If the walls could talk, what tales the New London courthouse would spin. In 1815, a gala ball was held at the courthouse to celebrate the conclusion of the War of 1812 and the lifting of the blockade of New London harbor. Earlier, under dramatically different circumstances, a makeshift hospital was set up in the...Read More

Born in Franklin, Connecticut, on November 22, 1806, Lafayette Sabine Foster was a descendant of Miles Standish and the eldest son of Welthea Ladd Foster and Captain Daniel Foster, a veteran Continental Army officer. In 1828, after graduating with highest honors from Brown University, Lafayette took up the study of law and moved south to...Read More

While a single young woman, Katherine Harrison worked as a servant to Captain John Cullick of Hartford. She read a book about fortune telling by the British astrologer William Lilly, and she tried to predict the other servants’ fortunes for them. One of her predictions concerning whom one of the servants would marry came true;...Read More

In 1839, long before the Civil Rights movement of the 20th century, a group of kidnapped African natives bound for the Cuban slave trade revolted aboard their ship, La Amistad. While attempting to sail back to Africa, the men were captured off Long Island and taken to New Haven, Connecticut. What followed, beginning in Connecticut,...Read More

Ephraim Kirby (1757-1804) is best remembered for compiling the first volume of law reports published in the United States.  However, Kirby was much more – farmer, soldier, attorney, state legislator, candidate for Governor, and Judge of Mississippi Territory, now known as Alabama.  He served in the Connecticut legislature, and was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson...Read More

When does “finders keepers, losers weepers” not apply? In 1978, a case concerning a pre-Revolutionary statue of King George III found its way to the Connecticut Supreme Court. According to a 1973 New York Times article, back in 1776 a group of Whigs, upon attending a public reading of the newly signed Declaration of Independence,...Read More

April 16, 2021 From the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Judicial Branch has carefully and regularly monitored its workplaces and evaluated its operations to assure that judicial business is being conducted safely and in compliance with guidance from the Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As more...Read More

In celebration of Fair Housing Month, the Center’s education and outreach coordinator, Rashida Rattray, brought to life a presentation to honor the contributions of women of color in the fair housing and civil rights movements. Too often these stories are not told in our history books. Ms. Rattray explains “my pride in being a Black...Read More