the Rhode Island Historical Society Notes and News

Transcription

1 the Rhode Island Historial Soiety Notes and News Fall / Winter 2011 in this issue: Main Street 1 Hear Ye, Hear ye 2 From the Colletions 3-4 RIHS Updates 5 Eduation 6 Happenings Insert

2 Main Street Board of Diretors President Roger N. Begin President Emeritus Robert J. Manning Board of Trustees Sylvia E. Brown Winifred E. Brownell, Ph.D. Nany K. Cassidy, Esq. William F. Connell Lyle S. Fain Robert G. Flanders, Jr., Esq. William M. Fowler, Jr., Ph.D. George M. Goodwin, Ph.D. Barbara K. Hart Barry G. Hittner, Esq. James P. Loring, CPA, CFA Kathryn B. Mandel, CPA Carolyn P. Medina, Esq. William S. Simmons, Ph.D. Theodore W. Smalletz Luther W. Spoehr, Ph.D. Dennis E. Stark Barbara J. Thornton, AIA C. June Tow Todd D. Turotte Laurie White Ex Offiio Thomas R. Evans EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR C. Morgan Grefe, Ph.D. Charmyne Goodfellow, Diretor of Finane Kirsten Hammerstrom, Diretor of Colletions Northern Division: Museum of Work & Culture Raymond Baon, Co-Diretor Anne Conway, Co-Diretor ALDRICH HOUSE 110 Benevolent Street Providene, Rhode Island PH: FAX: WEB: JOHN BROWN HOUSE MUSEUM 52 Power Street Providene, Rhode Island PH: LIBRARY 121 Hope Street Providene, Rhode Island PH: MUSEUM OF WORK & CULTURE 42 South Main Street Woonsoket, Rhode Island PH: FRONT COVER PHOTO Portable Compass / Sundial owned by Roger Williams. Brass, paper, Ink, wood. English Aession # Waistoat owned by Daniel Updike (Detail). Velvet, otton. English Aession # Both objets from the olletions of the Rhode Island Historial Soiety. Support the RIHS and Be Part of History The Rhode Island Historial Soiety is a nonprofit organization sustained by our many generous donors, members and volunteers. While we preserve the past, our members and donors ensure our future through membership fees, speial gifts, and donations. Rhode Island s history is the story of all the people who have lived here. We need your help to tell those stories. Membership Whether you join at the Basi Level or opt for a Lifetime Membership, your membership in the Rhode Island Historial Soiety supports our mission to ollet, preserve and share the Oean State s rih history. For more information please ontat Ms. Mary Lou Upham at , x33. How You Can Donate Cash Monetary donations are an important soure of operational support for the Soiety programs inluding researh and olletions, exhibits, eduational program support, equipment and staff development. In-kind gifts Donations of in-kind gifts may inlude equipment and/or materials to build or enhane exhibits, programs and speial events. Donations of servies are also a valuable way of ontributing to the Soiety. Let us disuss your in-kind gift with you. Stoks and Bonds Appreiated stoks or bonds make for a gift that benefits not only the Soiety but also benefits the giver with a signifiant tax advantage. Bequests Consult your estate planner to prepare the perfet gift for future generations of the Rhode Island Historial Soiety patrons. Life insurane Delare the Rhode Island Historial Soiety as a benefiiary on a new or existing poliy. This will ensure the Soiety s suess for generations to ome. For information on ways to give, please all the Development offie at , x33, or mlupham@rihs.org. All gifts are tax dedutible to the extent provided by law. The Aldrih House A National Histori Landmark An elegant setting for your speial event! Rih in elegane, the Aldrih House is the perfet setting for your unforgettable holiday party or memorable wedding reeption. Are you looking for a histori venue for your next business or lunheon meeting? The impressive Aldrih House, referred to by many as a hidden treasure, is loated on the beautiful and histori East Side of Providene. The Aldrih House offers a lovely sitting room and a reeption area that serves as a foyer entrane to an 800-square foot ballroom with Frenh doors leading to our beautifully landsaped grounds. A speial offer of a 20% disount is available to Rhode Island Historial Soiety Members or with a new membership of $50. 1

