05/28/2026
Aetna’s roots in Connecticut were established in the early 19th century, although the company dates its official incorporation on May 28, 1853, when Eliphalet Bulkeley became president of the Aetna Life Insurance Company. Headquartered in Hartford for its entire existence, Aetna was one of the most prominent companies that proved Hartford lived up to its name as The Insurance Capital of the World.
Quickly expanding its coverage beyond Hartford, Aetna changed with the times, offering policies for fire, life, health, home, accident, workman’s compensation, disability, and automobiles. It provided insurance for such notable disasters as the 1871 Chicago Fire, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and persons who perished in the 1912 sinking of the Titanic. In 1931 Aetna bonded the construction of Hoover Dam and in 1944 it provided insurance for the Manhattan Project, which produced the world’s first atomic bomb.
The company’s most notable president, from 1879 to his death in 1922, was Morgan G. Bulkeley, son of Eliphalet, who in his illustrious career was the first president of the National Baseball League and an inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame, mayor of Hartford (1880-1888), Governor of Connecticut (1889-1893) and U.S. Senator (1905-1911).
Aetna established its home office in 1867 at 670 Main Street in Hartford and added 650 Main Street as its headquarters in 1888. In 1931 it moved to its current location, an imposing Colonial Revival building at 151 Farmington Avenue.
In the 1980s Aetna responded to the AIDS Crisis, and in 2000, the now global company narrowed its focus to health and group benefits. Also in 2000, the company released an apology for its practice in the 1850s of insuring the lives of enslaved persons with the policies benefiting the enslavers.
In November 2018, Aetna was acquired by CVS Health. In 2019 the company donated many of its historical records to the UConn Archives & Special Collections and the Connecticut State Library.
This poster is from one of its 1920s ad campaigns that used the illustration work of noted commercial artist and cartoonist Charles Forbell (1884-1946), who penned the early 20th century cartoon “Naughty Pete.”
