Writings

CHAPTER THIRTEEN – THREE STRIKES FOR STATE HISTORY AND HERITAGE The following essay, published in the Providence Journal in 2017, was yet another futile attempt to gain state support for…

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN – TAKING DOWN THE INDEPENDENT MAN In 2016 and 2017, a temporary craze swept the nation that advocated the destruction of statutes, monuments, and memorials that…

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN – SQUANDERING RHODE ISLAND’S MARITIME HERITAGE Like the preceding essay, this January, 2018 Providence Journal commentary has a similar theme. It is a lament for the…

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SAVE OUR MILLS It is more than tragic that less than four years after I published the following essay as a Providence Journal…

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Rhode Island’s Lost Ships This essay appeared as a Providence Journal commentary on August 9, 2008, in the midst of another summer season during…

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RHODE ISLAND’S IRISH FAMINE MEMORIAL: A TRIBUTE TO THE SURVIVORS In the autumn of 1995 Anne Burns arranged for a memorial Mass to be celebrated at the Cathedral of SS.…

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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR – HERITAGE HARBOR: PAST and FUTURE PLANS My long-time friend and historical colleague Albert T. Klyberg and I collaborated in writing the following synopsis of our 40-year…

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN – LABORATORY FOR THE LIVELY EXPERIMENT The year 2013 marked the 350th anniversary of Rhode Island’s Royal Charter of 1663. Governor Lincoln Chafee took the initiative…

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CHAPTER TWELVE – CONSTITUTION DAY 2013: THE CULMINATION OF THE RATIFICATION PROCESS These introductory remarks were made before the Rhode Island Supreme Court for the 2013 observance of Constitution Day. Locally, I…

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CHAPTER THREE – JULY 19, THE REAL RHODE ISLAND INDEPENDENCE DAY From 1974 to mid-1977 when I served as volunteer chairman of the Rhode Island commission to celebrate American independence (ri76),…

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CHAPTER EIGHT – BRISTOL, BROWNELL, AND THE GASPEE In June 2019 I made a presidential discretionary grant of $2,000 from the Heritage Harbor Foundation to the Bristol Fourth…

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CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE – AL KLYBERG: PRINCIPAL PROMOTER OF RHODE ISLAND HISTORY Al Klyberg’s sudden death in January, 2017 brought to an end a friendship and historical collaboration I had shared with…

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STATEHOOD: BRISTOL LED THE WAY!             The highest civic honor that can be conferred upon a resident of Bristol is the position of chief marshal…

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POKANOKET Dear Editor:     In 2007 my husband and I bought the so-called King Philip House on Bristol’s Mount Hope, the…

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THE IRISH IN RHODE ISLAND: THE PROTESTANT PIONEERS      The Irish presence in Rhode Island dates from the late 1630s. Most early Irish Rhode Islanders were Protestants-mainly…

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