He's Some Dog: Stg. Stubby a WW1 Hero

Do you have a famous dog on your van? We do. Today Ashley, Matt, and Kym learn all about Sargent Stubby, the most decorated war dog of WWI and the only dog promoted to Sargent. Where was Stubby from you ask? Where else, Connecticut. Christine Pittsley, Museum Curator at the Museum of Connecticut History joins us on the pod to tell us about Sgt. Stubby, his owner, and the impact Stubby had not only in CT, but across the country and even in a few others! He was small, but he was also mighty!

Photos of Sgt. Stubby, the movie premiere, and the visit to France.

The Connecticut State Library. Preserving the Past to Inform the Future!

Transcript

Kym Powe (00:05)
Welcome to Under the Charter Oak, a podcast of the Connecticut State Library where we preserve the past to inform the future. My name is Kym Powe and I'm the Children and Young Adult Consultant

Ashley Sklar (00:15)
I'm Ashley Sklar, I'm the Adult Services and Community Engagement Consultant.

Matt Geeza (00:19)
I'm Matt Geeza I'm the director of the Middletown Library Service Center and the Connecticut Library for Accessible Books.

Kym Powe (00:25)
And we've got another visitor from the mothership up in Hartford. Do you want to introduce yourself?

Christine Pittsley (00:31)
Sure. I'm Christine Pittsley I am the Military and Special Projects Curator at the Museum.

Kym Powe (00:38)
That's so exciting. As a Navy brat, forever and ever when someone says the word military, I perk up and then proceed to not know what they're talking about. So, Christine, you may not know this, but here at Under the Charter Oak, we like to start our episodes talking about what we are currently reading. Is there anything that you're currently reading?

Christine Pittsley (01:05)
No, I just finished Valiant Ambition by Nathaniel Philbrick. That counts. But I haven't started my next read because there's just too much on my bookshelf.

Kym Powe (01:17)
Yeah, I just got a box of like four books just now. But what's it about? Tell us what's up.

Christine Pittsley (01:22)
George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and basically the story of the treason and all the things happening here in America during the Revolutionary period.

Kym Powe (01:34)
Is that because there is a certain special something sin quesamonquinonio coming up?

Christine Pittsley (01:41)
Yes, it's that, exactly.

Yeah, yeah, I'm kind of, I've got this Revolutionary War bent going right now. So, yes.

Kym Powe (01:52)
Respect. love it. Matt, you read war. Are you currently reading war?

Christine Pittsley (01:55)
I do.

Matt Geeza (01:58)
I believe it or not, am.

Ashley Sklar (02:00)
I knew it.

Matt Geeza (02:03)
I'm currently reading, reading the Wounded Generation by David Nasaw. This one is about World War II and it's about, you know, as veterans during the war started to come home, how were they, you know, processed? What was their experience like? And then of course, when the war ends too, what was that like? So it's, it's a very well researched book.

I think the author's father actually was a World War II veteran. So the author also has, you know, a little personal experience with this. But yeah, so it's kind of all encompassing looking at, you know, the treatment of veterans, everything from the GI Bill, but then also, what they called psychoneurosis or war neurosis was what we would now call PTS or post-traumatic stress. So how did they manage that? You know, both individually and what was the government and military society's view and attitudes towards that? 

Looking at also race and gender, what was the experience like for women who were veterans? What was it like for black veterans? Mexican-American, Japanese-Americans, some of these racial and ethnic groups also, of course, served in uniform in all of the different military branches during the Second World War. 

It’s not an easy read, I will say that, because of the wide-ranging experiences. But a really important work, I think, and very well researched from a historical perspective.

Kym Powe (03:31)
It’s awesome. Ashley? Any toddlers?

Ashley Sklar (03:35)
Shifting gears. Yeah, we're going straight to the picture book area over here. I am, we have been revisiting and rereading and rereading and rereading as one does with a toddler. The, I just learned the correct pronunciation of this, the Knuffle Bunny [crosstalk] trilogy. Well, I…

Kym Powe (03:54)
Who says the K?

