Evening Program

The Memory Pile Tradition

Donna Grady

Thursday December 1 at 7:00pm

IN THE MUSEUM GALLERY AND LIVE STREAMED ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

On Thursday, December 1, anthropologist Timothy Ives will talk about the many historical written descriptions of memory piles and their implications for archaeology. Dr. Ives, formerly the Rhode Island state archaeologist, will consider why this practice has long fascinated European-American observers.

Since early colonial days and perhaps before, Native American travelers have left a stone, stick, or other object at specific roadside locations. While local beliefs varied, securing good fortune through an act of remembrance appears to have been a common goal. Travelers, historians, and ethnographers have variously referred to the objects of this practice as memory piles, sacrifice rocks, stone heaps, or taverns.

The program, which is free and open to the public, will be live streamed on the Museum’s YouTube channel and will be recorded for later viewing. 

The Museum’s mission is to educate children and adults about the pre-industrial world through exciting and thought-provoking programs and exhibits that focus on local history and archaeology. The Museum’s work is supported entirely by donations from members and friends and through private grants.

George E. Matteson: The Man and His Maps

Donna Grady

Thursday, November 3 at 7:00 p.m.
IN THE MUSEUM GALLERY AND LIVE STREAMED ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Born in Scituate in 1902, George E. Matteson was a forest ranger for decades. But he is best remembered as an extraordinary map maker who embedded the folklore of rural Rhode Island into his precise and exquisitely detailed maps.   

Paul St. Amand, George Matteson’s grandson, is the keeper of his grandfather’s maps and map-making tools. Steven and Linda Kornatz, members of the Scituate Preservation Society, have used St. Amand’s collection to create a program about George Matteson and his map-making. The Kornatzes and St. Amand will be in our Museum Gallery on Thursday, November 3 at 7:00 p.m. to tell us about Matteson’s fascinating life and his maps. They will show us about two dozen original maps and many of Matteson’s surveying and mapmaking tools. 

The program, which is free and open to the public, will be live streamed on the Museum’s YouTube channel and will be recorded for later viewing. 

Revolutionary War Privateers and the British Slave Trade

Donna Grady

John Brown of Providence was a wealthy and powerful merchant. He had financed slaving voyages. He also had experience financing privateers— privately-owned vessels licensed by the government to capture and sell enemy vessels and their contents.

After the Continental Congress prohibited importation of African captives, Brown sent a privateer to the coast of Africa, where British slavers continued to operate but where Great Britain, otherwise occupied with the war, was unable to protect her merchant ships. His aim was to inflict harm on the British economy while making money for himself.

In early 1777, Brown commissioned the construction of the privateer he named the Marlborough, a 250-ton, square-rigged brig with twenty guns. In late December of 1777, the Marlborough, commanded by George Waite Babcock of North Kingstown, ran the Royal Navy blockade of the Sakonnet Channel and began its maiden voyage to Africa.

Mr. McBurney’s new book, Dark Voyage: An American Privateer’s War on Britain’s Slave Trade, tells the story of the Marlborough. On Monday, October 10 at 7:00 p.m., the author will be in our Museum Gallery to tell us about the contribution the Marlborough and other American privateers made to the Revolutionary War effort, and the effect American privateers had on the British slave trade.