3 Hear Ye, Hear ye The Complexities of Remembrane by C. Morgan Grefe, Ph.D., Exeutive Diretor T en years ago I was exitedly starting to teah my first seminar at Brown. It was a small lass of just seventeen students, mostly freshmen, away from home for the first time and taking their first ollege seminar. With me. I was nervous about being responsible for one of their formative experienes at the shool, but the year was starting off well. On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, I was up and preparing for offie hours. I knew a few students already wanted to talk to me about their initial papers. But of ourse, as you might have already guessed, there were no offie hours that morning. Instead I made my way to 82 Waterman Street to sit with my fellow grad students and our professors as we wathed the horrors in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania unfold. Like many of you, I an remember everything I did that day. Here we are a deade later, and it seems both that 9/11 just happened and that it ourred a lifetime ago. Aross the nation, people are wondering, how should we remember this day? Is it a day of solemn remembrane or a elebration of the memory of loved ones? Or do we shy away from remembering beause the future feels too unertain? We will be asking these questions about 9/11 for a long time. But, it s not the first time these same questions have been asked and sometimes left unanswered. This year also begins the elebration of the Civil War Sesquientennial. One hundred and fifty years ago our nation was divided in a way that brought devastating suffering aross the ountry. When the war ended, it took time for people, many of them veterans, to deide how to remember and honor the war. In the North, we had Deoration Day, whih we now all Memorial Day. But what are we remembering? Certainly, none of us atually remember the Civil War, but Delaration of Independene 1,300 Come to JBH to View the Peoples Doument for many, the battles, stories, and artifats give meaning and purpose to lives in How did this happen? Who deided how to ommemorate these events? The Sesquientennial of the Civil War an overshadow easily the two-hundredth anniversary of another histori, yet less elebrated war: the War of Some historians have alled this the Seond Photo ourtesy of Coelynn MIninh War for Independene, others the first war over slavery, and even Ameria s first forgotten war. Whih is right? Does only one of these ideas have to be right or have we learned to aept that history offers multiple interpretations? And ertainly not to be forgotten this fall is the 375th anniversary of Roger Williams s establishment of Providene. This is not a simple elebration, either; it is a reognition of ultures oming together and all of the good and bad that ame along with it. It is a time for refletion and study, realizing that every time we return to the past, we see something new beause our vantage point has hanged. I m keeping a keen eye on how we remember 9/11 and how it ompares with how we ommemorate these other moments. In this new history, will we look for multiple perspetives or instead seek one national narrative? Are there a selet few designated as the keepers of this history, or are there many voies shaping the meaning of that day? Do we still need time to heal before that an happen? How muh time will that take? The Delaration of Independene Road Trip, a non-profit, nonpartisan projet, made one of its final stops on its 50-state tour here in Providene, Rhode Island on May 4th (Rhode Island s Independene Day!), one of the speial ities to host a rare, original opy of the Delaration of Independene. Produer Norman Lear aquired a Dunlap broadside of the Delaration in June 2000 with the goal of bringing the People s Doument diretly to Amerians espeially young people to inspire them to partiipate in ivi ativism, to exerise their rights, and above all, to vote! The Delaration was showased at the John Brown House, the premier 18th-entury house and museum in the state. The exhibit also featured viewings of an extraordinary 14-minute film, produed on July 4, 2001 at Independene Hall in Philadelphia, in whih a distinguished group of ators joined together for a powerful reading of the doument. Over 1300 people ame through the John Brown House Museum to view the doument whih is only one of 25 remaining opies of our nation s birth ertifiate. 2

