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A History of Lobotomies in Rhode Island
5 months ago

A History of Lobotomies in Rhode Island

Charles Henry Gosselin had not yet turned two years old when the probate court of Providence committed him to the county orphanage in 1924. He spent his infancy there …
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A Survey of Rhode Island in 1789
6 months ago

A Survey of Rhode Island in 1789

[Note from the editor:  Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826) prepared surveys of each of the states of the new United States in the 1780s. He prepared one for Rhode Island in 1789; …
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Griffin Greene’s Water Pump Raises a Sunken British Warship in 1780
6 months ago

Griffin Greene’s Water Pump Raises a Sunken British Warship in 1780

Griffin Greene of Warwick was a mechanical genius, despite having little formal education. His most impressive achievement: he made a water pump that was used to raise a sunken British …
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Ensuring a Prolific Fishery—Early Rhode Island Efforts to Manage Freshwater Fisheries
6 months ago

Ensuring a Prolific Fishery—Early Rhode Island Efforts to Manage Freshwater Fisheries

The earliest efforts in Rhode Island at what we might call “fisheries management” occurred before the arrival of the first White settlers. The Blackstone River had an enormous run of …
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Quaker Expulsions in Portsmouth During the Revolutionary War
7 months ago

Quaker Expulsions in Portsmouth During the Revolutionary War

[Note from the editor: The Society of Friends, informally known as the Quakers, in the seventeenth century had a major influence in Rhode Island, particularly in Newport County—the towns of …
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Anti-Catholic Know-Nothingism in Rhode Island, 1854-1856
7 months ago

Anti-Catholic Know-Nothingism in Rhode Island, 1854-1856

[Note from the editor: The Know-Nothing Party, which became formally known as the American Party, made a splash in Rhode Island briefly from 1854 to 1856. Supporters of the Know …
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A Day in the Life: The Curious Rediscovery of Henry Bowen’s Day Book at the Providence City Archives
7 months ago

A Day in the Life: The Curious Rediscovery of Henry Bowen’s Day Book at the Providence City Archives

The Providence City Archives houses more than 24,000 cubic feet of archival material throughout the city, and only 75 percent of it has been accounted for thus far, so the …
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Why Captain Wallace Failed to Prevent the Revolutionary War
7 months ago

Why Captain Wallace Failed to Prevent the Revolutionary War

From December 1774 to March 1776, Captain James Wallace of the British Navy patrolled Narragansett Bay.  He had two objectives:  first, to minimize smuggling that evaded imperial custom duties; and …
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Barrington’s Nockum Hill, Oliver Cromwell, and the English Civil War: A Prelude to King Philip’s War
8 months ago

Barrington’s Nockum Hill, Oliver Cromwell, and the English Civil War: A Prelude to King Philip’s War

In the Barneyville Historic District of Swansea, Massachusetts, near Old Providence Road and the Palmer River, there is a granite monument erected in 1912 with a bronze plaque that reads …
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John Manley’s Bad Day in Newport in December 1776
8 months ago

John Manley’s Bad Day in Newport in December 1776

Most of this article is an inventory of the items that Newport merchant John Manley owned at the end of 1776 at his modest home in Newport on Touro Street, …
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