Ashley Sklar (03:57)
Right! Well, one of the books in the series talks about is it Knuffle or is it Nuffle Bunny? Because it is spelled K-N-U-F-F-L-E. I, course, up until 30 minutes ago said Nuffle Bunny. But then in doing my little research to make sure I had all the titles right, it's Knuffle Bunny because it's actually from the Dutch and it means like to snuggle, which makes perfect sense because this is a children's, it's a trilogy. 

And it is the story of Trixie, who is actually the author, Mo Willem's daughter, and her little bunny, and this journey that they go on in each of these books to sort of lose each other and find each other and lose each other and find each other again, I think. Not to spoil it too much.

But they are these incredible books. Mo Willems is crazy talented. And so I've been rereading these. Now I've read them with my six-year-old once upon a time. And I'm now reading them with my almost three-year-old. And he just loves them. And so I've kind of rediscovered them again. And they're fantastic books, really fantastic illustrations as well, sort of mixing photographs and the drawings of Mo Willems. So very cool. Highly recommend.

I got turned on to Mo Willems by Kym, obviously.

Kym Powe (05:15)
Who apparently knows nothing 

Ashley Sklar (05:17)
She knows so much!

Kym Powe (05:15)
Because she can't pronounce [crosstalk] the books. But you know what? I also don't listen to the UNO people when they say there's no stacking. Sorry UNO, except I'm not sorry. I'm going to play that game however I want it. And now I know that now it is Knuffle Bunny, but I apologize because my brain probably is not saying that K. My brain's not.

Ashley Sklar (05:37)
I don’t know if mine ever will again.

Kym Powe (05:39)
But I do respect the correction. So I am reading, you normally I don't talk about advanced readers copies of books that I'm reading here, but too bad. So I'm reading the second Cemetery Boys book and I would pronounce the sub heading, but I don't want to sound like a silly goose because it's a Spanish word and Cemetery Boys Two by Aiden Thomas and it's really good. 

It picks up almost like right after the first Cemetery Boys book. the first one is about a character whose family does like magic like a brujo bruja magic. See I'm seeing all these Spanish words sounding like a confused person. And as a trans person the main character wants to, right, like be able to start to do the magic with the family, but he wants to do what the other men do. Like, his family is, while nice, like, still struggling to accept his identity. 

And while he's kind of like going out doing, trying to do magic stuff he's not supposed to do, he finds the ghost of a kid who goes to his school. But the kid does not remember how he died and just proceeds to just be hilariously obnoxious to the main character of the book following him around. Like, you gotta figure out how I died. You gotta go talk to my friends. You gotta go see my brother. It is absolutely hilarious, the two of them. But obviously, like, there's a lot going on here, as well as, right, this main character fighting for, you know, where he knows that he belongs in his, this family structure of, like, releasing spirits, right, which is ultimately what they're doing. 

So the second book takes place, it feels like it could literally be like three weeks after the first book. And I'm loving reading it. The publication date for it actually got pushed back a year and I was devastated for like two months. I know it's not your fault, Aiden. It's OK. Who's not listening to this podcast. But it was well worth the wait. 

And the second book continues to explore this basically like gendered magic in this community and sort of what gender means and do things have to happen the way that it has in the main characters family? They learn, right, that there are other families who sort of approach these things differently. And it's just, it's a really awesome story. And I feel like if I say anything else, I'm gonna spoiler the end of the first book, but if you haven't read it already, you're doing life wrong anyway. 

But yeah. That's an arc. Sorry, friends. It comes out, I don't know, September, October later, later this year, 2026. 

Ashley Sklar (08:27)
Now people will be excited.

Kym Powe (08:28)
As you should be. But that's not what we're here to talk about today. We're not here to talk about, well, are we here to talk about ghosts? Oh man, what a convoluted question that is. So let's back up. 

