Lafayette in the American Rrevolution and his Evolution as an Anti-slavery Advocate, with Alan Hoffman
Lafayette played a critically important role in the American Revolution, both as a general and as an intermediary between the United States and France. Moreover, experiences with African Americans during the war transformed him into a leading anti-slavery advocate. This talk outlines Lafayette’s importance during the American Revolution and then his presence as an anti-slavery advocate after the conflict.
The Mighty struggle for Liberty & Reform: George Burleigh and His Remarkable Family, with Jennifer Rycenga
No one evoked the beauties of Little Compton more than George Shepard Burleigh (1821-1903), except maybe his son, Sydney Richmond Burleigh, in painting. Burleigh was the youngest child from a family of seven Abolitionist siblings. He wrote pointedly against slavery, against the death penalty, and in opposition to the war with Mexico. His literary work was widely published and championed by the literary elite (including Longfellow and Lowell), and he was recognized by the Transcendentalists as a kindred spirit. This talk outlines the last four decades of George’s life, when he lived in Little Compton.
2025 Annual Meeting, with Historical Society Staff
New research conducted over the last fifteen years has dramatically changed and broadened our understanding of the history of the Sakonnet Wampanoag people. We’ve been learning from Wampanoag advisors and studying historic documents, the archaeological record, and the Sakonnet landscape. LCHS Executive Director Marjory O’Toole will share some of what we have learned about seventeenth-century Sakonnet sachems like Awashonks, Takamona, and Mamanuah along with lesser-known individuals from more recent times including Sue Codimonk, Moses Suckanush, and Thomas Cooper. The talk will explore the tactics Plymouth Colony employed to purchase Sakonnet against Awashonks’ will and how the Sakonnets and their Acoaxet neighbors responded to the arrival of English newcomers and then continued to live on their homelands and within neighboring Native communities.
Community Engaged Archaeology, with Kevin Smith
In 2023, as part of the Sakonnet History Project, Kevin Smith partnered with the Little Compton Historical Society to study pre-Colonial stone tools and ceramics in the Society’s collections as well as those found by Little Compton residents over the past 75 years. Nearly thirty people shared what they had found in the Little Compton area in order to gain a better understanding of their collections. In this talk, Kevin Smith will share what we learned from working with the community and how it helps to illuminate 13,000+ years of life in the area that is today called Little Compton.
Steamboating to Sakonnet Point, with Jim Garman
Jim Garman is the official Town Historian for the town of Portsmouth. He had a long career as a teacher at Portsmouth Abbey School and as a professional photographer. He has an extensive collection of vintage photographs and postcard images of Newport County. He is the author of six books on Newport County history. For almost 50 years he has frequently lectured on topics of interest to Newport County residents.
This talk will be on the steamboats that ran from Providence to Sakonnet Point and back in the late 19th- early 20th centuries. The steamboats hauled fresh fish and farm produce to market and day-trippers rode each way. It was a fascinating era of local travel and history and the presentation will be well-illustrated.
Little Compton, Connected, A Local Transportation History: Plans for the 2024 Summer Exhibit, with Steven Lubar
Little Compton has a surprising transportation history. We have always been more connected to the world than we might think. There are so many stories we might tell. Indigenous transportation routes, by water and land to points east and north, set the stage for today’s roads. Farm products and fish went by boat to the plantations of the Caribbean in the 1700s, and by boat and then carriage and train to cities up and down the east coast in the 1800s and 1900s. Steamboats brought day tourists to Sakonnet Point and goods to Adamsville Landing. The railroad and coach brought summer visitors. Peddlers and wagons traversed the roads, taking orders and selling groceries and household goods. In the 20th century the automobile opened new markets for farmers and brought new developments and new residents.
40 Years Later: the Vikings in North America, with Kevin Smith
It has been 63 years since the first Viking Age site in North America was discovered at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, and 40 years since the two most comprehensive reviews of evidence for the Vikings in North America were published. Archaeologist Kevin Smith bring together recent work to view the interactions between North America’s Indigenous people and the Vikings.
Sickness & Evil in the New England Colonies, 1620-1788, with Andrew Rapoza.
Andrew Rapoza, historian and author of Promising Cures, a four-volume, three-century history of health in a New England community, presents the little-known evidence of Puritans using counter-magic to fight witchcraft in the years before, during, and after the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692. He also discusses the ways Little Compton’s Wilbor family protected themselves from evil at the Wilbor House Museum.
