New Haven
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for New Haven. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the most populous city of Connecticut. It is situated on a level, sandy tract between two small rivers at the head of New Haven Bay, four miles from Long Island Sound. Lines of steamers run to New York City. New Haven lies in the direct line of railway communication, about one-third of the way from New York to Boston. In point of manufactures, New Haven is the chief city in the state, outranking even Hartford. Among the leading articles of manufacture are cutlery, shelf hardware, firearms, ammunition, watches, clocks, wagons and carriages, automobiles, rubber tires, clothing, and machinery of various descriptions. Fruits and vegetables are canned on a large scale. Though known popularly as a college town, New Haven is an industrial center. Of a population in 1900 of 108,027, 30,000 were of foreign birth, and 20,000 were wageearners in manufacturing establishments. In 1909 a population of 130,000 was claimed. New Haven was settled in 1638 by a colony of London Puritans, led by their first governor, Theophilus Eaton, and their pastor, John Davenport. A tract of land, accompanied by a promise not to terrify, disturb, or injure the settlers, was bought from the Indians for a highly tempting assortment of knives, hatchets, spoons, and coats. In the government that was set up church members and none others were permitted to take part. Despite protest the infant colony was united with Connecticut in 1662. The city of New Haven was incorporated in 1784. In 1801 it was made a joint capital with Hartford, an arrangement that continued until 1873. Yale College was removed from Saybrook in 1717. The early settlers laid out a public square in which they secured their cattle at night and in which they buried their dead. The main streets of the city still radiate from this square, now known as the Old Green. Nobody knows how long since the last Indian pitched his tepee here or how many people lie buried beneath the green sward. Through the efforts and example of James Hillhouse, a wealthy citizen, a great number of elm trees were set out along the principal avenues. Thousands of these trees set out at his expense are now over a century old. They form long, graceful aisles of vernal beauty, gaining for New Haven the name of "The City of Elms ." As might be expected, the educational system of the city is one of the most efficient in New England . The Hillhouse High School is named for the benefactor of the city. The public library shelters 60,000 volumes. Early documents and antiquities are preserved in the archives of the New Haven Colony Historical Society. Many noted men have been connected with the life of the city. Roger Sherman, United States senator from Connecticut, was the first mayor. The graves of Noah Webster, Theodore Winthrop, Eli Whitney, F. B. Morse, and many a Yale celebrity may be seen in the old elm-sheltered churchyards. See Yale; Connecticut ; Webster
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and countyseat of New Haven co., Conn., at the head of New Haven Bay, an excellent harbor 4 miles long that sets in northwardly from Long Island Sound. The city is located on the New York, New Haven, and Hartford railroad, 73 miles N. E. of New York City, and about 36 miles S. of Hartford. The city is the largest and most important in the State and is rapidly increasing in population and in industrial importance. It is also the home of Yale University. New Haven has a great variety of manufacturing interests, most of them being of standard goods such as firearms and ammunition; rubber shoes, tires, and other rubber goods; household and builders' hardware, clocks and watches, cutlery, electric elevators, sewing machine attachments, dies, safes, ies, safes, paper wares and boxes, caskets, pianos, organs, silk, etc. New Haven has the general offices of the N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. Co. The city is a great distributing point to and from all New England. The waters of the sound give New Haven water transportation facilities. A good harbor with a 20-foot channel and two steamboat lines for passenger and freight to New York afford shippers good means of transportation. The assessed valuation of property in New Haven in 1920 was more than $200,000,000. The city has more than 200 miles of streets, most of them well paved. The city's water supply is stored in five lakes to the W., N. and E. of the city, aggregating 900 acres of water with a watershed of 6,600 acres surrounding them. The public school system is comprehensive with an enrolment of about 29,000 pupils. The annual cost of maintaining the city government is about $3,500,000. In addition to Yale University the city
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 boast of "long, graceful aisles" of elms and the name "The City of Elms" was undone by Dutch elm disease, which swept the Northeast from the 1930s and killed most of Hillhouse's plantings; the Green today is mostly oaks and other replacements. The industrial city both accounts describe has largely gone: Winchester Repeating Arms, the firearms works that made New Haven famous, ended production in the city in 2006, and the clock, carriage and rubber trades vanished long before that. The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, whose general offices Collier's noted in 1921, was absorbed into Penn Central in 1968; passenger service is now Metro-North and Amtrak, and the steamboat lines to New York are gone. Population, "rapidly increasing" in 1921, peaked near 164,000 around 1950 and stood at about 134,000 in 2020, with Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital now the city's largest employers.
Written for this edition, 2026.