So we at the State Library have an outreach van, right? We love the van. We drive the van. The van has some stuff inside of it. But it's not about what's inside of the van today. It's about what's outside of the van. 

So the inside of the van is kind of like the state library, right? With the fake marble floors and the sky painted ceiling, yada yada. And the outside of the van, this is how I describe it to people, the outside of the van is kind of like Connecticut, right? There is a submarine on the outside. There is a chart- is it a charter oak? Is it an oak tree? I forgot.

There's an oak tree on the outside, charter oak, yada, yada, yada. There's pewter on the outside. And there's also, I think I missed something else, but there's also a picture of a dog. There is a dog on the outside of the van. And what is that dog's name? And can you tell us the significance of the dog, Christine? Because that's what we're here to talk about today.

Christine Pittsley (09:40)
That dog is Connecticut's absolute favorite, most special dog in the world, and his name was Stubby. Stubby was a mutt. Everybody says he was a Boston Terrier, but you know, he's more of a mutt. And he was a stray dog in New Haven in the summer of 1917. And that is at the same time that the Connecticut National Guard troops were camped over at Yale Field.

There were two camps, one for like the Hartford region troops and one for the New Haven. And this stray dog apparently came into the camp and J. Robert Conroy, a soldier from New Britain, who was in headquarters company of the first Connecticut infantry at the time, adopted him. And the story is that he became, you know, a beloved part of the 102nd infantry, which was the combination of the 1st Connecticut Regiment and the 2nd Connecticut Regiment. They were joined that summer in New Haven and became the 102nd, the 1st and the 2nd with nothing in between. And that became part of the 26th Division, which was a National Guard Division that fought during World War I. 

So what makes Stubby really special is he wasn't just a stray dog. He was smuggled over to France with the troops. And the story, and I think this is a bit apocryphal, was that they taught him how to salute with his paw. And so when he was discovered on the ship on the way over to France, he saluted the officer who let him stay. You know, that story, who knows if it's true.

Kym Powe (11:25)
It is. 

Ashley Sklar (11:27)
Verified.

Kym Powe (11:28)
I've decided.

Christine Pittsley (11:30)
It gets better from there. 

So Stubby ends up in France and, you know, they spend a winter training in the Vosges region, which is the mountainous region in, in South central France. And then they go up to more active regions. And at some point he gets gassed, mustard gas, chlorine gas, but it renders him very, very sensitive to the gas. So he knows when it's coming. So he's able to warn soldiers before an incoming gas attack, before they even know. 

And then April 20th was the Battle of Seicheprey. They're down in a region southeast of Paris, and he is in a town called Beaumont, which is just behind Seicheprey. And this is the very first German offensive against American troops during the war. And 3,500 German troops against about 600 Connecticut men in these frontline trenches. 

And this is where Stubby is wounded. Connecticut lost 81 men that day. It was a significant loss for the state. Middletown I think lost six or seven men. New Haven lost 16. And Stubby was there as part of it. And that's where he was wounded. He had a shrapnel wound to, I think it was his flank. I forget exactly where, you know, and his company rallied around him because at that point he was so beloved by the men of the 102nd. 

So he moves on, comes July of 1918. And if you'll, when you look at the picture that's on the van, he's got a vest on that's covered with medals. The story is that that vest was made by the women of Château-Thierry, which was a town in France where there was a battle, and he warned them of an incoming gas attack and saved these women. So they made this this chemise blanket for him. 

And from there, you know, he just kind of became a therapy dog, a war hero. The story is that he would go out and sit by the most grievously wounded soldiers after a battle so that the medics would know where to go. He apparently caught a German spy inside of a Connecticut camp and bit his butt to alert that there was this German spy. You know, he had all these antics that just really made him special to the troops.