4 New Aquisitions From the Colletions A Musi Mann Comes to Town As modern ataloging of the RIHS Printed Colletion ontinues, a wonderful olletion of tune books published from have been revealed. All four examples found so far are of a partiular size of 10 long by 5 high, and three of the four are bound in a thin wood. The most interesting tune book was printed in 1813 by H. Mann & Co. as their sole Providene musi imprint. The title page refers to his bookshops in Providene and Dedham, Mass., and this may show the struture of the family business. Herman Mann Sr. ( ) was a well-known printer of tune books, also alled songsters, based in Dedham. A musiian himself, Mann Sr. had purhased a set of musial type from Europe in 1804, whih made his servies highly sought after by New England omposers. While the father printed as H. Mann His namesake son printed under H. Mann & Co. After failing with a newspaper in Dedham, Mass., sometime in early 1813 Herman Mann, Jr. ( ) was probably sent to Providene to establish a printing and bookbinding business by his family of printers. This Rhode Island treasure was donated to the Soiety by C. F. Libbie in o Graphis The Graphis Inventory Projet began in 2007 with a generous anonymous donation and has ontinued under the three year IMLS grant, Museums for Ameria. The Projet is now in its seond year of the IMLS grant. The survey has moved forward to atalog, re-house and preserve all of the material that falls under the Graphis Colletion. To date, 7,466 atalog reords have been reated for previously hidden olletion items. These reords will be uploaded to the library s on-line atalog, NETOP, where researhers from around the world will be able to aess the desriptive information. Over 224,000 individual items have been ounted. Out of this, approximately 75% is photographi material. Prints, arhitetural drawings, maps, ephemera and audio-visual material are also part of the Graphis Colletion. Title: [Shoolboys standing near stuffed hippopotamus] Date: 1937? Photographer: Walter L. Beasley, fl Call number: Graphis B G. Portrait 32 RIHS Colletion (RHi X17 596)Date of Gift: Donor: W. Chesley Worthington The Inventory database provides the RIHS olletions staff with aess to previously unataloged material. This allows staff to make informed deisions on new aquisitions, set onservation and preservation priorities, apply for grants to re-house items using arhival enlosures and more fully proess large olletions. In addition, researhers an study newly unearthed material. o 43

5 Reent Aquisitions Wilson Jaobs remains a somewhat obsure figure, despite his jaunty appearane in this 1779 portrait. His plae of birth was probably Massahusetts, but by 1774, he is listed in the Rhode Island ensus, living in Providene with his wife, Mary, and several hildren. In May, 1776, he was part of the Independent Company of Light Artillery in Providene County, and issued equipment onsisting Wilson Jaobs (a /10/1805) of a gun, bayonet, and Oil on panel by unknown artist, artridge box. Presumably Gift of Ms. Pat Smillie. disenhanted with this short-lived loal militia and the tedium of infantry life, or anxious to seek a more ative role in the Amerian Revolution, on Marh 1782, Wilson Jaobs appears in a petition signed by Tristan Coffin and submitted to the Governor and Counil requesting a ommission as ommander of the shooner Reprisal, a privateer. The ommission was issued the same day. Jaobs returned to Providene after the war and was again ounted in the ensus of 1800, along with several more hildren. He is buried in Swan Point Cemetery with his wife, who died in Anna Eliza Carpenter (9/9/1848-6/29/1932). Oil on anvas by James Sullivan Linoln a Gift of Ms. Mary Arnold Snapp and Mr. John Benjamin Snapp in memory of William Arnold Spier 3rd. Miss Carpenter s father Joseph ommissioned this and other portraits now in the possession of the RIHS from loal painter James Sullivan Linoln. Of the numerous portraits reeived in this gift, this is the largest and one of the niest examples of hildren s portraiture in the Soiety s olletion. Linoln s deft use of gentle olor and the soft landsape bakground ombine to make a harming image of a hild. Of the several dozen portraits by Linoln already in the RIHS s olletions, only one, of Hadwen and Mary Eliza Draper, is of hildren. Miss Carpenter is a welome and lovely addition to the Soiety s portrait olletion. o RIHS Honors Longtime Trustee and Friend A dediation eremony was held at the John Brown House Museum on Thursday evening June 2 to honor William F. Connell, longtime Trustee and Friend of the Soiety. The Board and staff of the Soiety aknowledged Bill s 30 years of servie and ommitment to the Soiety by dediating the beautiful pergola at the John Brown House Museum that was ommissioned to be built