Mattatuck Museum facts for kids
 |
|
| Established | 1877 as The Mattatuck Historical Society |
|---|---|
| Location | 144 West Main Street, Waterbury, CT 06702 |
| Type | Art museum, history museum |
The Mattatuck Museum is a cool place in Waterbury, Connecticut, USA. It's like two museums in one! You can explore the history, industries, and culture of Waterbury and the nearby Central Naugatuck Valley area. It also has amazing art, including paintings and sculptures about Connecticut's history, people, and beautiful scenery. Plus, there's a huge collection of 15,000 buttons from all over the world!
Contents
Exploring the Museum's Collections
The Mattatuck Museum has many interesting things to see. It focuses on art and history, especially from Connecticut.
Amazing Art from Connecticut
The museum proudly shows off art made by painters and sculptors who were born in or lived in Connecticut. Their artwork covers the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s. You might even recognize names like Alexander Calder, Frederic Church, and John Trumbull.
Waterbury's Story: History and Buttons
The museum also highlights the cool things that happened in Waterbury, both in business and culture. This includes a huge collection of 15,000 buttons! These buttons were given to the museum by the old Button Museum, which was run by the Waterbury Button Company.
Discovering Waterbury: Tours and Exhibits
In 2008, the museum started offering special tours of downtown Waterbury. These tours let you explore the city's unique buildings and architecture on your own. The museum also has a regional history exhibit. This exhibit uses fun, interactive displays, recorded stories from people, and old movie clips. It helps you learn about the past and present of Waterbury and the areas around it in New Haven County, Connecticut.
Supporting New Artists
The museum also helps new artists by holding a competition called the Connecticut Biennial. Artists who live or have a studio in Connecticut can enter. Winners receive prizes like products and gift certificates from local businesses.
The Story of Fortune
In 1999, the museum gained national attention because of a special item in its collection: a human skeleton. This skeleton was thought to be from the late 1700s. It was first called "Larry" because that name was written on its skull. The bones were given to the museum in the 1930s by the McGlannon family. They had family ties to Dr. Preserved Porter, who had owned Fortune.
Fortune's skeleton was on display in a glass case until 1970. At that time, there was no information about who he really was. His remains were simply used as a teaching tool. In the late 1990s, a group called the African-American History Project Committee investigated. They found out that the skeleton belonged to an enslaved Black man named Fortune, who passed away in 1798.
The museum then created a special exhibit to honor Fortune. This exhibit shared details about the lives of African-American slaves in Waterbury during the early 1800s. Fortune was finally laid to rest in Riverside Cemetery (Waterbury, Connecticut) on September 13, 2013.
