The State Colleges

As might be expected, the history of the state colleges, formerly teacher-training schools, has been well recorded. There are several unpublished dissertations on the subject, at least three at the library of Southern Connecticut State College (formerly New Haven State Teachers College), and perhaps copies are available elsewhere in the state. The bibliographies in these dissertations are most useful. Here are some of the more easily obtained works, mostly periodical articles. See also dissertations by Averill, Pavlak, Pernal, and Pilver in the section on school policy, above.

Ballinger, Stanley E. "The Establishment of Teachers' Institutes in Connecticut, (1816-1850)." Teacher Education Quarterly 6(Spring, 1949).

Bingham, Harold Jaynes. "An Era of Committee Investigations" [of teacher education, 1862-1968]. Teacher Education Quarterly 6(Spring, 1949).

Bomhoff, C. Bowker. "A History of Legislation for the Establishment of New Britain Normal School" [The state's first 1816-1849]. Teacher Education Quarterly 6(Spring, 1949). See also Bomhoff's short piece that attempts to set the political context for the legislation: "Connecticut, 1817-1850," in The Connecticut Review 1(April, 1968).

Camp, David Nelson. Recollections of A Long and Active Life. New Britain: n. pub., 1917. Camp, born in Durham in 1820, taught public school there and in New Britain, and at Meriden Academy.

Connecticut State Teachers College. A Brief History of the New Haven State Normal School, 1893-1935. An eighty-page pamphlet. "The appendix includes data on the special legislative acts concerning the school. By comparing the courses of study ... [one] may note significant changes in requirements for teacher-preparation." Also included is a lot of junk, such as a score for the school's alma mater song, "Normal Blue," which concludes with the snappy and unforgettable line "New Haven State Normal, Here's to You;" Otherwise useful.

Forst, Arthur Charles, Jr. "From Normal School to State College: The Growth and Development of Eastern Connecticut State College from 1989 to 1959.”  Doctoral dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1980.

Fowler, Herbert E. A Century of Teacher Education in Connecticut: The Story of the New Britain State Normal School and Teachers College of Connecticut, 1849-1949. New Britain: n. pub., 1949.

Greene, May A. "Danbury State Teachers College (1904-1947)." Teacher Education Quarterly 7(Fall, 1949).

Herge, Henry C. "The Role of the Private College in Teacher Education in Connecticut (1885-1949)." Teacher Education Quarterly 7(Fall, 1949).

Moore, L. Franklin, Jr. "New Haven State Teachers College (1893-1947).” Teacher Education Quarterly 7(Fall, 1949).

Paullin, Theodore. "The First Fifty Years of Curriculum." Teacher Education Quarterly 6(Spring, 1949).

Pratte, Richard Norman. "A History of Teacher Education in Connecticut from 1639 to 1939." Doctoral dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1967.

-- "The New Haven City District Training School." CHS Bulletin 36(January, 1971)1:10-15.

Willey, C. F. “Willimantic State Teachers College(l889-1947).” Teacher Education Quarterly 7(Fall, 1949).

Zakolski, F. C. "Teachers College of Connecticut." Teacher Education Quarterly 7(Fall, 1949).

A history of the University of Connecticut by the journalist Evan Hill is in progress. In the meantime, see Waiter Stemmons’s Connecticut Agricultural College: A History. Storrs: n. pub., 1931. Stemmons was "College Editor," whatever that is, and he worked with an instructor in the department of history in writing this book, which is dignified by an introduction by Ralph Henry Gabriel. The author writes, "The history has been written in a serious vein. No one will ever know what a handicap that has been. If historians told the truth, they would not be so serious." Stemmons’s sad misapprehension of what historiography is all about does not make one confident that his work is trustworthy; indeed, it includes much amusing whimsey. But it is not a professional job; there is no attention to issues or tendencies; it is almost reduced to a miscellany.

See also W. T. Gruhn and J. N. Thut, "University of Connecticut (1881-1949)," in Teacher Education Quarterly 7(Fall, 1949).