History is not our past; it is our foundation. We are still moving toward the full promise of “all” people—from indigenous nations to those seeking and being granted citizenship today. Inclusive history is not optional; it is essential truth-telling.
WPAA-TV is committed to making visible, evident, and relevant the importance of people and place in our collective history. Through rigorous, inclusive scholarship and community engagement, we intend to explore Wallingford’s transformative impact on the United States of America—not as a triumphalist narrative, but as a foundation for understanding who we are and who we aspire to become.
Our Approach: Doing History
While national America250 initiatives have increasingly focused on the Revolutionary period and a narrower commemorative frame, the Connecticut Commission takes a different path. We embrace CT250 as our designation because we reject the oversimplified narratives—particularly the triumphalist “Manifest Destiny” framing that has been injected into the national effort.
“Doing History” means understanding not just what happened, but why—what motivated people, what trade-offs they navigated, what complexities they lived within. It means asking harder questions and embracing uncomfortable answers. This work has been underway for over two years, guided by committees and commissions thoughtful enough to recognize that our 250-year story cannot be told in a single frame.
Connecticut’s Story: Complex Individuals, Shared Purpose
There were five signers of the Declaration of Independence from Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, and William Ellery Channing. Two signers had a connection to New Haven County—Roger Sherman and Lyman Hall, a Wallingford native son who represented Georgia. Each held significantly different values, yet both came together around the greater mission of the United States of America. This is not a story of perfect unity, but of diverse people negotiating shared purpose across genuine differences. The outcome was a founding document with an inherent contradiction between the ideal of universal equality and the reality of widespread enslavement.
This model speaks directly to our moment. Understanding how historical figures with conflicting beliefs still found common ground offers us more than nostalgia; it offers us a blueprint. But the blueprint enabled silence to condone the practice of slavery. The original draft contained a condemnation of King George III for perpetuating the Transatlantic Slave Trade. This powerful passage was removed by the Continental Congress to secure a unanimous vote for independence, with delegates from both northern and southern colonies objecting. Lyman Hall was among those solidifying the normalization of slavery at the birth of our nation.
Local Focus: Moses Yale Beach Revealed
Our most concentrated local effort centers on Wallingford native son, Moses Yale Beach (MYB), a figure whose historical importance has been reduced to footnotes. Beach’s life reveals the distinction between entrepreneurial ambition and imperialist ideology—a distinction that reshapes how we understand America’s westward expansion. He exemplified the entrepreneurial spirit of Antebellum America and the moral complexity of ‘the other’. The marginalizing groups of people as fundamentally different and inferior to the dominance of white men. Mr. Beach financed the Wallingford battalion of Civil War soldiers (1861), but had previously been challeged as Editor of The Sun about the rights of African-American.
Does the Sun really shine for all people? — Willis A Hodges (1846 Letter to the Editor)
Who was Moses Yale Beach?
- Founder of the Associated Press (AP) with New York Editors interested in efficient gathering of Mexican-American War News
- Pioneer of syndicated news distribution
- Innovator in marketing concepts, including his compendium, Wealthy Citizens of New York
- Inventor of the rag-cutting machine and gunpowder engine
His Historical Significance: Beach was indirectly influential in spreading Manifest Destiny ideology, but his motivations differed fundamentally from the imperialist views and justifications of President Polk. Beach was interested in the inevitable benefits of westward expansion—particularly the commercial and entrepreneurial opportunities it presented. He was not, however, fully invested in the imperial conquest narrative that dominated political discourse of his era.
Notably, the term “Manifest Destiny” itself was coined by a female journalist, Jane Maria Eliza Cazneau, who wrote for The Sun, where Beach served as editor. This detail—often overlooked—complicates our understanding of who shaped America’s ideological direction and how.
Why MYB Matters: Moses Yale Beach demonstrates that American history is not a binary of heroes and villains, but a complex landscape of individuals with mixed motives, partial commitments, and human contradictions. By lifting Beach from footnote to fully-realized historical figure, we see a more honest America—one still worth understanding and learning from.
How We Bring “Doing History” to Our Community
America250 Stories: Supper Series
History lives in people. To honor this truth, we are hosting America250 Stories, a six-month supper series running from February through June 2026. On the fourth Monday of each month, community members gather to share a meal and record facilitated conversations about local and family history.
The Format: Held from 6:00–7:30 pm, each gathering includes soup and beverages provided, with community members invited to bring a dish to share. Participants join facilitated story sessions that are recorded for our growing archive of local memory and lived experience. Drop-ins are welcome; advance registration is encouraged at reserve@wpaa.tv.
The Themes: Over six months, we explore history through different lenses:
- Americana: “What America means in my family,” family stories of service, holiday traditions, and dreams realized
- Family & Community History: Earliest family stories, ancestral origins, neighborhood transformation, and traditions passed down
- Local History Connection: Witnessed change, vanished places and buildings, and how our own work connects to the past
- Living History: Firsthand memories of historical moments, the oldest voices in our families, and how trade and craft link us to generations before
Why This Matters: America250 Stories embodies “doing history” by centering the people who actually lived it. We are not asking you to know academic history; we are asking you to remember and share your own. These conversations become the historical record—the stories that textbooks often miss, the details that make history human and real.
Each session builds a shared archive of community memory, proving that history is not something that happened “back then.” It is the accumulated experience of people like you, still being lived and still being made.
Why This Matters Today
Truth-telling in American history is not political, but it is challenging for some hearing it from alternate perspectives. As we mark 250 years, we have a choice: to celebrate a simplified past, or to understand a complex foundation. Connecticut chooses the latter.
The committees and commissions across the nation planning for America250 represent diverse approaches. Many, prior to recent political shifts, were leaning into the value of history throughout 250 years—not just the Revolutionary period. That broader, more inclusive vision remains our commitment.
We will continue to explore history as something of genuine value—not because it flatters us, but because it grounds us. We do this work for a nation still becoming, still learning to mean “all” people.
You can be part of this work. While we would love to share stories on the fourth Monday of the month from January to June, we have much more to discover and reveal about the role of Wallingford in the larger story of America. Contact us via email at myb@wpaa.tv