Image

Latest Posts

Top Ten Rhode Islanders from the Eighteenth Century
10 years ago

Top Ten Rhode Islanders from the Eighteenth Century

Here is my list of the top ten Rhode Islanders from the eighteenth century. My list is not in any particular order. And I found it necessary to include eleven!


Read More

A French Officer Seeks to Rebuild Aquidneck Island’s Revolutionary War Fortifications
10 years ago

A French Officer Seeks to Rebuild Aquidneck Island’s Revolutionary War Fortifications

Rhode Island’s fortifications were in a state of disrepair by the end of the Revolutionary War. The Rhode Island Assembly ordered, in October 1784, that the works on Goat Island …
Read More

The End of School Segregation in Rhode Island
10 years ago

The End of School Segregation in Rhode Island

No doubt about it, in the decades leading up to the Civil War, a small, but dedicated group of African-American activists, including George Downing of Newport and Ichabod Northup, Ransom …
Read More

Filibuster, Fisticuffs and a Bomb:  The Battle for the 1924 Rhode Island Senate
10 years ago

Filibuster, Fisticuffs and a Bomb: The Battle for the 1924 Rhode Island Senate

It was, the Providence News reported in its May 13, 1924, edition, “[t]he greatest political battle in the State of Rhode Island since the Dorr Rebellion.” Not surprisingly, …
Read More

Pookie the Dog: A Life of Leisure and Regality
10 years ago

Pookie the Dog: A Life of Leisure and Regality

Nobody seemed to know exactly where and when she died, but on a chilly Saturday, April 12, 1952, a day before Easter Sunday, the death was officially announced by the …
Read More

Ebenezer Knight Dexter: An Enduring Legacy to the People of Providence
10 years ago

Ebenezer Knight Dexter: An Enduring Legacy to the People of Providence

By  •  Biography

Virtually every major city throughout the United States and perhaps even the world celebrates the lives of prominent citizens and the aftermath of extraordinary events through the placement and dedication …
Read More

July 19, the Real Rhode Island Independence Day
10 years ago

July 19, the Real Rhode Island Independence Day

From 1974 to mid-1977 when I served as volunteer chairman of the Rhode Island commission to celebrate American independence (ri 76) one thorny issue involved the correction of the long-held …
Read More

Sissieretta Jones, Providence’s Famous Soprano
10 years ago

Sissieretta Jones, Providence’s Famous Soprano

When young Matilda Sissieretta Joyner stepped onto the stage at Providence’s Pond Street Baptist Church in the early 1880s and began to sing, no one in the church hall could …
Read More

A Connecticut WAVE at Quonset Point
10 years ago

A Connecticut WAVE at Quonset Point

[From the Editor: This wonderful narrative was one of the results of my requesting readers to put me in touch with surviving World War II veterans or civilians who worked …
Read More

Building the Replicas of Revolutionary War Ships Rose and Providence
10 years ago

Building the Replicas of Revolutionary War Ships Rose and Providence

Here is a brief account of the historical significance of the warships Rose and Providence during the Revolutionary War. Late in 1774, the British sent the 24-gun frigate Rose, under …
Read More