5. The Edward E. King Museum

Flying High with the Tobacco King of East Hartford
East Hartford
(Google Maps Location)
December 13, 2006

mq6x.jpgEveryone has their own way of procrastinating. Some people knit, some people surf the Net, and some watch bad TV… And some go to museums. Well, at least one person does: me. I had taken a random Wednesday in December off way back in August under the premise that I would use the day to do my Christmas shopping. For me, that usually means going to Amazon.com for 20 minutes and clicking a few times. But this year I actually had a shopping list that forced me out of the house and into the wilds of suburban Connecticut’s shopping malls and box stores. Ugh.

I awoke at my usual ridiculous pre-dawn time, helped Hoang and Damian get ready for their days like I always do, saw them off, and… Hopped online to shop at Amazon.com. Then I compiled my quite long to-do list for the day, threw on some clothes, and hit the road. First stop: pick up clothes at the dry cleaners. Looking at my list, my next stop was across town at the WalMart/Marshalls plaza to pick up some cheap trinkets for my team at work. (Hey, when shopping for 15 you gotta do what you gotta do – social conscience and snobbery be darned.) “Hmmm,” I thought to myself, “I hate WalMart and I hate box stores in general and it’s only 9:30 AM and I happened to bring my camera…” I only had one option: Drive to East Hartford, find the town library on Main Street, and check out what the Edward E. King Museum contained within.

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And so that’s exactly what I did – shopping could wait. After the 15 minute drive, I found the rather attractive Raymond Library easily and went inside. I had read that the museum was “on the second floor” but first I decided to compare East Hartford’s library to my own beloved West Hartford one. I admit it, I was surprised at how nice the building was. For those of you who don’t know, stereotype dictates that West Hartford is snooty and rich whereas East Hartford is … Let’s be kind and say it’s decidly not like West Hartford. Case in point, one can walk to one of several fine dining establishments and order a few hundred dollars bottle of wine with a $100 stack of raw oysters within 5 minutes from West Hartford’s card catalog. In East Hartford, one can walk to Kahoots – a strip bar underneath a highway overpass, and order a Bud bottle with some stale pretzels.. And in case I haven’t slurred those “East of the River” enough, here’s who was sitting in the middle of the reading room at the Raymond Library:

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That’s right, Real life honest-to-goodness bums. The picture is hopelessly blurry because I didn’t want to set off the flash and I didn’t want to take the time to set up a proper shot – lest I be caught doing so. The guy on the left was quiet but the guy on the right was suffering from dementia and was yapping away. At least they were trying to get an education though, right?

I left the stacks and made my way over to the other section of the libary and up the steps to the museum. There were several nice paintings in the stairwell and hallway – turns out they were all part of a WPA project in the 1930′s. The hallway was dark but there was an old woman squirreled away in a cramped office who told me to “turn on the light switch” and the museum was all mine. ALRIGHT!

I was immediately confronted with a most difficult decision:

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Kids: Always choose aviation.

Let’s see, both get you high… Hmmm… I decided to go with Tobacco, as the one room display looked easier to digest. What I found was a bunch of old farm implements and a brief history of the local tobacco industry. The Connecticut River Valley was once a thriving tobacco producing region – one of the world’s finest. The leaf tobacco grown here was very mild and was used extensively in cigars made in the Caribbean. In fact, a bit further north up in the Windsor, CT area, leaf tobacco is still a profitable cash crop. I found this whole tobacco farming business very surprising when I first moved up here.

mq6c.jpgThe museum’s namesake, Edward E. King, was born, raised, and died in East Hartford. He was essentially “Mr. East Hartford” and today a town pool and a housing project bear his name proudly. He donated the money for this museum so we could learn stuff like, “From about 1820 until 1880, tobacco production went from virtually nothing to 14 million pounds annually.” Some company named American Sumatra in East Hartford became the number one leaf tobacco grower in the world and their leaves were used for Havana Cigars.

