World Country Guide

General Information

Nickname
Constitution State

State bird
American Robin

State flower
Mountain Laurel

Capital
Hartford

Date of admission to the Union
January 9 1788 (original 13 States; date of ratification of the Constitution)

Population
3,503,604 (official estimate 2004)

Population density
244 per sq km

2003 total overseas arrivals/US ranking
252,000/18

Time
Eastern (GMT - 5). Daylight Saving Time is observed.

The State
Connecticut is a mixture of town and country; beyond the towns and major cities inhabited by New York commuters are quiet colonial villages set in a rural landscape. The third-smallest State in the USA, Connecticut has a rich literary history. Hartford was the home of Mark Twain, and tourists can visit The Mark Twain House, at Nook Farm, where he wrote his greatest work, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in 1884. Next door is the cottage in which the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, lived until her death in 1896, also open for tours. For children, there is the delightful Bushnell Park Carousel, which was built in 1914 in one of the first public US parks. Other Hartford attractions include the oldest public art museum in the country, Wadsworth Atheneum, the Museum of Connecticut History, and the Old State House, which housed the State government until 1914. New Haven is the site of Yale University, the Peabody Museum of Natural History, the Center for British Art, and Yale University Art Gallery. The Art Gallery houses a fine collection, including American decorative arts, pre-Colombian pieces and works by European masters such as Van Gogh. More modern fare can be viewed at the Neon Garage. The town is also known for its theatre; famous names to have trodden New Haven’s boards include Jodie Foster, Glenn Close and Meryl Streep. The New Haven Symphony Orchestra and the Yale Repertory Theater have their homes here.
Mystic Seaport is a living museum of Connecticut’s maritime past. There is a display of wooden ships, a maritime museum, shops, and art and craft collections. Visitors can marvel at the sharks, dolphins and seals at Mystic Aquarium. They can also shop and dine in the New England Colonial setting of Olde Mistick Village. Some 8km (5 miles) east of Mystic, Stonington Borough is a delightful old fishing village, which boasts a number of antique shops and a Lighthouse Museum. Other attractions in the State include the entertainment complexes and casinos of Foxwoods Resort and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Mashantucket, the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, the Haight Vineyards in Litchfield and the Ocean Beach Park, with a sand beach and wooden boardwalk, in New London.