When he came home in April of 1919, he marched in all of the parades. He ended up meeting three presidents. He had a medal pinned on him by General Pershing, who was the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces. He's a lifetime member of the American Legion and the Red Cross, American Red Cross. And when his human went to Georgetown, he became the Georgetown Hoya while he was there. 

And then when he passed, which was 100 years ago on March 16th, 1926, he was taxidermied. We're just going to say taxidermied. And he is now in the Museum of American History at the Smithsonian, right next to Cher Ami [crosstalk]. Yeah.

Matt Geeza (15:13)
Sorry, right next to who?

Christine Pittsley (15:14)
Cher Ami. That was the pigeon that saved the Lost Battalion.

Matt Geeza (15:19)
Mm, right.

Kym Powe (15:20)
Right. History. Pigeons.     


Matt Geeza (15:25)
So pigeons you may…

Kym Powe (15:26)
Notes. 

Matt Geeza (15:27)
…or may not know/

Kym Powe (15:28)
Notes on the foot.

Matt Geeza (15:30)
Carrier pigeons [crosstalk], messengers. yeah. Yeah. And also just for listeners. used during the First World War, Second World War too, as well.

Kym Powe (15:33)
Mm-hmm.

Christine Pittsley (15:41)
Yeah, mostly the first. There was no, you know, radio communications was definitely not what it was in World War II. [crosstalk] So, mean, Stubby is just, he is beloved. He had a vaudeville show here in Connecticut at Poli's. So we've got some, a great photo from one of the Poli's vaudeville posters [crosstalk]. You know, he was just, he was everywhere. He was so well loved in the state and is still the mascot of the 102nd.

Kym Powe (16:14)
Wow. I don't know why I know about Stubby. I really, can't tell you why I've heard of this little puppers. I don't remember who told me. I don't remember any of that, but I'm just wondering, do you, how sort of outside of military spaces, I'm wondering how well known do you think Stubby is today?

Christine Pittsley (16:41)
Very well known. [crosstalk] When he died, his obituary, the news was reported on the front page of every major newspaper in at least the United States. A few weeks after he died, the New York Times wrote a almost full page or half page obituary for him. He was beloved by everyone.

He was a cute dog who also was a war hero. And so when we started doing research for a film about Stubby, we found there are car washes named after him. There are several books, including a few kids books. He's kind of everywhere. Everybody seems to know about Stubby. 

April 20th he tends to pop up all over social media. Today, he'll be all over social media because it is the anniversary of his death. And he just, even outside of military circles, he seems to just be an iconic dog. One of those dogs whose story people love to hear about and love to share.

Kym Powe (17:50)
Move over Winnie the Pooh. We've got Stubby the dog. That's how I feel right now, even though I love Winnie the Pooh and I love Canada. It's just a joke. I don't know if you guys know that Winnie the Pooh is based off a real bear.

Matt Geeza (18:04)
Yes.

Ashley Sklar (18:04)
I did know that. But recently, only very, I feel like I read an article about it like maybe a year ago and I had not known before that.

Christine Pittsley (18:12)
Also based in World War I.

Kym Powe (18:14)
Right. I knew it was a war. I knew there was war. [crosstalk] Look at that. World War What? There were animals. there were apparently pigeons. 

Christine Pittsley (18:21)
Horses? War Horse?

Kym Powe (18:23)
My goodness. That's awesome. But we're excited. We're exciting, too. Connecticut, just like Canada. 

So that's really awesome. So and I imagine because of the apparently not just statewide, but like national notoriety about Stubby, that's why he is memorialized, as you said, right in movies and books stuffed animals, the outreach van which feels real random when you like throw it into that that grouping. 

I knew about the books because right that's what we do. We're book people but I was when we were talking previously before this I said I was scrolling on Tik-Tok because I'm a millennial and that's what I do, and saw that there was a Stubby cartoon that I had no idea existed and was absolutely shocked. What can you tell us about this? Like really well, like it's not even like you're looking at some, it's not like it's old, right? Like it was made in the eighties and now the right, colors are a little washed out. Like this, this could be on Netflix right now, like something that you pull up for your kids. Do you know anything about it?

