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Rhode Island – General

Growing Up Italian in Providence in the 1940s
4 years ago

Growing Up Italian in Providence in the 1940s

Life holds a knapsack full of memories—all of them significant; many, if not most, are worth recording. Growing up in a neighborhood of family and friends was a journey to …
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Brown University Anti-war Students Join March on Washington, DC, May 1970
4 years ago

Brown University Anti-war Students Join March on Washington, DC, May 1970

I was just 18 years old, a college freshman, on May 4, 1970, when National Guardsmen in Ohio opened fire and killed four student protestors at Kent State University. Fifty …
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Rhode Island Glass Bottles: Curing What Ails You or Quack Medicine?
4 years ago

Rhode Island Glass Bottles: Curing What Ails You or Quack Medicine?

My fascination with antique glass bottles began when I was around ten years old. I was visiting a neighbor’s house that was built near an …
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The Theaters of Providence Part 2 – The Modern Era
5 years ago

The Theaters of Providence Part 2 – The Modern Era

Pleasure the means, the end virtue.[1]

Once upon a time, and in living memory, at least for some of us, there were a number of movie houses in the downtown …
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The Theaters of Providence, Part 1 – The Early Years
5 years ago

The Theaters of Providence, Part 1 – The Early Years

Pleasure the means, the end virtue.[1]

The theater in Providence has a long and rich history. Fledging attempts to establish a theatre in Providence go back to the late eighteenth …
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The Response to Epidemic Disease in Colonial Rhode Island
5 years ago

The Response to Epidemic Disease in Colonial Rhode Island

At the current time, informed by our shared experience with Covid-19, most Americans now have more than just a passing familiarity with how our government and health-care system responds to …
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LaSalle Academy at 150 – Still Going Strong
5 years ago

LaSalle Academy at 150 – Still Going Strong

LaSalle Academy, as most readers know, is a Catholic college preparatory school located in Providence. It began in 1871 as a result of discussions among Bishop Francis McFarland, Rev. Michael …
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Pawtucket in the Roaring Twenties:  My Story as a Kid
5 years ago

Pawtucket in the Roaring Twenties: My Story as a Kid

The Roaring Twenties started out leisurely.  The first couple of years were pretty slow, almost a recession although the country hadn’t really experienced anything it could recession from.  But things …
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Self-Determination in Rhode Island and Massachusetts
5 years ago

Self-Determination in Rhode Island and Massachusetts

A book review: The City State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630-1865. By Mark Peterson. Princeton University Press, 2019.

Once upon a time there was …
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A Fourth of July Salute to Congressman George O’Shaunessy
5 years ago

A Fourth of July Salute to Congressman George O’Shaunessy

Rhode Islanders have produced some of America’s greatest patriotic songs. Julia Ward Howe, who composed “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” a Civil War anthem, was descended from two Rhode …
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