Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame:

Catherine R. (Arnold) Williams (1790-1872)

Inducted in 2002

Catharine R. (Arnold) Williams (1790-1872) of Providence was one of Rhode Island's major literary figures of the nineteenth century. She was the daughter of Alfred Arnold, a sea captain, and Amey Read. Her mother died when Catharine was a child, so the oft-absent father entrusted her education and upbringing to two of her aunts. Read more >

Zachariah Allen (1795-1882)

Inducted in 1973

Zacharian Allen, 1795-1882, was a lawyer, inventor, and civic leader of the nineteenth century. One of his most notable inventions was the home hot-air furnace. He also originated the Providence Water Works and is credited with introducing the first vehicles to the Providence Fire Company. Allen was also instrumental in setting up the mutal fire insurance system in early America . Read more >

William G. Angell (1811-1870)

Inducted in 2004

Angell, William Gorham, 1811-1870

William G. Angell (1811-1870) was a native of Providence and a descendant of Thomas Angell, one of Providence's first settlers. Despite his lineage, William's family was one of modest means. He acquired only a basic common school education and took up his father's trade as a carpenter. Read more >

James Burrill Angell (1829-1916)

Inducted in 2008

James Burrill Angell had a remarkably diverse career-- Brown University graduate, professor of languages, newspaper editor, university president, and diplomat. He is best known as the longest-serving president of the University of Michigan where he aspired to provide an 'uncommon education for the common man.'

Born on January 7, 1829, in Scituate, Rhode Island, Angell was the eldest of eight
children of Amy and Andrew Angell, and a member of an old-line Rhode Island family that traced its lineage to Thomas Angell who came to Providence with Roger Williams.

Although reared on an outlying farm, Angell had an excellent early education including a
year at the University Grammar School under the instruction of Henry Frieze, a teacher who would spend many years as professor and interim president of the University of Michigan. Read more >

Samuel Greene Arnold (1821-1880)

Inducted in 2004

Samuel Greene Arnold (1821-1880) is one of the two foremost historians of colonial Rhode Island. He was born into a prominent merchant family and was descended from Thomas Arnold, one of Providence’s earliest settlers. Arnold was educated by private tutors, attended private schools, graduated from Brown University in 1841, and earned a law degree from Harvard in 1845.

After extensive travels, available to a man of wealth and leisure, Arnold embarked upon the writing of a detailed and scholarly History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations covering the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Read more >

James Newall Arnold (1844-1927)

Inducted in 2007

Arnold, James N. (James Newell), 1844-1927

James N. Arnold (1844-1927) whose contributions to the study of Rhode Island history are as fresh and useful today as they were when first transcribed, dealt in data of family life: official town documents and records; newspaper accounts; birth, marriage, and death records in church archives; and history on stone in local graveyards. While historical interpretations pass in and out of favor; the cold facts remain. Read more >

Dr. Robert D. Ballard (1942-)

Inducted in 2010

Best known for his 1985 discovery of the Titanic, Dr. Robert Ballard has succeeded in tracking down numerous other significant shipwrecks, including the Lusitania, the German battleship Bismarck, the lost fleet of Guadalcanal, the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown (sunk in the World War II Battle of Midway), and John F. Read more >

Joseph Banigan (1839-1898)

Inducted in 2005

Joseph Banigan (1839-1898) and his parents were part of a wave of Irish Catholic refugees who fled the Potato Famine in Ireland. Arriving in Rhode Island in 1847, he attended school for one year before becoming a full-time worker at age nine. Over the next fifty years he employed the "pluck and luck" characteristics of Yankee entrepreneurs to build a local footwear empire before assuming the presidency of the United States Rubber Company in 1893.

Banigan was a youthful apprentice in the jewelry industry before tinkering with rubber products. Read more >

Christiana Carteaux Bannister

Inducted in 2003

Bannister, Christiana Carteaux, 1822-1903

Christiana Carteaux Bannister was born Christiana Babcock in Rhode Island's South County sometime between 1820 and 1822. Details concerning her birth and background are obscure, but she appears to have been of mixed native American and African-American parentage and was undoubtedly descended from slaves that worked the plantations of South County during the eighteenth century.

As a young woman she moved to Boston and took up the trade of hairdressing. During her twenty-five year residence in Massachusetts she owned salons both in Boston and Worcester and prospered as an independent businesswoman and self-styled “hair doctress. Read more >

Amos Chafee Barstow (1813-1892)

Inducted in 2004

Mayor Amos Chafee Barstow (1813-1892) was one of the most accomplished and versatile men in the history of Rhode Island. A Providence native, Barstow made his fortune by the manufacture of stoves. His firm, the Barstow Stove Company, located at Point and Richmond Streets covered two and one-half acres and employed 200 workers. Barstow won the Grand Medal of Merit at the 1873 Vienna World's Fair for the best cooking stoves and ranges. Read more >

John Russell Bartlett (1805-1886)

Inducted in 2004

Bartlett, John Russell, 1805-1886

John Russell Bartlett (1805-1886) is generally regarded as Rhode Island’s greatest secretary of state. Although a Providence native, he was educated in Canada and New York and operated a bookstore in New York City during the late 1830s and 1840s. Surrounded by books, he turned to writing. In 1847 Bartlett published The Progress of Ethnology which was followed a year later by his famous Dictionary of Americanisms. Read more >

Thomas Williams Bicknell (1834-1925)

Inducted in 2010

Bicknell, Thomas Williams, 1834-1925

Thomas W. Bicknell (1834-1925) of Barrington was one of the two outstanding historians of Rhode Island during the first half of the 20th century (Dr. Charles Carroll was the other). In 1920 he published a three-volume narrative history of the state, supplemented by three biographical volumes. Read more >

Major General George Newman Bliss (1837-1928)

Inducted in 2003

Bliss, George Newman, 1837-1928

George Newman Bliss was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island on July 22, 1837, the son of James and Sarah (Stafford) Bliss. He attended Brown University, secured a bachelor's degree from Union College, and earned a law degree from Albany Law School in 1861. Enlisting in the Civil War as a private, he rose to the rank of major in the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry serving with valor and resourcefulness in numerous engagements in the Virginia theater of war. At Waynesboro, Virginia on September 18, 1864, he displayed such heroic action as to merit the Congressional Medal of Honor. Read more >

Major General Zenas Randall Bliss (1835-1900)

Inducted in 2009

Major General Zenas Randall Bliss was born in the Johnston village of Simmonsville on April 17, 1835. He passed a comfortable youth in a middle class family until he won a direct appointment to the United States Military Academy in 1850, at the age of fifteen. At West Point Bliss graduated near the bottom of the class of 1854 and was immediately dispatched to Texas to serve with the Eighth United States Infantry.

