The Rhode Island Historical Society is a privately endowed membership organization, founded in 1822, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing the history of Rhode Island. Its offices are located in Providence, Rhode Island.
The Rhode Island Historical Society is a privately endowed membership organization, founded in 1822, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing the history of Rhode Island. Its offices are located in Providence, Rhode Island.
Founded in 1822, the Society is the fourth oldest state historical society in the United States (after the Massachusetts Historical Society, New-York Historical Society, and Maine Historical Society). The Rhode Island Historical Society was founded and funded by many of Providence's early Yankee philanthropists, including Moses Brown and Henry J. Steere. [1] In 1854 the "Southern Cabinet" of the Rhode Island Historical Society became reorganized as the Newport Historical Society. [2]
As of October 2022, the organization’s executive director is C. Morgan Grefe, Ph.D., and the board chair is Robert H. Sloan, Jr. [3]
The Society has the largest and most important historical Rhode Island collection within its main library and two museums. The Society's collections include some 25,000 objects, 5,000 manuscripts, 100,000 books and printed items, 400,000 photographs and maps, and 9 million feet of motion-picture film. Through the Newell D. Goff Center for Education and Public Programs, the Society offers a variety of educational programs including workshops, lectures, films, and walking tours of Providence. In recent years the Society has been very active in teacher-training programs seeking to improve the quality of history teaching in Rhode Island. The Society also presents exhibits, films, concerts, and many other community activities and programs. The Society publishes its journal Rhode Island History in either two or three issues annually covering various aspects of Rhode Island history from pre-colonial to recent. [4]
The Society’s most noteworthy recent advances include its first on-line collection access catalog [5] and the first major restoration of the historic John Brown House, a $2.5 million project that should be complete in 2010.
The Society owns and operates the following notable museums and properties:
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately 33 miles (53 km) southeast of Providence, 20 miles (32 km) south of Fall River, Massachusetts, 74 miles (119 km) south of Boston, and 180 miles (290 km) northeast of New York City. It is known as a New England summer resort and is famous for its historic mansions and its rich sailing history.
Thomas Alexander Tefft was an American architect, from Providence, Rhode Island. Tefft, one of the nation's first professionally trained architects, is considered a master of Rundbogenstil and a leading American proponent of its use. Prior to his untimely death, Tefft "offered the most advanced designs of [his] day in America"
The Newport Restoration Foundation was founded by Doris Duke in 1968 in Newport, Rhode Island to preserve early housing stock including 18th century colonial homes. Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was the foundation's vice president.
College Hill is a historic neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, and one of six neighborhoods comprising the city's East Side. It is roughly bounded by South and North Main Street to the west, Power Street to the south, Governor Street and Arlington Avenue to the east and Olney Street to the north. The neighborhood's primary commercial area extends along Thayer Street, a strip frequented by students in the Providence area.
Fox Point is a neighborhood in the East Side of Providence, Rhode Island. It is bounded by the Providence and Seekonk rivers, Interstate 195 and the College Hill and Wayland neighborhoods. Fox Point is the southernmost neighborhood in the East Side area of Providence.
The East Side is a collection of neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city of Providence, Rhode Island. It officially comprises the neighborhoods of Blackstone, Hope, Mount Hope, College Hill, Wayland, and Fox Point.
The Redwood Library and Athenaeum is a subscription library, museum, rare book repository and research center founded in 1747, and located at 50 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. The building, designed by Peter Harrison and completed in March 1750, was the first purposely built library in the United States, and the oldest neo-Classical building in the country. It has been in continuous use since its opening.
The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design is an art museum integrated with the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. The museum was co-founded with the school in 1877, and still shares multiple buildings and facilities. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the United States, and has seven curatorial departments.
The Newport Historical Society is a historical society in Newport, Rhode Island that was chartered in 1854 to collect and preserve books, manuscripts, and objects pertaining to Newport's history.
Norman Morrison Isham (1864–1943) was a prominent architectural historian, author, and professor at Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). He was an ardent preservationist and a pioneer in the study of early American architecture.
The Old Colony House, also known as Old State House or Newport Colony House, is located at the east end of Washington Square in the city of Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It is a brick Georgian-style building completed in 1741, and was the meeting place for the colonial legislature. From independence in 1776 to the early 20th century, the state legislature alternated its sessions between here and the Rhode Island State House in Providence.
The Newport Historic District is a historic district that covers 250 acres in the center of Newport in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1968 due to its extensive and well-preserved assortment of intact colonial buildings dating from the early and mid-18th century. Six of those buildings are themselves NHLs in their own right, including the city's oldest house and the former meeting place of the colonial and state legislatures. Newer and modern buildings coexist with the historic structures.
The South County History Center, which formerly operated as the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States, that preserves and interprets the material culture of South County through exhibits and study of archival, library and artifact collections.
Michele Felice Cornè (1752–1845) was an artist born in Elba who settled in the United States. He lived in Salem and Boston, Massachusetts; and in Newport, Rhode Island. He painted marine scenes, portraits, and interior decorations such as fireboards and murals.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Providence, Rhode Island, United States.
Timeline of Newport, Rhode Island.
Graniteville is a village located within the town of Johnston, Rhode Island.
Antoinette Forrester Downing was an architectural historian and preservationist who wrote the standard reference work on historical houses in Rhode Island. She is credited with spearheading a movement that saved many of Providence's historic buildings from demolition in the mid 20th century and for her leadership was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1978.
Thomas J. Gould (1849-1923) was an American architect from Providence, Rhode Island.
The Wedding Cake House, is a three-story historic house located at 514 Broadway Street in the Broadway-Armory Historic District of Providence, Rhode Island. Built in 1867 and occupied continuously until 1989, its contents were the subject of a 2001 exhibit at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. It has had a variety of restoration work conducted since 2011.
Coordinates: 41°49′31″N71°23′45″W / 41.8253°N 71.3957°W
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