HARTFORD, capital of Connecticut, U.S.A., at the head of navigation on the Connecticut river, 38 m. from Long Island sound and Ioo m. N.E. of New York city; a port of entry and the county seat of Hartford county. It is served by the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad, by steamers to New York and by numerous motor bus and freight truck lines operating over the federal and state highways which radiate in every direction; and is a station on the air-mail route from Boston to New York and the west and south. The population in 192o was 138,036, of whom 40,667 were foreign-born white (over half from Russia, Poland, Italy and Ireland) ; and was 164,072 in 193o by the Federal census. The city covers 18 sq.m. of undulating ground on the west bank of the river, surrounded by the beautiful valley and gently rolling hills. From the north-west and the south-west corners enter the two branches of the little Park river, which unite about the middle of the city, after many twists and turns, and meander on to the Connecticut. A fine stone bridge of nine arches, dedicated in 1908, spans the Connecticut, commanding a panorama of city and river. The city is well laid out and compactly built, with many dis tinctive features. Since 1907 development has been guided by a city-plan commission. The State capitol stands on a hill in Bush nell park, in the heart of the city. It is a handsome building of white marble, designed by Richard M. Upjohn, and was com pleted (1878) at a cost ($2,642,524) within the original appropri ations. It contains many objects of historic interest, including the tombstone of Israel Putnam and a carved chair made for the sen ate chamber from the wood of the charter oak (see below). In the park is the Corning memorial fountain (1899), designed by J. Massey Rhind, and the memorial arch and bridge (across the Park river) erected by the city in 1884 in tribute to the soldiers and sailors of the Civil War. Facing the capitol on the south is the supreme court and State library building (1910), and across the west lawn is the State armory and arsenal, one of the largest in the country. Between the capitol and the Connecticut river stands the old three-story brick State house (1796), a gem of colonial architecture, designed by Charles Bulfinch. When the new capitol was occupied it was turned over to the city, and for a generation was used as a city hall, but since 1915 it has been restored as an historic shrine. Near by is the First Church of Christ (Congre gational), known as the Center church, which was organized in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1632, and moved to Hartford in 1636 under the leadership of Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone. The present building (1807) stands near the site of the original meeting-house, and adjoins the graveyard where Hooker, William Leete, John Haynes and their contemporaries were buried. Across the street, a little to the south, is a group of museum and library buildings : the Wadsworth atheneum (built in 1844 by popular subscription, and more recently enlarged and heavily endowed), containing historical treasures; the Colt memorial (1908) housing the collection of fire-arms gathered by Col. Samuel Colt, the Hartford armourer ; and the Junius Spencer Morgan memorial, an art gallery built (1908) by J. Pierpont Morgan in memory of his father, a native of Hartford.
There are 25 parks and public squares, covering 1,340 ac. (11.6% of the city's area) and containing golf links, tennis courts, 65 baseball diamonds and one of the finest rose gardens in the country. Two miles south of the centre of the city is the munici pal airport (Brainard field), 165 ac. of grass-covered river silt. A bond issue of $1,000,000 was approved by the voters in 1928 for a dike and other flood-control works to protect the landing field and the rest of the south meadows. Among the business buildings the homes of the insurance companies, many of them architec turally beautiful, are as conspicuous as their business is important in the economic life of the city. The tower of the Travellers com panies (527 ft. high, the highest building in New England) is a landmark for aviators and others, visible for many miles, by day and by night.
Hartford is the seat of Trinity college (chartered as Washington college in 1823) ; the Hartford Theological seminary (Congrega tional), founded at East Windsor Hill in 1834 and moved to Hartford in 1865, and associated with it the School of Religious education and the Kennedy school of missions ; St. Thomas's sem inary (Roman Catholic) and a Roman Catholic cathedral; the Hartford retreat for the insane (opened 1824) ; and the State school for the blind. The American School for the Deaf, founded in Hartford by Thomas W. Gallaudet in 1816, the first in America, is now in the adjoining town of West Hartford. The public school system includes 25 elementary, 3 high, and one trade school, and the city's appropriations for education, including the public library, was $3,320,531 for the fiscal year 1928-29. The Hartford Times (est. 1817) has a beautiful building and notable mechanical equipment; and the Courant (est. 1764) is the oldest newspaper in America.