Promotion to first lieutenant came in 1860, as Bliss continued with his peacetime duties of policing the frontier. Read more >

Governor Augustus Osborn Bourn (1834-1925)

Inducted in 2005

Governor Augustus O. Bourn (1834-1925) was born in Providence in 1834 to a distinguished old-line Rhode Island family whose earliest ancestor Jared Bourn served as a Portsmouth representative to the colonial assembly in 1654-55. After graduation from Brown University in 1855, Bourn joined his father in the business of manufacturing India-rubber goods.

In 1864, Bourn founded the National Rubber Company in Bristol which had a workforce of over 1100 within twenty years of its establishment and became, by far, Bristol's largest industry. Read more >

Gladys Williams Brayton (1890-1990)

Inducted in 1991

The late Gladys Brayton was a direct descendant of Roger Williams and a lifelong resident of Rhode Island. She became one of the State's most prominent historians, teachers, and authors. She was a former curator of Cranston Historical Society, and an honorary member of the Warwick Historical Society. She was also a member of the City of Cranston Hall of Fame, was nominated as Cranston's "Woman of the Year," and was a well-known author of historical documents. Read more >

John Nicholas Brown (1900-1979)

Inducted in 1975

John Nicholas Brown, 1900-1979, was a former assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air, senior fellow at Brown University and a director of the Smithsonian Institution. He directed the search and recovery of the works of art stolen by the Nazis for which he was decorated by the French and Belgian governments. Read more >

John Carter Brown (1797-1874)

Inducted in 2012

Born in 1797, the youngest of the three surviving children of Nicholas Brown II and Ann Carter, daughter of John Carter, the noted Providence printer, John Carter Brown was raised in a family tradition of public leadership and philanthropy. While at Brown University, he joined an undergraduate society to provide needy students with free books.

Upon graduation in 1816, John Carter Brown joined the family firm, Brown & Ives. Though lacking his forefathers' enthusiasm for business or politics, he cheerfully undertook his commercial responsibilities, especially after his older brother Nicholas III defiantly left the family firm to settle in New York. Read more >

Harold W. Browning (1893-1987)

Inducted in 1977

Harold W. Browning, 1893-1987, graduated from Rhode Island State College in 1914, and received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin. He was Director of Graduate Studies, Dean of Men, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Vice President, and Vice President Emeritus of the University at the University of Rhode Island. During his tenure, he played a prominent role in attaining university status for the school. Read more >

James C. Bucklin (1801-1890)

Inducted in 2012

Records say that architect James C. Bucklin was a native of Pawtucket, but in view of his family's Rehoboth origins, the place of his birth on July 26, 1801, was probably on the east side of the Blackstone, an area not acquired by Rhode Island until 1862. His parents were James and Lorania (Pearce) Bucklin. When his father died only a year and a half after his birth, James's widowed mother moved with him to Providence, where he would live for the remainder of his long life. Read more >

Justice Walter Snow Burges (1808-1892)

Inducted in 2006

Burges, Walter S. (Walter Snow), 1808-1892

Justice Walter Snow Burges (1808-1892) was a native of Rochester, Massachusetts. His uncle, Congressman Tristam Burges, a former chief justice, oriented Walter toward Rhode Island and Brown University, where Tristam was a professor of oratory.

Walter Burges graduated from Brown with honors in 1831, and then taught school for four years while studying law. Read more >

Major General Ambrose Everett Burnside (1824-1881)

Inducted in 2003

Burnside, Ambrose Everett, 1824-1881

Ambrose Everett Burnside was born in Liberty, Indiana on May 23, 1824, one of nine children of Irish and Scottish ancestry born to Edghill and Pamela (Brown) Burnside. His father had been a South Carolina slaveholder who moved to Indiana after freeing his slaves. Edghill Burnside became a legislator in his adopted state--a position that enabled him to secure a West Point scholarship for his son Ambrose. After graduation in 1847, young Lieutenant Burnside was assigned to an artillery unit but arrived in Mexico City too late to see actual combat in the short-lived Mexican War. Read more >

Edward Carrington (1775-1843)

Inducted in 2012

Edward Carrington was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on November 2, 1775, the son of physician Edward Carrington and the former Susan Whittlesey. His family moved to Providence after the Revolution, and here Edward embarked upon a career in maritime commerce.

Carrington zealously embraced the commercial opportunity to engage in the exotic China and East India trade, an enterprise begun in 1787 by Providence's Brown family. In 1802, after serving as a clerk for three local merchants, he went to Canton, China and soon was appointed United States consul, a position he held until 1811. Read more >

Dr. Charles Carroll (1876-1936)

Inducted in 2009

Carroll, Charles, 1876-1936

Dr. Charles Carroll, Rhode Island’s foremost historian of his era, was born in Providence to newspaper printer William Carroll and Mary (Sheehan) Carroll. He was educated in the Providence public schools and at Brown University where he excelled in mathematics, edited the Brown Daily Herald, captained the debate team, and served as secretary of the class of 1898. He furthered his studies at Harvard receiving a law degree from that university in 1901, the same year he was admitted to the Rhode Island bar. Read more >

Beatrice O. "Happy" Chace

Inducted in 1999

The late Beatrice O. "Happy" Chace, formerly of Providence, a co-founder of the Providence Preservation Society who provided, on her own initiative, the impetus to restore an important part of Providence's historic College Hill neighborhood. Her generosity and commitment helped make the Benefit Street section in particular, and the preservation movement nationwide the successes they are today. Read more >

George Byron Champlin (1851-1946)

Inducted in 2008

George Byron Champlin (1851-1946) was born in Providence on September 11, 1851, just after his old-line family had left their farm in southern Rhode Island to pursue new opportunities in the state's expanding capital city. George's father, Stanton B. Champlin, opened a produce business on Pine Street in the Downtown, but soon his interest turned to the jewelry industry. In 1872, twenty-one year old George joined his father to establish Stanton B. Read more >

Dr. Walter Channing (1786-1876)

Inducted in 2012

Dr. Walter Channing (April 15, 1786 - July 27, 1876) was born in Newport, the younger brother of the Reverend William Ellery Channing. Like his brother he studied at Harvard and made his career in Boston, but as a noted physician and professor of medicine. After graduating from the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania in 1809, he became Harvard's first Professor of Obstetrics and Medical Jurisprudence and, from 1819 to 1847, the dean of its medical school. Read more >

Reverend William Ellery Channing (1780-1842)

Inducted in 2012

Reverend William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 - October 2, 1842) was born in Newport, a grandson of William Ellery, a Rhode Island signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was also raised in Newport prior to graduating from Harvard in 1798. Thereafter he often visited Rhode Island, but he made his career in Boston as America's foremost minister of Unitarianism, a sect that rejected harsh Calvinistic theology in favor of a gentle, loving relationship with God.

