CHI brings together the Connecticut history-related digital resources of libraries, archives, museums, galleries, historical societies and other cultural heritage institutions in Connecticut. It contains material as varied as the history of the state, from documents to images, from maps to audio and video covering the entire spectrum of work, play, and life in Connecticut.
CHI makes it possible for students, teachers, scholars and the general public to discover and use all types of digitized and born digital material including still and moving images, documents, sound recordings, (including oral histories), maps, books, pamphlets, broadsides, paintings, and three-dimensional artifacts all relating to the history and culture of Connecticut from the 17th to the 21st century. These resources are free to use for personal enjoyment, reference, and educational purposes.
CHI facilitates collaboration among cultural organizations to build, make available, and share digital collections. CHI builds on the success of Connecticut History Online (CHO), the digital collection of Connecticut history resources that pioneered collaborative collection building among cultural heritage institutions. Connecticut History Online was funded by grants from the IMLS in 1999 and 2003 and by the Connecticut Humanities in 2007. All content from CHO is included in Connecticut History Illustrated, along with many more new resources that are being added all the time.
The CHI contributing organizations represent three major communities–libraries, museums, and historical societies–who preserve and make accessible historical collections within the state of Connecticut. Their combined assets include book and periodical volumes, manuscript materials, photographs, prints, drawings, paintings, oral histories, maps, artifacts, and broadsides.