Blackstone Valley Historical Society

2:00 pm, March 31, 2019
North Gate
Blackstone Valley Historical Society
1873 Old Louisquisset Pike
Lincoln, RI 02865

Danny Bethel is returning to North Gate with a fascinating exhibit of his Lime Rock collection.  Bethel has been collecting photos, documents, post cards, and other ephemera relating to Lime Rock for 15 years.  Featured in this exhibit: the Lime Quarry, the Lime Rock Fire Department, the Lime Rock Baptist Church, the Smithfield Lime Rock Bank, the Lime Rock School House, Mount Moriah Lodge, and the Louisquisett Pike.  Among the items on display will be a document about a 19^th century business arrangement regarding purchasing wood from a wood lot for the lime kilns. There will be photographs of Eddie Dowling and his wife Rachel (Ray) Dooley, and a program from The Glass Menagerie when Eddie Dowling was in the cast. (Rt. 146 was named after Eddie Dowling, an actor and producer born in Woonsocket.).  Another interesting piece of ephemera in the exhibit is a church bulletin from  the Lime Rock Baptist church that mentions fixing the roof after the hurricane of 1938.

Don’t miss this show on Sunday, March 31, 2:00 p.m.

 

 

 

On April 28 at 3:00 pm, tenor Michael DiMucci will be at North Gate with a program on music from the 1950s and 1960’s. This concert will be the 3rd part of his Americana series.  Tickets are available at BrownPaperTickets.com (click on the graphic below), and we will also be selling them at the door.  Click on this link or on the graphic! BrownPaperTickets.com: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4105521

 

2:00 p.m., Sunday, March 10
Blackstone Valley Historical Society
1873 Old Louisquisset Pike
Lincoln, RI  02865

Morgan Grefe from the R. I. Historical Society will talk about her children’s book, “The World in One Square Mile: Central Falls,” an illustrated history told from the viewpoints of immigrant children in periods ranging from 1700 to 2006. Free, all welcome. Children welcome.

Exhibit: The World War II Collection of Kevin Heskin
2:00 pm, February 24, 2019
Blackstone Valley Historical Society
1873 Old Louisquisset Pike
P. O. Box 125
Lincoln, Rhode Island, USA

On Sunday February 24^th, historian Kevin Heskin will take us back to the days of World War II, bringing examples of his remarkable collection touching upon all aspects of the war, from all of the countries involved. He has uniforms belonging to Spanish, German, Japanese, and American soldiers. In addition, he will show the varied weapons the armies used, including swords, bayonets, gas masks, and more.

Heskin has long been fascinated with World Wars I and II. He has spent more than a decade hunting down everything he can find that memorializes these two devastating times in our history. He has previously brought many objects from his WWI collection to North Gate, and his memorabilia from the second World War is also fascinating.

North Gate will be going back to this historic time from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, February 24. Join us and Heskin, and relive the second “war to end all wars” as seen from different countries’ viewpoints.

 

 

Singin’ and Swingin’ Sunday
January 27, 2019 3:00 pm
at North Gate, Blackstone Valley Historical Society
1873 Louisquisset Pike, Lincoln, RI 02865
(this is not a BVHS event)

A concert of tunes from the crooners of jazz, blues and standards

Tenor Michael DiMucci will present Singin’ and Swingin’ Sunday: a concert of tunes from the crooners of jazz, blues and standards taking place at The Blackstone Valley Historical Society on Sunday January 27, 2019 at 3:00PM and featuring Michael DiMucci, tenor; Andy DiPaola, pianist; John Curzio, bassist.

The concert is to take place in the Blackstone Valley Historical Society located at 1873 Louisquisset Pike in Lincoln, RI. Tickets are $25.00 and are available at the door; however reservations via email are strongly recommended: michaeldimuccimusic@gmail.com — please provide your name, contact information and quantity of tickets needed.

Light refreshments provided

A concert of timeless, classic music in a historic venue!

 

Wishing everyone a merry holiday season and a happy new year!

To keep you updated on what is happening at BVHS,  we will not have any official events in January.

 

2:00 pm, Sunday, November 18
Blackstone Valley Historical Society
1873 Old Louisquisset Pike
Lincoln, RI 02865

Free; donations welcome.

THIS TALK IS CANCELLED.  We hope to reschedule it next year. Thank you.

Carl Johnson gives a talk on Slater Mill

In American history, the Slater Mill site in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, is justifiably regarded as the inception of the Industrial Revolution in our country. Samuel Slater of Belper, England, at the age of 22, having completed an apprenticeship of six-and-one-half years in Jedediah Strutt’s cotton spinning mill, emigrated from England in September 1789 and arrived in New York that November, bringing with him a thorough knowledge of water-powered spinning machinery. This knowledge was a valuable commodity, since a handful of American manufacturers, such as Moses Brown, who saw promise in textile manufacture—producing high-quality thread and therefore cloth—had been trying, unsuccessfully, to replicate this technology in America. While Slater was New York for a period of several weeks, a ship’s captain informed  him of two men in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, who were planning to open a cotton mill.  Those men were Moses Brown of the prominent Brown family, and Brown’s son-in-law William Almy. Samuel promptly penned a letter to Moses Brown, stating that he had had oversight of and a thorough familiarity with the water-powered spinning mechanisms invented and developed by Sir Richard Arkwright.