From 1803 until his death Channing was pastor of Boston's Federal Street Church. Read more >

Bowen R. Church (1860-1923)

Inducted in 2015

Bowen R. Church 1860-1923, founder of The American Band of Providence, one of the great symphonic brass bands of the late 19th century. Compared often with the U.S. Read more >

LeBaron Bradford Colt (1846-1924)

Inducted in 2008

LeBaron Bradford Colt was born in Dedham, Massachusetts to Christopher and Theodora (DeWolf) Colt. He and his equally famous brother, Samuel, had very influential forebears. On their maternal side, they were the grandsons of General George DeWolf of Bristol and the grandnephews of U.S. Read more >

Samuel Pomeroy Colt (1852-1921)

Inducted in 2008

Samuel Pomeroy Colt, a brother of U.S. Senator LeBaron Colt, shared his sibling's impressive lineage. Born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1852 as the youngest of six children, he received his early education in Hartford, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1873, and from Columbia Law School in 1876. Read more >

Dr. Patrick T. Conley (1938-)

Inducted in 1995

Dr. Patrick Thomas “Pat” Conley of Bristol is universally considered as Rhode Island's most prolific historian and leading disseminator of historical of knowledge concerning the state's heritage., earning distinction through his pursuit of several different careers as an educator, author, attorney, civic leader, government official, and real estate developer as well as historian. He has written and published more scholarly works pertaining to the history of Rhode Island than any other person, who founded the Rhode Island Heritage Commission as a successor to ri76 for which he served as chairman, both of which preceded the Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission of the state. Read more >

Dr. Manuel da Silva (1926-)

Inducted in 2010

Dr. Manuel da Silva was born on September 5, 1926 in the village of Caviâo, Vale de Cambra in continental Portugal. After completing high school in Portugal, he emigrated to Brooklyn, New York with his mother and brother in January, 1946 to join his father, who was an American citizen. Young Manuel studied the English language intensively, and in 1948 he entered Washington Square College of New York University graduating with a biology degree in 1952. Read more >

Monsignor Charles Dauray (1838-1931)

Inducted in 2008

Dauray, Charles, 1838-1931

Monsignor Charles Dauray, regarded by his contemporaries as the Dean of Catholic clergy in the Diocese of Providence, was born in Marieveille, Quebec on March 15, 1838. At the age of thirty-two he was ordained a priest and assigned to teach at a local college.

Dogged by ill-health and overwork, Dauray was granted a leave of absence and traveled southward to his brother's home in Pawtucket, Rhode Island to recuperate. Soon, he began to immerse himself in the spiritual needs of the rapidly-growing French-Canadian population in that city. Read more >

Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis (1813-1876)

Inducted in 2003

Davis, Paulina W. (Paulina Wright), 1813-1876

Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis was born in Bloomfield, New York on August 7, 1813, the daughter of Captain Ebenezer Kellogg and Polly Saxon. After the death of both parents, Paulina was raised by a strict orthodox Presbyterian aunt. After a brief immersion with religion, Paulina married Francis Wright, a wealthy Utica merchant, in 1833. Read more >

Congressman Thomas Davis (1806-1895)

Inducted in 2003

Davis, Thomas, 1806-1895

Thomas Davis was born in Dublin, Ireland on December 18, 1806, attended private schools in Ireland, and migrated to America in 1817, settling in Providence. Davis became a pioneer in Rhode Island's jewelry industry and amassed sufficient wealth to enable him to finance a variety of political, civic, and reform endeavors.

Davis became a state senator from Providence serving from 1845 to 1853 when he was elected to Congress as a Democrat. Locally he was associated with the reform wing of the Democratic party led by Thomas Wilson Dorr. Read more >

Brigadier Gen. Herbert R. Dean (1882-1941)

Inducted in 2015

Herbert R. Dean, 1882-1941, spent most of his long life in the military including duty in the cavalry during World War I, service as Adjutant General of the Rhode Island National Guard under four governors, and Director of the Selective Service Board for Rhode Island at the beginning of World War II. He was also scoutmaster of Rhode Island's first Boy Scout Troop.

Herbert R. Read more >

Judge Luigi DePasquale (1892-1958)

Inducted in 2015

Judge Luigi DePasquale 1892-1958, exemplifies the rapid political, social, and economic rise of Rhode Island's first generation Italian-Americans. Born on December 13, 1892 in Providence to Italian immigrant parents, Antonio and Maria (Vitale) DePasquale, Luigi was raised in Milford, Massachusetts, where his father became an undertaker. He graduated from Boston University Law School in 1913 at the age of twenty. In 1914, Luigi returned to his native state to practice law. Read more >

Reverend John Byron Diman (1863-1949)

Inducted in 2009

Diman, John Byron, 1863-1949

Reverend John Byron Diman was born in Brookline, Massachusetts to a prominent Rhode Island family of French-Huguenot origin, a branch of which settled in Bristol. The family's surname has been spelled in several ways including “Diamont ” and “Diamond.” John's grandfather Byron was the Law and Order governor of Rhode Island in 1846-47; another relative, Francis M. Diamond served as governor in 1853-54 as a Democrat. Read more >

Antoinette F. Downing (1904-2001)

Inducted in 1978

Antoinette F. Downing, 1904-2001, was the preservationist who was Chairwoman of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission and the Providence Historic District Commission. Her tireless efforts on behalf of the buildings of Rhode Island have made her name synonymous with historic preservation in the state. Read more >

George T. Downing (1819-1903)

Inducted in 2003

George T. Downing, abolitionist, businessman, and civil rights advocate, was born in New York City on December 30, 1819 into a prominent, well-to-do African-American family. His father Thomas Downing was a restauranteur, whose Oyster House was a gathering place for New York's aristocracy and politicians. Under his father's guidance, young George participated in the Underground Railroad and lobbied to gain equal suffrage for blacks. Read more >

Mayor Thomas A. Doyle (1827-1886)

Inducted in 2004

Doyle, Thomas Arthur, 1827-1886

Mayor Thomas A. Doyle, an independent-minded Republican of Irish Protestant stock, is regarded by historians as Providence's greatest mayor. He was born in Providence as one of seven children, including a sister, Sarah, who became a noted educator and advocate for women's rights.

After attending public school, Doyle gained employment as a clerk for several companies and then became a stockbroker and real estate auctioneer. Read more >

Sarah Elizabeth Doyle (1830-1922)

Inducted in 2005

Doyle, Sarah Elizabeth, 1830-1922

Sarah Elizabeth Doyle (1830-1922) was a lifelong resident of Rhode Island who participated in the social reform ferment that engulfed the state during the Gilded Age. Despite the conservative political nature of local thinking, she successfully pioneered educational opportunities for women at the highest level.

She entered Providence High School during its initial enrollment in 1843 and would later teach there from 1856 to 1892. During that time she helped nurture other women in the field of education while searching for institutional ways to solidify academic gains. Read more >

Doris Duke (1912-1993)

Inducted in 2001

Duke, Doris, 1912-1993

The late Doris Duke formerly of Newport, famed tobacco heiress who is one of Rhode Island’s greatest philanthropists. In 1968, she helped to launch the Newport Restoration Foundation to preserve that historic city’s 18^th and early 19^th century domestic architecture. Later, Ms. Duke made a major gift to the nature Conservancy to preserve land in several communities and directed that her Newport mansion, “Rough Point,” become a public museum. Read more >

Wilfred I. Duphiney (1884-1960)

Inducted in 2015

Wilfred I. Duphiney, 1884-1960, Rhode Island's most prolific and most viewed portraitist of the Twentieth Century, was born in the mill village Central Falls in 1884.

