Welcome Cate Price — thanks so much for stopping by today.

New Haven – Who Knew?

By Cate Price

Thanks so much to the Wickeds for having me on the blog today!

Although I live in Pennsylvania now, I’m originally from Connecticut, and when I went home for Christmas, my mom and I paid a visit to the New Haven Museum. Currently they have an exhibit called “From Clocks to Lollipops”, a wonderful showcase of objects, advertisements, and photographs of consumer goods produced in New Haven over the past three hundred years.

You may already know that the Cotton Gin was invented by Eli Whitney, a Yale graduate, who patented his device to separate cotton from seeds, and built an armory north of the city that would become the first modern American factory.

But did you also know that lollipops were invented in New Haven by the Bradley Smith Company, originally trademarked as “Lolly Pop”?

Or how about the Erector Set, that classic toy in a bright red steel case? It was produced by A.C. Gilbert, who graduated from Yale with a medical degree. It was the most popular gift for boys in 1954. The A.C. Gilbert Company also made the Atomic Energy Set and American Flyer model trains.

Other innovations in commerce connected to New Haven include the mortise lock, truss bridge, corkscrew, stone crusher, carriage spring, match book, telegraph, bicycle crank, corset, processed rubber, lever action rifle, toy motor, Silly Putty, metronome, and more.  Who knew?!

The museum also has an exhibit about “Deane Keller, New Haven’s Monuments Man”. He was an art professor from Yale who was dispatched to Italy during WWII as part of an international effort to save precious works of European art from the Nazis. His story was largely unknown until the release of the film “The Monuments Men” starring George Clooney.

Another interesting room is “Nothing is Set in Stone: The Lincoln Oak and the New Haven Green”. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy brought down the mighty oak tree on the Green that had been planted in 1909 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth. Area artists were invited to use salvaged pieces of the tree to create original art projects and the beautiful results are on display.

The New Haven Museum is really worth a visit if you’re in the area. It’s located at 114 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06510. (203) 562-4183.

Readers: What was invented where you live?

Cate Price is the author of the Deadly Notions mysteries from Berkley Prime Crime, about the proprietor of a vintage sewing notions shop located in Bucks County, PA. LIE OF THE NEEDLE, the third in the series, was published on January 6, 2015.

She loves to hear from readers via her website http://www.cateprice.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/catepriceauthor

Filed under: Guest posts Tagged: A.C. Gilbert, Atomic Energy Set, Berkely Prime Crime, Bradley Smith Company, Bucks County PA, Cate Price, Connecticut inventors, Cotton Gin, Deadly Notions, Deane Keller, Eli Whitney, Erector Set, From Clocks to Lollipops, Lolly Pop, New Haven Museum, Nothing is Set in Stone: The Lincoln Oak and New Haven Green, threads of evidence, Yale