The Dutch navigator, Adriaen Block, was the first European of record to
explore the area, sailing up the Connecticut River in 1614. In 1633, Dutch
colonists built a fort and trading post near present-day Hartford but soon lost
control to English Puritans from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. English
settlements established in the 1630s at Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford
united in 1639 to form the Connecticut Colony under the Fundamental Orders,
the first modern constitution.
Connecticut played a prominent role in the Revolutionary War, serving as the
Continental Army's major supplier. Sometimes called the “Arsenal of the Nation,”
the state became one of the most industrialized in the nation.
Today, Connecticut factories produce weapons, sewing machines, jet engines,
helicopters, motors, hardware and tools, cutlery, clocks, locks, silverware, and
submarines. Hartford has the oldest U.S. newspaper still being published—the
Hartford Courant, established 1764—and is the insurance capital of the
nation.
Connecticut leads New England in the production of eggs, pears, peaches, and
mushrooms, and its oyster crop is the nation's second largest. Poultry and dairy
products also account for a large portion of farm income.
Connecticut is a popular resort area with its 250-mile Long Island Sound
shoreline and many inland lakes. Among the major points of interest are Yale
University's Gallery of Fine Arts and Peabody Museum. Other famous museums
include the P. T. Barnum, Winchester Gun, and American Clock and Watch. The town
of Mystic features a recreated 19th-century New England seaport and the Mystic
Marinelife Aquarium.
Famous or Notable Connecticuters:
Dean Acheson statesman; Ethan Allan American Revolutionary soldier; Benedict
Arnold American Revolutionary general; P. T. Barnum showman; Henry Ward Beecher
clergyman; John Brown abolitionist; Prudence Crandell educator and reformer;
Oliver Ellsworth jurist; Eileen Farrell soprano; Charles Goodyear inventor;
Nathan Hale American Revolutionary officer; Dorothy Hamill ice skater;
Katharine
Hepburn actress; Charles Ives composer; Edwin H. Land inventor;
John Pierpont
Morgan financier; Frederick Law Olmsted landscape designer; Rosa Ponselle
soprano; Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. congressman; Benjamin Spock pediatrician;
Harriet Beecher Stowe author; Mark Twain author; Morris R. Waite jurist;
Noah
Webster lexicographer.
Maine
John Cabot and his son, Sebastian, are believed to have visited the Maine
coast in 1498. However, the first permanent English settlements were not
established until more than a century later, in 1623.
The first naval action of the Revolutionary War occurred in 1775 when
colonials captured the British sloop Margaretta off Machias on the Maine
coast. In that same year, the British burned Falmouth (now Portland).
Long governed by Massachusetts, Maine became the 23rd state as part of the
Missouri Compromise in 1820.
Maine produces 98% of the nation's low-bush blueberries. Farm income is also
derived from apples, potatoes, dairy products, and vegetables, with poultry and
eggs the largest selling items.
The state is one of the world's largest pulp-paper producers. With almost 89%
of its area forested, Maine turns out wood products from boats to toothpicks.
Maine also leads the world in the production of the familiar flat tins of
sardines, producing more than 75 million of them annually. In 2001, Maine
lobstermen landed nearly 48 million pounds of lobster, compared with an
estimated 53 million pounds in 2000.
A scenic seacoast, beaches, lakes, mountains, and resorts make Maine a
popular vacationland. There are more than 2,500 lakes and 5,000 streams, plus 26
state parks to attract hunters, fishermen, skiers, and campers.
Major points of interest are Bar Harbor, Acadia National Park, Allagash
National Wilderness Waterway, the Wadsworth-Longfellow House in Portland,
Roosevelt Campobello International Park, and the St. Croix Island National
Monument.
