The Danbury Museum will lend nine pieces from its Marian Anderson costume collection to the Kimmel Center for a concert and rededication ceremony celebrating South Philly's famous contralto singer.
Her performance at the Lincoln Memorial on April 9, 1939, marked a significant date in the history of American music and civil rights. Eighty five years later, Anderson is still remembered as a celebrated singer with Connecticut connections whose repertoire ranged from opera to spirituals.
We had a very informal discussion about his career and it didn't take long for him to teach us something about our own hometown. We were talking with Don about our shared love of American History and just then he put Danbury's history center stage.
Danbury is also a place of rich and exciting history. However, when the history of Danbury is discussed, it's usually boils down to one thing, hats. Danbury is called The Hat City because we were the biggest producer of hats in the whole world at one time. While I respect this truth, it's typically all we get credit for. Danbury is so much more than hats, Danbury has many stories to tell and many of them happened in the same place, Main Street.