Year Inducted: 1965
Charles G. “Hoss” Radbourn - Charles G. Radbourn, 1854-1897, born in Rochester, New York, "Old Hoss" played baseball for Providence, Boston, and Cincinnati in the National League from 1881 through 1891. He is regarded as the greatest pitcher of the 19th century with 308 wins and 191 losses in 12 years of competition. In 1884, he pitched the Providence Grays… …
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry - Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, 1785-1819, naval hero of the famous Battle of Lake Erie during the war of 1812. On September 10, 1813, his ten-ship squadron defeated a comparable British force, thereby giving America control of that strategic waterway, a feat that made Perry a national hero. His terse note to General William Henry Harrison… …
George M. Cohan - George Michael Cohan was born in Fox Point, Providence on July 3, 1878 to Irish-Catholic parents. Cohan joined his parents and sister in a vaudeville act an an early age. Cohan became one of the leading Tin Pan Alley songwriters, publishing upwards of 300 original songs. He also became the most successful theatrical producer of… …
Gilbert Stuart - Gilbert Stuart, 1755-1828, of North Kingstown is one of America's most notable portrait painters. After study in Dublin and London, he returned to America in 1793, where he painted renowned portraits of many of our founding fathers including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. …
Major General Nathanael Greene - Nathanael Greene was born in the Potowomut section of the town of Warwick on July 27, 1742 (or August 7, according to the New Style Julian calendar adopted in England and the American colonies in 1752). His father, for whom he was named, was a farmer and an iron maker whose second wife, Mary Mott,… …
Napoleon Lajoie - Napoleon (“Nap,” “Larry,” “The Big Frenchman”) was born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island on September 5, 1874. He received little formal education during his childhood and instead played baseball for a local Woonsocket mill team under the alias “Sandy” to conceal his identity from his parents who disapproved of him playing the game. Lajoie broke in… …
Nathanael G. “Nat” Herreshoff - Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, 1848-1938, was a world-renowned Bristol boatbuilder who teamed with his blind brother John Brown Herreshoff to build a series of world famous racing yachts that dominated the America's Cup competition from 1893 through 1934. "Captain Nat" and his Herreshoff Manufacturing Company also built luxury yachts, cruising sailboats, and America's first torpedo boat… …
Nehemiah Dodge - Nehemiah Dodge, 1769-1843 was a pioneering Rhode Island industrialist whose craft was that of "manufacturing jeweler". He is generally regarded as the principle founder of Rhode Island's costume jewelry industry. His most famous apprentice was Jabez Gorham (1792-1869), founder of the internationally renowned Gorham Manufacturing Company. …
Roger Williams - Roger Williams (1603?–1683), Rhode Island’s most famous personage, was born in London, the son of James Williams, a merchant, and Alice Pemberton. Remarkably, the precise year of his birth is unknown, and Williams himself gave conflicting accounts of his age. As a very young man, he broke with the Anglican state church and joined the… …
Samuel Slater - Samuel Slater, 1768-1835, an English-born textile operative and inventor, has been called the "Father of American Manufacturing". He migrated to Rhode Island from Derbyshire in 1789, and, in concert with Rhode Island investors and craftsman, built and activated spinning frames at Pawtucket Falls that were modeled on those of English inventor Richard Arkwright. On December… …