over 100 years ago by prominent industrialist and banker Marsden J. Perry. After a wonderful dediation eremony, a plaque was hung on the pergola and the elebration ontinued with a hampagne toast and reeption. Bill was aompanied by his wife, Jaqueline and several friends and relatives. Connell of West Barrington, Mass., urrently serves on the Development ommittee. RIHS Partners with the Haffenreffer for Providene s 375th This fall, the RIHS partners with the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University to offer an exhibit and leture series ommemorating the 375th Anniversary of the founding of Providene by Roger Williams. Programs will be offered from September through November and are linked to the exhibition Customes, Manners, and Worships: Rhode Island Begins, opening Otober 18th at the Haffenreffer Museum. The Native peoples of Rhode Island made beautiful, useful and ingenious things, as did the English olonists who ame to this area in the 17th entury. Customes, Manners, and Worships: Rhode Island Begins showases some of the rare surviving artifats from that period - tools, art, lothing, and books. Roger Williams s ditionary of the Narragansett language helps us understand their meaning and use, and provides a glimpse into the lives and worldviews of these very different ultures on the usp of irrevoable hanges. 4

6 RIHS Updates Library News NEH Awards RIHS Library with $300K Grant Sine the last newsletter, there have been many hanges at the RIHS Library. Assistant Speial Colletions Librarian Jordan Goffin left for the Speial Colletions at Providene Publi Library in Marh, but in June, Katherine Chansky, formerly of the Shenetady County Historial Soiety, joined the staff as Speial Colletions Referene Librarian. In July, Speial Colletions Curator Karen Eberhart left to beome the Manusripts Proessing Arhivist in the Speial Colletions at Brown University. In July, the Library was awarded $300,000 by the National Endowment for the Humanities Sustaining Cultural Heritage Colletions Program. This award will help fund renovations and upgrades of the Library Building, inluding roof repairs, JBH Failities Report New, Greener HVAC System Weathers a Suessful First Year In June, 2010 the John Brown House Museum s geothermal system was offiially plaed in servie. A year later, we are happy to report that the system works as designed: that is, it dehumidifies and thus ools the house in summer, maintains a minimum relative humidity level in the winter, and saves energy and money throughout the year. Analyzing utility osts for the fisal year ending June 30, 2011 showed an overall savings of $2500 despite an inrease in eletrial use to run the two heat pumps and five irulator pumps, along with the larger air handling unit and motorized dut replaement windows, and a new geothermal-based HVAC system similar to the one installed at the John Brown House Museum last year. The system will use eight losed-loop wells, four eah on the north and south sides of the building, and areful measuring by the arhitet and staff members show that the small side yards will have just enough room to aommodate this projet. Inside, additional dutwork at the fourth floor level will equalize the temperature and humidity levels on the upper levels, improving onditions for olletions and staff members alike. This system would be the third use of geothermal systems for histori organizations in Rhode Island that we know of (Newport Historial Soiety s Brik Market was the first), but the first library in the state to make use of this tehnology. The ombination of energy and ost savings with benefits to olletions and environment make this projet even more important and meaningful to the Library staff. The projet has also reeived substantial support from the National Park Servie s Save Ameria s Treasures program and the Champlin Foundations of Rhode Island. dampers. Combined, these features use half as muh eletriity as the house used before the new system was installed, but this is offset by a dramati derease in natural gas use. Redued resoure use, redued energy osts, and inreased environmental ontrol: together, these fators make the new HVAC system at the John Brown House Museum a suess for the RIHS and for the long-term preservation of its olletions and failities. Work will begin soon on the final phase of renovations at the Museum as new addressable, wireless-based fire detetion and alarm system