voters in 1923, Rep. Weaver reported what she saw at a hospital for children afflicted by tuberculosis at a hospital in Niantic, and a Psychiatric Home in Middletown, noting that neither had adequate conditions. She proposed a grant of $250,000 to the Yale Medical School in order to increase the number of doctors, nurses and attendants that could assist with these institutions.

"Rep. Weaver Reports: Tells of Work Being Done In Legislature." The New Milford Times, March 29, 1923, Vol 10. edition, sec. 1. New Milford Historical Society. Additionally at this meeting, Rep. Weaver gave an informal talk on the ins-and-outs of legislative work to those in attendance, and "showed keen interest in her subject" as she answered questions. At an address to the "Monday Club," Miss Weaver said "If you have found a law that is not there it is your business to see that it is put there, if not by yourself see that someone does."

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Following the American Revolution, more Americans, and particularly New Englanders, began to recognize the value in educating women, as the new republic "depended on a virtuous and informed citizenry." One woman who was able to take advantage of these opportunities was New Milford's Mary Cornelia Boardman (1819-1891), who attended Sarah Pierce's Female Academy in Litchfield (1798-1833) in 1832 at the age of 13. Sarah Pierce, an educator who started the academy in 1798, believed that women should be taught the same subjects as boys, and enrolled interested students until the 1840s including significant literary voices such as Catherine and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
In 1890, the options for women's education in New Milford began to expand with the opening of the Ingleside School for Girls. Founded by Sarah Sanford Black, Ingleside, Scottish for "fireside", was intended to be a home-like environment that avoided the "scanty and unwholesome dict of too often provided in boarding school," and fostered not only intellectual advancement but also teamwork. The school offered a reduced tuition price at the request of New Milford citizens, with The New Milford Gazette noting it provided "inexpensive opportunities for education at home which otherwise could only be obtained in a distant place at great cost." Courses included arithmetic, geography, history (ancient and modern), English, physics, chemistry, astronomy, art, and "physical training," and a choice of French or German. In an 1890 issue, The New Milford Gazette noted that the school was "no longer an experiment," implying that at the end of the 19^th century, opening up a school for just girls would have been considered a gamble.
The school fostered an environment where the girls could have fun with their education, which can be seen in a couple of events in 1892. For example, there was a coffee party where all twenty four ladies present only spoke German. At the closing exercises for the year, Miss Edith Warner was allowed to read her essay entitled "The Woman Who Weeps," which satirized the "fragile weeping heroines" of old romance stories, contrasted with her belief that no woman actually looked attractive while crying.
Though Ingleside closed in 1915, and the property became Canterbury School for Boys, the doorway for women's education centered in New Milford had been opened. This represented a shift away from the early 1800s, where only a few lucky women could receive an education far from home.

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Originally built in 1770 by Daniel Burritt. Levi S. Knapp, a shoemaker by trade, bought the property from Royal Davis in 1838. Parts of the house dates to 1770, while later additions and renovations date to 1815. The original wide board floors had started to sag and the plaster walls had cracked from stress on the supports.
Our next step was to bring in structural engineers to give us proposals for further investigations. These projects and repairs cost a tremendous amount of money, so we applied for various grants to help us with funding.

We had a long road ahead of us with restoring and preserving the Knapp House. We also made a promise to Ms. Mary Clissold Knapp 59 years ago when we accepted the house as part of the Historical Society’s collection. In keeping this promise, The Parlor, Dining Room, Kitchen, Toy Room and Pantry have had a fresh coat of paint on the floor and walls, new lighting, repaired windows and have been given a new facelift.

We are especially proud of the team of volunteers it took to bring this project to fruition. It took three years of perseverance, grant writing and fundraising and many hours of good old fashioned elbow grease before we could open the doors and present the house to the public. The Knapp Sisters would be proud of their old homestead. Many thanks to everyone who helped with this project. No matter how small your task may have been, it was very important and necessary to the completion of the project.

When you come and visit the house, look for a very special item that we found in the walls while the contractors were working on the demolition phase of the project. As they were removing the knee walls they found something… a very old, worn out shoe. Who would put a shoe in the wall? And why? We have just stumbled upon a "concealment" shoe, the ancient custom of hiding a shoe in a house in order to protect it from harmful spirits.

Little is known about this tradition. It was brought to America by early settlers, mostly from England and Western Europe. Shoes have been discovered in houses dating back to the 1600’s, and in Europe shoes have been found from as long ago as the 14th century. In fact, the Northampton Museum in England has an index that lists over 2,000 concealment shoes.

Often only a single child’s shoe was hidden, but shoes belonging to women and men have also been found as in our case. A total of four were found. They could have been hidden during the original construction of the house or during a later renovation.

Historians think that people may have hidden shoes for the protection and good fortune they could offer. Many people of the time believed that mischievous spirits could enter a house. What could stop these spirits? A shoe molded to the shape of its owner’s foot. If the shoe was hidden near a place easy for spirits to enter, such as a chimney or window, the spirit would think it found the shoe’s owner, and leave the rest of the house alone. It was a superstition, but life in early times could be harsh, and people then, as now, worried about the future. Perhaps they needed to believe in the protection and good fortune a hidden shoe could bring.

We have mounted this shoe on the wall in the Knapp House Kitchen for all our visitors to see as a reminder that we are just caretakers of this historic building and are preserving the memories and lives of the people who lived in the house before us.

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