If we didn't know any better, it would be easy to infer that Connecticut is known as the Constitution State because that's where the US Constitution was signed, or at least drafted. But in fact, as every quizzer should know, that document was signed in Philadelphia – which is in Pennsylvania. To be precise, it was "written and signed" (according to the Readers Digest) "on September 17, 1787, in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia."
Connecticut's own State Library explains: "As early as the 19th Century, John Fiske, a popular historian from Connecticut made the claim that the Fundamental Orders of 1638/1639 were the first written constitution in history."
The Library does point out that "Some contemporary historians dispute Fiske's analysis." But it also quotes Simeon E. Baldwin, a former Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, who stated that "the first planters of Connecticut" became the first "company of men" to meet "deliberately ... to frame a social compact for immediate use" and "prescribe rules and modes of government", when they "came together for their great work on January 14th, 1638–39."
That is the justification for Connecticut's official state nickname; the State Library reports that "Connecticut was designated the Constitution State by the General Assembly in 1959." But the Readers Digest endorses the Library's own admission that "historians still cannot agree over what really was the first written constitution in history."
The State Library goes on to give three alternative nicknames: "The Nutmeg State", "The Provisions State", and "The Land of Steady Habits".
© Haydn Thompson 2021