JHS at the CIAA Holiday Fair Dec. 2

JHS at the CIAA Holiday Fair Dec. 2

Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023, 9 am – 4 pm Lawn Avenue School, Jamestown, RI Visit the Jamestown Historical Society table at the CIAA Holiday Fair. We’ll have great gift items including lots of different books for adults and children, framed and unframed ferry...
Conanicut Island Light Keeper’s Journal

Conanicut Island Light Keeper’s Journal

Click on the images below to see them in our Online Catalog. JHS recently received Elmer V. Newton’s Conanicut Island Light Keeper’s Journal, 1921-1933. Lighthouse keepers were required to keep a journal mostly of day to day life, when inspections were made, and what...
2023 Fall Newsletter

2023 Fall Newsletter

Our Fall Newsletter is now available for download. This spring and summer were very busy as the JHS offered talks, outings, exhibits, events, and gatherings. Some events were only for members, some for the wider...
Jamestown Signs

Jamestown Signs

Click on the images below to see them in our Online Catalog. Hanging on a side wall of the JHS Vault is a collection of Jamestown signs from island merchants that have closed in years past. The Lyons Market was a grocery store located first at 17 Narragansett...
Guest Lecture – Christian McBurney

Guest Lecture – Christian McBurney

Machine Guns in Narragansett Bay: The Coast Guard’s War on Rumrunners, a talk and slides by Christian McBurney Tuesday, October 24, 2023, 4 pm, Senior Center, 6 West St, Jamestown, RI All invited. Free.  During World War I and World War II, Rhode Island was...
Edward Mitchell Bannister  1828 – 1901

Edward Mitchell Bannister 1828 – 1901

Jamestown Harbor at Sunset, 1895 The Providence Art Club recently mounted a tribute to commemorate the life and work of one of their original founders, the Black artist Edward Mitchell Bannister. Bannister, born in New Brunswick, immigrated to Boston in about 1848....
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...