Local Voices
Dayton Kingery Around Connecticut – Mark Twain House & Museum
Dayton Kingery continues his series looking at Connecticut attractions. The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford is a national treasure.
For most people, the name Mark Twain is synonymous with the American frontier. Of course, there is good reason for the association: Twain’s boyhood home in Hannibal, Missouri played an outsized role in his future writing style, and the United States’ push west ahead of the country’s centennial formed the backdrop to his most famous works.
Less well known is the relationship Samuel Clemens (Twain’s real name) relationship with Hartford. In fact, America’s most famous riverboat pilot and first prominent author lived longer in Connecticut than any other place he ever called home, and far longer on the east coast than in Hannibal. It was here that he and Olivia (Livy) Langdon raised their family, had four children, lost two (one, a son, to diphtheria at the age of two, and a daughter, Suzy, to meningitis at the age of 24) and where Mark Twain wrote some of his most famous, and enduring works: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and more.
Appropriately, then, Twain’s Hartford mansion has been preserved as a tribute to the author and research center, called the Mark Twain House and Museum. The museum is currently closed to the public because of the corona pandemic, but there is a virtual tour to enjoy online. When the site reopens, the tour includes Twain’s historic 1874 home, a 23-minute movie by celebrated documentary film maker Ken Burns and, of course, the obligatory gift shop.
Notable artifacts in the museum collection include a birthday letter written by Sam to Livy in 1888, their angel-shaped bed, Samuel’s glasses and a trove of photographs.
For researchers and educators, the research library located on the premises includes more than 6,000 original documents related to both the Clemens family and to the author Mark Twain.
According to the library website, the library collection contains a wealth of “books originally in the possession of, and/or annotated by Twain, his family, friends and associates, “as well as original manuscripts and archival records.
The museum also offers a range of educational programs including continuing education courses for teachers and on-site programs for K-12 classes wishing to visit.