The Danbury Museum and Historical Society occupies a complex of historic buildings on Main Street including the 1785 John Rider House and a Victorian-era carriage house. The museum's primary focus is Danbury's extraordinary hat industry, which at its peak in the early 20th century employed a third of the city's workforce and produced around 25 percent of all hats made in the United States.
The exhibits trace the full arc of the industry from colonial hatters working by hand through the industrial scale operations that made Danbury the Hat City of the World — a boast commemorated in electric signs and monuments around town. The mercury poisoning that plagued workers gets honest treatment, as does the decline of hat wearing after the 1950s that hollowed out the local economy. A well-curated local history museum that earns its visit.