is installed. At the same time, existing light fixtures will be onverted to use as emergeny lighting, inreasing visitor and staff safety. When work on this phase is through, the major work needed to restore the house and make it a safer plae for people and olletions will be omplete. There s immense satisfation in that, for although it means the maintenane is only beginning, we know the foundation for any work to ome is solid. The Musi Fades Away Suessful 2011 Season Ends on a High Note Our ever popular Conerts under the Elms series one again delighted our attendees all summer and attendane was up over 17% from last year! Thanks to our very generous sponsors for their support of this annual summer tradition. For six straight glorious Thursday evenings, the lawn of the John Brown House was bustling with onert-goers enjoying refreshments along with eleti musial offerings of The Amerian Band, Duke Robillard Band, Pendragon, The Driftwoods, Atwater-Donnelly Trio and Greg Abate Jazz Quartet. Tune in early next year for our onert shedule. Our onerts are not just for RIHS members, but also are open to the publi, and hildren under 12 aompanied by an adult are free! 5

7 News from the Museum of Work and Culture A Proposed National Histori Park in the Blakstone Valley Sine 1986, The John H. Chafee Blakstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor has been preserving and telling the story of the birth of the Amerian Industrial Revolution along the ountry s Photo ourtesy of Woonsoket Call hardest working river. Sine then, thousands of visitors and students have ome to the Valley in both Rhode Island and Massahusetts to learn this national story. This fall, after 25 years of operation, the Corridor was due to sunset. However, the U.S. Congress has extended its life for one more year to allow time to onsider its permanent status as a National Histori Park. As the Museum begins its 15th year this Otober, we an look bak at a long, suessful partnership with the National Heritage Corridor. Over the years, the Corridor Commission provided a large portion of the neessary funds to reate the Museum. Sine then, it has ontinued its work by supporting the Museum s eduation and ultural programs. For example, the newly ompleted Going to Work Exhibit that tells the story of several ethni groups who settled in the Blakstone Valley in the 20th entury was largely supported by a grant from the Corridor Commission. For several years, the Museum s very popular Ranger Talks series has been enjoyed by hundreds of visitors on Sunday afternoons. Dozens of speakers shared their knowledge on topis ranging from the loal mill ulture to international uisine. Additionally, the Museum has served as an offiial Valley Visitor s Center, giving information to tourists from all over the world. Reently, a Speial Resoure Study Report has been ompleted by the National Park Servie to determine whether the resoures being evaluated meet the riteria as a unit of the National Park System. In Option 3, the Museum has been identified as one of the four gateway failities at key loations in the Blakstone River Valley. Rhode Island Historial Soiety s Exeutive Diretor Morgan Grefe and the Museum s Co-Diretors Anne Conway and Raymond Baon have attended several publi meetings, inluding a reent one with Seretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to express their support. In the following months, the US Congress will determine the future status of the Blakstone River Valley Corridor. Without a permanent national presene, the visibility and servies that the Museum of Work & Culture offers as a viable partner in the Blakstone Valley would be seriously diminished. We are more than eager to remain a vital part of the proposed National Histori Park. Stay tuned Eduation The RIHS Has Lost a Great Friend by C. Morgan Grefe, Ph.D., Exeutive Diretor On Monday, July 11, Dean Brue Donovan died. Over the last six years I have gotten to know Brue as a John Brown House Museum guide, a walking tour leader, and, I hope I an truthfully say, a friend. He was a man of quik wit, exquisite intellet and insatiable uriosity. He was a onstant hampion of the humanities and, perhaps more passionately and profoundly, of humanity. He was a joy to be around both personally and professionally, and he added more to the RIHS than I think I Dean Brue Donovan, Dalila Goulart - Eduation Coordinator ould ever state. We are a better