Famous or Notable Mainers:
F. Lee Bailey defense attorney; Charles F. Browne (Artemus Ward) humorist;
Cyrus Curtis publisher; Dorothea Dix civil rights reformer; John Ford film
director; Melville Fuller jurist; Marsden Hartley painter;
Justin Hurd business card collector; Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow poet; Sarah Orne Jewett author; Stephen King writer;
Linda Lavin
actress; Edna St. Vincent Millay poet; Marston Morse mathematician; Frank Munsey
publisher; Walter Piston composer; George Putnam publisher; Kenneth Roberts
historical novelist; Edwin Arlington Robinson poet; Margaret Chase Smith
politician; Samantha Smith peacemaker and actress; John Hay Whitney publisher.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts has played a significant role in American history since the
Pilgrims, seeking religious freedom, founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. As one of
the most important of the 13 colonies, Massachusetts became a leader in
resisting British oppression. In 1773, the Boston Tea Party protested unjust
taxation. The Minute Men started the American Revolution by battling British
troops at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.
During the 19th century, Massachusetts was famous for the intellectual
activity of its writers and educators and for its expanding commercial fishing,
shipping, and manufacturing interests. Massachusetts pioneered the manufacture
of textiles and shoes. Today, these industries have been replaced in importance
by the electronics and communications equipment fields.
The state's cranberry crop is the nation's second-largest (after Wisconsin).
Also important are dairy and poultry products, nursery and greenhouse produce,
vegetables, and fruit.
Tourism has become an important factor in the economy of the state because of
its numerous recreational areas and historical landmarks. Cape Cod has beaches,
summer theaters, and an artists' colony at Provincetown. The Berkshires, in the
western part of the state, is the site of Tanglewood, the summer home of the
Boston Symphony; art museums, including Mass MoCA and the Clark Institute; and
Jacob's Pillow, a world renowned dance center.
Among the many other points of interest are Old Sturbridge Village in
Sturbridge, Minute Man National Historical Park between Lexington and Concord,
and Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth. In Boston there are many places of
historical interest, including Old North Church, Old State House, Faneuil Hall,
the USS Constitution, and the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.
Famous or Notable Bay Staters:
John Adams president; John Quincy Adams president; Samuel Adams patriot;
Bronson Alcott educator and social reformer; Louisa May Alcott writer;
Horatio
Alger novelist; Susan B. Anthony woman suffragist; Clara Barton American Red
Cross founder; Leonard Bernstein conductor; George Bush former president;
William Cullen Bryant poet and editor; Luther Burbank horticulturalist;
Katryna Cadle business card collector; John Cheever novelist; John Singleton Copley painter; E.E.
Cummings poet; Jacques d'Amboise ballet dancer; Bette Davis actress;
John Dearden business card collector;
Cecil B. DeMille film director;
Emily Dickinson poet; Ralph Waldo Emerson philosopher and poet; Geraldine Farrar
soprano, actress; Benjamin Franklin statesman and scientist; Buckminster Fuller
architect and educator; Robert Goddard father of modern rocketry; John Hancock
statesman; Nathaniel Hawthorne novelist; Oliver Wendell Holmes jurist;
Winslow
Homer painter; Elias Howe inventor; John F. Kennedy president;
Amy Lowell poet;
James Russell Lowell poet; Robert Lowell poet; Horace Mann educator;
Cotton Mather clergyman; Herman Melville writer; Samuel F. B. Morse painter and
inventor; Edgar Allan Poe writer; Paul Revere silversmith and Revolutionary War
figure; Norman Rockwell artist; Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) author and
illustrator; David Souter jurist; Lucy Stone woman suffragist; Louis Henry
Sullivan architect; Henry David Thoreau author; Barbara Walters TV commentator;
James McNeill Whistler painter; Eli Whitney inventor; John Greenleaf Whittier
poet.
New
Hampshire
Under an English land grant, Capt. John Smith sent settlers to establish a
fishing colony at the mouth of the Piscataqua River, near present-day Rye and
Dover, in 1623. Capt. John Mason, who participated in the founding of Portsmouth
in 1630, gave New Hampshire its name.
After a 38-year period of union with Massachusetts, New Hampshire was made a
separate royal colony in 1679. As leaders in the revolutionary cause, New
Hampshire delegates received the honor of being the first to vote for the
Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. New Hampshire gained a measure of
international attention in 1905 when Portsmouth Naval Base played host to the
signing of the treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War, known as the Treaty of
Portsmouth.