His public school education led to his enrollment in the Rhode Island School of Design where he eventually graduated to the faculty and taught at this prestigious art school for nearly forty years. His world was centered on College Hill--RISD, the Providence Art Club, the Providence Watercolor Club, and his studio near the Art Club in the Fleur-de-Lys House at 7 Thomas Street. Read more >

Chief Justice Thomas Durfee (1826-1901)

Inducted in 2009

Durfee, Thomas, 1826-1901

Thomas Durfee was the eldest son of Job Durfee, who was chief justice of Rhode Island from 1828 to 1849, was marked from the outset for a career in law. His mother was Judith Borden, member of a prominent Fall River Family. Thomas completed his preparatory education at the East Greenwich Academy and graduated with honors from Brown University in 1846.

After studying law under the tutelage of Charles Tillinghast and future chief justice Charles F. Read more >

Amasa Eaton (1841-1914)

Inducted in 2009

Eaton, Amasa M. (Amasa Mason), 1841-1914

Amasa Eaton was a prominent Providence attorney who might be described as the quintessential Progressive reformer. His distinguished lineage included Providence’s Brown family and the Herreshoffs of Bristol.

He was an outspoken advocate of home rule for Providence and a member of the Metropolitan Park Commission, the Blackstone Neighborhood Improvement Association, and various good-government organizations. Read more >

Maud Howe Elliott (1854-1948)

Inducted in 2008

Elliott, Maud Howe, 1854-1948

Maud Howe Elliott lived a very long life and certainly made the most of it. She was born at the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston on November 9, 1854. Her father, Samuel Gridley Howe, a noted physician and social reformer, directed the institution, but most people became familiar with her mother, Julia Ward Howe, who wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic and later battled for the cause of women's rights.

Maud was the driving force behind the founding of the Newport Art Association and served as its secretary until she was eighty-seven years old. Read more >

Alan Shawn Feinstein

Inducted in 1995

Raising an Army to Fight Hunger

Have you ever been really hungry? Not just “when's dinner?” hungry but weak and in pain and desperate--not knowing when or how you could find food? On any given day, that's the condition of millions of people in this count alone, and 20 years ago Alan Shawn Feinstein set out to fight it.

He had the money. Through a remarkable combination of determination and good luck, he had gone from a middle-class life teaching in junior high school and writing a financial column in a small-circulation newspaper to starting a financial newsletter and building it into an immensely profitable business. His warning that gold and silver were overvalued three days before their prices crashed helped build the circulation to over 500,000. Read more >

Theodore Foster (1752-1828)

Inducted in 2000

Theodore Foster, 1752-1828, a lawyer and long-time state legislator, served as town clerk (1775-1787) and supported the movement for independence. He was a prominent advocate of the federal Constitution. His efforts in support of ratification, together with his advantageous marriage to the sister of Governor Arthur Fenner, gained him election as one of Rhode Island's first U.S. Read more >

Governor Lucius F. C. Garvin, M.D. (1841-1922)

Inducted in 2008

Garvin, Lucius F. C. (Lucius Fayette Clark), 1841-1922

Lucius Fayette Clark Garvin's life was one of compassion, political struggle, tragedy and service to all. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee on November 21, 1841 to educated parents, his father, James, died when Lucius was only four and his mother, Sarah, a school teacher moved to Greensboro, North Carolina where she remarried and bore two more children. Read more >

Colonel Robert Hale Ives Goddard (1837-1916)

Inducted in 2009

Goddard, Robert H. I. (Robert Hale Ives), 1837-1916

Colonel Robert Goddard (1837-1916) was a son of Professor William G. Goddard, newspaperman and first Chancellor of Brown University, and Charlotte Rhoda Ives Goddard. Read more >

John Gorham (1820-1898)

Inducted in 2009

Gorham, John, 1820-1898

John Gorham was born in Providence on November 18, 1820. He was the eldest son of Jabez Gorham who had established himself as a leading manufacturer of silverware and jewelry in Providence in the 1830s.

John began his apprenticeship in 1837 and in 1841, at the age of 21, he became a partner in his father's business which then became known as J. Gorham & Son. Read more >

Charles E. Gorman (1844-1917)

Inducted in 2005

Gorman, Charles Edmund, 1844-1917

Charles E. Gorman was Rhode Island's foremost constitutional reformer of the late 19th century. He was born in Boston in 1844 to an Irish immigrant father for whom he was named and a Yankee mother, Sarah Woodbury, who traced her Massachusetts ancestry to the Cape Ann colony of the early 1620s.

Gorman was three years old when his parents came to Providence. Read more >

Major General George Sears Greene (1801-1899)

Inducted in 2003

Greene, George Sears, 1801-1899

George Sears Greene, distinguished military leader and civil engineer, was born in Warwick's central village of Apponaug on May 6, 1801, the son of Caleb Greene, a shipowner and relative of General Nathanael Greene and Sarah Robinson.

The family's military heritage influenced George to attend West Point where his great skill in mathematics and engineering was discovered and developed. After graduation in 1823, Greene became a professor of mathematics and engineering at his alma mater and then served in the artillery at several posts around New England.

In 1828, Greene married Elizabeth Vinton who died four years later. Read more >

George Washington Greene (1811-1883)

Inducted in 2004

Greene, George Washington, 1811-1883

George Washington Greene, prominent educator and author, was born in East Greenwich and was the grandson of Nathanael Greene, the great Revolutionary War general.

As a young man, Greene traveled extensively in Europe gaining proficiency in the Italian and French languages. His first wife was Italian and he served as U.S. Read more >

Dr. Ramon Guiteras (1858-1917)

Inducted in 2009

Guiteras, Ramon, 1858-1917

Certainly the most prominent person of Latin American heritage at the turn of the 20^th century was Ramon Guiteras, a native of Bristol. He was the son of a prominent Cuban banker with financial ties to Bristol's DeWolf family. Because the DeWolf's maintained substantial investments in Cuba, family connections followed those of a financial nature. Ramon Guiteras, Sr. Read more >

Rudolph Frederick Haffenreffer, Jr. (1874-1954)

Inducted in 2007

Haffenreffer, Rudolph Frederick, 1874-1954

Rudolf Frederick Haffenreffer, Jr. (1874-1954), a native of Boston and a first generation German-American, became a successful Fall River brewer and purchased several hundred acres in Bristol from 1903 to 1912 for use as a summer retreat. His acquisitions included Mount Hope and the Bradford House.

