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The Pettaquamscutt Historical Society

Education Exhibition Opened on January 31, 2008

"Education for All: Schools and Schooling in South Kingstown, 1780-1920, featuring a diverse collection of photographs, books, documents and artifacts mainly from the PHS collections opened on January 31st, 2008. The subject has long interested the Society, ever since the small exhibition re-creating a 19th c. classroom was installed on the second floor of the cell block in the early 1960s. That exhibition has delighted youngsters who have enjoyed writing on old slates, sitting at an actual old fashioned blackboard made of wood. The school room has been presented with a minimum of interpretation and without much historical context to explain the items on display.

With the help of an enthusiastic group of volunteers, we have been researching the evolution of the public school system of South kingstown from the late 18th c. to the early 20th century. Shaped and prompted by state-wide legislation, which appropriated funds and mandated action, developments in South Kingstown parallel those in other Rhode Island towns. But the town and its political leaders played a very considerable role in state-wide reforms, particularly in the period between 1840 and 1855, when the foundation of the public school system was established. William Updike, James B.M. Potter, Elisha Reynolds Potter, Jr., and Rowland Hazard were instrumental in framing and passing key legislation, recruiting a leading reformer, Henry Barnard, to the office of Commisioner of Public Schools, and then arousing state-wide support for educational exchange. 

Out of that legislation and Barnard's leadership emerged the district school system, which delivered a basic education to generations of children from 1828 until the end of the century. At its peak in South Kingstown, there were 22 school districts each of which had its own board of trustees and was responsible for providing a school house for the children of the district. Teachers were certified by a town-wide school committee, but answered to the district. Volunteers in the project,working with Chris Bickford and Kathy Bossy, played an especially important role in researching the history of each of these districts and searching for surviving one-room school houses. Kathy Bossy went to unusual lengths to collect information about and photograph these school houses.

The exhibit includes old school books, games, teaching tools, globes, photographs, inkwells and various other artifacts. The exhibit will run until October, 2008.

Museum & Library Hours

The Society is open on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday afternoons from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and at other times by appointment. Tours for groups should be scheduled at least 2 weeks in advance. Admission to the museum and library is free to members, with a recommended donation of $3.00 for all others.