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Historic Bank Records Donated to Archives & Special Collections
Bruce Stark, Acting University Archivist
When the Hartford National Bank and Trust Company (HNB) merged with the Shawmut National Bank in 1988, HNB was the oldest, largest, and most historically important independent bank in Connecticut. During the course of its almost two hundred year existence, HNB merged with and absorbed some sixty other banks from throughout the state, including the Connecticut National Bank of Bridgeport in 1982. The Shawmut National Corporation, now Fleet Bank, has donated the records that document the history of the HNB to Archives & Special Collections in the Dodd Research Center.
The HNB records are voluminous--far exceeding the length of a football field--and are divided into three separate collections. The first, Archives of the Hartford National Bank and Trust Company, consists of processed records of the Hartford Bank and twenty-six merger banks. This collection contains a considerable quantity of papers documenting the early history of the Hartford Bank, including daybooks and registers of discount, bank note accounts, balance sheets, records of elections of directors, correspondence, and canceled checks. The second collection, the Hartford National Corporation Records, contains unprocessed materials and includes an extensive body of records from the Connecticut National Bank and its predecessor banks. The third collection consists of unprocessed papers acquired by the bank during its long history. Among these are the personal and business papers of Joseph Trumbull, third president of the Hartford Bank; records of the Poquag Association, which operated a fish and game preserve in Groton, Connecticut; papers of Harvey Champion, a customer of the United States Bank of Hartford in the 1890s; and the nineteenth-century records of a Methodist Episcopal Church in New London.
The Hartford Bank, the first bank chartered in Connecticut, opened for business on August 8, 1792. In 1865 it became part of the national banking system and changed its name to the Hartford National Bank. The first significant merger, with Farmers and Mechanics National Bank, took place in 1910. When it merged with the United States Security Trust Company, the bank adopted the name of the Hartford National Bank and Trust Company, by which it was so widely known throughout the state. In 1969 it became the Hartford National Corporation, which, nineteen years later, merged with Boston-based Shawmut Bank forming the Shawmut National Corporation.
The history of HNB and its merger banks is richly documented in corporate records, financial records, loan files, customer records, correspondence, reports of condition, advertisements and promotional publications, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, and memorabilia. The records comprise an unparalleled resource to support research on the history of banking in Connecticut and the role of banks in many communities throughout the state. Several items from the HNB records are currently on display in the Dodd Center Gallery, including a February 20, 1793 check for $14.50 signed by Noah Webster; six samples of currency, including one from the Aetna Bank of Hartford; a Connecticut River Banking Company currency plate; an engraving of John Caldwell, president of the Bank 1792-1819; and two 1792 letters to Caldwell concerning exchange and redemption of Hartford Bank notes.
Information: Betsy Pittman, 486-4507
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