Random Stories
Gorham’s Toxic Legacy
Rhode Island has a long history of industrial manufacturing. Slater Mill, on the banks of the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, is considered the “birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution.” By the early 1800s, that fervor for…
Saints Sahag and Mesrob Armenian Apostolic Church
In 1847, the Eighth Baptist Church of Providence was founded at the corner of Davis and Common Streets. It was one of many Baptist churches in the city to be founded by former members of the First Baptist Church in America, located on the East Side,…
St. Mary’s Catholic Church
St. Mary's is a Gothic Revival monument to the Irish history of Providence. As textile mills changed the industrial landscape of the city in the early 19th century, Irish from Ulster came to work in those mills, many just down the hill in Olneyville.…
A New Kind of School for Women
From August 13–26, 1978, 78 women from 17 states as well as Canada gathered at Roger Williams College (today Roger Williams University) in Bristol, RI, to discuss the integration of values and identities they held both as women and as designers.…
Bridgeport and the Pogy Fleet
In the early 1900s, Tiverton was well-known for the stench of rotting fish. One local writer described the odor wafting from the menhaden factories along the Sakonnet River as “Rhode Island’s most famous smell. Even the strongest and bravest were…
Providence Biltmore Hotel
It is said that every Rhode Islander visits the Biltmore Hotel at least once. Opened in June of 1922, the Biltmore immediately became a significant hub for social activity in downtown Providence, a legacy that continues today. Its elegant halls have…
Take a Tour
Rhode Island's Black Heritage
8 Locations ~ Curated by Brown University students in "Methods in Public Humanities," Spring 2014Latinos in Rhode Island
5 Locations ~ Curated by This tour is based on Marta V. Martinez’s Latino History in Rhode Island: Nuestras Raíces (History Press, 2014) as well as the oral and visual histories at www.nuestrasraicesri.org. Molly Kerker and Jane Lancaster contributed research, content development, and editing. Translation by Roxana Mercado.Tiverton: Almost Forgotten
12 Locations ~ Curated by The Little Compton Historical Society, the Tiverton Public Library, and the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Brown University.Revolutionary War Fortifications of Rhode Island
6 Locations ~ Curated by Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, D. K. Abbass, Ph.DMashapaug Pond
15 Locations ~ Curated by Brown University students in "Oral History and Community Memory," Spring 2014Featured Stories
The Home of Sissieretta Jones
If anyone deserves a blockbuster biopic on this tour, it is Sissieretta Jones. Jones, a soprano, studied voice at the Providence Academy of Music, the New England Conservatory and the Boston…
Cadman-White-Handy House
The Handy House is not the home of a famous person—Washington did not sleep here! Yet the story of the people who lived here provides an extraordinary window into a world of ordinary lives that is…
Shepard Company Building
Few places in downtown evoke such fond memories like the iconic Shepard Company Department Store, a fixture of the 19th and 20th-century Providence shopping experience. Built in the 1870s, Shepard’s…
Rhode Tour
A project by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, the Rhode Island Historical Society and the Rhode Island Council for the HumanitiesRhode Tour is a statewide mobile historical smartphone application. Captivating places, intriguing people, and exciting events fill Rhode Island's history. Rhode Tour offers a new way to interact with these untold tales of the state's past. Using stories, sounds, and images, history comes alive on Rhode Tour. Read more About Us