Christine Pittsley (19:29)
I happen to know quite a bit about it. The movie came out in 2018. It was called Sergeant Stubby, An American Hero. The voice actors included Logan Lerman, who was in the original Percy Jackson movies, Helena Bonham Carter, and Gérard Depardieu. And it was produced by a group called Fun Academy Movie Studios.

The State Library was actually a partner in the movie. We are the State Library, the Connecticut State Library is listed in the credits, which is fantastic. And we did a lot of research for them. We provided historical photos of New Haven to help the animators kind of fill out what that looked like. We provided historical context around Stubby and his role within the 102nd. And we also kind of held a red carpet premiere on April 8th, 2018 in New Haven. We closed down a block of Temple Street around the Bowtie Cinemas. We had a giant National Guard recruiting bounce house and we had a tank from World War I. We had ambulance from World War I, we had reenactors in uniforms. We had the 102nd Infantry Band playing.

And we had all sorts of dignitaries there, including the grandson of Robert Conroy, who was Stubby's human, and lots and lots of enlisted and officers from the Connecticut National Guard. After the movie premiere, we had a couple theaters where we were screening it. We had a kind of fantastic reception with special drinks and stuffed animals and great stuff like that at the Omni. 

And I got surprised that day, my colleague Russell from the National Guard who worked on this whole event with me, we were told just before the screening that our names were included in the credits. [crosstalk] It was my one movie venture.

And it was really worthwhile. The film is fantastic. It's one of those films, it's a war film, but it's appropriate for a three-year-old because a three-year-old's not going to get the context of the war. They're going to see the story of the relationship between a dog and his human, where I had one officer of the National Guard who, after the premiere, said, you know, he's touching his eye and said, you know, my allergies were pretty bad in there.

Kym Powe (22:16)
Mm, yeah. I'm not crying, you are.

Christine Pittsley (22:20)
Yeah. It's as an adult, you can watch it and you understand some of the other contexts. And it was just really, really well made. And we were so excited to be a part of it.

Kym Powe (22:31)
Wow. Do we know, I feel like my brain is jumping all over the place in regards to Stubby. So do we know what happened? So, you know, we heard about, you know, he met a bunch of presidents and was out here living his best life. But I mean, I wonder what was his, he stay with J. Robert Conroy after, yeah?

Christine Pittsley (22:50)
He did, he did, he was very attached to Conroy and Conroy was very attached to him. I remember hearing a story that after Stubby had died, after he had been taxidermied, Conroy had him on a wheeled cart and one of the, it was a hotel I think that he was staying at, there was a fire alarm and the only thing Conroy took out with him was Stubby. So, you know, and he cared so much for him and understood the significance that Stubby had not only on his own life, but on the soldiers around him. That's why he was donated to the Smithsonian so that he could continue to inspire others through his story and be preserved. You know, lots of taxidermied animals just aren't remembered, but we get to remember Stubby.

Kym Powe (23:48)
It's just so weird thinking about it like that. Like, I get it. I get it. I understand why one does that, but you know.

Christine Pittsley (23:55)
Yeah. Well, when you go through a war like World War I, which was absolutely brutal, it was the first war where tanks were used, where submarines were airplanes. You know, this was a war with chemical weapons and, you know, farm boys from Connecticut going to a foreign country and facing all of these new technological advances in war. was it was devastating.

So to have a dog like Stubby, who we know what therapy dogs do for people today, especially for people suffering from PTSD, Stubby did the same thing. He just wasn't recognized at the time for it.

Kym Powe (24:39)
Alright.

Matt Geeza (24:40)
I was going to ask, were they able to articulate it at the time in that same way?

