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The Remarkable Career of Everlin Smith, Jailkeeper
5 years ago

The Remarkable Career of Everlin Smith, Jailkeeper

By  •  Crime, Women

One of the most remarkable women in the state’s history lived and worked in East Greenwich. In fact, she spent her childhood at the Second Kent County Jail and died …
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The 1902 Streetcar Strike Roils Pawtucket
5 years ago

The 1902 Streetcar Strike Roils Pawtucket

Rhode Island once had a mass transit system that crisscrossed the state. Workers took horsecars and electric streetcars from their tenements to the mills and factories during the week. On …
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Edward Mitchell Bannister and Christiana (Babcock) Bannister: Rhode Island’s African-American Power Couple
5 years ago

Edward Mitchell Bannister and Christiana (Babcock) Bannister: Rhode Island’s African-American Power Couple

Edward Mitchell Bannister, one of Rhode Island’s foremost artists, was born in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada in 1828. His father William came from Barbados in the West Indies; his …
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The Perry Family’s Connections to Bristol and The Bristol Black Ships Festival
5 years ago

The Perry Family’s Connections to Bristol and The Bristol Black Ships Festival

Today, August 9, 2019, marks the second Black Ships event held in Bristol by the Japan-America Society and Black Ships Festival of Rhode Island, Inc.  This event is a …
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Seth Luther, Union Firebrand Who Railed Against Children Working in Mills
5 years ago

Seth Luther, Union Firebrand Who Railed Against Children Working in Mills

Seth Luther was one of the most memorable figures in the early days of unionism in Rhode Island. When he died in 1863, a Providence Journal obituary said that he …
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The Lightships of Rhode Island, 1853-1962
5 years ago

The Lightships of Rhode Island, 1853-1962

The use of lightships as navigation aids began in England with the shipping of coal from Newcastle to London. With disturbing frequency, ships foundered on the rocks and shoals at …
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The Conspiracy to Destroy the Gaspee
5 years ago

The Conspiracy to Destroy the Gaspee

With but few exceptions,[1] it has usually been surmised by historians that the 1772 attack on the Royal Navy schooner Gaspee was a spontaneous response to the accidental grounding of …
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A School Teacher’s Life on Prudence Island in the Early 1900s
5 years ago

A School Teacher’s Life on Prudence Island in the Early 1900s

[From the editor: This charming article displays the author’s wonderful humor and eye for detail. Its author, Rachel Chase Boynton, was born in December 1894, the daughter of Captain Halsey …
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Stanton Hazard, Feared Loyalist Privateer Captain
5 years ago

Stanton Hazard, Feared Loyalist Privateer Captain

Stanton Hazard  was born on January 8, 1743, into the prominent Hazard family of King’s (later Washington) County. He moved to Newport and, as with many young men, he took …
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Dixwell Ketcham’s Amazing Aerial Photographs of Narragansett Bay, 1924-1934
5 years ago

Dixwell Ketcham’s Amazing Aerial Photographs of Narragansett Bay, 1924-1934

As I poked around the photography division of the Navy History and Heritage Command last summer at Washington Yard in Washington, D.C., I was hoping to find more photographs for …
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