by JHS | Sep 13, 2021 | Events
Because of restraints of the COVID pandemic, this year’s members fundraiser was a combination of a cocktail party held on August 26 at the lovely 1927 Sarah Cresswell cottage, which had been recently restored and beautifully landscaped, and guided tours of three of...
by JHS | Sep 1, 2021 | From the Collection
Behind the circulation desk of the Jamestown Philomenian Library are two square rigged ship half models. The half hull models are on loan to the Library from the JHS collection. They hung for a number of years in the lobby of the Gardner House, a large summer hotel in...
by JHS | Aug 27, 2021 | JHS in the News, Library Exhibits
The August exhibit in the JHS library display case features early gifts to the Jamestown Historical Society’s collection and the people who gave them. The first object donated to the collection was presented at the second meeting of the society on August 26, 1912, by...
by Rosemary Enright | Aug 19, 2021 | 2021 Articles
In the summer of 1912, Elizabeth Carr Locke, a California-based descendant of Caleb Carr who was in Jamestown for the summer, had 200 posters printed and distributed around the island asking anybody interested in forming a historical society to meet at Town Hall on...
by JHS | Aug 11, 2021 | Events
Art in the Cemetery Changing Fashion of Grave Markers The guest speaker for the Jamestown Historical Society’s 2021 annual meeting was Anne Tait, MFA, Professor of Art at Roger Williams University. Her presentation was titled “Art in the Cemetery, Changing Fashion of...
by JHS | Aug 1, 2021 | From the Collection
In the early 1940s, when you drove east over the recently completed Jamestown Bridge, the land before you was open farmland. The entire landscape changed in 1946 when James G. Head and Sydney Rowe formed the Federal Building and Development Corporation. Head and Rowe...
by JHS | Jul 12, 2021 | JHS in the News, Library Exhibits
The July exhibit in the JHS library display case features commemorative plates from the society’s collection. Two quite different plates designed for the 300th anniversary of the purchase of Conanicut Island in 1657 are displayed. The plate by Catharine Morris...
by JHS | Jul 9, 2021 | Events
Photo courtesy of Blue Garden, Newport, RI. Open by appointment. “Recapturing this work of landscape artistry is intended to teach others about the intellectual and pragmatic challenges of restoring and preserving a garden of such historic...
by JHS | Jul 9, 2021 | From the Collection
Hunt’s Drug Store stood at the corner of Conanicus and Narragansett avenues where the East Ferry Deli is now. It was owned by Thomas E. Hunt (1883-1965), Jamestown’s first year-round pharmacist. Hunt graduated from the Rhode Island College School of Pharmacy in 1904...
by Rosemary Enright | Jul 1, 2021 | 2021 Articles
On May 12, 1873, Captain Stephen C. Gardner guided the 79-foot, wood-fueled paddlewheel ferry Jamestown out of the new slip at East Ferry on her maiden voyage between Jamestown and Newport. The age of dependable steam ferry service on the lower Narragansett Bay had...
