Click on the images below to see them in our online catalog.
Through the effort of archivist Sue Maden, the JHS has been able to create a rich trove of historic artifacts that helps us understand Jamestown’s history and changes over the years. Her personal collection of postcards represents people and places in Jamestown from the late 19th through the mid-20th century, and was the subject of her first book, Greetings from Jamestown, Rhode Island. She donated the entire collection of over 1000 cards to the society.
Sue’s favorite postcards were “real photo” cards – cards printed using a photographic rather than offset process. The one pictured here is of Fort Greble on Dutch Island.
Sue was passionate about documenting Jamestown’s history, and there was no limit to what she collected: it might be a golf ball she found on eBay for the Jamestown Golf Course or a match book cover for the water taxi service that operated between Jamestown, Newport, and Quonset and was a big help to get workers to Quonset during World War II.
Sue’s work went well beyond objects. The JHS collection contains copies of her books and articles, newspaper clippings she collected in her research, answers to questions she fielded from members, and oral histories.
For more of Sue’s contributions to the JHS Collection, click here.