Christine Pittsley (24:44)
No, no. PTSD was called Neurysthenia, shell shock. And it was just something you didn't talk about. So Stubby in that way played a really important part for them because he was providing that sort of therapeutic relationship without ever anybody ever being able to articulate. And, you know, I think

I think it's really important for us to recognize Stubby for that, as well as just being the coolest dog ever.

Kym Powe (25:19)
I'm wondering, before Stubby moved to his new home in DC, did he spend any time at our museum here at the State Library or any public libraries or smaller museums? Do we know what his CT institution tour was like before he moved?

Christine Pittsley (25:42)
He lived in Connecticut with Conroy before the move to DC. After his death, after being deposited at the Smithsonian, he was here in Connecticut for, think it was about 20 years in the 80s and 90s. He was up at the Armory in Hartford, the Broad Street Armory. 

And I was just recently told last week that General Gay, who was, the adjutant general at the time is still cursing the day he ever let Stubby go. They joked they should have hidden him in the basement so the Smithsonian could have never gotten him back. And that's, I mean, it's a testament to how much he means to the Connecticut National Guard today.

Kym Powe (26:25)
Yeah, and I think that's what I was thinking, right? Like just sort of when you guys were talking about the support that Stubby was able to give soldiers, you know, during World War I. And I imagine that that appreciation carries to those enlisted and beyond today. And while it's super great and momentous that he's somewhere as, right, recognized as the Smithsonian, you know, I was wondering, I'm like, is anybody here kind of mad about that?

You know, because it's like, you guys get everything. We're the third smallest state. Let us keep this dog. So I'm I can't say that I'm surprised that there is someone who, you know, every once in a while at three a.m. is like, I should have hid him in my basement or something like that.

Christine Pittsley (27:11)
Yeah, so the nice thing is a couple years ago, my colleague Russ who worked on the film with me decided that the armory needed its own Stubby. So he contracted with an artist to come up with a model dog, same size as Stubby based off of photos from the Smithsonian.

And that, along with a mannequin that represents Robert Conroy, now stand in the armory right outside of the Adjutant General's office. [crosstalk]

And there might be another one coming. Another museum in the state may have also worked with this designer to get their own replica.

Kym Powe (27:52)
Is it like a centrally located museum? Like in a town that a lot of people have heard of?

Christine Pittsley (28:01)
It may be, it may have extensive military collections. And it's unlike the armory, which you know, not anybody can walk into this particular museum, anyone can come and visit. 

Ashley Sklar (28:15)
Open to everyone. We love that.

Kym Powe (28:18)
Well! Just, you know, I hope they send out a press release or something, so we all know.

Christine Pittsley (28:22)
I think that will probably be happening very, very soon.

Kym Powe (28:26)
Okay, well, I mean, I guess let's put our guess in a hat or something and we can pull them out later to see who's right. How exciting.

Christine Pittsley (28:37)
Yes, yeah, we, our museum, the Museum of Connecticut History can't really tell a military story without talking about Stubby. So he's plus, you know, I adore him and I'm the military curator. [crosstalk]

Kym Powe (28:55)
It's like, wanted it, I asked for it, and it's going to be mine soon. How sweet is that? Now, I know that at the, you know, we've had conversations with some other folks up in Hartford. I'm particularly thinking about Kevin, who does the reenactment of various famous soldiers here in Connecticut and how he takes some of that out on the road to do like outreach and education sort of right around these people and their contributions to the state and the items they left behind. Is there any educational opportunities that go out for Stubby from the State Library? I mean, Museum, Library too? It's all the same.

Christine Pittsley (29:38)
Not at this point in time. We did have a program back during the World War I centennial era that my colleague Patrick Smith was doing around Stubby. And we did do some work with Anne Bausum who wrote the two books on Stubby, both an adult version and a children's book. She had come and done some, she did some programming during the centenary. 

But we will be developing something around Stubby because I have a feeling Stubby will be a very, very popular stop when we have school groups coming in. So yeah, we're definitely gonna be doing some programming around him. Definitely some more social media. 

