Old State House (Providence, Rhode Island) | Photo: Flickr user "cmh2315fl," CC BY-NC 2.0.
Rhode Island Celebrates Its 250th Birthday at Newly Renovated “Old State House”
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We are obliged by necessity and it becomes our highest Duty to use every means with which God and Nature have furnished us, in support of our invaluable rights, & privileges to oppose that Power which is exerted only for our destruction. On May 4, [...]

08
May
From left to right: Lauro, Feinstein, and Lima.
Lima, Lauro and Feinstein: Remembering the Namesakes of These Schools and Their Immigrant Ancestors
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In 2026, there are about 50 public K-12 schools in Providence, including public charter schools.  More than half of them are named for notable people, predominantly men. If we remove the two national figures (RFK and MLK), and the five public or charter schools I’ve [...]

04
Mar
Emma Pendleton Bradley 1879-1907, aged five, painted by Paris-trained artist Ida Waugh (1846-1919) c. 1884, some two years before the child contracted encephalitis. Source: Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital.
George Bradley and His Legacy: “First Preference to Poor, Needy Children from Rhode Island”
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In his will, made shortly before he died in 1906, wealthy Providence resident George Lothrop Bradley set up a trust to create a hospital. His motivation was personal: Emma Pendleton Bradley, his only child, was seven when she contracted encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. [...]

03
Dec
The only known likeness of Cuffe, an engraving from a silhouette, was made by Dr. John Pole of Bristol, England, in 1812 when Cuffe was in his 50s. The ship is docked in a tropical area, probably referring to his recent activities in Sierra Leone. Courtesy of Westport Historical Society.
Who’s the Paul Cuffee School Named For? The First Person of Color to Enter the White House Through the Front Door*
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According to the Paul Cuffee School website, when their namesake returned to the U.S. in 1812 from voyages to Sierra Leone and then England, he found his ship had been “impounded by the U.S. Revenue Service in Newport. Within six days, at record-breaking speed, Cuffee [...]

16
Jul
Marine Corporal Harry Kizirian on the cover of the New York Times Magazine, June 24, 1945.
Harry Kizirian 1925-2002: An Angel Without Wings
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Names on school buildings are often from historical eras long gone, making it difficult to keep the honor alive.  The life of Harry Kizirian, who died in 2002, on the other hand, is well within human memory. Kizirian is remembered in Providence most for his [...]

19
Mar
Mary Colman Wheeler (1846-1920) Visionary Artist, Educator, and Founder of Wheeler School         
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Best remembered locally for founding Wheeler School on Providence’s East Side, she was also an internationally known artist and educator, exhibiting in the Paris Salon, receiving an honorary degree from Brown in 1911, and a medal from the French government honoring her role as an [...]

04
Dec
Esek Hopkins statue by sculptor Theo A.R. Kitson in Hopkins Park
The Rise and Fall of Esek Hopkins
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Esek Hopkins (1718-1802) lived a long life as a public figure and sea captain and served as the first commander-in-chief of the American Navy. His current reputation is poor, however, after captaining the disastrous voyage of the slave ship Sally. Was he a hero or [...]

06
Nov
Asa Messer, 1869, by John Sullivan Lincoln, copied from an ivory miniature, Brown Portrait Collection
Education for Everybody: Why They Named a School After Asa Messer
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Asa Messer’s name has been attached to two Providence school buildings.  Few people today would know the reasons: he was active in Providence for almost half a century, two hundred years ago, an educator inspired by the open mind of Providence founder Roger Williams. He [...]

10
Jul
Nathan Bishop: “He Could Do More Work With Less Noise Than Any Man…”
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Searching “Nathan Bishop” to understand why Providence decided to name a school for him in the 1930s, one might find an Englishman who briefly played goal for soccer team Manchester United, or a Toronto-based singer-songwriter, but also the fascinating, modest, hard-working man after whom Nathan [...]

12
Jun
19th century classroom
Palaces for the People’s Children?  A Very Short History of Providence Public Schools  
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The Providence Eye is inaugurating a series on the origins of the names of Providence schools, primarily, but not exclusively, the public schools. Everyone knows who Martin Luther King Jr. was, and ditto for Roger Williams. But who was Nathan Bishop? Who was George J. [...]

21
May