Slater spent his first night in Pawtucket as the guest of Sylvanus Brown, who was a respected pattern maker and millwright, and eventually one of the builders of Slater Mill. The date was January 18, 1790. Sylanus Brown—-not related to Moses Brown, although both were members of the Society of Friends, that is to say, Quakers—was assigned the task of interviewing Samuel Slater. Sylvanus and his partners wished to establish just how acquainted was this young Englishman with the details of Arkwright’s spinning works. It so happened that they found in Samuel Slater the ideal candidate for their nascent mill operation. It was in Pawtucket Village, specifically a space Mr. Brown rented within Ezekiel Carpenter’s fulling mill, in December 1790, that Moses Brown, under Slater’s tutelage and in association with William Almy, Sylvanus Brown, blacksmiths and machinists Oziel Wilkinson and his son David, began the first successful cotton spinning business in America.

Drawing from the Blackstone River to provide power for their spinning frames, which was machinery based on English designs but adapted to their Rhode Island location, the “Yellow Mill” opened in 1793 as Almy, Brown and Slater Cotton Manufacturers. It was not officially titled Slater Mill during Samuel’s first decade there, but recognized as such in a colloquial sense.

The much larger and more modernized White Mill across the Blackstone along the riverbank was solely of Slater’s conception. Thereafter, the Yellow Mill would most often be referred to as Old Slater Mill. However, two years prior to Samuel Slater’s death in April 1835, Andrew Jackson, the president of the United States, visited Slater at his home in Webster, Massachusetts, where the president said to him, “Mister Slater, I regard you as the father of our American Manufacturers!” Slater’s reply was, “Yes, Sir. You could say that I wrote the psalm, and the choir has been singing to it ever since.”

Mr. Johnson has worked for Old Slater Mill Association as an interpreter and tour guide for 12 years.

 

 

 

3:00 pm SUNDAY, November 4: Fundraiser for BVHS!   Americana II: Songs from America’s History, from the 1920’s -1940’s, a concert by Michael DiMucci.

Michael DiMucci, tenor and pianist, presents a concert of songs and their stories from America’s past. This program features well-known melodies from the Roaring Twenties & Jazz Age to the 1930s during the Great Depression and the beginnings of Old Hollywood to the Big Bands and crooners of the 1940s as our country approached the era of World War II.  Tickets $20 ($21.69 with service fee) are available now.  Click the link below.  We will also be selling tickets at the door.

 

 

7:00 pm, SATURDAY OCTOBER 20:  The Corpse That Drove a Hearse – and Other True Tales of the Macabre.

A Halloween presentation by Jim Ignasher, Smithfield Historical Society. In this talk, he discusses the Victorian fear of being buried alive, cases of re-animation, and the steps some tried to take to avoid such a fate. Then there were those who actually made a living at being buried alive. It includes stories relating to “points of law” beyond the grave, and finishes with a bizarre love story. The talk is oriented for adults.

Hauntings by Day, Hauntings by Night:  Also in Lincoln, Hearthside will be hosting several related events between September 25 and November 1, including an exhibit, Gone but Not Forgotten: Victorian Mourning Customs, which will be on view October 14, October 20, and October 27.

 

Stone Walls of Rhode Island
On Sunday, October 14, Rhode Island state archaeologist Timothy Ives gave a great presentation  on the history and character of R. I.’s stone walls as part of RIHPHC’s Rhode Island Archaeology Month.   Over 100 people attended.

 

11:00-4:00 pm, September 22, 2018 BVHS’s Northgate Toll House and the Arnold’s Original Lonsdale Bakery will be open for Great Road Day.  BVHS will be 60 years old.  Stop by for a piece of birthday cake. BVHS, 1873 Old Louisquisset Pike, Lincoln, RI  02865. Free event.

 

Northgate will have a special exhibit of the photography of Madeleine O. Robinson, Reflections in the Water: Photographs of the Blackstone Valley.   The Blackstone Canal is the subject of many of the photographs. Dr. Robinson, a Cumberland resident, has shown her photographs at the Attleboro Arts Museum and won awards.

4:00 pm, Wednesday, July 18: Ribbon-Cutting Celebration at the Kelly House Barn, Captain Wilbur Kelly House and Transportation Museum, Blackstone River State Park, 1075 Lower River Road, Lincoln, RI  02865

All are welcome to celebrate the completion of the replica of the milking parlor barn at the Capt. Wilbur Kelly House.  The barn stands on its original site, thanks to a grant in 2016 from the Champlin Foundation to the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor.  It will give the park rangers additional interpretive space, and give school groups a place to gather when visiting the Kelly House Museum. Al Klyberg helped develop this project, and looked forward to seeing the farm/factory aspect of early industry incorporated into the tour. John Houghton from BVHS has also been involved in this project.

For more information, see this 2016 Valley Breeze article: http://www.valleybreeze.com/2016-11-30/cumberland-lincoln-area/new-kelly-house-barn-will-shield-tour-groups-inclement-weather#.W0FAt9JKiM8

 

July 7: Archaeologists investigate at the Sprague Cemetery from Ken Postle.  Archaeologists Craig Chartier and Greg Lott from Plymouth Archaeology excavated at the lot next to the Sprague Cemetery on Saturday.  Shelby, who was a member of the Cumberland High School Archaeology Club and who is now a second year archaeology student at RIC was also present.  They made several significant finds including a grave shaft showing “a perfect outline of the original casket” which yielded nails, wood and even a metal handle with a copper pin in it.  Photograph courtesy of Ken Postle.  See the full post at https://www.facebook.com/groups/Quakerrecovery/permalink/2190748131170601/

 

July 2-30: BVHS Exhibit at the Hayden Gallery: An Elaborate History: The Cumberland Ballous.  2^nd floor of the Cumberland Public Library, 1464 Diamond Hill Rd, Cumberland, RI 02864