This guide provides access to resources documenting culture in the state of Connecticut at the Library of Congress.

The Chicago Ethnic Arts Project collection consists of approximately 344 sound recordings, 14,141 photographs, 269 folders of manuscript materials, two video recordings, publications, ephemera, administrative files, and field notes.  A survey was conducted in 1977 by the American Folklife Center at the request of the Illinois Arts Council to assess and document the status of ethnic art traditions in more than 20 ethnic communities in Chicago, and was jointly sponsored by both organizations.  Items from Connecticut are represented.

On May 12, 2009, the U. S. Congress authorized a national initiative by passing The Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-19). The law directed the Library of Congress (LOC) and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to conduct a national survey of existing oral history collections with relevance to the Civil Rights movement to obtain justice, freedom and equality for African Americans and to record and make widely accessible new interviews with people who participated in the struggle. The project was initiated in 2010 with the survey and with interviews beginning in 2011.

The Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America Project was conducted in 1982 by the American Folklife Center to survey selected religious and secular ethnic community-based schools conducted, at least in part, in a language other than English to document the continued ethnolinguistic and cultural diversity of the United States

The Occupational Folklife Project (OFP) began in 2010 as a multi-year project by the American Folklife Center (AFC) to document the culture of contemporary American workers during an era of economic and social transition.

The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. Connecticut related items are highlighted.

Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress. A list of Connecticut digitized newspapers is also available.

This online collection is drawn from three primary sources: The War of the Nations: Portfolio in Rotogravure Etchings, a volume published by the New York Times shortly after the armistice that compiled selected images from their "Mid-Week Pictorial" supplements of 1914-19; Sunday rotogravure sections from the New York Times for 1914-19; and Sunday rotogravure sections from the New York Tribune for 1916-19.  Over 20 Connecticut pictorials are included.

The Guide to Law Online, prepared by the Law Library of Congress Public Services Division, is an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online. It includes selected links to useful and reliable sites for Connecticut legal information.

This site provides the names and highlighted resources from current and former state Connecticut Poet Laureates.

The Library of Congress has rich documents and artifacts from every state, the U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.

Examine the interplay between national, state, local, and personal history. Students produce a digital collection of primary sources from their family or local community based on the Digital Collections.

Students explore the local history of the community in which they live through written and spoken stories; through landmarks such as buildings, parks, restaurants, or businesses; and through traditions such as food, festivals and other events of the community or of individual families.

Students create their town’s history for coming generations and place themselves on the map in a literal as well as figurative sense, by producing portions of an updated version of an early twentieth century panoramic map from the Digital Collections.

On January 9, 1788, Connecticut ratified the Constitution, becoming the fifth state in the Union.

Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-91) was born in Bethel, Connecticut, on July 5, 1810. Barnum did not invent the modern three-ring circus, nor did he even apply his flair for publicity to the circus until he was more than sixty years old; but his name continues to be associated with the spectacle that he called “the greatest show on earth.”

On July 25, 1936, after a five-night run, the audience at the Park Theatre in Bridgeport, Connecticut, applauded the closing night performance of Macbeth, produced by John Houseman and directed by Orson Welles for the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The FTP was one of five arts-related projects established during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to assist unemployed writers, actors, and artists during the Great Depression. For Macbeth, Welles cast African-American performers in all the roles, moved the play’s setting from Scotland to the Caribbean, and changed the witches to Haitian witch doctors.

On October 9, 1701, the colonial legislature of Connecticut chartered the Collegiate School in Saybrook to educate students for “Publick employment both in Church & Civil State.” Originally based at the house of the first rector in Killingworth, the school moved to New Haven in 1716, and in 1718 was renamed Yale College to honor its early benefactor, the merchant Elihu Yale.