Read the Museum’s Fall Newsletter for more details on our exciting Programs
Millions of years ago, when the earth was still forming, two giant land masses crashed into each other. After they collided, the edges folded, creating the Appalachian Mountain chain. In the place that millions of years later would become Rhode Island, one of the land masses slid on top of part of the other one. As a result, Rhode Island is made up of two distinct geological regions—the western part is made of igneous and metamorphic bedrock, while the eastern part is made of sedimentary bedrock. In the western part of the state, there are many pockets of minerals waiting to be discovered!
Please join us on Thursday, October 10, when we will hear from Lou Fazzina, (owner of Apple Valley Minerals in Smithfield), Steve Emma, (Paleobotanist), and Will Nawrocki,(Molecular Biologist) about the minerals and fossils that might be under your feet!
Stories about strange or unexplained occurrences often appeared in 19th century New England newspapers, sometimes tailored for a reading public eager for stories of the supernatural. Such stories were reprinted and expanded upon by other newspapers, and in at least one case, serialized so that the story took on a life of its own, with bizarre episode after bizarre episode being added to the original tale. Mr. Geake will explore the fascination early New Englanders had with death and the afterlife, and reveal which astonishing tales were true and which were fictionalized for an enthralled reading public.
Mr. Geake is the author of fourteen books about Rhode Island and New England history. He served two terms as president of the Cocumscussoc Association, which maintains Smith’s Castle in North Kingstown, and serves on the advisory board of the Rhode Island Slave History Medallion project. The program will take place in our Museum Gallery and will be livestreamed on our YouTube channel. Watch Live Stream on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/live/9apv7E6i0Mg
Once upon a time not so very long ago, there was a small dairy farm at Dale Carlia Corners. The house on the farm, called Twin Chimneys, was ancient—so old that nobody knew exactly when it was built. It stood by itself, on a gentle rise, with no neighbors close by, for decades. In 1818, when it was already more than one hundred years old, Rowland Hazard bought it. Later, it was occupied by his unmarried daughters Eliza, Isabella, Mary, and Anna. An 1870 map of South Kingstown identifies it as the home of the “Misses Hazard.” In 1895, the house, also known as Dale Carlia House, was the only house in the more-than-fifteen-acre parcel bordered by Kingstown Road, School Street, Oak Street (then called Meadow Street), and Main Street.
Some South County residents remember Twin Chimneys, the Holley Ice and Transportation Co., and other buildings at Dale Carlia Corners that are no longer standing. But for those who do not, the three sisters can show you what it looked like, because Audrey Holley Hosley, their late mother, was an assiduous collector of family history, including photographs. On Thursday Nov. 21st Wendy Hosley, Cynthia Hosley, and Priscilla Archambault will share their photographs and their memories of Dale Carlia Corners in times gone by. The program will take place in the Museum Gallery at 7:00 p.m.
Watch Live Stream on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIj4RiOF4pA
Every year, more than 1.5 million people visit Roger Williams Park in Providence, RI. Most of them do not know, and may not care, how the park
came into being. But the person who gave her family farm to the city to create the park should be remembered, not only as a benefactor but as an
independent woman.
Learn about Betsey’s bequest to the city, the radical life she lived with her sister, Rhoda, and her connection to Roger and Mary Williams.
For more than two decades, archaeologist and ethnohistorian Timothy H. Ives has studied the Wangunk, a little-known but historically important central Connecticut Native American tribe. Hear about Dr. Ives’s latest research into the tribe’s history and its relations with European settler
Old mills are an essential element in southern New England’s historic landscape. Water provided the power for 18th century grist mills and 19th century textile mills, so those mills, and the communities that grew around them, were located on rivers.
Learn about some of local mill villages that have been lost, and some that have persevered in South County’s post-industrial but still largely rural landscape.
