Hartford, city in Connecticut and capital of the state. It is located in Hartford County, situated at the head of navigation on the west bank of the Connecticut River in the north central part of the state. Hartford is a financial, commercial, and service-oriented city, noted since the 1790s as one of the chief centers of the insurance business in the United States. Manufactures include aerospace equipment, industrial machinery, and firearms. Air transportation is through Bradley International Airport.

Among the landmarks of Hartford are the Old State House (1796), a fine example of the Federal style of architecture designed by Charles Bulfinch; the State Capitol (1879), which has in its historic collections the tombstone of Israel Putnam, a general in the American Revolution (1775-1783); and the homes of the writers Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Other points of interest are the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, opened in 1844 and considered the nation’s oldest public art museum; Real Art Ways, an art gallery which also emphasizes performing arts; and Elizabeth Park, noted for its many varieties of roses.

Hartford is home to a symphony orchestra, ballet company, opera, and theater. The city is the seat of Trinity College (1823), Hartford College for Women (1939), Hartford Graduate Center (1955), and Hartford Seminary (1834); the University of Hartford (1877) is in nearby West Hartford. The Hartford Courant, established in 1764, is one of the country’s oldest newspapers.

Long inhabited by Native Americans of the Sicaog people, the area was first visited by Europeans when Adriaen Block, a Dutch navigator, explored the Connecticut River in 1614. In 1633 the Dutch established the House of Hope, a trading post and fort. The first English settlement was founded in 1635 by John Steele and a band of companions; in 1636 the Reverend Thomas Hooker and his assistant, Samuel Stone, came with most of their congregation from New Towne (now Cambridge, Massachusetts). The following year the settlement was named Hartford for Hertford, England, Stone’s birthplace.

In 1639 Hartford became part of Connecticut Colony, governed under the Fundamental Orders, sometimes regarded as the first written constitution. King Charles II of England granted the colony a charter in 1662, and the capital was located in Hartford; from 1701 until 1875 both Hartford and New Haven served as the joint seats of Connecticut’s government. In 1687 Sir Edmund Andros, the newly appointed governor of New England, attempted to obtain the colony’s charter. Refusing to defer to the authority of Andros, the enterprising colonists, led by Captain Joseph Wadsworth, are said to have hidden the document in an oak tree. The tree (called the Charter Oak) was blown down in 1856; the site is marked by a plaque.

Hartford served as a vital supply depot during the American Revolution. It was incorporated as a city in 1784. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Hartford (or Connecticut) Wits, a group of conservative Federalist Party writers, flourished here. From 1814 to 1815 the city was the scene of the Hartford Convention, called by Federalist Party leaders to protest the policies of President James Madison in the War of 1812 (1812-1815).

During the early 19th century Hartford’s industries introduced a number of products to the American public; these included dental gold (1812), the revolver (1836), oilcloth (1837), and machine-made watches (1838). Hartford’s insurance business, dating from 1794, began to flourish with the introduction of life insurance underwriting in the mid-19th century. Late in the 19th century the city enjoyed a period of rapid economic growth. The poet Wallace Stevens lived in Hartford and worked in its insurance business until his death in 1955. In the 1980s and early 1990s the city’s economy was in transition due to consolidation of the insurance industry and a decline in manufacturing employment as a result of cuts in defense spending.

Hartford covers a land area of 45 sq km (17 sq mi), with a mean elevation of 12 m (38 ft). According to the 2000 census, blacks are 38.1 percent of the population, whites 27.7 percent, Asians 1.6 percent, Native Americans 0.5 percent, and Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders 0.1 percent. The remainder are of mixed heritage or did not report race. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 40.5 percent of the people. Population 136,392 (1980); 139,739 (1990); 121,578 (2000); 124,397 (2005 estimate).