WWI in Connecticut, Collaboration and Brothels

April 8, 2015 by greengoddesshistory 1 Comment

For a course in Digital History at Central Connecticut State University, we the students, get to be part of a project that the Connecticut State Library has created to honor the memory of World War I and record the history of it in Connecticut. They provide an online means to share historical material while working with local organizations and schools to engage multiple audiences.

I will be making a timeline of Connecticut soldier. In the interest of identity protection, I will not share the name of the soldier that I was initially centering my timeline around. The soldier’s family donated some of his effects to the Connecticut State Library, one of which was a day pass to a town that featured a brothel. That artifact is odd and engaging so I wanted to explore.

I imagined that I would do a three level, or three part timeline on the TikiToki page. The completed work will then be submitted to the CT State Library. The first “level” of the timeline would be a personal timeline of the soldier, including his visitation of the brothel and facts on brothels during WWI. The second level will be a generic timeline of the United States in WWI, while the third level will be fun events happening in Connecticut while WWI was happening so make the timeline more relatable to future researchers.

Weeks later, after speaking at length the leading-lady of the World War I project at the CT State Library, we decided that is was actually in the best interest of respect to the existing family, that I not focus on brothels (although hilarious and still historically relevant) in relation to that particular soldier. Therefore, my timeline will be modified to another soldier, one from my adopted town on the border of Massachusetts if I can find on, and then keep the same two secondary levels.

My sources will be the archives and collection of digital contributions of WWI stories, photos and memorabilia has already been massed by the CT State Library.