Abby Epplett, Historian

This museum season, I am completing the Passport to History developed by Old Colony History Museum in Taunton. Last Saturday, I visited three more museums in the passport book, plus a bonus museum. The Veterans Memorial Museum of Rhode Island is a remarkable collection of military and war artifacts started by Glenn Dusablon, who also gave my private tour. The museum is on the second floor of the American French Genealogical Society in Woonsocket, RI , formerly a gymnasium / auditorium accessible by elevator or stairs, and does not have external signage, but rest assured that the parking lot at 78 Earl Street is the right place to be!

Last Sunday, March 19, I visited Old Slater Mill from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and joined a host of community groups advocating for the building of a fish passage. This is the third event I have attended to raise awareness around this issue, the first two being the Fish Passage Celebration in May 2023 , and Be the Voice of Kittacuck in October 2022 . Since the construction of dams in the 18th century to control water power on the Blackstone River and its tributaries, herring and other migratory fish have been unable to properly make their seasonal journeys. This has disrupted the ecosystem and badly affected fishers.

I had been meaning to watch the Ann & Hope Documentary by David Lawlor from  Run of the Mill , which debuted on YouTube in August 2023, and I finally got around to doing it! This fact-paced film gave the history of the three iterations of Ann & Hope — a boat, a mill, and a department store chain — through twelve chapters, with plenty of interviews, drone shots, music, and animation segments. Rhode Islanders who grew up near an Ann & Hope store will have the chance to reminisce, historians will enjoy the fact-packed content, and cinefiles will appreciate the clever editing. After an opening music video, “Chapter 1: The Creation of the Blackstone River Valley” and “Chapter 2: William Blackstone” focused on the history of the Blackstone valley before the Industrial Revolution. The film introduced park rangers Allison Horrocks (who frequent readers of the blog will remember from Parked at Home ) and Kevin Klyberg of Blackstone River Valley National Historical P...

Last night — April 11, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. — was the sixth and final installment of the webinar series Parked at Home hosted by the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (BRVNHP) . Park ranger Allison Horrocks led the session with guest speaker Andrew Donovan, supervisory park ranger at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site and Salem Maritime National Historic Site , which I most recently visited in October 2022 . Sherrolyn K. provided American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation. I had last visited Saugus Iron Works about eight years ago and appreciated the opportunity to refresh my knowledge about post-medieval mills leading up to the Industrial Revolution. Horrocks explained that Saugus, MA and Pawtucket, RI — one of six sites within BRVNHP — shared a business connection. The founder of Pawtucket in 1671, Joseph Jenks Jr. , originally settled in Saugus with his father, iron worker Joseph Jenks Sr. Years earlier while in England, the Jenks Sr. had worked for ...

Last night — March 29, 2024 — I watched the latest installment of the 2024 season of Parked at Home hosted by the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (BRVNHP) . During this webinar, chief of interpretation Todd Smith joined us from Fairbanks, AK to discuss Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (GAAR) . Park Ranger Mark Mello began by remarking how people tend to look down at phones and tablets instead of up at nature even when visiting a national park. Mello grew up in a relatively rural part of southeastern Massachusetts where he saw many stars at night. He first experienced severe light pollution as a teenager when he visited Boston and realized he could not see the stars. In contrast, while working at Arches National Park , he saw significantly more stars than at home and understood why the area was dedicated an International Dark Sky Place . The first people to inhabit the Blackstone River Valley had a close connection to the sky. The name Wampano...

Yesterday — Thursday, March 21 at 7:00 p.m. — I watched the third installment of the 2024 season of Parked at Home featuring Amistad National Recreation Area in Texas with park archaeologist Jack Johnson. Park ranger Allison Horrocks of Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park started the webinar by explaining the migration of butterflies between New England and Texas, which takes four generations to complete. She compared this migration to “The Butterfly Effect”, a theory that small events can affect people around the world. In this way, the dam and mill in Pawtucket, RI built in 1793 started social changes and industrialization across the young United States.

Back in November, I took a trip to Cumberland, RI to walk the trails around the former Cumberland Monastery , formerly called  Our Lady of the Valley Monastery . Once the home to Cistercians or Trappist monks, this property now contains the Cumberland Public Library , Cumberland Senior Center , and the Office of Children, Youth, and Learning for the town of Cumberland .

Last night — Thursday, March 14 at 7:00 p.m. — was the second installment of the 2024 season of Parked at Home, a webinar series hosted by the National Park Service . In this talk, park ranger Mark Mello of Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park was joined by park ranger Rebecca Schroeder of the Ten Thousand Islands District of Everglades National Park to talk about the history of these sites as related to water.

The 2024 season of Parked at Home hosted by Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (BRVNHP) returned last night — March 8, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. — with guest speaker and park ranger Samantha Baranski of First State National Historical Park (FSNHP) in Delaware.

On October 28, 2023, I checked off a bucket list item by riding the historic Blackstone Valley train from Woonsocket, RI to Worcester, MA to Putnam, CT and back again. This trip lasted from 9:00 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. with about six-and-a-quarter hours of travel on a vintage train and a two-and-a-half hour walk through Putnam. The day was sunny and bright, although the best fall color had passed the weekend before.

In July 2023, I returned to Jamestown, RI where I had previously visited Historic New England’s Casey Farm and Watson Farm , along with several sites operated by Jamestown Historical Society (JHS) . On this trip, I went to Conanicut Battery, jointly maintained by JHS and The Friends of Conanicut Battery . Since 1973, this twenty-two acre site has been on the National Register of Historic Places for its roles in the American Revolutionary War and the World Wars. The Battery For Rhode Islanders, the American Revolution began in 1772 when a group of Providence-based patriots burned a grounded ship called the HMS Gaspee. (Last year, during the 250 th anniversary, Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS) hosted an exhibit about the event. ) By 1775, the British navy retaliated against the colony, shelling the villages along the shore. Soldiers raided Jamestown, stole livestock, and burned civilian houses during December of that year. By the next year, the Rho...

On Thursday, November 2, and Friday, November 3, I attended Historic New England Summit 2023 , a two-day event held at The VETS , or Veterans Memorial Auditorium, in Providence, Rhode Island that brought together members of Historic New England (HNE) and others interested in the history and preservation of the area. Yesterday, I posted a summary for Day 1 . My summary for Day 2 is adapted from 10 pages of notes. If you would like to learn more about any of the sessions, please let me know, and I can post a more detailed write-up or share my notes. Opening Keynote: Built for Zero: Ending Homelessness After an introduction by Vin Cipolla , President & CEO of HNE, Rosanne Haggerty opened Day 2 of the Summit with a keynote describing solutions to the public housing crisis. Haggerty is President & CEO of Community Solutions , headquartered in New York City, which assists 107 communities in their initiative Build for Zero . Since 2015, the project has housed over ...

Historic New England Summit 2023 just finished earlier today! Held at The VETS , or Veterans Memorial Auditorium, in Providence, Rhode Island on Thursday, November 2, and Friday, November 3, this two-day event brought together members of Historic New England (HNE) and others interested in the history and preservation of the area. I also attended the first HNE Summit last year, in 2022, and summarized both Day 1 and Day 2 for that conference. This post summarizes Day 1 of this year’s event based on my fifteen pages of notes. Day 2 is coming soon. If you would like to learn more about any of the sessions, please let me know, and I can post a more detailed write-up or share my notes. Opening Welcome The Summit began with an introductory view that reviewed ongoing HNE projects such as the reimagination of the Haverhill Center and the Recovering New England’s Voices project. Danikah Chartier , Indigenous Community Liaison and Researcher at HNE, gave a land acknowledgemen...