BHC Special Events/Announcements
“The Home Front” Exhibit
Monday, January 15 - June 1, 2024
12:00 am
Our new exhibit, The Home Front, is up now!
Bridgeport played a key role in ensuring victory during the American Civil War, World War I, and World War II, providing major industrial and political aid to the war effort. Also key were contributions of everyday Bridgeport residents from community defense to the building of public gardens to the increased presence of women in the workforce- the vast social changes war brought to the city reflecting the transformation of the country as a whole. This exhibit features a series of vignettes showing how these major conflicts transformed Bridgeport into Connecticut’s industrial capital.
View detailsThe House on Lindley Street
Friday, January 19 - April 30, 2024
12:00 am
FamilySearch – BHC an Affiliate for Digital Records
Friday, April 19 - December 31, 2024
All Day
Interested in researching your genealogy? The BHC is an affiliate for the Family Search program published by the LDS church. This means that patrons using the computers at the History Center may access thousands of digitized records in the Family Search database that were previously available on microfilm only. More records are being added each month, so stop by the History Center and do some searching in Family Search!
View detailsBHC News
BHC x CTDA: Bridgeport’s history, now more searchable than ever
Find BHC Materials ONLINE
The Bridgeport History Center has been a proud part of the Connecticut Digital Archive for years now, taking advantage of this unique digital preservation platform that invites cultural institutions from all around Connecticut to share digitized material. Since March of 2020, BHC has worked hard to take advantage of CTDA’s hosting, search features, and support in order to make more of it’s holdings available and easier to search.
BHC is proud to share its updated CTDA space. Explore Black Bridgeport. Get to know our Archives and Manuscripts better. Did you know we have yearbooks digitized? All of our Grassroots Historians articles are available too, along with postcards and Mary Witkowski’s newspaper articles. You can search within the Bridgeport History Center’s collections only, or expand it to all of CTDA in order to find more material.
New and Noteworthy at BHC
The Bridgeport History Center updates our new and noteworthy page on a regular basis! Check back to see what we’ve added and you can come in and use. This page was last updated on April 22, 2022.
New Special Collections
BHC has long held biographical newspaper clipping files. Now researchers can view the list of names included in this substantial collection.
New Photographs
BHC has been continuing to add photographs to the Connecticut Digital Archive. There are over one thousand images available, with more on the way! Don’t see what you’re looking for? Contact us on our contact form.
New Digital Collections
BHC has one of the best newspaper clippings collections in the state. Explore some of the initial offerings from this vast resource.
New Research Guides
At long last, BHC has updated it’s Labor and Industrial History Research guide! Clocking in at 11 pages, this contains an in depth list of the material related to labor history available for you to use at the Bridgeport History Center. Offerings include archival collections, newspaper resources, and secondary works.
Maps online!
Plat maps with details of lot apportionments and street details for cities across the United States
Maps with details on buildings prepared for the insurance industry
New Research Guides
Hot off the heels of finishing up the Records of the Warner Brothers Company, the Bridgeport History Center is pleased to present not one, not two, but three brand new research guides! Our women’s suffrage guide will help you celebrate a century of voting rights, the belatedly spooky guide to local witchcraft and hauntings will provide a different kind of January chill, and our comprehensive guide to material related to the Warner Brothers Company and the family will assist researchers who are keen to know more about one of Bridgeport’s biggest manufacturers.
BHC Events & Regular Monthly Programming
Featured Articles
Bridgeport’s Most Mysterious Millionaire Founder of A&P George Francis Gilman
By Carolyn Ivanoff
George Francis Gilman was a man recognizable to Bridgeporters, especially those in Black Rock. He was the wealthiest man in Fairfield County. When he retired from his legendary career as a tea importer to Bridgeport in 1878, he purchased a prominent 1762 colonial estate in Black Rock. Gilman was known for his expansive entertaining of famous celebrities, actresses, and the “upper crust” He and his wife were childless but had adopted a nephew. Mrs. Gilman passed away in 1891. After his wife’s death, Mr. Gilman no longer included the first families of Bridgeport in his entertaining, preferring to ignore them. He distanced himself from his adopted nephew, and he isolated himself thoroughly from local and familial relationships, but continued to host extravagant parties for actresses, artists, and the elite of the age. On November 7, 1894, after a lavish ball, the house went up in flames suddenly and spectacularly. Gilman, his guests, and his servants narrowly escaped, and several of New York’s privileged saved themselves by jumping from the windows in their night clothes or the expensive costumes they had worn to the ball. Gilman’s priceless art collection was destroyed, the entire home and contents lost. (more…)
Death and the Historian
by Elizabeth Boyce
Just a few years back, my youngest daughter innocently summed up my work to new friends saying: “Oh, and that’s my mom.” As they passed by, she added, “She works with dead people.”
She wasn’t wrong. I do spend an inordinate amount of time getting to know the people of the past. So, for this Halloween, let me share with you the intertwining stories of two men who, like me, were historians. They each spent many hours walking amongst the headstones of local cemeteries-including those right here in our town. And while that might seem like a morbid pastime, these men were pioneers in local historic appreciation and preservation. (more…)