I learned this area was settled around 1660. To establish a new colony within New England at the time, you had to have thirty families willing to move together into the new area. The Essex thirty families broke off from Old Saybrook, a town a few miles to the west along the Connecticut shore of the Long Island Sound and founded Essex at the mouth of the Connecticut River after deposing a half dozen Indian tribes from the area. All of Connecticut was heavily settled in the 1600's with about 7000 American Natives representing more than 100 tribes. The clashes intensified between the colonists and Indians egged on by the French, and are mainly remembered in one incident: the Deerfield Raid of 1704 - a guerrilla army of the French and a half dozen Indian Tribes, including the tribe who used to live on the land Deerfield was built on, overran the town/fort. They killed more than 50 colonists and took over 100 colonists captive. Well, we all know that the English triumphed over the French mainly due to the English colonists of the 18th century whose resolve to hold onto the land was fueled by increasingly violent and bloody 'incidents'.
Two things surprised me: First, this river museum was all about steamships which went up and down the river from 1815 until 1933 moving goods and people between New England and New York City. It was a major economic artery that only dwindled with the building of roads and the coming of the railroad. Second, guess what the best cash crop of Connecticut was from 1830 to 1880? Broadleaf tobacco. It was the best tobacco to make and wrap cigars in all of the colonies. Essex was also the heart of major ship building industry in New England. Fifty-one ship builders built more than 4000 ships of all sizes for 200 years. They left wonderful colonial houses behind.
Crossing one of the many bridges that now span the Connecticut, we drove into Old Lyme which is the home of the Florence Griswold Museum. This museum houses a mint collection of American Impressionism. Florence Griswold's family were descendants of one of the original thirty families that settled Essex. Her father was a Captain of a packet ship. It's function was to carry goods and people up and down the river. Unfortunately, he was a better captain than investor, and he lost all of the family money and promptly died. Florence, his unmarried daughter, was on the verge of losing the house and the 11 acres surrounding it on the Lieutenant River when she decided it was time to take in boarders. One of her first boarders was an American Tonalist artist by the name of Henry Ward Ranger. (Tonalists preceded Impressionism, and were less interested in realism and actual scenery than creating a mood with their canvasses.) Ranger was so delighted with the area and the light that he promised Miss Griswold he would return and fill her house with artists. That's exactly what happened for the next thirty years, and Old Lyme became an artistic community. What would become some of the most famous American Impressionists would board season after season with Miss Griswold. They painted and painted, and she collected many paintings as did other people and businesses throughout the area. After her death, the house languished until being restored as a museum and teaching center. It has been restored to its 1910 glory on the first floor, and the second floor is room after room staged as galleries of the finest American Impressionist paintings. This was a beautiful place both inside and out.
My photographs are combined - the first part being the Connecticut River Museum and town of Essex. The second part of the Impressionist pictures and Florence Griswold's home and grounds in Old Lyme.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115478608971584948192/albums/5903978068426822817?authkey=CO37sLW_m_yZ6AE
(Note: If you watch the pictures as 'slideshow', the captions appear under the pictures.)
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