PRIMARY DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS (listed by date)

See also Connecticut History on the Web for an excellent selection of primary documents and role-playing exercises for students on different historical themes, such as labor and industry, the nineteenth-century "woman question," immigrant and African-American life, and Progressive-era politics. (Many, though not all, of these relate directly to Hartford.)

Population of Hartford and Suburbs, 1820-1980 (table from Grant, The City of Hartford)

Population data for Hartford County, 1900-2000 (compiled from census reports; note this is a Microsoft Excel file)

City directories (1828-1929)

Joel Hawes, Centennial Address, 1835

Report of Special Committee on Juvenile Vices, Exposures, and Wants, 1863

Life of James Mars, 1864

Statement of Selectmen on Almshouse, 1879; 1880

Hartford as a Manufacturing, Business, and Commercial Center, 1889

Report of Special Committee on Outdoor Alms, 1891

Charity Commissioners Report, 1897

Hartford Diaries of Mary Dudley Vaill Talcott from 1896 to 1919

Hartford Club scrapbook, 1908-1916

The Negro Population of Hartford, Connecticut, 1921 [Johnson report] Note: This has been broken into four parts to make it easier to download, though the files are still large      Part I, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

NAACP Hartford branch files; click for list of contents

Urban League Hartford branch files; click for list of contents

Gustave Feingold, "Intelligence of the First Generation of Immigrant Groups" [Hartford Public High School] Journal of Educational Psychology 15, no. 2 (1924)

Slum Clearance Study Report, 1934

"Employment Conditions on Connecticut Tobacco Plantations," 1943

Connecticut Department of Labor's Report on inspection of tobacco fields and "A History of the Growing of Shade Tobacco" (Shade Tobacco Growers Association), 1946

Commission on the City Plan, "Hartford Plans for Tomorrow" 1955

A Study of the Southside, Hartford, Conn., 1961 [prepared for Neighborhood Planning Associates - Hartford Hospital, Institute of Living, Trinity College]

Constitution Plaza documents, 1962

Politics of Regional Planning (1964)

Harvard Graduate School of Education, Schools for Hartford (1965)

Reports, application cards, and articles on Project Concern - ex:  "This Is...Project Concern" 1967

The Greater Hartford Process (1972) reports and publicity

Downtown Hartford: Managing for Change (1980)

Civilian Review of the Police - The Experiences of American Cities (1980)

Hartford Data Monograph (1981)

Hartford Architecture Conservancy surveys: Barry Square, Blue Hills (1980)

Reports on charter revision, 1980s

Citizens Comm. for Effective Government, Hartford Management Study, 1979

City of Hartford Attitudinal Survey, 1979

United Way planning report, 1984

Chamber of Commerce reports, 1984-1990

Hartford: Plan of Development, 1985-2000 (1985)

Hartford Neighborhood Plans (1986)

Citizens Research Education Network reports:

        The Poor Pay More: Food Shopping in Hartford (1984)

        An Unfulfilled Promise: Hartford's Enterprise Zone (1985)

        Who's Zoning Who? A Study on Zoning in Hartford (1988)

        The 25% Solution to Hartford's Trash Problem (1989)       

        Checking Out of Hartford: Bank Priorities vs. Neighborhood Needs (1989)

        The Other Side of the Coin: A Casino's Impact in Hartford (1992)

Hartford Action Plan on Infant Health (1990)

City Council Housing committee report, 1993

Capital Region Council of Governments reports, 1990-1994

Frog Hollow: A Neighborhood in Hartford, Connecticut, Neighborhood Plan (1994)

Trinity Center for Neighborhoods reports (1995-2000)

• Inventory of Hartford Child Care Centers
• Career Development Programs Available to Hartford Youth
• Contributions of Hartford's Top 10 Corporations to the Economy 
• Models for Neighborhood Revitalization in Historic Districts
• Resources for Small Business Start-Up and Operation
• The Eviction Process in Connecticut
•  Property Insurance and Redlining in the Inner City
• Models for Reform of the  criminal justice system in CT
• Zoning Regulations for the Distance Between Schools and Alcohol Retailing