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Rhode Island – General

“So Neare As We May Judge:” Jury Duty in Early Rhode Island
10 years ago

“So Neare As We May Judge:” Jury Duty in Early Rhode Island

The early court system of Providence was established in its first code of law in 1640, with a body of “five desposers” to ”meete upon gennerall ocations” and look after …
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The Narragansett Pacer: Where and How It Evolved, Flourished, and Died Out
10 years ago

The Narragansett Pacer: Where and How It Evolved, Flourished, and Died Out

One of the founding breeds of the Standardbred, the Narragansett Pacer has been extinct since the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Yet the Pacer was ubiquitous in colonial North …
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Verrazzano Visits the Narragansett Indians in 1524
10 years ago

Verrazzano Visits the Narragansett Indians in 1524

The earliest written descriptions of Indians in North America were by Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian mariner commissioned by the King of France in 1523 to discover whether Asia could …
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How Curious! A Coal Mine in Cranston
10 years ago

How Curious! A Coal Mine in Cranston

I wonder if the strollers and shoppers at Garden City Center are aware that beneath those trendy shops and eateries there was once an active coal mine. Granted, the coal …
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Dirty Work, Clean Money: The Life of Whaling Ship Captain John Deblois and his Wife Henrietta
10 years ago

Dirty Work, Clean Money: The Life of Whaling Ship Captain John Deblois and his Wife Henrietta

Whaling “is a wretched life [of] privations and hardship deprived of friends and society,” John Scott Deblois (1816-1885) wrote in an 1844 letter to his family in Newport. [1] Voyages …
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The Hurricane of 1938: An Oral History Told by Nancy Allen Holst,  Forest Fire Warden and Pilot Part II: The Great Timber Blowdown
11 years ago

The Hurricane of 1938: An Oral History Told by Nancy Allen Holst, Forest Fire Warden and Pilot Part II: The Great Timber Blowdown

[Note from the Editor: The following interview appeared in “In the Wake of ’38, Oral history interviews with Rhode Island survivors and witnesses of the devastating hurricane of September 21, …
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The Hurricane of 1938: An Oral History Told by Nancy Allen Holst,  Forest Fire Warden and Pilot Part I: The Devastating Damage She Witnessed
11 years ago

The Hurricane of 1938: An Oral History Told by Nancy Allen Holst, Forest Fire Warden and Pilot Part I: The Devastating Damage She Witnessed

[Note from the Editor: The following interview appeared in “In the Wake of ’38, Oral history interviews with Rhode Island survivors and witnesses of the devastating hurricane of September 21, …
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Vampires in Exeter? The Gruesome Tale of Mercy L. and Edwin A. Brown
11 years ago

Vampires in Exeter? The Gruesome Tale of Mercy L. and Edwin A. Brown

No doubt about it, at this time of year, South County’s most famous brother and sister have to be Mercy and Edwin Brown. One hundred and twenty-three years after their …
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Unfortunate Ends: Gleanings from the Death Notices of Early Rhode Island Newspapers
11 years ago

Unfortunate Ends: Gleanings from the Death Notices of Early Rhode Island Newspapers

Death notices began to appear in America with the first newspapers. A community-wide extension of the early notices on tavern and meeting house doors, these first notices were sparse, containing …
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Photo Detective: Middletown Veteran is the Mystery VJ-Day Kissing Sailor
11 years ago

Photo Detective: Middletown Veteran is the Mystery VJ-Day Kissing Sailor

There are photographs that with one glance epitomize a generation as well as a moment in time. The image of the kissing sailor captured by Alfred Eisenstaedt in Times Square …
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