Weeku from Mat to Bark in 13 Moons
Darius Coombs, Cultural & Outreach Coordinator for Education for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe
The weeku (sometimes “wetu”) for Indigenous Nations of the Northeast has been used for thousands of years. They are homes that could be as small as a six-person family home to as large as a football field. Come join Darius Coombs (Mashpee Wampanoag), who has been constructing these homes for over 30 years for numerous Indigenous communities, for an illustrated talk. He has trained Indigenous folks in the full meaning of a weeku and its usage. Darius has also done numerous presentations of the Indigenous history of cultures of the Northeast. Please come and enjoy the fun and educational experience on the true meaning of a weeku.
How to “Read” a Historic Building
Clark Schoettle, Historical Preservationist
This presentation will teach you how to “read” the history of a house based on architectural evidence. Clark will begin with an architectural overview of the houses that will be featured on the Historic House Tour on September 17. He will describe the architectural styles represented in the tour, including their defining characteristics and elements. Then Clark will identify some of the similarities and variations among the houses as well as alterations made over time, discussing what makes them interesting and unique.
Primus’ House: History and Archaeology in Little Compton
Holly Herbster, Senior Archaeologist at Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc.
Join PAL Senior Archaeologist Holly Herbster and LCHS’ Marjory O’Toole as they share the history of land use on the Church-Collins-Nicholson property and the results of the 2021 archaeological investigations. Learn what the documentary record and the archaeological data tell us (and don’t tell us) about the Collins family, about the ancient history of this part of Little Compton, and how this information is being used to help interpret one of two sites in Little Compton that are known to have been associated with eighteenth and nineteenth-century Afro-Indigenous families.
10 Steps to Researching the History of Your House
Marian Pierre-Louis, Online Education Producer at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
You can research the history of your house whether it is 20 years old or 200 years old. Marian Pierre-Louis will introduce where to find the deeds to your house, how to chain a deed, and locating other sources of information such as the US Federal Census records, maps, and tax records. Come learn 10 steps to get you started on your house history research. This talk is appropriate for both beginners and those who have research experience.
Inside The Gem of the Ocean
Chris Rawson, Professor Emeritus of English at University of Pittsburgh, Theater Critic, and LCHS Board Member
Chris Rawson is a several-generation Little Compton summer resident. During the work year he lives in Pittsburgh, PA as an English professor at the University of Pittsburgh and theater critic at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. As the latter, he covered the career of the great playwright August Wilson (1945-2005), the two men becoming friends. Mr. Wilson’s 10-play American Century Cycle is set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, and his remarkable Gem of the Ocean is now playing at Trinity Rep in Providence, through March 27. Chris will talk about this great playwright and this play, with pictures and time for questions.
Video coming soon.
Rural New England Women: Coastal RI and Inland MA
Dr. Marla Miller, Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst
One might expect that Hadley, MA and Little Compton, RI were very similar as rural farming communities in New England, yet each community had its own nuances. Dr. Marla Miller, Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, has conducted extensive research on the role of women in Hadley’s history. She joins Everyone Was a Farmer co-curators Professor Steven Lubar and Marjory O’Toole to discuss women’s roles and experiences in each community, and what evidence we have to support those conclusions.
Genealogy from Home: Making the Most of Online Sources
Marian Pierre-Louis, Online Education Producer at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
Now more than ever it’s important to take advantage of using online sources for genealogy research. You’ll learn the best tips for making the most of your online research on a variety of websites. Appropriate for all levels of family historians.
No video available.
A Tale of Two Portraits
Marjory O’Toole, LCHS Executive Director
This summer descendants of Little Compton’s Rev. Mase Shepard and his wife Deborah Haskins Shepard donated two portraits they believed to be the minister and his wife. But it wasn’t so. Join Marjory as she leads us step-by-step through the discovery process that revealed the true identity of the couple in the portraits and the lessons we learned about the Shepard family.
Foodways of 18th-Century Rhode Island
Eleanor Langham, Site Director at Coggeshall Farm
Explore unique and exciting foodways of 18th-century Rhode Island. Learn how the seasons, local economy, and weather impacted diets and why historic food was far from bland and boring. We will look at historic recipes and techniques, with a focus on some local favorites that are still popular today.
Recording not available.
The Rhode to Suffrage: The Expansion of Voting Rights in Rhode Island
Jenna Peterson-Magnuski, LCHS Museum Educator
Each state in the new United States established its own rules for who could vote. When people sought the right to vote, some tried to change state laws and constitutions and others looked for national changes. Rhode Island initially allowed only freeholders (men owning a significant amount of land) and their eldest sons to vote. The trip to today’s voting rights was anything but straightforward. Museum Educator Jenna Peterson-Magnuski will share key figures, including Little Compton residents, and events along that journey.
Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, A Life Remembered: Scholar, Author, Activist, Muse
P. Scott Brown, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Medieval Art History at the University of North Florida
Little Compton summer resident Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield had a fascinating family, including her famous/infamous father, the Boss Tweed crony and Egyptologist; her mother, the well-known suffragist; and her husband, Edwin, the celebrated painter. But Evangeline herself has been nearly forgotten, though artists and intellectuals on two continents remembered her on her death in 1918 as “the most learned woman” alive. It is all the more ironic that she has been forgotten, since she was a pioneer of women’s history, whose most important work was misappropriated by another, now-famous woman. Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield is well worth remembering, for her brilliant writing on women and art and for her profound influence on her husband’s art and on the ideals of public beauty and aesthetic access in America.
“There’s nothing of their house but the ruined foundation”: History and Archaeology at the Manton Farm Property
Holly Herbster, Senior Archaeologist and Principal Investigator at The Public Archaeology Laboratory
The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. (PAL) teamed with LCHS and community volunteers to document the history of the Manton Farm on Mullin Hill Road. Henry Manton was a Black man who came to Little Compton as a boy in the 1860s; his wife Dora Johnson’s African American and Native American family was from Dartmouth. At numerous times during three generations of ownership, the Manton family was the only family of color in Little Compton. Join PAL Senior Archaeologist Holly Herbster and LCHS’s Executive Director Marjory O’Toole as they share the history of the Manton Family and the results of the 2019 archaeological investigations.
Introducing the Big Barn Project
Marjory O’Toole, LCHS Executive Director
Hear about the Historical Society’s first permanent exhibition project in over 40 years. Executive Director Marjory O’Toole will share our plans for a major permanent exhibition on farming from the time of the Sakonnet People to the present day. See before and after photos of our 19th-century dairy barn as we reimagine it from an underappreciated storage building and create a vibrant new museum space. Learn how you and other community members can help by sharing farming photos, stories, and artifacts with us.
Beyond Salem 1692: Witchcraft in the Seventeenth-Century
Dr. Charlotte Carrington-Farmer, Associate Professor of History at Roger Williams University
Between 1450 and 1750, at least 100,000 individuals, mostly women, were accused of witchcraft in Europe and North America. Of these, roughly half met their demise at the stake or in the noose. The lecture will address how and why magic and witchcraft made sense to early modern people and what it meant when someone was accused of making a pact with the Devil. By setting the Salem trials of 1692 in context, the lecture will consider the nature of witch-hunts more broadly and the social, religious, judicial, and political causes.
They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty
John G. Turner, Professor of Religious Studies, George Mason University
Drawing on original research using underutilized sources, Dr. Turner moves beyond familiar narratives in his new history of Plymouth Colony published for the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s Landing. His work focuses on the ways English settlers and Native peoples engaged in a contest for the meaning of American liberty.
Quaker Women in Colonial New England
Elizabeth Cazden, Independent Quaker Scholar
Explore the lives of Quaker women in Colonial New England and the roles they played within the Society of Friends. Ms. Cazden will use her intensive research as a path to understanding the rights and responsibilities of local Quaker women.
The Women of the West Road—Activists & Advocates
Janet Lisle, Author of The History of Little Compton
Author and local historian Janet Lisle will detail the lives of a close-knit group of 19th-century women living at the corner of West Main and Swamp Roads, who, despite their youth, led Little Compton’s abolition efforts in the century’s early decades.
Slavery & Freedom in Little Compton
Marjory O’Toole, Executive Director, LCHS
Explore the history of Northern slavery and emancipation through the personal stories of people enslaved in Little Compton and the surrounding communities. Special attention will be paid to the histories of enslaved women and girls.
Nevertheless, She Persisted: Exploring 17th-Century Women for a 21st-Century World
Hilary Goodnow, Director for Education & Outreach, Plimoth Plantation
What does it really mean to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes? Explore the lives of 17th-century women through the eyes of Mayflower passenger Elizabeth Tilley Howland and discuss how living history provides new insight into their joys, sorrows, and challenges.
Little Compton’s 17th- 18th- & 19th-Century Women
Marjory O’Toole, LCHS Executive Director
From sachems to epidemic survivors to suffragists, the early women of Little Compton led lives that we are only just beginning to understand. Learn more about these fascinating individuals and their growing community with video recordings of three previous lectures.
Women’s History Project – Virtual Indoor Exhibit Tour
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