Insurance is Hartford's outstanding business, employing 16,000 men and women in the local offices. The 43 companies (fire, life and casualty) which have their home offices here had a total pre mium income in 1927 of $569,712,171, and have paid to policy holders and beneficiaries since their organization $3,766,571,483.
Manufacturing also is important. The 337 industrial establish ments in 1927 had an output valued at $113,674,982, and their annual payroll approximates $32,000,000. Among the widely dis tributed articles made in Hartford are small fire-arms, typewriters, brushes, precision machines and small tools. Other important manufactures are silver plate, hardware, rubber tires, electric equipment and aeroplanes. Hartford is a trading centre for a popu lation of 450,00o, and the market for the agricultural products of the county, including tobacco to the value of $15,000,000 annually. Bank debits in 1927 amounted to History.—The first settlement here was made by Dutch from New Amsterdam, who in 1633 built a fort at the mouth of Park river, which they held until 1654. In 1635, 6o English set tlers came from New Town (now Cambridge), Massachusetts, and in 1636 practically all the rest of the New Town congregation joined them, led by Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone. Their settlement was at first called Newtown, but in 1637 the present name was adopted, from Hertford, the birthplace of Stone. The first general court of the Connecticut colony was held here in 1636, and its first written constitution (the Fundamental Orders) was adopted here in 1639. When the colonies of New Haven and Connecticut were united (1662) Hartford became the capital, but shared the honour with New Haven from 1701 to 1873. In 1687 Governor Andros came to Hartford to take away the royal charter of 1662, under which the colonists practically had local sov ereignty. At his meeting with the officials of the colony, when the document was on the table, suddenly the candles were blown out, and when they were re-lighted the charter had disappeared. It was hidden by Capt. Joseph Wadsworth in a hollow tree ("the Charter Oak") the site of which is now marked by a granite monument. The city was chartered in 1784, and in 1881 was made co-extensive with the town of Hartford.
In the latter part of the i8th century Hartford was the home of a group of Federalist authors known as "the Hartford Wits," in cluding Lemuel Hopkins, John Trumbull, Joel Barlow and David Humphreys; and in 1814-15 it was the meeting-place of the Hart ford Convention, an event of great importance in the history of the Federalist party. Delegates from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont met in secret session from Dec. 15, 1814, to Jan. 5, 1815, to consider the grievances of New England against the national (Democratic) government in its conduct of the war with Great Britain. The convention recom mended a greater measure of military control for the several States, and proposed (for consideration by the State legislatures) a number of amendments to the federal constitution, limiting the power of Congress and of the executive. The legislatures of Mas sachusetts and Connecticut were the only ones which approved the proposed amendments. They sent commissioners to Washington to urge their adoption, but before they arrived the war had come to an end. Nine state legislatures expressed positive disapproval of the convention, some charging it with sowing "seeds of dissen sion and disunion," and in general it was vigorously criticized throughout the country.
During the i8th century Hartford had a large and lucrative commerce, but with the development of railways in the 19th century it suffered from the competition of Boston and New York. The first woollen mill in New England was established here in 1788, and here about 1846 the Rogers process of electro silver plating was invented. As early as 1794 policies were issued by the Hartford Fire Insurance company (chartered in 181o). In the San Francisco disaster of 1906 the fire insurance companies of Hartford paid more than $15,000,000 in losses. Hartford was the birthplace of Noah Webster, who published here (1783-85) his Grammatical Institute of the English Language, and of Henry Barnard, John Fiske and Frederick Law Olmsted. It was the home of Samuel P. Goodrich (Peter Parley), George D. Prentice, Har riet Beecher Stowe, Charles Dudley Warner, Horace Bushnell and Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) . More than 10o periodicals have been established in Hartford. The Congregationalist (now published in Boston) and the Churchman (now published in New York) were founded in Hartford in 1816 and 1805 respectively. The Hartford Courant was very influential in shaping public opin ion in the years preceding the Revolution, and the Times (edited by Gideon Wells 1826-36) was one of the most powerful Demo cratic organs in the second quarter of the 19th century.
See Scaeva, Hartford in the Olden Times: Its First Thirty Years (1853) ; J. H. Trumbull, Memorial History of Hartford County (i886) ; History of the Hartford Convention (1833) ; H. C. Lodge, Life and Letters of George Cabot (1877) ; Henry Adams, Documents Relating to New England Federalism (1877).