organization for being able to have alled him a member and volunteer. There will not be a day when he is not remembered and he is not missed. In honor of him, I will always try to ask more questions, empathize more readily, and laugh more easily. It was an honor to have known him. RIHS Library Hosts Smith Hill Teens In July the Library hosted a tour and workshop for a group of teenagers from the Smith Hill Development Corporation s YouthRAP program who were developing a walking tour of Smith Street. Led by a National Parks Servie ranger based at the Roger Williams National Memorial, the teens worked all summer exploring loal arhives, interviewing neighborhood residents, and writing the text for a tour fousing on key loations and events along Smith Street. Library staff oahed the group on the basis of doing researh and introdued a variety of relevant historial materials inluding an 1803 map of Providene; arhitetural plans submitted for the onstrution of the State House, and an 1831 letter about the Snow Town riot, instigated by a small group of sailors, that took plae in the area of Charles and Gaspee Streets in September of that year. The tours, whih were offered on August 26 and 27, also highlighted the various groups of immigrants who hanged the fae of the Smith Hill neighborhood throughout the past 125 years. 6

8 110 Benevolent Street Providene, RI Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage Paid Providene, RI Permit No. 617 The 190 th Annual Meeting of the RIHS Wednesday, November 16, at 5:30 pm The Aldrih House, 110 Benevolent Street, Providene You are ordially invited to attend the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Rhode Island Historial Soiety. A reeption will immediately follow the onlusion of the business meeting and speaking program. All RIHS trustees, members, guests, and staff are invited to attend the meeting, program and reeption. The Annual Meeting is free and open to the publi. RSVP to mlupham@rihs.org or all x33 by November 4, This year, our guest speaker is renowned author and historian Gordon S. Wood, who reeived the 2010 National Humanities Medal. Honoring ahievements in history, literature, eduation, and ultural poliy, the medal was presented by President Barak Obama during a White House eremony on Wednesday, Marh 2, Wood reeived his B.A. degree from Tufts University and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He taught at Harvard and the University of Mihigan before joining the faulty at Brown in He is the author of the Creation of the Amerian Republi, (1969), whih won the Banroft Prize and the John H. Dunning Prize in 1970, and The Radialism of the Amerian Revolution (1992), whih won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize in The Amerianization of Benjamin Franklin (2004) was awarded the Julia Ward Howe Prize by the Boston Authors Club in His most reent books inlude Empire of Liberty: A Gordon S. Wood Professor Emeritus of History Brown University History of the Early Republi, and The Idea of Ameria: Refletions on the Birth of the United States. Professor Wood reviews in the New York Review of Books and The New Republi. He is a fellow of the Amerian Aademy of Arts and Sienes and the Amerian Philosophial Soiety.

9 Happenings Fall/Winter Returns: Calendar Warren Mills Projet Exhibit Museum of Work & Culture September 5 - Otober 30 Deborah Baronas, a multi-talented artist, presents the Warren Mill Projet, an aestheti blending of art and history aimed at raising knowledge and awareness of Warren s rih mill history. It presents the evoative artwork of the artist as well as researh by Doug Hinman to ommemorate this formative period and the girls, boys, women and men who worked in the Warren mills. For more information: WORK (9675) or aonway@rihs.org Walking Tour Dining with History with hef Cindy Salvato Wednesday, Otober 5, 4 6 p.m. Chef and entrepreneur, Cindy Salvato, will join Barbara Barnes, RIHS Tourism Servies Manager, to share stories of early Providene market plaes, 18th entury reipes and menus, and inside soops about the restaurant sene and farm to table offerings in the ity today. Tour begins at the John Brown House Museum and ends at Baaro Restaurant, 262 South Water Street, Providene. (Dinner at Baaro is optional and is purhased separately). Fee: $15/person To R.S.V.P.: Barbara Barnes, x62 or bbarnes@rihs.org. Reservations required (limit 22 people). (Reservations must be