Providence

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
MUSEUM DISPLAYS, Hosted by the Rhode Island Historical Society
Located in the Exhibit Hall
• Rhode Island in the Time of Lincoln—To mark the bicentennial
of President Abraham Lincoln’s birth, the Rhode Island Historical
Society (RIHS) created an exhibit that takes a look at life in Rhode
Island during the 1860s. Though Lincoln made only two stops in
the state, those visits were widely attended and remembered. But
what did the Rhode Island that Lincoln visited look like? Through
an array of primary-source materials, this exhibit explores the
people, places, and attitudes of the mid-nineteenth century.
Sponsored by the Rhode Island Foundation and the Rhode Island
Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.
• Elisha Hunt Rhodes: Prepared to Do My Whole Duty—As part of
the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the RIHS
developed the exhibit “‘Prepared to Do My Whole Duty’: Elisha
Hunt Rhodes in War and Peace.” Rhodes enlisted at age nineteen
in the Rhode Island 2nd Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War and
rose to the ranks of colonel. The exhibit features excerpts from his
diaries and letters detailing his personal experiences, as well as
objects illustrating his life of service during and after the war.
• Navigating the Past: Brown University and the Voyage of
the Slave Ship Sally, 1764–1765—In 1764 a one-hundred-ton
brigantine called the Sally embarked from Providence, Rhode
Island, to West Africa on a slaving voyage. The ship was owned
by Nicholas Brown and Company, a Providence merchant
firm run by four brothers—Nicholas, John, Joseph, and Moses
Brown. The Sally’s voyage was one of roughly one thousand
transatlantic slaving ventures launched by Rhode Islanders in
the colonial and early national periods, and one of the deadliest.
Of the 196 Africans acquired by the ship’s master, Esek Hopkins,
at least 109 perished, some in a failed insurrection, others by
suicide, starvation, and disease. Records of the Sally venture are
preserved in the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University,
as well as in the archives of the Rhode Island Historical Society.
Created as a group independent-study project at Brown, under
the guidance of Prof. James T. Campbell, this exhibit offers a
unique opportunity to retrace the journey of a single slave ship,
from its initial preparation through the long months on the
African coast to the auctioning of surviving captives on the West
Indian island of Antigua.
• Rhode Island: Faith and Freedom—In 2013 Rhode Island
commemorated the 350th anniversary of its colonial charter,
which granted individuals the freedom to worship without
government intrusion. Consequently, many faith communities took
root in Rhode Island in the centuries that followed. Rhode Island
became a haven for those who wished to escape persecution,
yet it was also a colony and, later, a state that denied liberties
to some of its inhabitants. This exhibit, made possible through
major funding support from the Rhode Island Council for the
Humanities, introduces some of the lesser-known founders of faith
communities who have shaped the Ocean State. It explores the
role that institutions of faith and their founders have played in our
cultural consciousness and traces some of the ways that Rhode
Islanders have fought for freedoms restricted or taken away.
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2016 OAH ANNUAL MEETING PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND