Connecticut Public Records Project

The Public Records series is an essential resource for scholars of Connecticut’s history, historians of the state’s towns and localities, legislators, lawyers, family historians, genealogists, and other members of the public. It is organized chronologically.

The core of the series is a transcription of the manuscript register of the acts, resolutions, and appointments made by the Connecticut’s General Assembly, housed in the State Archives at the Connecticut State Library. Individual volumes contain important supplementary documents. Editorial apparatus includes an introduction, informational annotation, and a comprehensive index.

The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut

The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut cover the years 1636–1776 in fifteen volumes. The editors were J. Hammond Trumbull and Charles J. Hoadly. The volumes, which were published between 1850 and 1890, can be found in the Hathi Trust Digital Library: The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut. The series documents early colonial settlement, the development of laws and governmental institutions, religion and society, the expansion of the economy, Connecticut’s participation in Britain’s colonial wars, and the coming of the American Revolution.

The Public Records of the State of Connecticut

Funded and Published by the
Connecticut State Library
Kendall F. Wiggin, State Librarian;
Lizette Pelletier, State Archivist

Douglas M. Arnold, Ph.D., Editor
Shelby Shapiro, Ph.D., Associate Editor
Laura Muncy, Production Consultant

Jennifer Serventi and Kathy A. Toavs,
Former Staff Editors

The Public Records of the State of Connecticut

301 Public Recs MsHaving reached American Independence, the series continued as The Public Records of the State of Connecticut. The first volume appeared in 1894; twenty-two volumes total, covering the years 1776–1824, have been published under the editorships of Charles Hoadly, Leonard W. Labaree, Alfred E. Van Dusen, Christopher Collier, Dorothy Ann Lipson, and Douglas Arnold. On-line versions of these volumes can be accessed on the Connecticut State Library’s website: The Public Records of the State of Connecticut.

The State Records series documents many important subjects in Connecticut’s history. These include the state’s participation in the Revolutionary War, economic and political readjustments to peacetime, the adoption of the U.S. Constitution and the political ascendancy of the Federalist Party during the Early American Republic, partisan rivalry between the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans, and the War of 1812. Recent volumes have covered the postwar defeat of the Federalists by a Reform coalition, the adoption of a state constitution and the end of public financing of religion in 1818, tax and fiscal reform in subsequent years, and Connecticut’s ongoing engagement with national trends during the Era of Good Feelings. The Public Records also contain valuable information on social and economic history and developments in the state’s towns and localities.
“As I read the Public Records volumes, I am coming to the conclusion that Douglas Arnold is writing an important history of Connecticut, one introduction at a time.”
—Walter W. Woodward, State Historian, Associate Professor of History, University of Connecticut

Awards

302 CPR Editing MaterialsVolumes XVIII (1816–1817) and XIX (1818) won the Homer D. Babbidge, Jr., Award in 2008 and Volume XX (1819–1820) won the Betty M. Linsley Award in 2014, both from the Association for the Study of Connecticut History.

“Under the expert guidance of its editor, Douglas Arnold, this volume supplies historians and the public with further documentation essential to understanding the state’s early nineteenth century history … Volume XX continues the long tradition of editorial excellence in the publication of The Public Records of both the Colony and of the State of Connecticut.”
—Association for the Study of Connecticut History, Citation for the Betty M. Linsley Award

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