On Wednesday, June 5, 2024, my friend Whit Hill and I presented a slide show of Saunderstown Images to a crowd of people who had pre-registered. We were told that the venue’s capacity was 100 people. Registration was capped there, but even more people wanted to sign up. The North Kingstown 350th Anniversary Steering Committee hired Chris Walsh to record the talk/slideshow and it is currently available on YouTube. Since the talk, many people have expressed regret about not being there in person, and I tell them that a professional videographer recorded all of our bloopers for posterity. There’s a link to the YouTube video on the Willett Free Library website on the History page, and here’s another link:
People asked if we had to do a lot of digging in the research for the talk. My response was: on the contrary, it was like a firehose of source material. The biggest source of material was the Willett Free Library. The staff was tremendously helpful in giving Whit and me access to quite a trove of historical material — photos that have been in the process of being scanned, an assortment of newspaper clippings through the years, and most especially, the oral history collection that is available to all online (from the history page linked above). I was inspired by Irving Sheldon’s book Saunderstown to try to get a hold of the 1903-1938 diary of Florence Bayard La Farge, which was provided to me by the Rhode Island Historical Society.
I compiled a list of sources and further reading associated with the talk and present it here for readers of this newsletter who may want to delve deeper into aspects of the local history of Saunderstown.
For helping to bring the slideshow/talk to life, Whit and I thank Jennifer Shaker, Allison Marovelli, and Lindsey Towle of the Willett Free Library. Thanks also to Gigi Edwards, Maura Sayre, Tim Cranston, Amy C. Jones, Bob O’Neill, Shel Sheldon, Robin Squibb, Barbara Streuli, Marjie Aschman Johnston, David Nightingale, Amy Paulsen, the Board of Governors of the Saunderstown Yacht Club, and the North Kingstown 350th Anniversary Steering Committee.
And I thank Whit heartily for his participation. I would not have said yes to the invitation if I hadn’t been sure that we’d do this thing together.
Wow! Amazing sounding project, sounds like you had fun doing it!