After completing his basic education in the Boston school system, young Rudolph was sent to Stuttguart, Germany to study chemistry. Read more >

John Milton Hay (1838-1905)

Inducted in 2008

Hay, John, 1838-1905

John Milton Hay was an Illinois native with deep Rhode Island roots that prompted him to select Brown as his college. Providence was the early home of his mother, Helen Leonard, whose father, Rev. David Leonard was in the Brown Class of 1792. At Brown, Hay was described as having “a retentive memory, a vivid imagination, and an ability to get along with the ladies. Read more >

Rowland Gibson Hazard (1801-1888)

Inducted in 2003

Rowland Gibson Hazard was born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island on October 9, 1801, the fourth of nine children of Rowland Hazard and Mary Peace of Charleston, South Carolina. In 1819, with his brother Isaac, he assumed control of his father's small woolen mill in the village of Peace Dale, which had been named for his mother's family. He had primary responsibility for marketing products to Southern plantation owners in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. Hazard wintered in New Orleans from about 1833 to 1842. Read more >

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)

Inducted in 2003

Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910

Julia Ward Howe, born in New York City on May 27, 1819, had deep Rhode Island roots. Two of her ancestors--Richard Ward and Samuel Ward--were prominent colonial governors of Rhode Island and her grandfather Samuel Ward commanded the Black Regiment in the Battle of Rhode Island. Her father, Samuel Jr. was a prominent New York banker who furnished her with a first-class private education and standing in New York's social circles. Read more >

Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe (1864-1960)

Inducted in 2015

Mark Antony Dewolfe Howe, 1864-1960, was born on August 23, 1864 into one of Bristol's leading families. Mark was his father's seventeenth of eighteen children by three wives. After his prolific father and namesake became Episcopal bishop of central Pennsylvania, Mark enrolled at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where his father was chairman of the board of trustees. After graduation in 1886, Mark began the study of English Literature at Harvard University earning a master's degree in 1888. Read more >

Judge David Howell (1747-1824)

Inducted in 2012

Howell, David, 1747-1824

David Howell had a distinguished legal and academic career that extended from the Confederation Era through the Early National Period. He was born in Morristown, New Jersey, on January 1, 1747, the son of Aaron and Sarah Howell. He received his early education at Hopewell Academy in Hopewell, New Jersey, a Baptist school established by clergyman Isaac Eaton. Howell then went to the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), from which he graduated in 1766. Read more >

John Howland (1757-1854)

Inducted in 2000

John Howland, 1757-1854,a public-spirited businessman who began his career as an apprentice hairdresser, is often cited as the father of the Providence public school system. In 1799, the Newport-born civic leader organized an educational lobby which induced the General Assembly to pass a “free school act” on March 13, 1800. Pursuant to that act, Howland directed the town's efforts to comply. Providence appointed its first school committee in August, with Howland as its dominant voice. Read more >

Dr. John Franklin Jameson (1859-1937)

Inducted in 2007

Jameson, J. Franklin (John Franklin), 1859-1937

J. Franklin Jameson (1859-1937) was a history professor at Brown University from 1888 to 1901, a vice president of the Rhode Island Historical Society, first secretary of the American Historical Association and long-time editor of its journal, The American Historical Review, Director of Historical Research at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. Read more >

Congressman Thomas Allen Jenckes (1818-1875)

Inducted in 2004

Jenckes, Thomas A. (Thomas Allen), 1818-1875

Congressman Thomas Allen Jenckes (1818-1875) is regarded nationally as “the father of civil service reform.” He was born in Cumberland, was educated in the public schools of that town, and graduated from Brown University in 1838 where he distinguished himself in mathematics and the physical sciences.

Jenckes studied law under Samuel Y. Read more >

Gertrude I. Johnson (1876-1961)

Inducted in 2015

Gertrude I. Johnson, 1876-1961, and Mary Tiffany Wales, 1874-1952, founding mothers of Johnson & Wales University. Mary Tiffany Wales was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1874 and graduated from the Pennsylvania State Normal School at Millersville in 1893. Following graduation, Mary taught school, first in Pennsylvania and later in Massachusetts. Read more >

Dr. John William Keefe (1863-1935)

Inducted in 2009

Dr. John William Keefe (1863-1935) was a surgeon of great skill and compassion who founded the John W. Keefe Surgery at 262 Blackstone Boulevard in Providence. Although a successful physician in both private practice and as a consulting surgeon at several hospitals, it was his dream to build and operate a small institution where the faults and inefficiencies of general hospitals with their many wards, doctors and nurses would be replaced by a professional efficiency combined with a personal touch. Read more >

Dr. William W. Keen (1837-1932)

Inducted in 2005

Keen, William W. (William Williams), 1837-1932

Dr. William W. Keen (1837-1932) of Swedish and Dutch extraction, was a man of stern principles and unwavering convictions and a diligent worker in the Calvinist tradition. Read more >

Leona McElroy Kelly (1919-2000)

Inducted in 2002

Former Rhode Island Representative from South Kingstown.

Leona A. Kelley was born in Providence on August 15, 1919. She attended Classical High School and the University of Rhode Island graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1941. Read more >

U.S. Rep. Ambrose Kennedy (1875-1967)

Inducted in 2015

U.S. Rep. Ambrose Kennedy, 1875-1967, Congressman Ambrose Kennedy was a rarity in early twentieth century Rhode Island politics--a devout Irish Catholic Republican politician of high standing. Read more >

Charles Bird King (1785-1862)

Inducted in 2012

King, Charles Bird, 1785-1862

Charles Bird King (September 26, 1785 - March 18, 1862) was born in Newport, the only child of Deborah Bird and Revolutionary War veteran Captain Zebulon King, who moved the family to Ohio in 1789 and was killed there by Indians.

When Charles King was fifteen, he went to New York to study portrait painting, and he then journeyed to London, where he was taught by Benjamin West at the Royal Academy.

After returning to America in 1812, he eventually settled in Washington, D.C. Read more >

Dr. Maury Klein (1939-)

Inducted in 2011

Professor Maury Klein, a resident of Saunderstown, has published sixteen major books in a legendary forty-four year career at the University of Rhode Island. His works, almost all national in scope, examined the industrialization of America and the Captains of Industry who spearheaded that technological revolution. Among his output are several publications that dissect the growth and influence of the railroad, especially the iconic Union Pacific that connected the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific in 1869. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize three times and became a finalist in 1986 for his fascinating biographical effort entitled The Life and Legend of Jay Gould. Read more >

Albert T. Klyberg

Inducted in 2014

Albert T. Klyberg, a native of New Jersey, came to Rhode Island in 1968 after completing his doctoral courses at the University of Michigan. His purpose was to assume the directorship of the staid Rhode Island Historical Society--a position he held with distinction for three decades.

Upon arrival Al immediately recognized a deficit in the Ocean State's history. Read more >

Idawally "Ida" Lewis (1842-1911)

Inducted in 2005

Lewis, Ida, 1842-1911

Idawalley “Ida” Lewis is considered the most famous person ever to serve in the U.S. Lighthouse Service, an agency that evolved into the U. S. Read more >

James Sullivan Lincoln (1811-1888)

Inducted in 2004

Lincoln, James Sullivan, 1811-1888

James Sullivan Lincoln was Rhode Island's premier artist of the mid-nineteenth century and has been acclaimed by his peers as “Father of Rhode Island Art.”

