Established in 1691, the Bridgewater Iron Works at the village known as Stanley was the first to produce iron in the American colonies. By 1860 it had become the second largest producer of iron in the U.S. It was purchased in 1899 by the Stanley Black & Decker Company, formerly known as The Stanley Works, which began […]

A prominent landmark along the Satucket River, Sachem Rock is a large outcropping of bedrock called Wonnocoote (Wonnocooto) by the Pokanokets who inhabited the area before 1649. Shortened to “Cootah Hill” in the early part of the 20th century, the rock apparently acquired the name Sachem or Sachem’s Rock as early as 1800. Satucket is an ancient […]

The Plimoth colonists were a diverse group of Separatists and Anglicans, English and Dutch, some religious and some not! They brought with them varied musical experiences, and Plimoth Colony heard not only psalms but also catches, ballads, and dance tunes. The Seven Times Salt instrumental group follows the settlers from England to religious refuge in the Netherlands […]

[Boston Globe] On Jan. 5, just one day before the insurrection, the Massachusetts Legislature voted to form a commission to study and recommend permanent changes to the state seal and motto. Governor Charlie Baker signed the measure on Monday. The 19th-century seal, which appears in the center of the state flag, depicts a colonist’s arm […]

In 1662, the newly restored king of England, Charles II, demanded that the Massachusetts Bay colony alter their laws to align with imperial priorities. Two years later, four royal commissioners arrived to enforce these demands. What followed was a season of extraordinary political activism, as colonial men and women mobilized to protect their liberties and […]

A mural on the east-facing wall of 32 Custom House Street in downtown Providence by artist Gaia entitled “Still Here,” funded by The Avenue Concept, depicts Lynsea Montanari, a member of the Narragansett tribe and an educator at the Tomaquag Museum in Exeter, Rhode Island, holding a picture of  Princess Red Wing, a Narragansett/Pokanoket historian and educator who founded the museum […]

In 1878, Zerviah Gould Mitchell, published the book Indian history, biography and genealogy pertaining to the good sachem Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe, and his descendants in an effort “to make record of the wrongs . . . which have been endured by my race.” Zerviah passed away in 1898, but her daugher, Charlotte Mitchell, represented the descendants […]

Donna Curtin, Executive Director of Pilgrim Hall Museumo gave a one-hour History Camp presentation on December 18, 2020 on the Mayflower passengers’ first year in Plymouth. Hosted by Lee Wright and Carrie Lund, the session describes the challenges that the passengers faced following their landing in 1620. Curtin uses Mort’s Relation written by Pilgrim Edward Winslow […]

The 400th anniversary of the day the Mayflower dropped anchor in Plymouth Harbor on Dec. 16, 1620, is the 400th anniversary of an American beginning—for the nation as a practice, an idea, an experiment. That’s true even though, for the colonists and their descendants, 1620 was not much more than a blip in colonial history. […]