Hartford, CT

We have few photographs as today was museum day. Three major names are associated with the Nooks Area of Hartford, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Samuel Clemens, and Katherine Hepburn. Homes of the first two are open for tours, the home where Kate was born is long gone.

We started the day visiting the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. A minister’s daughter and minister’s wife, she was vehemently opposed to slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was considered a sermon against the practice and that is exactly what she had in mind when she wrote the book. She is reported to have met President Lincoln in 1862 who remarked that she was the author of the little book “that started this big war.” She continued to write novels and books on domestic advice. We could not take pictures inside her house but it was furnished in typical Victorian fashion.




Next door stands the Chamberlain Home. A wealthy lawyer, his home has beautiful carved woodwork that had Jerry is awe.



Almost next door was the home of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) Our delightful guide shared her love of Twain's tales on our tour of his home. Married to the daughter of one of the richest men in New York and with financial success from his writing, he, his wife and four children lived in opulence. They entertained frequently. A separate tour gave us insight into the operation of the home.

We enjoyed entire tour but seeing the desk where he wrote Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, and other classics was a special treat. He could write up to 10,000 words per day. Twain was always a story teller, even using mantle decorations to create original stories for his children at bedtime.

He had ambitions beyond writing but made some bad investment decisions and had to sell the contents of the home to pay bills and all but lost the home to bankruptcy. While the couple were in Europe, one of their daughters returned to the home but died there. The Clemens’ were never able to live there again. Through great effort many of the original pieces have been returned to the home providing visitors with a wonderful opportunity to see how America’s premier novelist lived.


We ended our day at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. The special exhibits on the Hudson River School were apt since we had recently been in the area though some of the paintings were of home, Yosemite, Hetch Hetchy. The label copy was among the best we have seen, telling about the artist and also about the history or meaning of the subject. The museum has an excellent collection of Impressionist Art, ceramics, furniture, and more than we could see in an afternoon.