One of the fun things that I got to do after the movie premiere was taking Stubby to France with me. A few days after the premiere, I left for a three week trip to France, where I was following in the footsteps of the 102nd and was present in Seicheprey for the 100th anniversary of that battle. 

So I took a stuffed Stubby along and did the social media for the movie and the studio and have pictures with Stubby with all sorts of folks over in France. Everyone over there knows the story of Stubby as well. So, you know, they were, they were so happy to have their pictures taken with him, mayors of these small little villages. 

And then that November, we did a premiere of the film in French at a theater nearby Seicheprey. So he's not just a national treasure. He's also very beloved in at least France as well.

Kym Powe (31:16)
I never would have guessed. The stuff that we just don't know is absolutely insane. And now, I mean, I'm not going to France, but I'm going to a European country and I'll be like, you know what? In France, Connecticut's kind of famous. 

Christine Pittsley (31:31)
It is.

Kym Powe (31:31)
I'm just, that's gonna be my one claim to fame when I'm over in this random country that is not France. You might never have heard of Connecticut, but you know who have? The French.

How, it's because we're so small. That's absolutely amazing. 

And so the reason I asked is because I'm like, hmm, you know, I talked to a lot of folks in the schools. If all of a sudden, you know, letters from third graders started, you know, showing up at the state library demanding some Stubby education, but it seems like you guys are ahead of the game and it's, it's, know, potentially in the works or at least in the talks.

Christine Pittsley (32:07)
You know, we would love to have letters from third graders about Stubby. 

Kym Powe (32:11)
I’ll see what I can do.

Christine Pittsley (32:12)
We had during the 100th anniversary of the Seicheprey battle, no one in Seicheprey knew I was coming. So when I showed up there, I was stunned to see a whole wall of hand drawn pictures of Stubby by the school children of Seicheprey and the surrounding region. They also came together and wrote a letter in French to the library, or to the Smithsonian, you know, talking about their love of Stubby, their teacher helped them translate it into English. And I mean, that was, [crosstalk]. There's there are quarries where Connecticut soldiers lived in February and March of 1918. There are these underground limestone quarries that held a thousand men. And in one of those, there's a there's a shrine to Stubby. So there's a photo of Stubby, there's a stuffed Stubby now, there's candles, some little markers.

Kym Powe (33:11)
I'm gonna need Connecticut to step it up. I'm gonna need Connecticut to step it up. If I don't see at least like six letters and two shrines, then something will have gone terribly, terribly wrong.

Christine Pittsley (33:24)
So, I mean, you guys do work here in Middletown. You are aware Stubby is here in Middletown, right? [crosstalk]

There is Susan Bahary, who is a wonderful sculptress of international renown, actually installed a brass or a bronze statue of Stubby over at Veterans Memorial Park here in Middletown.

Ashley Sklar (33:46)
We clearly need a field trip, guys.

Kym Powe (33:48)
We don't leave this building often unless we're going to the Big Y next door. [crosstalk]

Ashley Sklar (33:52)
Now we need to.

Christine Pittsley (33:53)
Well, you know, the park's not far, so yeah. Field trip. So yes, there is, one of her sculptures is here in Middletown and another is at the American Museum of the Dog in New York City.

Kym Powe (34:11)
Learn something new every day. [crosstalk] Wow. No, I had no idea. I want to lie and say, of course I knew. Of course. Don't you see me full of Stubby knowledge? But that's not true.

Christine Pittsley (34:23)
We have a lot of great stuff here in Connecticut, so you can't know of everything.

Kym Powe (34:27)
That is very true. 

Ashley Sklar (34: 28)
That’s very kind.

Kym Powe (34:29)
Yeah. No, but it's also true, you know, when you're when you're one of the states that's like the oldest, you know, like there's just going to be stuff, which is quite frankly, the only way that I can that I can put it. There, there is just stuff everywhere. We haven't even talked about Connecticut's dinosaur because apparently we got one of those too [crosstalk]. Dileppa, Dilfus, or Dilfus.

