Connecticut Radio Information System

The Stowe Center encourages social justice and literary activism by exploring the legacy of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) and all who advocate hope and freedom then and now. Stowe wrote her best-selling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), exposing truth about the greatest social injustice of her day.

The Stowe Center uses Stowe’s life and work to inspire positive social change. Interactive tours and programs connect visitors to 19th century issues and the contemporary face of race, class and gender issues.

Katharine Seymour Day, Stowe’s great grandniece, established the Stowe Center as a place of learning and preservation. She wanted to ensure a historically accurate space for people to learn the history of Hartford and Connecticut.

Opened to the public in 1968, the Stowe Center is one of the earliest historic house museums focused on women’s history and African American history.

CRIS Solution

Visitors to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center learn how Harriet Beecher Stowe helped shape the course of U.S. history with her best-selling anti-slavery book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. A smartphone audio tour – available inside Stowe’s home, and outdoors through her yard, explains how Stowe, as an abolitionist and literary activist, exposed the cruelties of slavery based on the real-life experiences of enslaved people, particularly the brutal forced separation of families.

The CRISAccess accessible smartphone audio tour provides visitors of varied abilities, including those who are unable to read due to blindness, low vision, dyslexia or other print challenges, with the opportunity to learn about the Stowe Center’s mission of literary social justice and activism.