Switchboard Operators

Switchboard Operators

“Number, Please” Switchboard Telephone Operators Left to right: Nancy Peters, Shirley Whitehead, Maxime VonShade Clark, Jennie Clarke, Ellen “Midge” Matoes Wright, Eva VonShade, Genevieve Matoes Currie, Bess Sheehan, Millie Cullen, Harriet...
Slaves linked to Africa

Slaves linked to Africa

Jamestown Slaves linked to Sierra Leone, Gambia rivers Bunch Island in the Sierra Leone River, 1784. A woman enslaved in Jamestown by Sayles Carr was one of 75 captives to be purchased on the voyage along the West African river in 1742. NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED...
Black Regiment: Backstory

Black Regiment: Backstory

JHS Recommended Event: “The Backstory of the Black Regiment: Soldiers’ Ties to Community and Kin” Lecture by Peter Fay, Patriots Park Commemoration by NAACP Patriots Park, Portsmouth, RI, August 27, 2023, 3 pm   Philo Phillips of North Kingstown was 27 when his...
Yacht Club Exhibit

Yacht Club Exhibit

The Conanicut Yacht Club was founded in 1892 and is one of the oldest yacht clubs on Narragansett Bay. This month’s exhibit in the JHS case in the foyer of Town Hall celebrates the many activities of the club. The featured piece is the silver tray awarded to Price...
Governor Carr Ferry

Governor Carr Ferry

Governor Carr pennant from the maiden voyage, February 1927 Above the Ferry Room door in the Jamestown Museum is the pennant flown on the Governor Carr on the ferryboat’s maiden voyage in February 1927. The Governor Carr carried passengers and vehicles across the East...
Ferry Mailbox

Ferry Mailbox

Manuel Nerona’s Ferry Mailbox Newport II Manuel Neronha Sr. was born in 1907 and came to Jamestown as a child. As soon as he was old enough, he went to work for the Jamestown & Newport Ferry Company. Except for a few years in the 1940s, he worked on the...
Jeanne Bunkley

Jeanne Bunkley

Jamestown artist Jeanne Bunkley (1918-2012), shown here in a self-portrait, captured the character of Jamestown in her two series of charcoal sketches that she called “Men of Jamestown.” “Men don’t like to sit. They yawn and fidget,” she said in an 2007 interview. She...
JHS Museum 2023 Grand Opening

JHS Museum 2023 Grand Opening

On May 26, the 2023 JHS Museum opened a new exhibit, “Celebrating Jamestown Ferries: 150th Anniversary of Jamestown’s First Steam Ferry”. JHS members enjoyed a reception highlighting the anniversary of the first steam ferry going into service in Jamestown...