Pawtuxet Village Association launches online archive for historical purposes

By Thomas Greenberg
Posted 10/19/17

By THOMAS GREENBERG Despite all the historical value that the Pawtuxet Village area on the Cranston/Warwick line has to offer, there's never been a central location for information and education. Until now. The Pawtuxet Village Association is launching

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Pawtuxet Village Association launches online archive for historical purposes

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Despite all the historical value that the Pawtuxet Village area on the Cranston/Warwick line has to offer, there’s never been a central location for information and education. Until now.

The Pawtuxet Village Association is launching an online archive of their newsletter of 31 years, “The Bridge.” In this online newspaper/database, there will be a collection of all stories, images and articles from previous “Bridge” newsletters on the Pawtuxet district and its vibrant history. The association was able to launch the archive through funding by a $6,300 grant awarded by the Heritage Harbor Foundation.

“The purpose of the Heritage Harbor Foundation is to publish information on the history and heritage of Rhode Island,” said the foundation’s president, Dr. Patrick Conley. “The Bridge has been engaged in historical research and writing, and by digitizing their archives it makes information available online for public access. It will give us a comprehensive history of [Pawtuxet] Village, which is one of the oldest villages in Rhode Island.”

Susan Hartman is the president of the Pawtuxet Village Association and spearheaded this launch. She says that “The Bridge” has been publishing at least two newsletters every year since 1986 containing historical information about Pawtuxet.

“All the stuff has been contributed by people in the area, so it’s a really nice compilation of articles about the businesses, the history, and the people around here,” Hartman said. “The articles we’ve published have covered a lot of the history from individual archives of historical figures.”

In a rich historical area like Pawtuxet Village, which dates all the way back to the burning of the Gaspee pre-Revolutionary War, interest in the area’s history, from students to scouts to residents, is widespread. That’s why “The Bridge” has been published for so many years, but now the historical education of those interested has become a whole lot easier to get.

“There’s been no central place where all these archives have come together,” Hartman said. “Having these newspapers in a stored box isn’t as good as having a central database.”

Once the online archive is launched, which will be on November 7 in a small event at the Pawtuxet Rangers Armory in Warwick, anyone surfing the Internet will be able to access the archives at thebridge.warwickonline.com.

Hartman believes that this centralized online database of all of The Bridge’s educative material will be especially useful to students, researchers, libraries and historians. It’ll certainly take a lot of work to get all the physical copies scanned into the computer, but the Harbor Foundation grant is allowing the association to do so in time for the launch.

The website will be launched next month, but Hartman also has hopes for a physical location at the Armory for people, students especially, to go for information in the near future.

“The armory is creating a museum right now on the second floor,” she said. “Our objective is that we set up a work station so students or Boy Scouts or other people can sit in there. It gives them an opportunity to have physical access to what’s in the museum while also being able to sit down and do additional research.”

Come next January, the Pawtuxet Village Association will be putting on broader education sessions and demonstrations at the Aspray Boat House in the village for citizens to attend.

For now, everyone from history buffs to all those wondering why Pawtuxet Village is such a historical center can browse thousands of articles, stories, and images archived online. 

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  • richardcorrente

    Congratulations Susan Hartman and the members of the Pawtuxet Village Association. This historical attraction will undoubtedly attract visitors and visitors become new taxpayers that will help to lower taxes for us all.

    I look forward to the new website.

    Happy Autumn everyone.

    Rick Corrente

    The Taxpayers Mayor

    Thursday, October 19, 2017 Report this