Abundant water power turned New Hampshire into an industrial state early on,
and manufacturing is the principal source of income. The most important
industrial products are electrical and other machinery, textiles, pulp and paper
products, and stone and clay products. Dairy and poultry, and growing fruit,
truck vegetables, corn, potatoes, and hay are the major agricultural pursuits.
Because of New Hampshire's scenic and recreational resources, tourism now
brings over $3.5 billion into the state annually.
Vacation attractions include Lake Winnipesaukee, largest of 1,300 lakes and
ponds; the 724,000-acre White Mountain National Forest; Daniel Webster's
birthplace near Franklin; Strawbery Banke, restored buildings of the original
settlement at Portsmouth; and the former location of the once famous “Old Man of the Mountain” granite head
profile, the state's official emblem, at Franconia.
Famous or Notable New Hampshirites:
Sherman Adams former governor and presidential advisor;
Pete Biron
business card collector; Salmon P. Chase
jurist; Rob Cook founder of the NEBCC & business card collector; Charles Anderson Dana editor;
Marc Drogin artist & business card designer; Mary Baker Eddy founder of the Christian
Science Church; Dustin Farnum actor; Thomas Green Fessenden journalist and
satirical poet; Daniel Chester French sculptor; Robert Frost poet;
Horace
Greeley journalist and politician; Sarah J. Hale editor; John Irving writer;
Benjamin F. Keith theater entrepreneur; Jackson Hall Kelly promoter of Oregon
settlement; John Langdon political leader; Sharon Christa McAuliffe teacher and
astronaut; Franklin Pierce former president; Augustus Saint-Gaudens sculptor;
Alan Shepard astronaut; Harlan F. Stone jurist; Daniel Webster statesman;
Henry
Wilson politician and former vice president; Noah Worcester clergyman and
pacifist.
Rhode
Island
From its beginnings, Rhode Island has been distinguished by its support for
freedom of conscience and action: Clergyman Roger Williams founded the present
state capital, Providence, after being exiled by the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Puritans in 1636. Williams was followed by other religious exiles who founded
Pocasset, now Portsmouth, in 1638 and Newport in 1639.
Rhode Island's rebellious, authority-defying nature was further demonstrated
by the burnings of the British revenue cutters Liberty and Gaspee
prior to the Revolution; by its early declaration of independence from Great
Britain in May 1776; by its refusal to participate actively in the War of 1812;
and by Dorr's Rebellion of 1842, which protested property requirements for
voting.
Rhode Island, smallest of the fifty states, is densely populated and highly
industrialized. It is a major center for jewelry manufacturing. Electronics,
metal, plastic products, and boat and ship construction are other important
industries. Non-manufacturing employment includes research in health, medicine,
and the ocean environment. Providence is a wholesale distribution center for New
England.
Fishing ports are at Galilee and Newport. Rural areas of the state support
small-scale farming, including grapes for local wineries, turf grass, and
nursery stock. Tourism generates over a billion dollars a year in revenue.
Newport became famous as the summer capital of high society in the mid-19th
century. Touro Synagogue (1763) is the oldest in the U.S. Other points of
interest include the Roger Williams National Memorial in Providence, Samuel
Slater's Mill in Pawtucket, the General Nathanael Greene Homestead in Coventry,
and Block Island.
Famous or Notable Rhode Islanders:
Harry Anderson actor; George M. Cohan actor and dramatist; Eddie Dowling
actor and stage producer; Nelson Eddy baritone and actor; Ann Smith Franklin
printer and almanac publisher; Charles Gorham silversmith; Spalding Gray writer,
performance artist; Bobby Hackett trumpeter; David Hartman TV newscaster; Ruth
Hussey actress; Anne Hutchinson religious leader; Thomas H. Ince film producer;
Wilbur John Quaker leader; Van Johnson actor; Clarence King first director of
the U.S. Geological Survey; Galway Kinnell poet; Oliver La Farge writer;
Irving
R. Levine news correspondent; H. P. Lovecraft author; Ida Lewis lighthouse
keeper; John McLaughlin political commentator, broadcaster; Dana C. Munro
educator and historian; Matthew C. Perry naval officer; Oliver Hazard Perry
naval officer; King Philip (Metacomet) Indian leader; Anthony Quinn actor;
Gilbert Stuart painter; Sarah Helen (Power) Whitman poet; Jemima Wilkinson
religious leader; Roger Williams clergyman and founder of Rhode Island; Leonard
Woodcock labor union official; James Woods actor.
