Arts & Culture | New Haven Museum | Elicker Administration | COVID-19
| William Giles Munson, View of the New Haven Green in 1800, oil on canvas, circa 1830. Collection of the New Haven Museum. |
Mayor Justin Elicker didn't celebrate New Haven's birthday in close quarters with anyone this year. But he took a moment to shout out the city's long history—and its pre-colonial origins—as he worked toward ensuring its future.
Friday afternoon, Elicker paused for a moment to recognize the city's 382nd birthday during his daily COVID-19 press briefing with city Health Director Maritza Bond and Cultural Affairs Director Adriane Jefferson.
He acknowledged that it felt very different from last year's celebration, a veritable party that took place in the atrium of City Hall and was organized by the late Andy Wolf. Friday marked 1,324 verified positive COVID-19 cases and 43 related fatalities in New Haven. As of Friday afternoon, the state reported 23,921 verified positive COVID-19 cases and 1,764 deaths.
"I think it would be helpful to take a moment to reflect on New Haven's history," Elicker said. "You know, we haven't had a perfect history. But overall, I think that the narrative of New Haven is one where we've welcomed so many people. New Haven is very much a place that welcomes cultures, and has done so historically from all around the world."
New Haven is technically older than the state: Connecticut was declared the fifth state in the union in January 1788, just 232 years ago. For 174 years after that, the city was a co-capital of Connecticut with Hartford.
Elicker noted that for centuries, the city has been a beacon: to Irish and Italian immigrant families that settled in the Hill and Wooster Square between the middle of the nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth, to Black families migrating from the American South for better work and the promise of American industry, to families from Puerto Rico and South and Central America.
Most recently, it has become home to many immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers from the Middle East and West Africa who have received assistance from Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS).
"I think about the fact that our city is so compassionate, and that compassion and welcoming and supportive nature, I think, is really coming out during the COVID-19 crisis," he said. "Where so many people have worked hard to support the undocumented population, the undomiciled population, and is also working to support the other communities in the state."
Earlier on Friday afternoon, Elicker had also acknowledged New Haven's first residents: the Quinnipiac People, who signed a treaty with the English in 1638 and were rapidly erased from both their land and the city's history. With his statement, he shared a photo of William Giles Munson's View of the New Haven Green, a nineteenth-century painting that is in the collection of the New Haven Museum.
"We remember the Quinnipiac nation and all those First Nations in Connecticut that lost so many lives to colonization and discrimination," he wrote on social media. "382 years later we are a vibrant and diverse City, still working through the challenges of today and socioeconomic inequality."