Ashley Sklar (34:55)
Oh, I'm not going to try.

Christine Pittsley (34:55)
We have our own dinosaur? Yeah. I mean, I know we have tracks.

Kym Powe (34:58)
No, yeah, it's a whole thing. It's a whole thing.

Christine Pittsley (35:01)
See? You learn something new every day. That's the beauty of education.

Kym Powe (35:05)
Absolutely, absolutely. Is there anything else you wanted to educate us on about Stubby? Because quite frankly, I could sit here and listen to conversation about him all day. And also, I'm going to give you the heads up. We're going to need some of those photos that you talked about from your trip to France for us to add to the show notes. And I think we're going to add some of those book titles as well, because especially now that we, cough, cough, suspected another Stubby, cough, cough, might be showing up somewhere nearby, I'm sure there are a lot of people who are gonna wanna educate themselves about him if they don't already know about him, or like brush up on their education if they feel like they've gotten a bit rusty.

Ashley Sklar (35:46)
Yeah. And wish him a happy birthday.

Kym Powe (35:48)
And wish him happy birthday!

Christine Pittsley (35:49)
Is it really a birthday?

Ashley Sklar (35:51)
No, I guess it’s not, is it?

Kym Powe (35:53)
R-I-P day.

Christine Pittsley (35:55)
It's a celebration day. 

Kym Powe (35:57)
Home going.

Christine Pittsley (35:57)
Oh! There is one other thing. So I'm not sure. We put in a proclamation to the Governor's office and I have not heard if that has come to fruition today. However, I do believe that Senator Blumenthal will be reading the proclamation about Stubby's death into the congressional record today.

Kym Powe (36:21)
Oh my goodness, all right. Well, if we can find anything about that, I think we're gonna add that to the show notes as well because we are recording it on Stubby's RIP home going day. [crosstalk] But yeah, mean, that's amazing. That'll give us time to put some of this stuff together. That would be so amazing, especially for a being who has had such a vast and deep impact on not one, but at a minimum of two countries and hundreds, potentially hundreds and thousands of people.

Christine Pittsley (37:00)
Yeah, yeah. You know, and he's it's even not just the, the 102nd. Connecticut is, Connecticut National Guard is the only guard unit to have a canine unit within the National Guard system. And they're based in Newtown and they love Stubby as well. He's sort of their mascot. I think they have like a plaque of him or something commemorating him down at the, their yards. So he's just…

Kym Powe (37:29)
Beloved

Christine Pittsley (37:29)
Yeah, I mean, he is beloved.

Kym Powe (37:32)
Oh my goodness gracious. I mean, you drove here in a random rainstorm that came out of nowhere bearing stuffed, stuffy, Stubby gifts so that we could have a piece of him not just in the town of Middletown, but also here in our building. And I don't know about Matt and Ashley, but I could not thank you more. 

This is a lovely way to perk up a rainy potential start to spring. Who knows? It might snow again in four days. I just don't know. Guys, we live here. We gotta accept it for what it is. I still blame the groundhog. 

But thank you so much for coming out here and telling us about Stubby. Matt and Ashley and I were talking about it and we're like, I don't think we know anything about this dog. And now we do and it's so exciting. I gotta watch the cartoon screening screening of the cartoon in the meeting room

Ashley Sklar (38:30)
Yes, please, yes, please. It's a perfect movie day.

Kym Powe (38:33)
Oh my gosh, it is. This is what happens when you leave us here in this building to do what we want. 

Thank you so much, Christine, for sharing your knowledge and an obvious admiration of Stubby. I'm going to tell my dad when I get home. 

Christine Pittsley (38:46)
Awesome.

Kym Powe (38:47)
All right. Thank you for joining us under the Charter Oak, a podcast of the Connecticut State Library, where we preserve the past to inform the future.