Since the last time I highlighted a state database from Connecticut, I’m happy to say that Julie Schwartz has stepped forward to maintain this page and has already started adding additional databases. So it seems only appropriate to honor her work by highlighting one of her recent additions:

Connecticut Patents Project – 1800 – 1890 Connecticut patents. Database may be searched by Invention, Inventor’s Last Name, Year, Town, State, Code, or Patent Number. According to the database home page, every record includes:

1. Item being patented
2. Person or persons receiving the patent
3. Residence of the above
4. Issue date of patent
5. Patent number
6. A “notes” field containing miscellaneous information, including to whom the patent was assigned, if other than the “patentee”
7. A numerical “subject code” which places each patent into a category; i.e. firearms, metal working, nautical, time pieces, etc. There are currently 44 different codes assigned.

This database also serves as finding guide to microfilmed patents held by the Museum of Connecticut history.

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With Julie’s participation in State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States, there are now only six states without a documents specialist to keep the page up to date and to add new databases:

Illinois
Indiana
Maine
Mississippi
New Jersey
Vermont

If you have interest and knowledge expertise in any of these states, please adopt one or more of them. Perhaps you are a library/information school instructor. Having a class of yours take on one of these pages would make a great class project.

What do you need to do to volunteer? Just add your name and contact information to the state page and to our page volunteer list. Then look over the What is a Database? page and start adding databases to the page. If you have other questions or have trouble logging into the wiki, please drop me an e-mail at dnlcornwall “AT” alaska “DOT” net.