Collections : [Bridgeport History Center, Bridgeport Public Library]

Within this collection are maps and blueprints related to various commercial and private properties managed by William W.B. Smith real estate. Of note are the commercial space plans for the Raybestos plant, Salt's Textile Mill, American Tube and Stamping Company, and the Underwood Corporation.

Writing as K.B. Gilden, Katya and Bert Gilden were Bridgeport based authors. Their novel >Hurry Sundown (later turned into a film of the same name) focuses on race and class in Georgia following the second World War, and their novel tween the Hills and the Sea is set in a lightly fictionalized Bridgeport and noted for its accuracy of union politics and life on the shop floor. This collection features both their individual papers, the creative process and finished works for their novels, short stories, and screen plays, and Katya's work following Bert's death, including the unpublished The Final Hearing: The Life of Lonnie McLucas, the Death of Alex Rackley.

Collection features interviews and digital media captured from the internet or digital files donated by three distinct, activist organizations in Bridgeport: Justice for Jayson, an organization formed in response to a police shooting; Bridgeport Generation Now, a nonpartisan, grassroots social action network focused on civic action; and P.T. Partners, a group of residents of the P.T. Barnum low income housing complex that organizes for self-determination and against racism and oppression.

Collected by the Bridgeport History Center over the years, the Civil War Collection is home to small ephemeral pieces of material, manuscripts that total 1 or 2 folders, and like material. The material within helps to document the experiences of Bridgeport residents during the war and their interest in the war after it concluded.

William Warren is best known for his various volumes that represent a comprehensive history of the 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. Within this collection are lectures he gave within his lifetime, research material used for both the lectures and for his regimental history, and additional photographs of regiment members, as well as secondary works.

As the son of Ira DeVer Warner, one of the key players in the Warner Corset Company, Ira Follett Warner was granted no small amount of wealth and privilege in his lifetime. These family films, some of them from as early as the 1920s when owning a home film camera was unusual, show Ira's branch of the Warner family on various vacations around the world.

This artificial collection contains various World War II materials that primarily focus on civilian action defending the home front. This includes material related to the Bridgeport War Council and actions of the Civilian Defense Warning Center, but also photographs and scrapbooks relating to these activities. There is some correspondence from Bridgeport Post staff serving overseas, as well as other information and documentation relating to the local community in the second World War.

The Kaplans were both graduates of Central High School, originally known as Bridgeport High School. Their collection focuses on school memorabilia including class histories and yearbooks.

One of the biggest manufacturers in Bridgeport, the Warner Corset Company,later the Warner Brothers Company, then Warnaco, was a major part of the city's industrial history. Starting with Dr. Warner's Health Corsets the company expanded, manufacturing corsets and then bras and other undergarments such as girdles, later branded as slimwear. The company left Bridgeport in the 1970s. It remained in existence until 2013, when it was bought out by PVH. This archival collection documents the early history of the company into the 1970s through family papers, corporate documents, daily operations, garment construction information, and extensive advertising material, all donated by Warnaco.

Reflecting the politics of the mid 2000s, this collection focusts on Connecticut public access television and the coverage of both national and local level politics. There is a particular emphasis on the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act, as well as local Bridgeport concerns.