House Chamber

The House of Representatives is the lower chamber in Connecticut's bicameral legislature.  There are 151 representatives, each representing about 23,000 residents.

Governor William Buckingham, whom I showed on Tuesday, was the subject of a long profile in the Hartford Courant yesterday.  That is quite a coincidence, isn't it?

Nathan Hale Again

Nathan Hale has been here before and he will be here again.  He is Connecticut's State Hero.  This statue of Hale stands in the east wing of the Connecticut State Capitol.  It is the quieter side of the building.  I wonder if that gesture is an exasperated plea for more excitement . . .

Hotchkiss Cannon

This Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon sits in the Hall of Flags in the Connecticut State Capitol.  It was designed in 1872.  Armaments and defense have long been major industries in Connecticut.

Civil War Flags

The west wing of the Capitol houses the Hall of Flags, displaying a variety of state flags in heavy oak cases built for the purpose in 1878. 

This flag represents the 16th Infantry, Connecticut National Guard.  In a battle in North Carolina in 1864, the Confederate army was about to overrun the Union troops.  Colonel John Burnham had the flag brought to him.  Not wanting it to be captured, he tore the flag into strips and distributed them to members of his unit.  Many were captured and imprisoned for the rest of the war.  When the war was over, unit members turned in as many flag strips as could be found, and Tiffany & Co. made a new flag from the remnants.

Governor William A. Buckingham

William Buckingham was the governor of Connecticut during the Civil War.  He is credited with providing uniforms and arms to the Connecticut men serving the Union, so that Connecticut soldiers were the first fully provisioned soldiers for the Union forces.  After the war he served a term as a U.S. Senator.  Today he sits at the west end of the Capitol.

Back to the Capitol

We toured the interior of the Connecticut State Capitol in late January and early February, but I showed only the architecture, not the contents.  Starting today I will show you some of the contents.

The Capitol and the Legislative Office Building are connected by an underground tunnel with a variety of exhibits.  This statue honors disabled veterans.  Blurred behind them are photographs of Connecticut soldiers and sailors who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cobblestones

On the first day of each month, the City Daily Photo bloggers post photographs illustrating a theme.  For April, the theme is "cobblestones."  This is not an easy theme to handle in Hartford at the last minute.  So, I searched my archives and came up with this image from Lucca, Italy, in September 2010. 

There was definitely something happening between these two. 

To see more theme day photographs with cobblestones, click here to see other photographers' work on Julie's temporary blog.

An, with the City Daily Photo blog back online, Click here to view thumbnails for all participants