Naugatuck Students Have a Hand in Documenting War History

It started researching some Civil War artifacts at the Naugatuck Historical Society.

Now, a year later, the plans to have borough students participate first-hand in chronicling Naugatuck’s role during the war has expanded even further.

And this time, everything will be put online.

Sophomore students at NHS can elect to participate in a special historical research project, in which they will be digitizing the Naugatuck Historical Society’s Civil War collection. This means scanning in letters, documents and other memorabilia that the historical society has in its possession, and has never been able to fully document due to the voluminous amounts of artifacts.

All of the digitized material will then be placed into an online database that will be open for all to view, said Matt LaPlaca, the high school’s history teacher behind the endeavor. Eventually, the hope is to have the database — which can be viewed under construction here — where researchers and those interested in Civil War history in Naugatuck can find primary source information, LaPlaca said.

Beyond this, the students will also be assisting in transcribing texts and writing up small blurbs summarizing what each letter and document entails, LaPlaca said. He said this will allow researchers and history buffs a chance to decipher whether they want to actually read the document or not.

“This is not high school history class research, this is historian research,” LaPlaca said. “This is not a high school project, this is a Naugatuck Historical Society project that is asking students at the high school to help out.”

The plan was first executed through cooperation between Naugatuck High School and the Naugatuck Historical Society. The society obtained funding from the Parent Student Council to launch the website and pay for its sustainability for thee next two years, said society President Wendy Murphy. After that, Murphy said the historical society is looking into allowing a paid membership on the site, so professional researchers can edit or contribute in a wiki-style format.

According to both Murphy and LaPlaca, this could be the first time in the state any historical society has ever had all of its artifacts put into an online database.

“It’s obvious that there isn’t anybody out there that has taken it on in a big way,” said Diana McCain, head of the research center for the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford.

McCain said some historical societies have taken on such endeavors — such as the Litchfield Historical Society — however she said she hadn’t heard about it in any common way.

Speaking to a group of students on Friday, LaPlaca reminded the 15- and 16-year-olds that they often learn about the big names, events and struggles from textbooks and online research. But with this project, “We’re going to have an opportunity read about how history impacted individual people who actually lived it.”

The students will have access to all of historical society’s documents, and will have a chance to look at some artifacts — such as Civil War-era hats and supplies.

LaPlaca demonstrated this with one of the Union soldier’s hats that is in the historical society’s possession.

“We’re not quite sure who wore this, we’re not quite sure if this was worn during the war or if this was worn by a veteran after the fact,” LaPlaca said. “We are going to ask you to research this, to find out by maybe contacting the family that donated it, by taking a closer look it.”

One stellar artifact is a Memorial Record of the Grand Army of the Republic. The book was completed in 1890, and was found in a safe in the Howard Whittemore Library, Murphy said.

In it, the book chronicles all surviving Civil War veterans that lived in Naugatuck, interviewed some 25 years after the war was over, LaPlaca said. It tells of where the soldiers were born, where they were recruited and what battles they fought in, he said.

Murphy highlighted just how important the students’ role would be in preserving history. She noted how the Grand Army book is the only copy the historical society has.

“If we were to have another flood or if the damage from the hurricane had been bigger, we could have lost that book, and all those stories could have been lost,” Murphy said. “And that’s why we really need your help to analyze these artifacts and help preserve them forever.”

Matt Yanarella, who sits on the board for the historical society, noted that high school students already spend time learning about dates, battles and other historic events.

“But you never learned about the kid who was working in a factory making buttons in Waterbury or the guy who at age 16 lied about his age to get into the war so he can go fight; or the 12-year-old who beat a drum as he marched into Gettysburg,” Yanarella said. “And chances are, you are going to see these stories here.”