I noted the old cigar bands and boxes as well as a couple cigar store Indians. There were a few historic photographs of the old days and even some century-old matchbooks. I don’t know what else one could add to a tobacco history display, so I was pretty satisfied with what I’d learned. On to the Aviation section!

mq6j.jpgThe Aviation portion was sectioned and snaked around even though the square footage seemed to be less than that of the Tobacco section. First, I learned about the very early attempts at local flight – from balloons to gliders in the late 19th century. Neato.

Then things got interesting ’round these parts. Some smart guy named Frederick Rentschler left the Army and convinced a few guys that heavier but more powerful engines would be the future of aircraft. He contracted with a little company in East Hartford named Pratt and Whitney Tools to begin building his Wasp Engine. The next thing anyone knew, the Navy was ordering these Wasp engines faster than Pratt and Whitney could build them.

mq6k.jpgP&W went from a small machinist shop to a massive manufacturing complex overnight. They bought out a bunch of tobacco fields in East Hartford to do it and they instantly became a dominant international player. Over the next couple decades, P&W and Rentschler developed many relationships and forged the beginnings of a whole slew of still viable manufacturers today: Sikorsky, Vought, United Technologies, Hamilton Standard, and a little company named Boeing. Yes, all these companies were spawned right there in East Hartford. Rather amazing, actually.

Throughout two world wars, P&W grew to be the largest manufacturer of military AND commercial jet engines. Hamilton Standard became the biggest propeller maker and Sikorsky the leading helicopter company. P&W developed the first practical jet engine which, as you all know, was the massively powerful axial-flow turbojet J57 engine. It was used in the B-52′s and it’s later “offspring” are still used in commercial jets all around the world.

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After learning a bit more about the evolution of the turbofan and the J57, I breathed in the scent of the ancient dried tobacco leaves one last time, turned off the lights, and made my way to my car. Sure, I was off to box store hell and mall hysteria, but that was all okay now that I had another museum under my belt.

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The old 1930′s murals in the stairwell up to the museum

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The rather cool painting at the museum entrance

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The “Old broken down wooden stuff and dried out old tobacco” display

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A large collection of cigar boxes and bands. And you thought this CTMQ hobby was lame?

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The very first CTMQ instance of a “Head” – an inside joke that will never get old.

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This is an old tobacco fertilizer spreader. Hmmm… there’s a joke somewhere about tobacco companies spreading “fertilizer.”

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Here I am, flying over to the Aviation section of the museum… Going fine until…

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…Until I hit some turbulence as I didn’t know how to work the camera timer properly.

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You can’t read the caption on this photo, but it says that those ladies are “skylarking.”

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Here it is – the Pratt & Whitney property and all the runways from which they fly test flights. Hmmm, something is missing though. U-C-O-N-N! UConn! Uconn! UConn!

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Cost: Free
Hours: Normal Library Hours
Food & Drink? Lunch at Augie and Ray’s and talk to current P&W workers about what you’ve learned.
Children? Sure – Aviation side only
You’ll like it if: You yearn for the days of smoking on jet planes
You won’t like it if: You like musicals
Freebies: It’s a library! Everything is free!

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For the Curious:

Museum Website (scroll to bottom)
Tobacco Timeline
Cigar store Indians
History of Pratt & Whitney
Frederick Rentschler
Rentschler Field, UConn’s home
Skylarking?

2 responses to “5. The Edward E. King Museum”

  1. Jeff Cummings says:

    You have a typical WH attitude, please stay there.

  2. Steve says:

    Jeff,

    I hadn’t read this page in years so I just did because these early pages were often rough and I was concerned.

    However, I fail to see anything in this of “typical WH attitude.” In fact, I think I did a pretty good job making fun of “typical WH attitude.” If you wish to counter the facts of the environs of the two towns’ main library branches, by all means, go for it.

    Note: I’ve been to Kahoots more times (3 or 4) than Flemings (0) next to the WH Library.

    Try reading the first few paragraphs again. Sheesh.

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