As of 2000, Connecticut's 194,000 public libraries held 14,238,000 volumes and had a combined circulation of 27,948,000. The leading public library is the Connecticut State Library (Hartford), which houses about 1,015,463 bound volumes and over 2,451 periodicals as well as the official state historical museum. Connecticut's most distinguished academic collection is the Yale University library system (over nine million volumes), headed by the Sterling Memorial Library and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Special depositories include the Hartford Seminary Foundation's impressive material on Christian-Muslim relations; the Connecticut Historical Society's especially strong collection of materials pertaining to state history and New England genealogy; the Trinity College Library's collection of church documents; the Indian Museum in Old Mystic; the maritime history collections in the Submarine Library at the US Navy submarine base in Groton; and the G. W. Blunt White Library at Mystic Seaport. Total income for the public library system amounted to $137,326,000 in 2000, including $961,282 in federal grants and $2,197,216 in state grants. Libraries spent 68.8% of their income on staff, and 13.8% on collections.
Connecticut has more than 162 museums, in addition to its historic sites. The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale includes an impressive dinosaur hall. Botanical gardens include Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, Elizabeth Park in West Hartford, and Hamilton Park Rose Garden in Waterbury. Connecticut's historical sites include the Henry Whitfield House in Guilford (1639), said to be the oldest stone house in the US; the Webb House in Wethersfield, where George Washington met with the Comte de Rochambeau in 1781 to plan military strategy against the British; Noah Webster's birthplace in West Hartford; and the Jonathan Trumbull House in Lebanon.