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The images in Connecticut History Online cover many towns
and cities across the state and across many years. In order to
find images of a particular town, click on "Search,"
then select "Refined Search" and enter the name of the
town you're looking for. On the "Search by:" pull-down
menu, select "Place Name". In the case of a town with
a two-word name, such as "New London", or "East
Haven", be sure to also use the first pull-down menu and
select "As a phrase" to include both words together
in your "Place Name" search. In order to narrow your
search to a specific time period, use the Search Limits button.
Enter a date, or a range of dates. When using this option, be
sure to define your limits BEFORE you construct your search.
Instead of searching for a specific item,
try browsing. The "Browse by Subject" section on the
search page will give you an alphabetical list of subjects, including
town names. Click on the name of any town to see a list of images
of that town. Click on the title to see the full record.
If you choose "Browse by Collection",
you will find a list of several collections that contain images
of towns. For example: the "John Warner Barber Collection"
includes views of many towns in the 1830s. Many small country
towns in the 1880s are represented in the "Clark Collection."
Some collections are specific to a single area; Mystic is well-represented
in the "Gates Collection", the "Grinnell Collection",
and the "Newbury Collection." Click on any of these
collections for a list of images of Mystic.
Once you've found one image that interests
you, one of the best ways to discover additional related images
is to check out the "Subject" category on the "Full
Record" page. There you will find specific headings that
relate to the image you are looking at. Clicking on any one of
these subject headings will produce a list of other images of
the same subject. For instance, if you are viewing a picture of
the waterfront in Bridgeport, go to the end of the record and
click on the Place Name "Bridgeport Harbor." This will
find additional images of that specific place. If you click on
the Subject "Harbor," you'll find images of other harbors
throughout the state.
A good way to focus on the similarities and
differences between towns is to search for things that make up
a town. A subject search for "City halls" will find
city halls in different towns throughout Connecticut. Other good
subjects to search for include "Schools," "Stores,"
"Police stations," "Fire stations," and "Church
buildings." If you don't get many hits on a subject search,
try a keyword search instead. Then look at the subject headings
at the end of the record to see what the best search terms may
be.
Searching by street names can also turn up
interesting results. The street names familiar to you in your
own town are often found many other towns as well. Almost every
town has a "Main Street," so searching for "Main
Street" as a place name will allow you to compare the downtown
area of many different Connecticut towns and cities. When doing
a refined search, be sure to use the pull-down menus to indicate
that you want to search for "Main Street" "As a
Phrase" and as a "Place Name." Other common street
names include Elm Street, High Street, School Street, Water Street
and Washington Street.
Finally, the GeoLocator allows you to find
the town or city that you're looking for on a map. Click on the
name of the town to see a list of images. In some larger cities,
you can even zoom in to find images of specific streets.
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