Vermont
The Vermont region was explored and claimed for France by Samuel de Champlain
in 1609, and the first French settlement was established at Fort Ste. Anne in
1666. The first English settlers moved into the area in 1724 and built Fort
Dummer on the site of present-day Brattleboro. England gained control of the
area in 1763 after the French and Indian Wars.
First organized to drive settlers from New York out of Vermont, the Green
Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen, won fame by capturing Fort Ticonderoga from
the British on May 10, 1775, in the early days of the Revolutionary War. In 1777
Vermont adopted its first constitution, abolishing slavery and providing for
universal male suffrage without property qualifications.
Vermont leads the nation in the production of monument granite, marble, and
maple syrup. It is also a leader in the production of talc. Vermont's rugged,
rocky terrain discourages extensive agricultural farming, but is well suited to
raising fruit trees and to dairy farming.
Principal industrial products include electrical equipment, fabricated metal
products, printing and publishing, and paper and allied products.
Tourism is a major industry in Vermont. Vermont's many famous ski areas
include Stowe, Killington, Mt. Snow, Bromley, Jay Peak, and Sugarbush. Hunting
and fishing also attract many visitors to Vermont each year. Among the many
points of interest are the Green Mountain National Forest, Bennington Battle
Monument, the Calvin Coolidge Homestead at Plymouth, and the Marble Exhibit in
Proctor.
Famous or Notable Vermonters:
Chester A. Arthur president; Orson Bean actor; Calvin Coolidge president;
Brian K. Dempsey, Jr. business card collector; George Dewey admiral; John Dewey philosopher and educator; Stephen A. Douglas politician;
Carlton Fisk baseball player; James Fisk financial speculator; Willbur Fisk clergyman and educator;
Richard Morris Hunt architect; William Morris Hunt painter; Elisha Otis inventor;
Moses Pendleton choreographer; Joseph Smith religious leader; Ernest Thompson actor and writer;
Rudy Vallee singer and band leader; Henry Wells pioneer entrepreneur (Wells Fargo & Co.);
Brigham Young religious leader.
New England 
09/10/2005 
The Dutch navigator, Adriaen Block, was the first European of record to
explore the area, sailing up the Connecticut River in 1614. In 1633, Dutch
colonists built a fort and trading post near present-day Hartford but soon lost
control to English Puritans from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. English
settlements established in the 1630s at Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford
united in 1639 to form the Connecticut Colony under the Fundamental Orders,
the first modern constitution.
John Cabot and his son, Sebastian, are believed to have visited the Maine
coast in 1498. However, the first permanent English settlements were not
established until more than a century later, in 1623.
Massachusetts has played a significant role in American history since the
Pilgrims, seeking religious freedom, founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. As one of
the most important of the 13 colonies, Massachusetts became a leader in
resisting British oppression. In 1773, the Boston Tea Party protested unjust
taxation. The Minute Men started the American Revolution by battling British
troops at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.
Under an English land grant, Capt. John Smith sent settlers to establish a
fishing colony at the mouth of the Piscataqua River, near present-day Rye and
Dover, in 1623. Capt. John Mason, who participated in the founding of Portsmouth
in 1630, gave New Hampshire its name.
From its beginnings, Rhode Island has been distinguished by its support for
freedom of conscience and action: Clergyman Roger Williams founded the present
state capital, Providence, after being exiled by the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Puritans in 1636. Williams was followed by other religious exiles who founded
Pocasset, now Portsmouth, in 1638 and Newport in 1639.
The Vermont region was explored and claimed for France by Samuel de Champlain
in 1609, and the first French settlement was established at Fort Ste. Anne in
1666. The first English settlers moved into the area in 1724 and built Fort
Dummer on the site of present-day Brattleboro. England gained control of the
area in 1763 after the French and Indian Wars.
