US History

Stop #1: Capitol Sculpture, South Wing: Connecticut Heroes of the Civil War Era

Hermon Atkins MacNeil

The South Wing of the Capitol, above the covered arrival porch, was intended to have portrait statues of Connecticut's leading heroes of the Civil War.

Stop #2: Major General Clarence Ransom Edwards

George H. Snowden

This bronze statue by sculptor George H. Snowden was completed in 1942 and shows the wartime hero Major General Clarence Ransom Edwards. General Edwards had a long career in the military and was promoted to be the Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs.

Stop #3: Dr. Horace Wells

Truman Howe Bartlett

Hartford dentist, Dr. Horace Wells (1815-1848), discovered the pain reducing effects of anesthesia in December 1844. He died tragically by his own hand in 1848 but gained posthumous credit and fame for his life-saving idea.

Stop #4: Spirit of Victory

Evelyn Beatrice Longman

Evelyn Longman's 1926 Spirit of Victory is in Bushnell Park near intersection of Elm & Trinity Streets. It commemorates the patriotism and valor of Hartford men who served during the Spanish War of 1898. The bronze figure is an allegory of Victory that harkens back to Hellenistic Greek traditions of remembrance.

Stop #5: Samuel Colt Monument

John Massey Rhind

The monument to Samuel Colt, the first industrial tycoon in Hartford and inventor of the Colt Revolver, marks the entrance to Colt Park. John Massey Rhind was commissioned to complete the monument in 1905 by Elizabeth Jarvis Colt in memory of her husband who died at the age of 47.

Stop #6: USS Hartford Cannon, 1858; Civil War Memorial of Trinity College, 1950

USS Hartford

The First African-American to win the Congressional Medal of Honor manned these cannons on the USS Hartford, the Union flagship of the fleet of Admiral Farragut that defeated the Confederate navy at the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864. The cannons were brought to the Trinity campus in 1950 to be the college's Civil War Memorial.

Stop #7: Silas Deane House

Silas Deane was a member of the Continental Congress and a diplomat to France during the American Revolution. His residence in Wethersfield is a National Historic Landmark and a part of the Wethersfield Historic District.

Stop #8: New Britain Spanish War Memorial

Delbert Perry, Robert George Eberhard

The New Britain Spanish War Memorial was designed by Delbert Perry and he was assisted by Earl Bishop and William H. Allen Co., all of New Britain. The sculptor for the bronze relief plaques was Robert George Eberhard, a professor of sculpture at Yale. Alderman W.H. Judd, the Chairman of the Common Council which awarded the commission, stated that “the monument, although in the form of a lighthouse, is still designed as a monument, and the committee selected this type of memorial because under the shadows of the Morro Castle light, the Maine was sunk, an act which aroused the whole country and caused the declaration of war by Congress."

Stop #9: World War I Monument (Obelisk), Walnut Hill Park, New Britain

Harold van Buren Magonigle

Stop #10: West Hartford Veterans Memorial

Vincent Stryeski

The Connecticut Veterans Memorial in West Hartford is a sleek minimalist site sculpture and pocket garden in the city center. It was designed in 2002-2003 by Vincent Stryeski of Kaestle Boos Associates, New Britain. The monument itself is a circular timeline made of polished black granite blocks.

Stop #11: Doctor Gallaudet and His First Deaf Mute Pupil

Daniel Chester French

Daniel Chester French's 1924 sculpture of Doctor Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was commissioned by the National Association for the Deaf to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the American School for the Deaf. The West Hartford monument is a second casting of French's 1889 bronze original which is at Gallaudet College in Washington D.C.