The Massachusetts-born Lincoln was orphaned in his teens and left his Bay State farm to become an apprentice to a firm of Providence engravers and then to Providence portraitist C. T. Hinckley. Read more >

Charles I. D. Looff (1852-1918)

Inducted in 2005

Charles I.D. Looff (1852-1918) is considered the first of the great American carousel builders having created 17 of them during his long career--some of which was spent living and working in Riverside, Rhode Island.

Charles I. Read more >

Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce (1827-1917)

Inducted in 2005

Luce, Stephen Bleecker, 1827-1917 Rear Admiral Stephen R. Luce was a founder and first president of the United States Naval War College in Newport. Luce entered the navy in 1841 as a midshipman and attended the U. Read more >

Robert B. Lynch (1922-2003)

Inducted in 2004

Bob "Chief" Lynch was known for his volunteer contributions to the preservation and promotion of Rhode Island's heritage over the last four decades.

Lynch graduated from Cranston High School and Brown University (Class of 1944). He was a Navy veteran of World War II. He served on the Harry F. Read more >

Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914)

Inducted in 2005

Mahan, A. T. (Alfred Thayer), 1840-1914

Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914), the best known and most influential naval officer of the late 19th century, ironically was born at West Point, the son of Dennis Hart Mahan, a professor of military engineering and dean of faculty at the U.S. Read more >

Captain Albert Martin (1808-1836)

Inducted in 2012

Martin, Albert, 1808-1836

Captain Albert Martin (January 6, 1808 - March 6, 1836) was born in Providence, the son of prominent merchant Joseph S. Martin and his wife Abby. He received a good education, including a short stay at the U.S. Read more >

George Champlin Mason, Sr. (1820-1894)

Inducted in 2006

Mason, George C. (George Champlin), 1820-1894

George Champlin Mason, Sr. was a noted Newport architect, real estate developer, editor of the Newport Mercury, prolific historian of Newport, and a founder of the Newport Historical Society. Among his significant architectural designs are Chepstow, the 1860-61 Italianate villa just off Bellevue Avenue, Newpor; Eisenhower House, at 1 Lincoln Drive at Ford Adams State Park, used during the former president's administration as his summer residence. Read more >

Mayor Patrick J. McCarthy (1848-1921)

Inducted in 2008

McCarthy, Patrick Joseph, 1848-1921

Mayor Patrick J. McCarthy was the only immigrant ever to serve as mayor of Providence. Born in County Sligo, Ireland in 1848, his family fled the Potato Famine in 1850 only to be quarantined on Deer Island in Boston Harbor. Both his parents died there. Read more >

Dr. Robert J. McKenna (1931-2012)

Inducted in 1993

Dr. Robert J. McKenna, 1931-2012, a native of Providence, was Mayor of the City of Newport, as well as having been a Professor of Politics and Assistant to the President of Salve Regina University. He engaged in more than three decades of public service as both a State Senator and Representative, aide to the late U. Read more >

Alexander Meiklejohn (1872-1964)

Inducted in 2015

Alexander Meiklejohn, 1872-1964, Alexander Meiklejohn was a most unusual man, a dissenter in the mode of Roger Williams! He came to Rhode Island in 1880, when he was eight years old, the youngest son of a Scottish working class family. After a brief stay in Warwick, Alexander moved with his family to Pawtucket where he grew to manhood. He said of himself that he was brought up on the bible and “Bobbie” Burns, with an emphasis on the latter! His formal education came at Brown University where he studied, and later taught philosophy. A loyal alum he came back often to Brown from the various pursuits of his long life. Read more >

Dr. D. Scott Molloy, Jr.

Inducted in 2009

Scott was born on August 17, 1946 into an Irish-Catholic, blue-collar family from the Reservoir Triangle neighborhood of Providence that had close ties to organized labor. His working-class background and his Irish ethnicity exerted profound influences upon his career and his achievements. Scott eventually became a labor leader and Rhode Island's foremost labor historian as well as a leading authority on Rhode Island's Irish-American community. Encouraged by his parents, he put his nose to the educational grindstone graduating from Hope High School, Rhode Island College (A. Read more >

Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863)

Inducted in 2004

Moore, Clement Clarke, 1779-1863

Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) was a long-time summer resident of Newport who wrote America's best known poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”

Moore was born in New York City, the son of Benjamin Moore, a clergyman. Although Clement prepared to follow in his father's footsteps, he was never ordained, preferring instead the life of a scholar. Read more >

William T. Nicholson (1834-1893)

Inducted in 2004

Nicholson, William Thomas, 1834-1893

William T. Nicholson was the founder of the Nicholson File Company of Providence, the originator of machine-made files in America, the largest company of its kind in the world, and one of Providence's “five industrial wonders” of the nineteenth century.

Nicholson was born on March 22, 1834 in the village of Pawtucket, then in the town of North Providence. His father, a machinist, moved the family to Whitinsville, Massachusetts where young William was raised and educated. Read more >

Dr. Usher Parsons (1788-1868)

Inducted in 2002

Parsons, Usher, 1788-1868

Dr. Usher Parsons of Providence was Rhode Island’s foremost physician of the early 19^th century. Born in Alfred, Maine, the youngest of nine children, Parsons had little formal schooling, but began the study of medicine as an apprentice to physicians in Alfred and Boston. Parsons was licensed to practice by the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1812 and immediately gained valuable experience as a surgeon for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie (1813). Read more >

Sam Patch (1799-1829)

Inducted in 2012

Patch, Sam, 1807-1829

Sam Patch was born in North Reading, Massachusetts, one of six children produced by the stormy union of Samuel Greenleaf Patch and Abigail McIntire Patch.

Following several family moves to northeastern Massachusetts towns, the Patches arrived in the mill village of Pawtucket at the falls of the Blackstone in 1807. Shortly after their arrival Sam began work in Slater's “White Mill,” where he rose to the coveted position of mule spinner--one of the first American-born workers to achieve this status. Sam's fame, however, would be made not in the mill but at the falls outside it: he eventually leapt feet-first from the six-story “Stone Mill” into a deep hole called “the pot,”a descent of 100 feet. Read more >

James T. Patterson (1935-)

Inducted in 2016

James T. Patterson is one of the most distinguished historians of modern America. He was born in 1935 and attended the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, graduating in 1952. Following a year at Christ's Hospital School in England, he attended Williams College where he majored in history, graduating in 1957. Read more >

Annie Smith Peck (1850-1935)

Inducted in 2009

Peck, Annie S. (Annie Smith), 1850-1935

Annie Smith Peck was born on October 19, 1850 in a two story house at 865 North Main Street in Providence. She lived with her parents and three brothers in a home that her grandfather had built. Her mother traced the family's roots to Roger Williams the founder of Providence. Read more >

John Red Pollard (1909-1981)

Inducted in 2015

John "Red" Pollard, 1909-1981: Although he was the grandson of Irish immigrants, John “Red” Pollard was born into affluence. Unfortunately a flood in 1915 devastated the family business--a brickyard--and left the six-year old impoverished. As a teenager, he decided to become a professional jockey.

