FINDING A PLACE, MAINTAINING TIES documents the lives of the West Indian immigrants who first came to the Hartford area in large numbers during the 1940s to work on local tobacco farms. What began as a project designed to record the experiences of these early pioneers—mostly men from Jamaica—subsequently grew to include the people who have come to the Hartford area more recently, both from Jamaica and the other English-speaking islands in the Caribbean.
The exhibition explores a common thread that links people’s individual stories: the challenge of putting down roots in a new place while maintaining ties with the people, history, and cultural heritage of the homeland.
FINDING A PLACE, MAINTAINING TIES documents the lives of the West Indian immigrants who first came to the Hartford area in large numbers during the 1940s to work on local tobacco farms. What began as a project designed to record the experiences of these early pioneers—mostly men from Jamaica—subsequently grew to include the people who have come to the Hartford area more recently, both from Jamaica and the other English-speaking islands in the Caribbean.
The exhibition explores a common thread that links people’s individual stories: the challenge of putting down roots in a new place while maintaining ties with the people, history, and cultural heritage of the homeland.