In this week's blog we take a look at Rhode Island's very own Revolutionary War hero, Nathanael Greene - who was second only to George Washington among the officers of the American army in military ability.
In this week's blog discover more about The National Intelligencer - It was also the first newspaper in Washington to provide detailed reports of congressional proceedings - whose very founders' portraits grace the walls of the Redwood.
We take a look back on John Brown's infamous raid on Harpers Ferry and his reflections on the failed raid, courtesy of a letter written from John Brown to his cousin Rev. Luther Humphrey on November 19, 1859 from the Redwood Special Collections. Click here to read more!
Anne Hutchinson, a rebellious religious leader and one of the founders of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, made her arrival in the American colonies on September 18, 1634, 382 years ago as of this weekend. In July of that year, Anne, with her husband William and their children, left England on the Griffin to follow the Puritan Minister John Cotton to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
On Wednesday, September 14, John Tschirch returns for part three of the of his four part lecture series “The Great English House.” His third talk, "Chippendale Masterpiece: Dumfries House", will focus on the interior furnishings of Dumfries House, a Palladian style Scottish country house built by Robert and John Adam. Inside Robert Adam would work his magic in the Rococo style while the Earl of Dumfries, who commissioned the house with the hopes it may attract a new wife, handpicked the furniture from Thomas Chippendale’s workshop in the heart of London. To learn more about this Scottish estate, the architects of Dumfries house, or the creator of some of the finest furniture in the world check out some of the book below!
The Battle of Lake Erie is considered one of the most influential naval battles of the War of 1812. On the morning of September 10, 1813, a squadron on nine American vessels under the command of Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry would be approached by a British squadron of six vessels under Commander Robert Barclay. The resulting gun fight between the two squadrons would have an almost immediate effect on not only the Lake Erie campaign, but to the War of 1812 as a whole. Perry would go down as an American Naval Hero while Barclay, severely wounded in the battle, would be court martialed, exonerated and eventually leave the Royal Navy.
Three years after the new United States gained its independence from Great Britain a new set of challenges faced the infant country. Held together by the hastily made Articles of Confederation, the new nation slowly moved into the postbellum years that saw the strings of the union of states under a larger federal government become strained under the process of tax collection. It would all come to a head on August 29, 1786 when several courts would be shut down by mobs in the state of Massachusetts that would be known as Shays’ rebellion, after one of its organizers, Daniel Shays.