Though considered too tall at a “towering” 5 feet, 6 inches, Pollard left his home in Edmonton, Canada to pursue his dream. Read more >

Congressman Elisha Reynolds Potter, Jr. (1811-1882)

Inducted in 2002

Congressman Elisha Reynolds Potter, Jr. (1811-1882) of South Kingstown was the son and namesake of a U.S. congressman, Elisha Reynolds Potter, Sr. Read more >

Dr. Isaac Ray (1807-1881)

Inducted in 2002

>Dr. Isaac Ray (1807-1881) is one of the fathers of American psychiatry. A native of Beverly, Massachusetts, Ray graduated from Phillips-Andover Academy and attended Bowdoin College in Maine, but left prior to graduation. Returning to Beverly, Ray served a medical apprenticeship to a local doctor, then enrolled at Harvard Medical School, and eventually concluded his studies at the Medical School of Maine, receiving his degree in 1827 at age twenty. Read more >

Elisha Hunt Rhodes (1842-1917)

Inducted in 2003

Elisha Hunt Rhodes, eldest son of ship captain Elisha Hunt Rhodes and Eliza Ann (Chace) Rhodes, was born in Pawtuxet Village on March 21, 1842. This lineal descendant of Roger Williams attended schools in Cranston and Providence including Potter & Hammond's Commercial College. His father's death at sea when Elisha was only sixteen left him the sole supporter of his family. He left school to work as a clerk in the office of a mill supplier. Read more >

Sidney S. Rider (1833-1917)

Inducted in 2007

Sidney S. Rider (1833-1917) was born in Brainard's Bridge, Nassau County, New York in 1833 and died in Providence in 1917. He attended schools in New York and Pomfret, Connecticut. Coming to Providence as a boy, he went into the book business, eventually taking over the store of Charles Burnett. Read more >

Abigail Aldrich Rockefeller (1874-1948)

Inducted in 2014

Abigail Aldrich Rockefeller, 1874-1948, was the daughter of U.S. Sen. Nelson Aldrich, patron of the arts, and advocate for women's rights. Read more >

Brigadier General Isaac Peace Rodman (1822-1862)

Inducted in 2003

Isaac Peace Rodman was born in South Kingstown on August 18, 1822 to Samuel Rodman, a woolen manufacturer, and Mary (Peckham) Rodman. His ancestors included members of South Kingstown's most prominent clans--the Hazards and the Perrys.

After attending local public schools Isaac entered his father's business, but his love of learning and avid reading habits gained him local renown as a scholar and literary critic. Engaging in public life, Rodman served as president of his town council and as a senator and a representative in the Rhode Island General Assembly. Read more >

Johnathan Russell (1771-1832)

Inducted in 2012

U.S. Minister and Congressman Jonathan Russell (February 27, 1771 - February 17, 1832) was born in Providence and graduated in 1791 from Brown University.

After several years in the mercantile business, he was appointed by President James Madison as American diplomatic chargé d'affairs in Paris in 1811 and then the chargé in London, a position he held when the War of 1812 began. Read more >

Walter K. Schroder (1929-)

Inducted in 2007

Although he was born in Pawtucket, Walter Schroder, the son of German immigrants, spent his early years in Germany where he was drafted in 1944 at age fifteen to serve with an antiaircraft battery. Captured by the British in 1945, he served as a P.O.W. Read more >

Walter Scott (1841-1924)

Inducted in 2009

The steps leading to the invention of an American cultural original, the diner eatery, began in Providence through the initiative of Walter Scott. He was born on November 28, 1841 in Cumberland, the son of lawyer Joseph A. Scott and Juliet Howland Scott. By age eleven Scott was peddling candy, fruit, and newspapers on the streets of Providence to supplement his widowed mother's small income. Read more >

George L. Sisson (1919-)

Inducted in 2005

Born in Portsmouth, R.I. 1919, Resident of Bristol since 1963
Fall River Public Schools, Durfee High, 1938
William & Mary College, A.B. Read more >
Dr. Edwin M. Snow (1820-1888)
Inducted in 2004

Dr. Edwin M. Snow (1820-1888) was Providence's first superintendent of health and
chief statistician from 1856 to 1884.

Dr. Read more >
Bishop William Stang (1854-1907)
Inducted in 2009

William Stang (1854-1907) was born in Langenbucken, Germany, studied for the Catholic priesthood at Louvain in Belgium, and was ordained in June 1878. Little else is known of his early life.

Irish-born bishop Thomas F. Hendricken (whose surname indicates his German ancestor) sought a German-speaking priest for the small but growing German community in the Diocese of Providence. Read more >
Chief Justice William Read Staples (1798-1868)
Inducted in 2002

Chief Justice William Read Staples of Providence was a prominent lawyer, jurist, and civil servant. With the possible exception of Samuel Greene Arnold, who eulogized him, Staples was also the premier Rhode Island historian of the nineteenth century. In the 1820s, Staples became a leader of the Rhode Island bar and then a prosecutor for the office of attorney general. In that public post his most notable assignment was as chief prosecutor in the infamous Avery Murder Trial of 1833. Read more >
Rev. Ezra Stiles (1727-1795)
Inducted in 1998

Reverend Ezra Stiles, 1727-1795, of Newport was a Congregational clergyman, scholar, diarist, author, civic leader and president of Yale University from 1778-1795. Stiles was one of the foremost intellectuals of colonial Rhode Island. During his tenure in Newport (1755-1776), he served as librarian of Redwood Library, pastor of the Second Congregational Church, and a spokesman for the patriot cause prior to the American Revolution. His fifteen-volume diary and six volumes of notes on his "itineraries" are a major source for late 18th century American history. Read more >
Chief Justice John Henry Stiness (1840-1913)
Inducted in 2008

John Henry Stiness (1840-1913) was born to a family with strong New England civic and military roots. His great grandfather, Samuel, served in Colonel John Glover’s famous maritime regiment during the American Revolution, and his grandfather was sailing master aboard the schooner Growler on Lake Ontario during the War of 1812.

In August, 1861, after attending two years at Brown and teaching at Hopkins Grammar School in what was then North Providence, Stiness enlisted in the 2nd New York Artillery, eventually seeing Civil War action at the Second Battle of Bull Run. He was discharged honorably on physical disability in 1862, returned to Providence, studied law in the offices of Thurston and Ripley, and was admitted to the Bar in 1865. Read more >
Theodore Barrows Stowell (1847-1916)
Inducted in 2005

Theodore Barrows Stowell (1847-1916), a prominent Rhode Island educator, served as president of Bryant & Stratton Commercial College (now Bryant University) for nearly four decades. A native of Connecticut and descended from one of New England's earliest settlers, Stowell was drawn to the profession of teaching, and upon graduation from the Connecticut State Normal School, accepted a position with the Toilsome Hill District in Bridgeport. By 1870, he had relocated to Rhode Island joining the teaching staff at Bristol Ferry School in Portsmouth. Soon his talents were recognized and less than two years later, Stowell received an offer from a fledgling business college in Downtown Providence to become a member of its teaching staff. Read more >
George R. "Birdie" Tebbets (1912-1999)
Inducted in 2015

George R. "Birdie" Tebbetts, 1912–1999: Raised in New Hampshire, “Birdie” Tebbetts was a precocious, intelligent, and athletic youngster who served as the team mascot for the “Nashua Millionaires,” an independent semi-professional team owned by the future New Hampshire Governor, Francis Parnell Murphy.