reeived no later than Wednesday, September 28.) Walking Tour Riverwalk: Before the Fires Are Lit Saturday, Otober 8, 5:30 6:30 p.m. The final Riverwalk of the season! Disover the winding history and ontinued importane of Providene s rivers. Urban outdoor sulpture and beautiful ivi and ommerial buildings of varied arhitetural styles provide the setting for stories of Providene s fabled past and dynami present. This 60-minute walk shares the history of Rhode Island s apital ity and the history of WaterFire. Tour departs from the John Brown House Museum. Fee: $10/person To R.S.V.P.: Barbara Barnes: x62 or bbarnes@rihs.org. Loations: ALDRICH HOUSE 110 Benevolent Street, Providene, RI JOHN BROWN HOUSE MUSEUM 52 Power Street, Providene, RI A Key into the Language of Ameria Thursday, Otober 13 at 7 p.m. Aldrih House Alaimed poet, translator, and publisher Rosmarie Waldrop reads seletions from A Key into the Language of Ameria, her poeti re-envisioning of Roger Williams 17th-entury book of the same name.* Free Contat: Elyssa Tardif, x45 or etardif@rihs.org Celebrations to Remember: A Look at How Providene Commemorated the Bientennial of 1886 and the Terentenary in 1936 Thursday, Otober 20, 5 9 p.m. John Brown House Museum Providene has a history of elebrating its past in style. This exhibit highlights images and artifats from the 1886 Bientennial and the 1936 Terentenary.* Free To R.S.V.P.: Elyssa Tardif at x45 or etardif@rihs.org The Jireh Bull House at Pettaquamsutt: Arhaeology of a Fortified House in Narragansett Country Wednesday, Otober 26, 6:30 8:00 p.m. Aldrih House On Deember 15, 1675, a party of Native Amerians attaked and burned Jireh Bull s house at Pettaquamsutt in South Kingstown, RI. Colin Porter, a Ph. D. andidate in the Department of Anthropology at Brown University, plaes the attak and ounterattak at the site in a long-term history of interultural engagements in the Narragansett Indian homeland.* Free & open to the publi To R.S.V.P.: libprograms@rihs.org, or , x12 Nipsahuk: A Plae of Ceremony and War during King Philip s War, Thursday, November 10 at 7 p.m. Aldrih House Paul Robinson, Ph.D., RI Historial Preservation & Heritage Commission and Doug Harris, Narragansett Tribal Histori Preservation Offie, disuss the important histori site of Nipsahuk in North Smithfield, RI.* Contat: Elyssa Tardif, x45 or etardif@rihs.org RIHS LIBRARY 121 Hope Street, Providene, RI MUSEUM OF WORK & CULTURE 42 South Main Street, Woonsoket, RI Walking Tour The Seret Life of War Memorials Saturday, November 12, 10 a.m. Freelane writer, photographer and filmmaker, Patti Cassidy shares her passion for publi sulpture and war memorials in partiular on this 90-minute walking tour. Tour departs from the John Brown House Museum. Fee: $10/person To R.S.V.P.: Barbara Barnes, x62 or bbarnes@rihs.org. Gallery Night Northern Hospitality: Cooking by the Book in New England Thursday, November 17 at 6:30 p.m. John Brown House Museum Whet your appetite for history and enjoy a omplimentary 18th-entury dessert - as Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald disuss the ulinary landsape of early New England. Free To R.S.V.P.: Elyssa Tardif at x45 or etardif@rihs.org Getting Started with Your Family History Saturday, November 19, 9:30 a.m noon RIHS Library Have you ever thought of researhing your family history but are not sure how to begin? In this presentation we will explore the basis of genealogy from filling out a pedigree hart to the types of reords used in genealogial researh. We ll also look at Internet searhing and how to develop searh strategies to help you begin to disover your anestors. Judy Luey is Arhivist and staff genealogist at the New England Histori Genealogial Soiety, speializing in Irish genealogy, Italian family researh and beginner genealogy. Fee: $15 / $10 Members To register, ontat: libprograms@rihs.org, or , x12 Holiday Open House Saturday, Deember 10, 2:00 p.m. Aldrih House The Aldrih House opens its doors with holiday entertainment to delight one and all. Featuring loal ator Robb Dimmik s dramati reading of A Christmas Carol and a live performane by the Conert Handbell Ringers of the Wheeler Shool. Invitations to follow. To R.S.V.P.: Colleen Callaghan, x34 or allaghan@rihs.org * Notes: Part of an exhibit and leture series o-sponsored by the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown elebrating the 375th Anniversary of the founding of Providene.