Random Stories
The Rhode Island Red Monument
Imagine a stereotypical small farm with a few chickens pecking around the yard, the sun shining on their bright red feathers. This image is close to the reality in Little Compton today, but for a few decades the town was the center of an…
Green Bush Tavern
The Green Bush Tavern (owned by Nathanial Paine) is believed to have been the oldest of the taverns in Old Barrington Village--predating the nearby Bowen and Kinnicutt taverns. In her book Stage-Coach and Tavern Days (1900) author A.M. Earle…
Adamsville Wayside Library
Adamsville had its very own library in the early 1920s. It was housed in the north room of Hattie and Eugene Shurtleff's house at the corner of Colebrook and Stone Church Roads. The Shurtleff's daughter Venetta (Nettie) ran the library.…
"Her Mother's Triumph"
In 1876, a well-dressed young lady in her early twenties joined Alexander Graham Bell on the stage of the old Providence Theatre. Bell, the noted teacher of vocal physiology and inventor of the telephone, had invited Jeanie Lippitt and her parents…
(Still) Waiting for Washington
“On the President’s landing, he was welcomed by a federal discharge of Cannon, and the Ringing of Bells. The Concourse of People was prodigious. The Procession was conducted with great Decorum, and exceeded anything of the Kind before exhibited in…
1861: Benjamin Brayton Knight Mansion
Providence's population grew at an extraordinary rate throughout the 19th Century, from about 50,000 in 1850 to 175,000 in 1900, driven by the region's ever-expanding industrial complex. Providence was at the heart of New England's…
Take a Tour
Smith Hill Neighborhood
10 Locations ~ Curated by Jennifer Wilson, Assistant Director of the Goff Center of Education at the Rhode Island Historical SocietyNamesakes and Gravesites at North Burial Ground
13 Locations ~ Curated by Rhode Island College Associate Professor of History Erik ChristiansenGuía de RI: Latinos en Rhode Island
5 Locations ~ Curated by Esta Gúia está basado en la Historia Latina de Rhode Island: Nuestras Raíces (History Press, 2014) escrito por Marta V. Martínez, así como las historias orales y visuales en www.nuestrasraicesri.org. Molly Kerker y Jane Lancaster contribuyeron a la investigación, el desarrollo de contenidos, y la edición. La traducción se realizó por Roxana Mercado.Telling (Her)Story: Women Designers in Rhode Island
16 Locations ~ Curated by Brown University students in "Telling Her Story: Women Designers in Rhode Island," Fall 2017Featured Stories
The Bell School
The Bell School was built in 1841 as a school for District No. 14, on the west side of the river. There was evidently some jealousy aroused in the other school districts when the residents of the Head of Westport decided to build so magnificent a…
The Battle of Rhode Island
During August 1778, Tiverton was the fulcrum on which the American Revolution teetered. From all over New England militiamen marched along dusty roads to rendezvous at the fort on Tiverton Heights.
From Gloucester, Newburyport, and Marblehead…
Adamsville Hill: A Rum Runner's Hideout
“Young man, if you don’t get out you’re going to end up with a little round hole in the middle of your forehead.”
The words were polite and calm, but ominous, spoken to a youthful group of summer people during a late night visit to Briggs Beach…
Rhode Tour
A project by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, the Rhode Island Historical Society and the Rhode Island Council for the HumanitiesRhode Tour is a statewide mobile historical smartphone application. Captivating places, intriguing people, and exciting events fill Rhode Island's history. Rhode Tour offers a new way to interact with these untold tales of the state's past. Using stories, sounds, and images, history comes alive on Rhode Tour.
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