Saturday, October 16, 2010, 10:30 am - noon

RIHS Library,
121 Hope Street, Providence

Fee: RIHS members $8; non-members $10.

For more information: (401) 273-8107 x12 or libprograms@rihs.org

Finding the Elusive Female Ancestor, Or, the Origins of Mary Drummond of New Bedford

Looking for female ancestors can be a frustrating experience. Come learn from the lively case study of Mary Drummond, the purported oldest native Negro of New Bedford in 1928. The talk will focus on how to find New England women, and will include tips for success, pitfalls to avoid, and a bit of inspiration!

Carol Prescott McCoy, Ph.D. has been tracing her own roots for 30 years and has her own genealogy business, Find-Your-Roots.com. Her research focuses on New England, New York, West Virginia as well as the Maritime Provinces.  As past president of the Greater Portland Chapter of the Maine Genealogical Society, she is leading a project to index early deeds of Cumberland County, Maine.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010, 6:30 - 7:30 pm

RIHS Library,
121 Hope Street, Providence

Free and open to the public.

For more information: (401) 273-8107 x12 or libprograms@rihs.org

From Sweetwater to Seawater: An Environmental and Atlantic History of Narragansett Bay, 1636-1836

The Narragansett Bay watershed experienced dramatic environmental change over the course of 200 years. Settlers felled trees and drained swamps, built dams and an urban commercial infrastructure. At the confluence of sweetwater and seawater there existed a whole host of political, legal, and ecological ambiguities that shaped patterns of settlement, trade, and resource use. The talk discusses how these changes and patterns affected the bay and the people who depended on it.

Christopher Pastore is a Ph.D. candidate in American History at the University of New Hampshire and recipient of a New England Regional Fellowship Consortium award. He holds a B.A. in Biology from Bowdoin College and M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the New School for Social Research, where he currently teaches in the Writing Program. In 2005, he published a biography of Nathanael Herreshoff titled Temple to the Wind: The Story of America’s Greatest Naval Architect and His Masterpiece, Reliance (Lyons Press). He performed research on Narragansett Bay at RIHS Library during summer 2010.

Saturday, October 30, 2010, 2:00 pm

Aldrich House,
110 Benevolent Street, Providence

Free and open to the public.

Contact: For more information visit www.ribook.org or call 401.455.8134

Original Skin: A History of Books and Leather in New England

Phoebe S. Bean, M.L.S., Printed Collection Librarian at RIHS, will present an illustrated history of leather bindings, both imported and domestic, and discuss their integrated role in the development of Rhode Island and New England society. Examples from the RIHS collections will be on exhibit.

In conjunction with this presentation, the following libraries across the state will also mount exhibits: John Hay Library, John Carter Brown Library, Providence Athenaeum, Providence Public Library Special Collections, Redwood Library & Athenaeum, Rhode Island Historical Society, Rhode Island School of Design Library and University of Rhode Island Library Special Collections.

Look for the Bound in Leather Location Marker at the Participating Sites

The Art of the Book, an annual program of Rhode Island Center for the Book at Providence Public Library, is co-sponsored this year by The Rhode Island Historical Society, John Russell Bartlett Society and the New England division of the American Printing History Association.

Saturday, November 6, 2010, 9 am - noon

RIHS Library,
121 Hope Street, Providence

Fee: RIHS members $20; non-member $25

For more information: (401) 273-8107 x12 or libprograms@rihs.org

Textile Preservation Workshop

Join us at the Research Library for an in-depth session covering the care, handling and storage of textiles. We'll discuss a wide range of materials, including quilts, clothes, fragments and most flat items, and you'll learn the best methods for ensuring that they last for generations.

Dana Munroe is a skilled textile artist and the Collections Registrar for the RI Historical Society. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in textile design from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010, 6:30 pm – 7:30

RIHS Library,
121 Hope Street, Providence

Free and open to the public.

For more information: (401) 273-8107 x12 or libprograms@rihs.org

Trails of Memory in the Narragansett Country:
Native and Settler Place-Traditions in Rhode Island after King Philip’s War

The lands around Narragansett Bay formed the geographic epicenter of the colonial crisis known as King Philip’s War (1675-78), which destroyed settler communities and decimated Narragansett, Wampanoag, and other Algonquian populations.  In the war’s aftermath “Narragansett Country” remained a contested place as tribal and settler inhabitants jostled for control of territory—and stories. This talk exposes a vast settler “memory-scape” that emerged in the nineteenth century, where place-visiting and Euro-American oral traditions tended to erase enduring Native peoples from the landscape. 

Christine DeLucia is a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at Yale University and recipient of a New England Regional Fellowship Consortium Award, which supported her research at RIHS Library on this topic. She studies collective memories of the seventeenth-century “Indian Wars” in the American Northeast and “Red Atlantic” world, tracing ties between the region’s physical environment and understandings of a violent colonial past. She earned a degree in Environmental History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland (Millett. 2007) and in History and Literature at Harvard College (A.B. 2006).

2010 Library Holiday Closings

The library will be closed November 11th for the Veteran's Day holiday.

The library will be closed November 25-26 for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The library will be closed December 23, 2010 to January 2, 2011 for the Christmas and New Year's holidays.