We Are All Connecticut Yankees:
Diversity in the 19th and Early 20th Century

Becoming Americans

Connecticut cities provided many resources to help new immigrants adjust to life in the United States. Special classes, schools and missions were established to assist immigrant groups. National groups sponsored clubs and also offered assistance to new immigrants from their county of origin.

< Italian emigrants began arriving in Connecticut in the mid-19th century. By 1920, Hartford’s Little Italy was a compact area of tenements and alleyways centering on Front Street. These newly arrived Italians are participating in an Americanization program.

Mayor’s Council Armenian Group
Photograph by William G. Dudley
Hartford, ca. 1920
Photo CD: 3153 File: Img0057.pcd

< Many Armenians arrived in Connecticut in the late 1910s and early 1920s seeking refuge from Turkish persecution in their homeland. New England still has one largest Armenian populations in the United States.

English Class for Swedes at the
Hillyer Institute, Young Men’s
Christian Association
Hartford, ca. 1910
Photo CD: 2477 File: Img0082.pcd

< At the turn of the 19th century, the Hillyer Institute at the Hartford Y.M.C.A. provided language courses for recent immigrants. Immigrants also attended Y.M.C.A. courses in subjects like automobile repair, plumbing, electrical work and bookkeeping that enabled students to find jobs in area businesses. The Hillyer Institute later became part of the University of Hartford.

Link to other essays in this Journey:

>> Introduction: We are All Connecticut Yankees
>> Celebrating Ethnic Origins
>> Diversity In The Workplace
>> Immigrant Entrepreneurs

>> Guideposts
>> Suggestions for further reading