Murphy encouraged young Tebbetts to aim high. Tebbetts did just that, becoming an All-State High School quarterback and a star baseball catcher. Read more >
Thomas Alexander Tefft (1826-1859)
Inducted in 2002

Thomas Alexander Tefft (1826-1859) was a major nineteenth century American architect. He was born in Richmond, Rhode Island in humble surroundings. The names of his parents are unknown, and details of his early years are obscure. Yet he is probably the town of Richmond's most famous native son. Read more >
Lucy Rawlings Tootell (1911-2010)
Inducted in 2013

For nearly a century of public life, Lucy R. Tootell was a force of energy promoting heritage education, celebrating the “South County mystique,” and preserving the architecture and memory of the past.

Born in Jacksonville, Illinois on November 27, 1911, Lucy moved to South Kingstown, Rhode Island, with her family in 1913 before she was two years old.

As the wife of 1924 Olympic Gold medalist and Rhode Island Hall of Fame inductee, Fred Tootell (teacher, coach, and athletic director of URI), Lucy was a champion in her field, whether it be the school classroom, or telling tales out of school in the nearly half dozen historical societies she founded in South Kingstown, Charlestown, and Richmond. Read more >
William Tripp (1824-1891)
Inducted in 2004

William Tripp (1824-91) of Little Compton was the man most responsible for the development of a breed of hens known as “the Rhode Island Red,” a fowl that has been designated the state bird.

Tripp operated a farm on Long Highway in Little Compton where he conducted breeding experiments with various kinds of poultry in association with John Macomber of nearby Westport, Massachusetts. Beginning in 1854, they crossed Malay and Java cocks with Cochin China hens. Isaac C. Read more >
Wilkins Updike (1784-1867)
Inducted in 2002

Wilkins Updike (1784-1867), a member of the noted Cocumscussoc family of North Kingstown, was the youngest of eleven children of Lodowick and Abigail Updike and himself the father of twelve. Wilkins moved to the village of Kingston as a young man after the Updikes lost Cocumscussoc through business reverses, and for many years he represented South Kingstown in the General Assembly.

Updike was one of the leading lawyers and orators of his era and a close and effective ally of Henry Barnard and his own neighbor Elisha R. Potter, Jr. Read more >
Reverend Mahlon Van Horne (1840-1910)
Inducted in 2005

Reverend Mahlon Van Horne (1840-1910) had a career that ranged from minister of the Gospel at the black Union Congregational Church at Newport to minister of diplomacy as United States Consul to St. Thomas in the West Indies. He was at heart always a teacher.

Bom in Princeton New Jersey in 1840, Van Horne was graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Read more >
Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884-1970)
Inducted in 2014

Browse through our collection of 750+ amazing Rhode Islanders:

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Inductees in Historians/Historical Accounts, Preservation

Catherine R. (Arnold) Williams (1790-1872)

Zachariah Allen (1795-1882)

William G. Angell (1811-1870)

James Burrill Angell (1829-1916)

Samuel Greene Arnold (1821-1880)

James Newall Arnold (1844-1927)

Dr. Robert D. Ballard (1942-)

Joseph Banigan (1839-1898)

Christiana Carteaux Bannister

Amos Chafee Barstow (1813-1892)

John Russell Bartlett (1805-1886)

Thomas Williams Bicknell (1834-1925)

Major General George Newman Bliss (1837-1928)

Major General Zenas Randall Bliss (1835-1900)

Governor Augustus Osborn Bourn (1834-1925)

Gladys Williams Brayton (1890-1990)

John Nicholas Brown (1900-1979)

John Carter Brown (1797-1874)

Harold W. Browning (1893-1987)

James C. Bucklin (1801-1890)

Justice Walter Snow Burges (1808-1892)

Major General Ambrose Everett Burnside (1824-1881)

Edward Carrington (1775-1843)

Dr. Charles Carroll (1876-1936)

Beatrice O. "Happy" Chace

George Byron Champlin (1851-1946)

Dr. Walter Channing (1786-1876)

Reverend William Ellery Channing (1780-1842)

Bowen R. Church (1860-1923)

LeBaron Bradford Colt (1846-1924)

Samuel Pomeroy Colt (1852-1921)

Dr. Patrick T. Conley (1938-)

Dr. Manuel da Silva (1926-)

Monsignor Charles Dauray (1838-1931)

Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis (1813-1876)

Congressman Thomas Davis (1806-1895)

Brigadier Gen. Herbert R. Dean (1882-1941)

Judge Luigi DePasquale (1892-1958)

Reverend John Byron Diman (1863-1949)

Antoinette F. Downing (1904-2001)

George T. Downing (1819-1903)

Mayor Thomas A. Doyle (1827-1886)

Sarah Elizabeth Doyle (1830-1922)

Doris Duke (1912-1993)

Wilfred I. Duphiney (1884-1960)

Chief Justice Thomas Durfee (1826-1901)

Amasa Eaton (1841-1914)

Maud Howe Elliott (1854-1948)

Alan Shawn Feinstein

Theodore Foster (1752-1828)

Governor Lucius F. C. Garvin, M.D. (1841-1922)

Colonel Robert Hale Ives Goddard (1837-1916)

John Gorham (1820-1898)

Charles E. Gorman (1844-1917)

Major General George Sears Greene (1801-1899)

George Washington Greene (1811-1883)

Dr. Ramon Guiteras (1858-1917)

Rudolph Frederick Haffenreffer, Jr. (1874-1954)

John Milton Hay (1838-1905)

Rowland Gibson Hazard (1801-1888)

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)

Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe (1864-1960)

Judge David Howell (1747-1824)

John Howland (1757-1854)

Dr. John Franklin Jameson (1859-1937)

Congressman Thomas Allen Jenckes (1818-1875)

Gertrude I. Johnson (1876-1961)

Dr. John William Keefe (1863-1935)

Dr. William W. Keen (1837-1932)

Leona McElroy Kelly (1919-2000)

U.S. Rep. Ambrose Kennedy (1875-1967)

Charles Bird King (1785-1862)

Dr. Maury Klein (1939-)

Albert T. Klyberg

Idawally "Ida" Lewis (1842-1911)

James Sullivan Lincoln (1811-1888)

Charles I. D. Looff (1852-1918)

Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce (1827-1917)

Robert B. Lynch (1922-2003)